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The Silent Revolution
From the rubble of economic collapse, Argentina’s recuperadas build a cooperative future
Marcello Balvé, Orion
…In most cases, the workers carried out their campaigns against the wishes of owners and their creditors (banks, utilities, and tax agencies), who wanted machinery sold—as scrap metal if necessary—and the real estate put up for sale. But the movement of recovered factories, or fábricas recuperadas, was not a typical clash between labor and management. These workers turned the logic of corporate cost-cutting on its head. Instead of eliminating jobs to fatten profit margins, Argentina ’s recovered factories jettisoned an entire managerial hierarchy to preserve the livelihoods of workers. The upshot: participants in the recuperadas movement have saved about thirteen thousand jobs. They also may have generated one of the densest clusters of new worker-run co-operative enterprises in modern history.
Observers have heralded the recuperadas as examples of—depending on the proponent—socialism, a radical co-operative movement, or classic anarchism, which envisions a spontaneous collapse of the powers-that-be and the rise of a new society in which men and women decide for themselves how to parcel out the tasks of community building, all without hierarchy, institutions, or oppressive regulations. But in organizing the recuperadas out of economic ruin, the workers themselves were not championing any ideology. “Let me tell you how this works,” said Gustavo Crisaldo, a thoughtful machinist with prematurely gray hair, now a member of Cristal Avellaneda’s directorial commission. “It’s this simple: if we hadn’t had our backs against the wall, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
In his 2003 book on the recovered factories, El cambio silencioso, or The Silent Change, Argentine journalist Esteban Magnani points out that the recuperadas provided a psychological breakthrough for working-class communities, which had long endured with few options. “The fact that there is a path, a possibility of a different outlook after so many years in which there has been a total lack of options,” Lalo Paret, a community activist who participated directly in several takeovers around Buenos Aires, tells Magnani, “that in itself is a revolution, a great silent change.”…
MARCELO BALLVÉ, based in Buenos Aires, is an editor for New America Media. In 2005 he was an Inter-American Press Association Scholar. This story was produced under the George Washington Williams Fellowship, a program sponsored by the Independent Press Association.
(July/Aug 2006)
Other Economies are Possible!
Ethan Miller, Dollars and Sense
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 support, 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.
(31 July 2006)
Ethan Miller is a writer, musician, subsistence farmer, and organizer. A member of the GEO Collective and of the musical collective Riotfolk (www.riotfolk.org), he lives and works at JED, a land-based mutual-aid cooperative in Greene, Maine.
The Buy-Nothing Year Begins
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
Today begins Eric and my exercise in non-consumption. For one year, we’re going to purchase nothing that isn’t necessary. No processed foods. Much less gas (we’re trying to reduce driving by 50%). Much less electricity (50% reduction). No books, no music, no movies, no videos (this last won’t be much of a hardship – my MIL gave us netflix last year, so we’ve got that for a while, but we won’t renew unless she does). No junk food. No clothing. No toys. No meals out. No alcohol (given that I’ve been pregnant or nursing for the last 7 years, this won’t be the hardship it sounds like to others). No reeses peanut butter cups (which to me do not fall in the category of junk, processed foods or non-essentials ordinarily ;-). No coffee or tea (we don’t drink coffee, and we’ll use up the tea we have or do without.) No magazine subscriptions, presents for anyone (we make ’em or do without.) No travel except mandatory work or to visit relatives, and a lot less of that.
We did buy a few things in advance, front-loading as we call it, mostly homeschooling materials for Simon for this year, and a few extra (but desperately needed, of course ;-P) books for me. And I’ve got a tiny stash of Reeses. Eric’s got a couple of 12 packs of beer (he asked me, “Am I being rude if I don’t offer guests beer, when I’ve only got 30 bottles for an entire year.” My answer is “yes.”) But when things run out, we will try not to replace them. The rule is that first, we make do or do without. If we can’t, we then try and either fix it or make it ourselves. Last and only if we deem it impossible to live without do we replace it.
We will buy toilet paper, the components of food (no pre-made foods – not that we ate many, but the kids like pretzels and granola bars and I’m fond of a particular kind of sesame sauce, etc…). We’ll buy the components to make gifts, if we cannot make them from what we have (sadly, this is not an excuse to purchase yarn, since I could make gifts for many thousands of people from the yarn I already possess, or so Eric estimates ;-).
Books will be the hard thing for me, I know. I read a lot and read fast. Eric will miss movies and music, and we’ll both miss eating out. The kid will miss trips out for ice cream (we’ll make ice cream at home instead), but they are young enough not to mind this very much, and over-indulged enough not to feel a drastic loss having to play with their many, many toys.
The thing is, we’re on average far more frugal than most people in the culture – but there’s a surprising amount of fat in our budget (not to mention the fat on me from the reeses and other indulgences – I’m hoping to lose some weight this year). And someone has to do it. Actually, people have done it – there’s a book, one I’m working on now but recommend _Not Buying It_ by Judith Levine, about a couple that did the same. I admit, much as I like Ms. Levine’s writing style (I do, quite a lot) and find her funny and erudite, I don’t find myself drawing a lot of logical parallels. Much of the book is devoted to how much she misses entertainment – theater, art, musical performances and especially movies. Perhaps because I have four kids under 7, those joys are already mostly closed to me. I’ve been to three plays since Eli was born, one concert, and perhaps a dozen movies. I’m fine without it. She also misses buying clothes, something that I do only when roped and hogtied.
What will be hard for me is the pleasure of yard saling, of browsing used book stores, and of buying supplies to make things like quilts and knitted objects. And it will be hard to eliminate the convenience of not meeting people at restaurants. But mostly, it will be about gaining things – more time, more money for essentials (we will use some of the funds during the year to reinsulate our house and do other energy conservation activities), for tzedakah (1/4 of our savings will go to charity), and less thought about what I don’t have, what I need, what I want. I suspect I’ll enjoy it.
Wish me luck!
Sharon
(1 Aug 2006)
I look forward to Sharon’s posts as ‘sharondownonthefarm’ on the RunningOnEmpty2 e-list, which are often full of great practical information. I’m sure a lot more will come out of this experiment. Good luck Sharon and family!
-AF
Car Free Cities :: Do Such Mythical Places Exist?
Michael, Groovy Green
Sooner or later the human race is going to have to deal with the problem of cars. They use a great deal of precious resources, are pretty inefficient, and cause too much congestion, pollution, etc. Cities will have to learn how to adapt with greater public transportation and layout improvements. A book by J.H. Crawford tackles this problem head-on with “historical and contemporary references to guiding historic precedents and ideological errors of 20th-century planning. the author sets up the carfree city as the cornerstone of sustainable development. He outlines a structure carefully designed to maximize the quality of life for people and communities worldwide.”
The reviews are pretty much glowing. One such highlight, “Mr. Crawford has done us all a great service by crafting a wonderfully readable book that beautifully blends vision and practicality. The reference model for Carfree Cities proposed in this meticulously considered work could quite possibly be the blueprint for reviving not only the art of building but the art of living itself.” Wow. Makes me feel guilty for having missed this on my ‘Must Read’ list. Interested in finding out more? Head on over to the accompanying website or visit MetaEfficient for a more detailed review.
(5 Aug 2006)
