News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0706emiller.html
Other Economies are Possible!
Organizing toward an economy of cooperation and solidarity
by Ethan Miller
This article is from the July/August 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense: The
Magazine of Economic Justice available at
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0706emiller.html
Can thousands of diverse, locally-rooted, grassroots economic projects
form the basis for a viable democratic alternative to capitalism? It
might seem unlikely that a motley array of initiatives such as worker,
consumer, and housing cooperatives, community currencies, urban gardens,
fair trade organizations, intentional communities, and neighborhood
self-help associations could hold a candle to the pervasive and
seemingly all-powerful capitalist economy. These "islands of
alternatives in a capitalist sea" are often small in scale, low in
resources, and sparsely networked. They are rarely able to connect with
each other, much less to link their work with larger, coherent
structural visions of an alternative economy.
Indeed, in the search for alternatives to capitalism, existing
democratic economic projects are frequently painted as noble but
marginal practices, doomed to be crushed or co-opted by the forces of
the market. But is this inevitable? Is it possible that courageous and
dedicated grassroots economic activists worldwide, forging paths that
meet the basic needs of their communities while cultivating democracy
and justice, are planting the seeds of another economy in our midst?
Could a process of horizontal networking, linking diverse democratic
alternatives and social change organizations together in webs of mutual
recognition and sup****t, generate a social movement and economic vision
capable of challenging the global capitalist order?
To these audacious suggestions, economic activists around the world
organizing under the banner of _economía solidaria_, or "solidarity
economy," would answer a resounding "yes!" It is precisely these
innovative, bottom-up experiences of production, exchange, and
consumption that are building the foundation for what many people are
calling "new cultures and economies of solidarity."
Origins of the Solidarity Economy Approach
The idea and practice of "solidarity economics" emerged in Latin America
in the mid-1980s and blossomed in the mid to late 90s, as a convergence
of at least three social trends. First, the economic exclusion
experienced by growing segments of society, generated by deepening debt
and the ensuing structural adjustment programs imposed by the
International Monetary Fund, forced many communities to develop and
strengthen creative, autonomous and locally-rooted ways of meeting basic
needs. These included initiatives such as worker and producer
cooperatives, neighborhood and community associations, savings and
credit associations, collective kitchens, and unemployed or landless
worker mutual-aid organizations.
Second, growing dissatisfaction with the culture of the dominant market
economy led groups of more economically privileged people to seek new
ways of generating livelihoods and providing services. From largely a
middle-class "counter-culture" -- similar to that in the Unites States
since the 1960's -- emerged projects such as consumer cooperatives,
cooperative childcare and health care initiatives, housing cooperatives,
intentional communities, and ecovillages.
There were often significant class and cultural differences between
these two groups. Nevertheless, the initiatives they generated all
shared a common set of operative values: cooperation, autonomy from
centralized authorities, and participatory self-management by their
members.
A third trend worked to link the two grassroots upsurges of economic
solidarity to each other and to the larger socioeconomic context:
emerging local and regional movements were beginning to forge global
connections in opposition to the forces of neoliberal and neocolonial
globalization. Seeking a democratic alternative to both capitalist
globalization and state socialism, these movements identified
community-based economic projects as key elements of alternative social
organization.
At the First Latin Encuentro of Solidarity Culture and Socioeconomy,
held in 1998 in ****to Alegre, Brazil, participants from Brazil, Mexico,
Argentina, Peru, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Colombia, and Spain created the
_Red latinoamericana de la economía solidaria_ (Latin American
Solidarity Economy Network). In a statement, the Network declared, "We
have observed that our experiences have much in common: a thirst for
justice, a logic of participation, creativity, and processes of
self-management and autonomy." By linking these shared experiences
together in mutual sup****t, they proclaimed, it would be possible to
work toward "a socioeconomy of solidarity as a way of life that
encomp***** the totality of the human being."
Since 1998, this solidarity economy approach has developed into a global
movement. The first World Social Forum in 2001 marked the creation of
the Global Network of the Solidarity Socioeconomy, fostered in large
part by an international working group of the Alliance for a
Responsible, Plural, and United World. By the time of the 2004 World
Social Forum in Mumbai, India, the Global Network had grown to include
47 national and regional solidarity economy networks from nearly every
continent, representing tens of thousands of democratic grassroots
economic initiatives worldwide. At the most recent World Social Forum in
Venezuela, solidarity economy topics comprised an estimated one-third of
the entire event's program.
Defining Solidarity Economics
But what exactly is this "solidarity economy approach"? For some
theorists of the movement, it begins with a redefinition of economic
space itself. The dominant neoclassical story paints the economy as a
singular space in which market actors (firms or individuals) seek to
maximize their gain in a context of scarce resources. These actors play
out their profit-seeking dramas on a stage wholly defined by the
dynamics of the market and the state. Countering this narrow approach,
solidarity economics embraces a plural and cultural view of the economy
as a complex space of social relation****p in which individuals,
communities, and organizations generate livelihoods through many
different means and with many different motivations and aspirations --
not just the maximization of individual gain. The economic activity
validated by neoclassical economists represents, in this view, only a
tiny fraction of human efforts to meet needs and fulfill desires.
What really sustains us when the factories shut down, when the
floodwaters rise, or when the paycheck is not enough? In the face of
failures of market and state, we often survive by self-organized
relation****ps of care, cooperation, and community. Despite the ways in
which capitalist culture generates and mobilizes a drive toward
competition and selfishness, basic practices of human solidarity remain
the foundation upon which society and community are built. Capitalism's
dominance may, in fact, derive in no small part from its ability to
co-opt and colonize these relation****ps of cooperation and mutual aid.
In expanding what counts as part of "the economy," solidarity economics
resonates with other streams of contem****ary radical economic thought.
Marxist economists such as Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff, for
example, have suggested that multiple "modes of production" co-exist
alongside the capitalist wage-labor mode. Feminist economists have
demonstrated how neoclassical conceptions have hidden and devalued basic
forms of subsistence and caregiving work that are often done by women.
Feminist economic geographer J.K. Gibson-Graham, in her books _The End
of Capitalism (As We Knew It)_ (1998) and _A Postcapitalist Politics_
(2006), synthesizes these and other streams of thought in what she calls
the "diverse economies perspective." Addressing concerns that are
central to the solidarity economy approach, she asks, "If we viewed the
economic landscape as imperfectly colonized, homogenized, systematized,
might we not find openings for projects of noncapitalist invention?
Might we not find ways to construct different communities and societies,
building upon what already exists?"
Indeed, the first task of solidarity economics is to identify existing
economic practices -- often invisible or marginal to the dominant lens
-- that foster cooperation, dignity, equity, self-determination, and
democracy. As Carola Reintjes of the Spanish fair trade association
_Iniciativas de economía alternativa y solidaria_ (IDEAS) points out,
"Solidarity economy is not a sector of the economy, but a transversal
approach that includes initiatives in all sectors." This project cuts
across traditional lines of formal/informal, market/non-market, and
social/economic in search of solidarity-based practices of production,
exchange and consumption -- ranging from legally-structured worker
cooperatives, which engage the capitalist market with cooperative
values, to informal affinity-based neighborhood gift networks. (See "A
Map of the Solidarity Economy," pp. 20-21.) At a 2000 conference in
Dublin on the "Third Sector" (the "voluntary" sector, as opposed to the
for-profit sector and the state), Brazilian activist Ana Mercedes Sarria
Icaza put it this way: "To speak of a solidarity economy is not to speak
of a homogeneous universe with similar characteristics. Indeed, the
universe of the solidarity economy reflects a multiplicity of spaces and
forms, as much in what we would call the 'formal aspects' (size,
structure, governance) as in qualitative aspects (levels of solidarity,
democracy, dynamism, and self-management)."
At its core, solidarity economics rejects one-size-fits-all solutions
and singular economic blueprints, embracing instead a view that economic
and social development should occur from the bottom up, diversely and
creatively crafted by those who are most affected. As Marcos Arruda of
the Brazilian Solidarity Economy Network stated at the World Social
Forum in 2004, "a solidarity economy does not arise from thinkers or
ideas; it is the outcome of the concrete historical struggle of the
human being to live and to develop him/herself as an individual and a
collective." Similarly, contrasting the solidarity economy approach to
historical visions of the "cooperative commonwealth," Henri de Roche
noted that "the old cooperativism was a utopia in search of its practice
and the new cooperativism is a practice in search of its utopia." Unlike
many alternative economic projects that have come before, solidarity
economics does not seek to build a singular model of how the economy
should be structured, but rather pursues a dynamic process of economic
organizing in which organizations, communities, and social movements
work to identify, strengthen, connect, and create democratic and
liberatory means of meeting their needs.
Success will only emerge as a product of organization and struggle.
"Innovative practices at the micro level can only be viable and
structurally effective for social change," said Arruda, "if they
interweave with one another to form always-broader collaborative
networks and solidarity chains of
production-finance-distribution-consumption-education-communication."
This is, perhaps, the heart of solidarity economics -- the process of
networking diverse structures that share common values in ways that
strengthen each. Mapping out the economic terrain in terms of "chains of
solidarity production," organizers can build relation****ps of mutual aid
and exchange between initiatives that increase their collective
viability. At the same time, building relation****ps between
solidarity-based enterprises and larger social movements builds
increased sup****t for the solidarity economy while allowing the
movements to meet some of the basic needs of their participants,
demonstrate viable alternatives, and thus increase the power and scope
of their transformative work.
In Brazil, this dynamic is demonstrated by the Landless Workers Movement
(MST). As a broad, popular movement for economic justice and agrarian
reform, the MST has built a powerful program combining social and
political action with cooperative, solidarity-based economics. From the
establishment of democratic, cooperative settlements on land
re-appropriated from wealthy absentee landlords to the development of
nationwide, inter-settlement exchanges of products and services,
networks of economic solidarity are contributing significantly to the
sustenance of more than 300,000 families -- over a million people. The
Brazilian Solidarity Economy Forum, of which the MST is a part, works on
an even broader scale, incor****ating twelve national networks and
member****p organizations with twenty-one regional Solidarity Forums and
thousands of cooperative enterprises to build mutual sup****t systems,
facilitate exchanges, create cooperative incubator programs, and shape
public policy.
Building a Movement
The potential for building concrete local, national, and even global
networks of solidarity-based sup****t and exchange is tremendous and yet
barely realized. While some countries, notably Brazil, Argentina,
Colombia, Spain, and Venezuela, have created strong solidarity-economy
networks linked with growing social movements, others have barely begun.
The United States is an example. With the exception of the Rural
Coalition/_Coalición Rural_, a U.S.-Mexico cross-border agricultural
solidarity organization, the United States has been nearly absent from
global conversations about solidarity economics. Maybe it's harder for
those in the "belly of the beast" to imagine that alternatives to
capitalism are possible. Are alternative economic practices somehow
rendered more invisible, or more isolated, in the United States than in
other parts of the world? Are there simply fewer solidarity-based
initiatives with which to network?
Perhaps. But things are changing. An increasing number of U.S.
organizations, researchers, writers, students, and concerned citizens
are questioning capitalist economic dogma and exploring alternatives. A
new wave of grassroots economic organizing is cultivating the next
generation of worker cooperatives, community currency initiatives,
housing cooperatives and collectives, community garden projects, fair
trade campaigns, community land trusts, anarchist bookstores
("infoshops"), and community centers. Groups working on similar projects
are making connections with each other. Hundreds of worker-owners from
diverse cooperative businesses across the nation, for example, will
gather in New York City this October at the second meeting of the United
States Federation of Worker Cooperatives. In the realm of cross-sector
organizing, a broad coalition of organizations is working to create a
comprehensive public directory of the cooperative and solidarity economy
in the United States and Canada as a tool for networking and organizing.
It takes no great stretch of the imagination to picture, within the next
five to ten years, a "U.S. Solidarity Economy Summit" convening many of
the thousands of democratic, grassroots economic projects in the United
States to generate a stronger shared identity, build relation****ps, and
lay the groundwork for a U.S. Solidarity Economy Alliance. Move over,
CEOs of the Business Roundtable!
Wishful thinking? Maybe not. In the words of Argentinian economist and
organizer Jose Luis Corragio, "the viability of social transformation is
rarely a fact; it is, rather, something that must be constructed." This
is a call to action.
Ethan Miller is a writer, musician, subsistence farmer, and organizer. A
member of the GEO Collective and of the musical collective Riotfolk
(http://www.riotfolk.org
), he lives and works at JED, a land-based
mutual-aid cooperative in Greene, Maine.
SOURCES: Marcos Arruda, "Solidarity Economy and the Rebirth of a
Matristic Human Society," World Social Forum, Mumbai, India, January
2004, http://www.socioeco.org
; José Luis Corragio, "Alternativas para o
desenvolvimento humano em um mundo globalizado," Proposta No. 72, 1997;
J-K Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It), Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2006; J-K Gibson-Graham, A Postcapitalist
Politics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006; Ana Mercedes
Sarria Icaza, "Tercer Sector y Economía Solidaria en el Sur de Brasil:
características y perspectives,"
http://www.trueque-marysierras.org.ar/BLES36.zip
; Latin Meeting on a
Culture and a Socioeconomy of Solidarity, "Letter from ****to Alegre,"
****to Alegre, Brazil, August 1998, http://www.socioeco.org
; Euclides
Mance, "Construindo a socio-economia solidária no Brasil," Re****t from
the First Brazlilian Meeting on a Culture and Socioeconomy of
Solidarity, Rio de Janeiro, June 11-18, 2000; Ethan Miller, "Solidarity
Economics: Strategies for Building New Economies from the Bottom-Up and
the Inside-Out," Greene, Maine. May, 2002, http://www.geo.coop
; Carola
Reintjas, "What is a Solidarity Economy?" Life After Capitalism Talks,
World Social Forum III, ****to Alegre, Brazil, 2003,
http://www.zmag.org/carolase.htm
; Harriet Fraad, Stephen Resnick and
Richard Wolff, Bringing It All Back Home: Class, Gender and Power in the
Modern Household, London: Pluto Press, 1994; Workgroup on a Solidarity
Socioeconomy, "Exchanging Visions of a Solidarity Economy: Glossary of
Im****tant Terms and Expressions," November, 2005, http://www.socioeco.org
.
Sidebar 1:
The Data Commons Project
The Data Commons Project is a collaborative effort between a diverse
array of organizations in the U.S. and Canada who share a mission of
building and sup****ting the development of a democratic and cooperative
economy. The goal is to collectively develop an accurate, comprehensive,
public database of cooperative & solidarity-based economic initiatives
in North America as a tool for democratic economic organizing. The
project is working to achieve this goal through two interrelated tasks:
* Creating a shared "data commons" between multiple organizations, built
from existing models of open information-sharing, and involving a merger
of separate organizational databases into a commonly-shared data pool.
* Launching a free, public web-interface to this data commons, as a tool
that can be used by many organizations and individuals working for a
cooperative economy. With such an interface, users will be able to run
searches by initiative name, geographical location, type of initiative
or business, and product/service, as well as to add and update directory
listings themselves (thus being a "self-editing directory").
Current collaborators in this project include Grassroots Economic
Organizing (GEO), the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC),
North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), Cooperative Development
Institute (CDI), the Regional Index of Cooperation (REGINA), Southern
Appalachian Center for Cooperative Owner****p (SACCO), and worker-owners
from Sligo Computer Services and the Brattleboro Tech Collective.
To learn more about the Data Commons Project, or to find out how you can
get involved, please contact Ethan Miller, project coordinator, by
phone: (207) 946-4478 or by email: directory-@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2:
Web Resources
• http://www.socioeco.org/en
: Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and
United World, a workgroup on the Socioeconomy of Solidarity. Currently
the most comprehensive source for material in English on solidarity
economy theory and practice.
• http://www.communityeconomies.org
: Community Economies Project, an
ongoing collaboration between academic and community researchers and
activists in Australia, North America, and Southeast Asia, developing
theories and practices around the concept of "diverse economies."
• http://www.trueque-marysierras.org.ar/biblioteca2.htm
: A website of
one of Argentina's many barter clubs; a large, excellent library of
Solidarity Economy articles in Spanish.
• http://www.ecosol.org.br
: A cooperative website maintained by a
number of sup****ters of solidarity economy; perhaps the best library of
Brazilian Solidarity Economy material available online.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
|
