Appalachian Heritage Crafters: Discussing their work
In February 1999, the Levi Strauss plant closed down in Murphy, in Cherokee County NC, and began subcontracting its sewing work in Mexico. In February 2000, a group of former Levi’s employees began working with the Center for Participatory Change (CPC) to form the Appalachian Heritage Crafters (AHC), a crafts cooperative.
Below are excerpts from an April 2000 conversation, early in the planning process, where AHC members talked about AHC and its goals. For information on how these plans played out, see the evaluation of AHC and CPC's support.
“Well, the basic idea is that there are a lot of people in our community who have skills and know how to make crafts. They have trouble in the area of marketing and selling them. And we hope to form a cooperative that will support these people.
“They will all be members of the co-op. And there will be a central organization that will help them market, sell, and manage their business.
“We’re really trying to set this up so that each member is able to make a reasonable income using their skills to make crafts in their home.
“So far we have about 10 core members, and about 50 more who will join us once we get going. And we expect that number to double eventually.
“It’s also important to be aware that a large percentage of our members were laid off or retired from recent plant closings, and are unemployed.
“’Retired.’ I like that word. [Laughter.] Not canned. Not laid off. Retired. [Laughter.]“And we have a six-month plan now, and we’re trying to do a feasibility study in that amount of time -- to test the marketplace and to put together the organizational structure that we think is best, and see if we think this whole thing can work.
“When we talked about what to name ourselves, the word ‘heritage’ was one that we all agreed on. Because the crafts we are selling all reflect the heritage of the people in the mountains. We’re from the mountains, and we’re proud of it.
“And hopefully we will soon have a retail store downtown, and that store will be a real drawing card for tourists. We can help promote our town as a place to come and visit.
“And I think that would be great for the young people -- to see the things that have been done in this area for years, and that maybe they can make a living doing them. Because now they’re thinking that they have to move away and leave their hometown, and they’d rather stay.
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