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ARGENTINA: Building a Solidarity Economy
By Viviana Alonso
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 8, 2005 (IPS) - A solidarity economy is being built by thousands
of workers in Argentina, in rural cooperatives, worker-run factories and
small businesses linked by networks.
Now trade unions, universities and social, political and student
organisations are calling on the various initiatives in the solidarity or
social economy to come together to debate projects that would build on past
experiences, as an alternative to the prevailing economic model that they
say marginalises large sectors of the population.
In Argentina, there are many examples of organisations involved in economic
activities whose chief aim is not maximising profits, and which have
horizontal structures and are run in a democratic, participatory manner.
In fact, such examples "have existed in the country for over 100 years,"
states a report by the Central de Trabajadores Argentinos (CTA) central
trade union.
Added to the "traditional cooperatives, mutual societies and other forms of
association are microenterprises that operate on the basis of solidarity,
joint purchases and many other alternatives that form part of the popular
economy," the report adds.
After Argentina's late 2001 financial, economic and political collapse that
triggered the worst depression in Argentine history, poverty and
unemployment soared and solidarity economy initiatives mushroomed.
These have included regional cooperatives of small farmers, bankrupt
factories that were abandoned or closed by their owners and reopened by
their employees, self-managed companies, communities that have come together
to find solutions to meet basic needs like health care, housing or food, and
barter networks whose members trade goods and services.
"The social economy changes the rules of the game, which only seek to
maximise the benefits for a few based on the accumulation of capital, while
it attempts to improve the living conditions of workers and their families
based on getting needs met through cooperation, solidarity and
self-management," said Soraya Giraldez with the CTA's Studies and Training
Institute (IEF).
"These experiences mark the possibility of advancing towards new forms of
distribution of wealth," she told IPS.
Social economy initiatives find innovative ways of meeting people's needs,
give participants experience in organising, and in some cases question key
aspects of the current economic model, by putting the means of production in
the hands of workers, for example.
The CTA and other institutions are attempting to create mechanisms and tools
for providing technical assistance, training and support for solidarity
economy projects, while providing advice for setting up trade and
cooperative networks.
Working alongside the CTA in this effort are the universities of Buenos
Aires, La Plata and General Sarmiento, the Instituto Movilizador de Fondos
Cooperativos, the Federación Agraria Argentina, the Centro Nueva Tierra, the
local committee of the World Social Forum and a large number of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
These organisations are also helping the left-leaning government of Néstor
Kirchner to draw up work-fare schemes for the unemployed.
In addition, they are backing workers in recuperated factories in their
struggle to obtain support from the public and private sectors.
But the overall aim of these organisations is to create links between the
myriad initiatives, to help them avoid isolation and to bring them together
in a unified political and social project.
So far, more than 20 productive and service endeavours in Greater Buenos
Aires have provided information on their experiences, in order to set up a
databank to create links and facilitate communication.
For the CTA, it is essential to forge a space in the IEF for offering
training and technical advice to the various projects, and to help
facilitate networking and exchange among themselves.
One key challenge is to identify obstacles to the social economy, which
usually involve legal aspects or vacuums, since these projects create new
forms of association. Other problems arise from tax and credit issues.
Matters on which the CTA and other organisations want to focus their efforts
are access to soft credit, the recovery of companies that have gone under
and public spaces that have fallen into disuse, and the creation of sales
networks without middlemen.
The CTA also believes the state's commitment must go beyond welfare, and
should be based on spending aimed at bolstering certain industries and
reactivating regional economies.
"The social economy is not an economy of poverty," but an initiative that
requires participation by the state, "which must adopt measures that tend to
reduce the accumulation of capital in the dominant sectors of society,"
argued Giraldez.
She pointed out that "until José Martínez de Hoz arrived in the Economy
Ministry (with the 1976 coup d'etat that ushered in seven years of military
dictatorship), there were more than 200 solidarity banks in Argentina, and
there are practically none left today."
According to the CTA, "the effects of the model of exclusion" that has been
applied in Argentina are not only reflected in appalling socioeconomic
indicators, but there has also been a disturbing disintegration of the
social fabric.
Sixty percent of wage-earners cannot afford the minimum basket of goods and
services for a family of four, and 250,000 have fallen into extreme poverty,
which means they cannot even meet their families' food needs.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Census, 44 percent of
Argentina's 37 million people are poor, while 17 percent live in extreme
poverty.
The richest 20 percent of the population receives 53.1 percent of all
income, the middle 40 percent takes 34.7 percent, while the remaining 40
percent only takes in 12.2 percent.
According to Giraldez, "a political actor must emerge that is capable of
generating proposals and has the power to press for and achieve its
objectives. In other words, a collective that can bring about
transformations."
Social economy projects are emerging in many countries of Latin America,
especially Venezuela and Brazil - both of which are governed by leftist
administrations - and Argentina should create links with these initiatives,
she added.
With respect to access to small loans from abroad, Giraldez said that "if
funds arrive, they will be useful to the extent that the conditions are
created for the projects to become self-sustaining."
She also pointed out that not all social economy initiatives can cater to
foreign markets, due to the difficulty of competing with large companies.
For that reason, said Giraldez, one of the keys to success is strengthening
the domestic market, still depressed by high under- and unemployment, which
affect 5.5 million people, or nearly one-third of the economically active
population of 16.8 million.
(END)
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