From 10 to 12 September 2004,
the first "National Meeting
of Barter Clubs" took place
in Mendes in the State of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. Over 130
people were involved in the
meeting, members of barter clubs from
throughout Brazil as
well as guests from Argentina
and Mexico.
It should be stressed that these barter
clubs use their own social money, whose
production, distribution and supervision
is self-managed, and that until now
there has been barely any contact between
these different currencies.
But what does this event represent
in international terms? What we are
seeing is an experiment in social innovation
by organised civil society that is starting
to be expressed on the national level.
It is also worth noting that the event
is taking place within a context that
is favourable on two levels:
* a strong
solidarity-based economy movement in Brazil
with over ten years of experience;
The fact is that, if we follow the
sequence of events, it is precisely
the existence of the solidarity-based
economy movement that has led to the
creation of the post of Secretary of
State. The current holder, the renowned
economist Paul Singer, described the
situation to the representatives of
the Latin American Parliament a few
weeks ago: "To sum up very briefly,
I can tell you that the solidarity-based
economy in Brazil can be categorised
by three types of basic projects: economic
initiatives self-managed by workers,
cooperatives and the barter clubs".
To
take a brief look at the history of
the movement, barter clubs that use
their own social currency started
developing in Brazil in 1998 in the
city of Sao Paulo, basing themselves
on the experiences of the Argentinean
barter networks. In December 1999,
the Latin American Network of Solidarity-based
Socio-Economy was created in Buenos
Aires. The launch event attracted
over 70 participants from ten different
countries who visited the city's barter
clubs and observed their projects.
Thanks to this network and to involvement
in the World Social Forums, new projects
emerged in Rio de Janeiro, as part
of the Popular Cooperative Forum,
and in Porto Alegre, Canoas, Viamao,
Rio Grande and Alvorada, thanks to
the Rio Grande do Sul government's
Solidarity-based People's Economy
programme. Other initiatives launched
by various social promotion NGOs in
places including Florianopilis, Curitiba,
Ponta Grossa, Teresopolis, Fortalza
and Vitoria da Conquista spread the
movement across many of the country's
regions.
During the second National Meeting
for the Solidarity-based Socio-Economy,
held in Guarapari in June 2004, the
existence of a significant number
of barter clubs using social money
became evident, and the idea of a
national meeting was born. The SENAES,
a participant at the meeting, decided
to support the project and contributed
considerably to its realisation.
Following many hours of work by volunteers
in various Brazilian regions and at
a series of preparatory meetings,
the project was finalised in the city
of Mendes. A wide diversity of solidarity-based
economy organisations attended the
meeting, a presence that gave weight
to the event and helped to launch
a new stage in the development of
their initiatives. It is worth picking
out some of the most noteworthy projects.
1. The
Catende factory, in the State of Pernambuco,
showed how a group of over 3,000 employees
was able to self-manage and make productive
a cane sugar plantation condemned
to bankruptcy by the landowners.
2. DESIGNTEGRAL, working within a
strong local socio-environmental movement
in the State of Santa Catarina, demonstrated
how alliances between NGOs and the
solidarity-based economy can improve
the quality of production and stimulate
high-quality design in a booming economic
sector.
3. GEP (the Popular Economy Group
of Vitoria de Conquista), in the State
of Bahia, presented a whole network
of alliances between the local government
and solidarity-based economy organisations
that has succeeded in boosting local
production and incorporating a social
currency (inspired by a workshop organized
by the Alliance 21 Social Money Workshop
at the 2002 Porto Alegre World Social
Forum).
4. The PALMAS Bank, an NGO in Fortaleza,
the State of Ceará, presented a wide
range of projects implemented over
the last six years, when solidarity
finance has taken the form of self-managed
micro credits, rotary funds, popular
fairs, barter clubs with a locally
circulated social currency and strategic
plans for local development supported
by community consultants. We congratulated
them on their latest achievement:
the creation of the Communal Bank
of Paracuru, BancoPAR, supported by
an alliance between the municipality
and other institutions, and aiming
at incorporating different forms of
solidarity-based economy with the
active participation of the local
community and local government.
International guests included Luis
Lopezllera from Mexico (Promotion
of Popular Development), and Heloisa
Primavera and Carlos del Valle from
Argentina (Latin American Solidarity-based
Socio-Economy network) who presented
the Colibri project, which is about
to be implemented in various Latin
American countries. By training promoters
of complete and sustainable local
development, the project aims at integrating
different solidarity-based economy
strategies dedicated to the development
of active and socially responsible
citizenship.
If we take into account the fact
that:
* this
month the Brazilian government is
sponsoring the GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE/LOCAL
KNOWLEDGE International Seminar, which
will be attended by specialists from
different countries to discuss the
impact of complementary currency projects;
** the next World Social Forum, taking
place in January 2005 in Porto Alegre,
will raise awareness of the subject,
still largely unknown to most solidarity-based
economy initiatives;
*** and that the idea crossed the
borders of Brazil barely six years
ago, we can see that paths full of
promise are opening up to lead us
to the creation of that other possible
world…
Heloisa
Primavera
December 2004
