Solidarity Economies

As neoliberal capitalism is being globalized, so too are solidarity economies – non-standard forms of social organization and economic enterprise which rely on humane principles instead of the competition and greed often underlying the corporate market.  Like their cousin the gift economy, solidarity economies focus on getting everyone's needs met without exploitation, and expanding possibilities for those who don’t have the funds to participate in standard cash markets.  Solidarity economies do not depend on survival of the fittest, but instead promote the sustainability of human beings and the environment.  They advance collective processes that constructively involve all who are engaged in the economic relationship.

The values of respect, cooperation, and democracy are embedded into every step of the economic chain: creation, production, exchange, consumption, and surplus distribution.  Solidarity economies emphasize humane, generosity-based transformation of relationships between basic needs, community, and the earth's abundance.  

The systems are, for the most part, based in the local and the grassroots.  Solidarity economies function through networks, associations, social movements, the non-profit sector, and coops.  They emphasize women's initiatives, ecological agriculture, ethical financing, and democratized technology.  In some places the economic organization involves ancient traditions, in others a scrappy way to survive in the streets, in still others an explicit rejection of capitalism.  Sometimes they are highly intentional; in other cases, people are just trying to get by.

While solidarity economies are as old as humanity, today they are taking off thanks to organized intention and work.  Just a few examples of the countless number found in cities and villages around the world include:

• Community-controlled credit unions, existing in many forms around the world.  Credit unions are owned by the members who deposit their money in them, and are dedicated to the economic well-being of their communities rather than profits.
   
  
• Community land trusts that protect low-income housing or family agriculture by buying up at-risk land and preserving it, utilizing long term leases to guarantee that housing prices won't rise too quickly or that family farms won't be turned into housing developments.
  
  
• Buyers’ clubs (consumers’ cooperatives) like one in Tucson, where members purchase basic goods like cheese and rice in volume at wholesale prices.  They then divvy up the goods among their households, getting their groceries for a fraction of supermarket cost.
  

Kadidiatou Baby Maïga, the director of the Malian Association for the Support of Schooling of Girls, tells of an ancient solidarity practice widely used throughout her region of Africa and the world: revolving loan funds.  Distinct from micro-credit which almost invariably involves interest (and often traps women in hideous cycles of debt), these interest-free funds are a way to make cash readily available to a woman in the neighborhood or village or office.  They work this way: Each woman contributes a fixed amount per month, depending on the socio-economic level of her group –anywhere from 50 cents to $50 on up.  The lump sum is given to one of the women each month, allowing her to repair her roof, buy a new cooking pot, contribute to a nephew's hospital bill, or invest in marketing.  The community fund can be key to survival for women who have no access to banks, no credit line, and no other way to gather a sum of money adequate for a large investment.  

Like many other solidarity economy networks, central to the operation are trusting human relationships.  Kadidiatou told us, "Beyond the monetary system, we are always together to support each other.  For happiness, for sadness, for the children, for the problems of the family."

One solidarity economy prospering throughout the U.S.  is the time bank.  In a time bank, people offer services they can provide in exchange for services they need.  An individual performs a service - replacing a toilet or babysitting, say - and earns hours which he or she can use in the same network to get his or her fence fixed or have a photo portrait taken of the family.  No cash is involved and all hours are valued equally, expanding the realm of what low-income (and other) people can access, changing the nature of the interaction, and creating community.  Pasadena, Maryland has used time banking for 16 years to help keep older and disabled adults independent and in their homes.  There a young neighbor might contribute time to build a wheelchair ramp and, in exchange, receive Portuguese lessons from a different senior who is a native speaker.  Time banks have spread to more than eighty U.S.  towns and more than 20 other countries.

Venezuela shows what can happen when the state gets behind the concept of solidarity.  The government provides large grants to 3,500 communal banking organizations.  The “people’s banks” give communities the ability to finance social projects, help out citizens in trouble, and invest in infrastructure and other needs of the region.  Here’s how it functions: Members of a neighborhood or community (a grouping between 400–1,000) call an assembly, where at least 10% of the population must be present.  Among the various committees they compose is one for the communal bank; they also elect spokespeople for the bank committee.  The assemblies also determine the communities’ priorities such as getting access to water, as Mariela Cruz explained in chapter 2, plus other problems that people bring to them, like a road that needs fixing or asbestos in some roofing.  Once the communal bank is set up and funded by the government, the community council makes requests for funding for those priorities.  Some have criticized the banks as an opportunity for patronage.  While this surely exists, one member of a community council says, “Whether there are issues of corruption, patronage, or mis-prioritizing depends very much on the level of commitment of the elected spokespeople to the community (usually high, since they are elected and willing to put in the time) and level of consciousness.”  She goes on to say that the process “is one great way for the community to really monitor and control what is going on.” The banks are also a way to redistribute a lot of money to excluded communities.  The 2009 Venezuelan budget contains US$1.6 billion for these banks.iii

A few indicators of the growth of solidarity-based alternative economies are: The World Social Forum now hosts a permanent Solidarity Economy Network.  Nearly 700 delegates from 26 countries participated in the Asian Forum on Solidarity Economy conference in the Philippines in 2007.  Brazil has an Assistant Secretariat of Solidarity Economy.  And right here at home, we now have a U.S.  Solidarity Economy Network.

This network made its debut in Massachusetts in March of 2009, where 400 organizers, activists, and intellectuals gathered for four packed days.  The group discussed green collar economies and feminist economies and a lot of other things in between, and shared strategies to advance economic alternatives in the U.S.  Other Worlds staff person and community organizer Tory Field said of the gathering, "People are coming together from all sorts of movements: agriculture, childcare, housing rights and so on.  We are drained by having our daily interactions be about the bottom line.  We want our daily interactions, including our economic decisions and interactions, to be guided by respect and loving relationships."

Even if you have never before heard of solidarity economies, you just may begin to recognize the practice all around you.  Elandria Williams from the Highlander Center in Tennessee said, "We've been engaged in the solidarity economy for our survival for a long time.  We just never applied that name to it."