Vidro Temperado

Economic Democracy
and Cooperative
Capital
Prof.: Maria Inês Paes Ferreira, D.Sc.
VIU – Geography 352
Nanaimo,
November
2015
Conceptual Issues
Bertrand Russell and Richard Henry Tawney:
…the capital as a server not as the master…
X
“ I found one day in school a boy of
medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I
expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit
me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In
these words he epitomized the history of
the human race.”
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
The acquisitive society:
“…a creed which transformed the
acquisition of wealth from a drudgery or a
temptation into a moral duty was the milk of
lions. It was not that religion was expelled
from practical life, but that religion itself
gave it a foundation of granite... The good
Christian was not wholly dissimilar from the
economic man.”
R. H. Tawney (1880-1962)
Conceptual Issues
Erich Fromm:
. 1920 - the value of having X the value of being
. World War II – the fear of freedom!!!!
“freedom from” (negative freedom)
X
“freedom
- The paradox: totalitarianism & individualism:
crushing of
cooperative
movement and
genocide
emancipation from
restrictions: “laissez
faire, laissez passer”,
the “virtue of greed”
“ A person who has not been completely alienated, who has
remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense
of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the
suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode
of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and
not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless,
isolated in present-day society”
Erich Fromm (1900 -1980)
to” (positive freedom)
cooperative commonwealth
Conceptual Issues
“The virtue of selfishness”
(Ayn Rand ,1964)
(she was born in Russia, but lived in USA)
identification and validation
of egoism as a rational code of
ethics!!!
“The fetishism of
commodities”
(K. Marx, The Capital, Vol. 1, Chap. 4,
1867)
PRIVATIZATION
OF THE
PLANET
(enclosures)
NEOLIBERALISM
&
GLOBALIZATION
x
WHAT ARE THE POLICIES OF
NEOLIBERALISM???
AND WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT??
(questions to debate!!!!)
DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM
(Amartya Sen, 1999)
•Political freedoms and transparency in relations
between people
•Freedom of opportunity, including freedom to
access credit; and
•Economic protection from abject poverty,
including through income supplements and
unemployment relief.
Economic Democracy
- Economic democracy is often translated into limits
in voting power (of corporate shareholders) and
limits in return on capital shares…
But it is not all!!!!!!!
- The purpose of political democracy is to provide
for political empowerment to all citizens; the
purpose of economic democracy is to provide
economic empowerment to all citizens and all local
communities, and to prevent the concentration of
economic power that subverts mass political and
economic empowerment.
Outwitting Enclosure: the
Mondragon formula to equity
A CO-OP of
CO-OPS
SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC
INNOVATION
Voices for Social and Solidarity
Economy: towards an
alternative globalization?
“Solidarity economy" was used as an economic organizing concept as early as
1937, when Felipe Alaiz advocated for the construction of an economía
solidaria between worker collectives in urban and rural areas during the
Spanish Civil War – THE IDEA IS NOT NEW!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIcwIshFcHI
Do you think it is feasible?
(question to debate)
The SE Model
The SE Model
SE Economy x The S-S-S FRAMEWORK
From:
SOLIDARITY ECONOMY:
BUILDING ALTERNATIVES
FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET,
PAPERS AND REPORTS
FROM THE U.S. SOCIAL
FORUM 2007.
Jenna Allard, Carl
Davidson, and Julie Matthaei (eds.)
“Social and Solidarity
Economy: our common road
towards decent work”
Social and Solidarity Economy Academy,
Montreal, Canada - International Training Centre of the International Labour
Organization 2011
. Cooperatives: autonomous organization of persons united voluntarily to meet
their common economic, social, cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly
owned and democratically controlled enterprise
. Mutual benefit societies: organizations whose objective is essentially to
provide social services for their individual members and their dependants
. Associations and community-based organizations: negotiated rules and
reciprocity guaranteed in particular by social control
. Social enterprises: organizations seeking business solutions to social
problems (Thompson & Doherty, 2006)
. Foundations (???): Foundations may be qualified partly as components
of the SSE; however, not all foundations operate in
such a spirit!!!
Are these all linked to Economic
Democracy and/or cooperative
capital??? (question to debate)
The SSEO Common Principles
SOLIDARY ECONOMICS
A NEW MODEL
The Brazilian experiences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4T7SqX_GLM
Brazilian Forum of Solidarity
Economy (FBES)
In our country, the growth of the
Solidarity Economy as a
movement – going beyond
isolated, independent actions,
and organizing itself towards a
common association, networks
configuration and struggle takes a significant leap with the
World Social Forums, a
privileged space where different
actors, organizations, initiatives
and solidarity economy
enterprises were able to
develop an integrated work…
Brazilian Forum of Solidarity
Economy (FBES)
The FBES has seven lines of action :
1) Social Organization of the Solidarity Economy
Movement;
2) Production, Commercialization and Consumption
Networks;
3) Solidarity Finances;
4) Legal Frame – Ex. :Social Development Banking Fund - FAS;
5) Education;
6) Communication; and
7) Democratization of Knowledge and Technology.
There are, in nowadays structure of the National Coordination, 16
organizations and networks, which are the following:
• ABICRED – Brazilian Association of Microcredit Institutions.
• ADS/CUT – Solidarity Development Agency;
• ANTEAG – National Association of Self-Management Company Workers;
• Brazilian Caritas;
• Brazilian Network of Solidarity Economy’s Public Policy-Makers;
• ECOSOL – Central Cooperative of Credit and Solidarity Economy;
• FASE – Federation of Social Service and Education Organizations;
• IBASE – Brazilian Institute of Socioeconomic Analysis;
• IMS – Marista’s Solidarity Institute;
• ITCP – University Network of Popular Cooperatives Technological
Incubators;
• MST/Concrab – Landless Peasant Workers Movement;
• PACS – Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone;
• RBSES – Solidarity Social-Economical Brazilian Network;
• UNICAFES – National Union of the Familiar-Agriculture and Solidarity
Economy Cooperatives;
• UNISOL – Central of Cooperatives and Solidarity Economy
• UNITRABALHO Network
Rio de Janeiro, SE
Manaus (Amazonas), N
Fortaleza, NE
Salvador, NE
São Paulo, SE
Curitiba, S
Cuiabá, CW
RURAL SETTLEMENT “SONS
OF SEPE”, Parana, BR
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnblm_l3yfM
New rural technologies
developed by peasants
from Brazilian Landless
Movement (MST)!!!
REGAINING THE COMMONS
Just to remember the definition: commons are cultural and natural
“resources” accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials
such as air, water, and a habitable earth. These “resources” are held in common,
not owned privately
The gift economy (at informal local levels)…
- Some commons are global, other are regional, other are locals…
- The fundamental role of government should be enforcing the commons
regulations and not the private property.
- Money would be abolished in local levels (trade would return to play a key
role)!!!!
See more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JKOcb3UygA
Is it possible to regain the commons??
(question to debate)
ANOTHER BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE:
“THE FREE BABASSU LAW”
Unanimously,
the
Committee of
Environment
of the
National
House of
Deputies Law
approved the
Project called
“the Free
Babassu
Law” in 2007!
But it is still in debate!!!!