International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #48
May 1, 2008
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
The crisis of the current agricultural model
Another agriculture is possible: a proximity agriculture
European Centre for Resources for Employer Groups
Innovative territorial initiatives in the labour market
Message from the Editorial Team
The increasingly globalized agricultural crisis strikes hardest the most vulnerable populations and countries. This issue of our Newsletter is devoted to emphasizing the adverse effects of the excessive «marketization» practiced today on the most basic and fundamental need, that of being able to feed oneself. We could summarize the current situation by a sentence heard over the radio: The obsession with profit is starving the poorest.
The bad news are now a daily occurrence in the media; the UN organisation FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and WFP (World Food Programme) are sending alarm signals.
As for us, we firmly believe that another agriculture is possible, even essential for the survival of the planet and its inhabitants.
Just as the local territory will be the site for harmonisation of consumers’ and farmers’ expectations, the example of Employer Groups (GE) shows that it is at the local territory level that the expectations of employers and employees can be best harmonized.
Editorial Team
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
The crisis of the current agricultural model
Another agriculture is possible: a proximity agriculture
Until 1940, even in the most developed countries of Europe or North America, over 95% of the consumption of food came from local or regional production. Therefore, even a metropolis like New York lived on products from neighbouring states like New Jersey (a 100 to 200 km radius).
Less than 75 years later, the situation is exactly the opposite. The arrival of major food chains totally changed the picture. In the province of Quebec (8 million inhabitants) in Canada, the market is dominated up to 95% by four distribution networks. Thus, agricultural production is directed to large centralized storage facilities and thereafter towards grocery stores in each city and region. Although approximately 50% of the production consumed comes from farmers in Quebec, this model has resulted in serious consequences:
As the big chains are looking for suppliers who can supply all their stores, small farms, often family farms disappear;
As the big chains choose the best price, there is a double effect, a downward pressure on prices paid to farmers, and the choice of a producer does not take into account the distances.
In all industrialized countries, the mileage each product travels becomes enormous. Thus, a carrot producer can be 500 km from Montreal. Therefore, carrots are sent to a central warehouse and travel back to the large surface-producing region. The carrot will have travelled 1,000 km before being consumed in its own production region. It would be possible to illustrate this phenomenon for the entire production. These facts are well known.
The industrialization of agriculture, accompanied by a general use of farm machinery, chemical fertilizers and pesticides has led to a significant increase in agricultural productivity. Thus, in North America, households spend no more than 11% of their purchases for food, compared to over 20% in 1960.
Although the success of this type of agriculture is undeniable, it has drawbacks; it depends on low-cost energy (oil) and the petrochemical industry products. To illustrate: the production of corn in the USA increased by 346% between 1910 and 1983, but energy consumption for all agriculture increased by 810%. Two other examples: a head of lettuce produced in California and consumed in New York costs 36 times more calories of energy than the lettuce itself contains, a kilogram of grapes from Chile transported to North America emits 6 kilos of CO2.
Meanwhile, structural adjustment policies (SAP) of the IMF to liberalize markets have forced many countries, particularly in Africa, to abandon their agricultural food policies, while rich countries continue to subsidize their own productions. Thus, in Senegal, a kilogram of onions from the Netherlands is cheaper than a kilogram produced in its own country.
And more recently, the logic of free market means that large agricultural production, as is the case for 20% of the corn grown in USA is diverted for ethanol production, further exacerbating the current situation.
Can we act otherwise?
In his book, Deep Economy: the wealth of communities and the durable future, author Bill McKibben describes the alternative. And this alternative already exists, and it is growing. As described in our previous issue (the URGENCI network), agriculture supported by the community, public markets of local producers and organic farming are expanding.
For example, let’s mention that in 1970 in the USA, there were only 340 public farmers’ markets, but in 2004 there were 3,700. The phenomenon is identified in other countries. In the case of Cuba, the collapse of the Soviet Union eliminated the supply of cheap oil. Thus overnight, Cuban agriculture, built on the Soviet model of large farms was radically transformed into community and urban production. Therefore, Havana produces most of its food locally, with an essentially organic agriculture, without fertilizers and pesticides.
The British agronomist, Jules Pretty studied over 200 cases of sustainable agriculture in 52 countries. The results show that sustainable agriculture has the ability to produce more food per hectare than industrialized agriculture, and at lower cost. Industrialized agriculture still dominates because it is the one that gives greater financial returns per hectare.
The reconstruction of local communities
The capitalist agricultural model, particularly in its neo-liberal form, contributes to the disappearance of small farms, resulting in an exodus of people from rural areas to large urban centres. But, even more destructive is the total disconnection which has occurred between producers and consumers.
However, the number of consumers and producers who are building this new approach to agriculture has increased to the point where trends have reversed. In the state of Oregon in the American west, the number of full-time farmers has risen from 13,384 in 1974 to 21,580 in 2002.
In light of the current crisis and with the knowledge and techniques already known, this article shows that close proximity agriculture will be the only one that will allow a major shift towards a sustainable agriculture; capable of feeding the population of each country, capable of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, and capable of rebuilding the social fabric between producers and consumers, between the cities and their surrounding territories.
Author : Yvon Poirier
European Centre for Resources for Employer Groups
Innovative territorial initiatives in the labour market
Time-sharing hiring practises: an organizational innovation that meets the economic and social needs of employers and workers from the same basin of life.
Social invention is part of the Poitou-Charentes region, since the 1985 law creating Employer Groups (GE) was enacted in France. The GE is an innovation to organize time-sharing workers: part-time sharing of skilled employees, seasonal work, increased activity, anticipation of recruitment, stabilization of employment. First largely approved by the farming community, this tool spread through a multi-sectorial approach. Regional results in 2007: 1700 employees, 2100 adhering structures to a GE and a total financial operations of 35 million €. By focusing on a win-win relationship, GE are adapting and anticipating changes in the global market for the benefit of sustainable employment for citizens.
This type of innovation is spreading and is adopted in several regions of France and European countries: In 2001 in Belgium, a first employers group in Brussels, Jobiris, in the agri-food sector, now has some twenty employees. Similarly, in Germany in 2004, the first employers group was in the Land of Brandenburg. There are now four groups in Germany and many projects in the states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, especially in the agricultural environment.
To federate is to gather and not standardize: the principle of subsidiarity is vital.
The Employer Groups have organized their 2nd European Convention around a participatory debate in Brussels on February 22, 2008 in the presence of the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Špidla, and the president of the Committee of Regions, Luc Van den Branden. The meeting helped to initiate the creation of the European Centre for Resources for Employer Groups, the CERGE. France Joubert, who initiated the movement, will be the first president. The aim of CERGE is to promote the GE tool and to spread in all regions of the greater Europe. The launch adopts the model of the Resource Centre, as practised for almost ten years in Poitou-Charentes. This form of joint organization brings together employers and employees, as well as representatives of the social solidarity economy, with a rotating presidency. It has shown its ability to stand the test of territory to address the problems of labour, employment, but also those of the creation of activities, housing or services, which are interdependent problems. The answers are more inventive, and support that everyone brings a share of success.
Martine Theveniaut, meeting participant
For further information (French only): http://www.crge.com/
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #46
March 1, 2008
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Why does endogenous development remain the poor relation of development strategies in Europe?
People’s Summit: an invitation
Lima, May 2008
Our friend and colleague, Francisco Botelho passed away on February 3rd, 2008. Knowing that he was ill, in 2006 he wrote the following text which was read at his funeral.
Plenitude
Silence ...
It is true that in this slow sunset, one hears silence more forcefully. But it is not silence.
Tranquility ...
Under the violent light, nature rests. Some bats flutter above the courtyard. Water runs into the reservoir, almost imperceptibly. Everything in nature seems to occupy its own place. But it is not tranquility.
Peace ...
Suddenly, inside and outside me, everything is harmony. At this moment, everything sounds just right. Everything is right. But, nothing needs to be right, because the heart feels the plenitude. But this is not peace.
I do not know what this place has. This place where everything makes sense. This place where I am able to unite all that is in me. Without drama, without anxieties. Plenitude, maybe this is it, which fills me in the old courtyard of the ancestral home of my ancestors. Here I live, here live all my ghosts, here live the souls of Santa Marinha.
Perhaps one day may I be lead here to die. Maybe one day my ashes may be spread on these few meters that I overlook. Because more than any place in the world, I belong here.
Francisco Bothelo
Message from the Editorial Team
It is with great regret that we learned of the passing of our friend. We wish to offer our sincere sympathies to his family and all those who were close to him. We shall miss you, Francisco, but rest assured that you will continue to inspire us.
In this issue we are presenting a reflection on the place of endogenous development, in conjunction with exogenous development. Too often considered minor, this place could well be rediscovered in the current context as quite decisive. This article reflects a European perspective, but the stakes are fairly similar in other continents. Thus, we hope that you find the text as stimulating as we do.
In addition, we wish to share information from Latin America. The People’s Summit next May in Lima will be an opportunity for social movements to present alternatives to globalization policies currently prevailing in our societies.
Editorial Team
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
---
Why does endogenous development remain the poor relation of development strategies in Europe?
In December 2007, the Circle of entrepreneurs for the future awarded a Grand Prize on pertinent and impertinent reflection to Marjorie Jouen from the Our Europe Association, for her contribution to the debate on this emerging and controversial theme.
Local resources are encouraged to follow behind exogenous development!
There is competition between territories, in the race for foreign investment. Bottom-up development retains a palliative and marginal character. Today, most means remain assigned to the attractiveness of foreign investments, ignoring the negative externalities of this model. Yet, the industrial strategies of conversion during the 70’s and 80’s in Europe have not fulfilled their promises. Other more modest strategies have been tried in the 90’s: either anticipating closures by creating a myriad of small and medium enterprises, mostly tertiary, or by gently redirecting the local economy by encouraging people’s initiatives, by cultivating a climate to generate activities, horizontal cooperation in the context of decentralization.
Local development, victim of its own success?
Even international organizations got involved. Local development is presented as an instrument suited for countries, regions and disadvantaged populations. The exogenous neo-liberal vision takes over: cumulative phenomena of concentration-agglomeration, specialization and acceleration of competition between regions, discontinuous polarization of territorial development around densely populated areas, new inequalities. Some less developed European countries were able to promote their comparative advantages and take profit of this external shock (Ireland, Finland), while others were unable for various reasons relating to their unique history and/or institutional weaknesses. The current craze for centres of training, whether rural or urban, simply reflects the general policy direction which mobilizes local resources for the benefit ... of exogenous development!
In political discourse, this movement distinguished itself by the progressive tightening of the Lisbon Strategy launched in 2000. Over the years, under the guise of streamlining, most of the recommendations relating to local development have been removed. In France, while the triennial public budget for the support of poles of competitiveness reached 1.5 billion euros, an approximate amount of 400€ million was allocated under the European Social Fund for local endogenous development, for seven years! "Ultimately, it could be said that local development has been the victim of its own success and it has been "hi-jacked" by the dominant economic model. By introducing the concept of competitiveness, the latter has been able to take over for competitive purposes intangible factors like territorial dynamism, or force neighborhood social relations into the market sphere."
Internal weaknesses and significant obstacles
It remains a matter of practice and conceptual tools are lacking. The transposition of uncommon experiments to draw conclusions is difficult, personal abilities playing a decisive role. The concept is vague: socio-political, it means autonomy and capacity for self-organization of local groups, at the socio-economic level, it attempts to provide an alternative to the dominant economy. This ambivalence nurtures diverse and sometimes contradictory expectations. The close ties that unite it to public authorities, making it vulnerable to budget cuts as well as political shifts. Between the private and public sectors, it does not always succeed to free itself from a client-centred approach. For some, it embodies the nostalgic dream of the yesterday’s world without a realistic understanding of the new globalized economic system.
The economic obstacles are considerable. On the one hand, foreign direct investment (FDI) brings new technologies, new knowledge and managerial skills. In France, one out of four new jobs is created thanks to international investment, while one job seven is linked to the existing FDI. Meanwhile, local endogenous development is characterized by a slow return on investment and a low capacity to generate profits. Five to ten years are needed to produce results, the time required to evolve mentalities and structural change in the community. It does not create economies of scale and generates little added value, hence the constant need for outside funding. Finally, it is a development based largely on short circuits and auto-consumption, which is therefore diametrically opposed to the dominant economic interests. The political obstacles stem from the social representations. Globalization can be fascinating. The easy road predominates the "greater public good". It continues to legitimize the nation states as the economic development actors, in defiance of the facts.
Revival avenues to reopen the field of possibilities
In the longer term, however, the state of the natural environment, the fragility of the financial system or the potential for conflicts induced by growing disparities of development suggest that local endogenous development has not had its last word. Do European regions and cities have no other roles than the race to “the best knowledge economy in the world "within the spatial division of labour? This is debatable. In fact, the problem comes from the exclusivity of exogenous development and its propensity to absorb all the rest. However, to function well our economies need some diversity to enable them to absorb any external shocks but also to reduce negative externalities. Nonetheless, local development plays a vital role in eco-diversity. Several avenues are suggested:
A deliberate action so exogenous and endogenous development could coexist: from regulation to financial support, through governing direction and contracting. It may be public, but also private, or rely on the wishes of civil society. In any case, it must be based on the emerging dynamics;
A logic of specification in order not to give free rein to other logic (concentration, specialization, or set of comparative advantages on the competitive model). It produces strong externalities and offers a reduced vulnerability to the exogenous impact, because it works around a set of specific accumulated resources in the territory and strengthens itself through the capacity of individuals and enterprises to redeploy.
The new consumer opportunities related to information technology and communication can aggregate at the global level very marginal applications, achieve profitable sales and production of items which had been neglected over time.
The relocation of the economy though often invoked remains at the level of a slogan. To give it political legitimacy, we must enrich and develop a coherent argument offensive, further the analysis of the negative externalities of agglomerations and establish a statistical system which goes beyond the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) indicators.
Another possibility is to accompany the "residential dynamic" which indicates the existence of motivations for mobility other than employment, notably in connection with the advent of a service-based society and an ageing population. This new situation justifies economically local or regional public policies which would not only be geared towards attracting businesses, but also for the improvement of living conditions (housing, environment, public services, etc.)
If one pushes the argument even further, one can find the basis for a new theory of local development. Other than a palliative[E1] industrial crisis, open to the world as it is, this local dynamic reflects the desire to live together, of the place of residence and the proximity of services. The road is narrow because the toppling over towards consumerism would be a poor relief and the call for civic responsibility, although most promising. remains risky. "Finally, behind the place left by exogenous development to local endogenous development looms the question of the ability of our development model to become more sustainable, in the sense of not wasting natural or human resources and the conservation of the environment as well as the reduction of tensions and conflicts of all kinds. The next twenty years will be a test for all mankind ".
Martine Theveniaut: Abstract of the paper produced under the Grand Prize (Category: Development of territories), 20 pages.
People’s Summit: an invitation
Lima, May 2008
European and Latin American social movements are convening a People’s Summit in Lima in May, in response to the Summit of Heads of State and Governments of Europe and Latin America.
All social movements in Latin America and Europe are invited to mobilize for this meeting, and to sign a call to this effect.
The website http://peoplesdialogue.org/en/node/187 provides all pertinent information regarding the Summit.
Note. This information has been sent to us by Nedda Angulo of the Grupo de Economía Red Solidaria del Perú (GRESP and RIPESS Latin America).
---
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
[E1]« Palliative »est un adjectif. On va dire « palliative care » pour les soins de fin de vie aux malades.
March 1, 2008
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Why does endogenous development remain the poor relation of development strategies in Europe?
People’s Summit: an invitation
Lima, May 2008
Our friend and colleague, Francisco Botelho passed away on February 3rd, 2008. Knowing that he was ill, in 2006 he wrote the following text which was read at his funeral.
Plenitude
Silence ...
It is true that in this slow sunset, one hears silence more forcefully. But it is not silence.
Tranquility ...
Under the violent light, nature rests. Some bats flutter above the courtyard. Water runs into the reservoir, almost imperceptibly. Everything in nature seems to occupy its own place. But it is not tranquility.
Peace ...
Suddenly, inside and outside me, everything is harmony. At this moment, everything sounds just right. Everything is right. But, nothing needs to be right, because the heart feels the plenitude. But this is not peace.
I do not know what this place has. This place where everything makes sense. This place where I am able to unite all that is in me. Without drama, without anxieties. Plenitude, maybe this is it, which fills me in the old courtyard of the ancestral home of my ancestors. Here I live, here live all my ghosts, here live the souls of Santa Marinha.
Perhaps one day may I be lead here to die. Maybe one day my ashes may be spread on these few meters that I overlook. Because more than any place in the world, I belong here.
Francisco Bothelo
Message from the Editorial Team
It is with great regret that we learned of the passing of our friend. We wish to offer our sincere sympathies to his family and all those who were close to him. We shall miss you, Francisco, but rest assured that you will continue to inspire us.
In this issue we are presenting a reflection on the place of endogenous development, in conjunction with exogenous development. Too often considered minor, this place could well be rediscovered in the current context as quite decisive. This article reflects a European perspective, but the stakes are fairly similar in other continents. Thus, we hope that you find the text as stimulating as we do.
In addition, we wish to share information from Latin America. The People’s Summit next May in Lima will be an opportunity for social movements to present alternatives to globalization policies currently prevailing in our societies.
Editorial Team
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
---
Why does endogenous development remain the poor relation of development strategies in Europe?
In December 2007, the Circle of entrepreneurs for the future awarded a Grand Prize on pertinent and impertinent reflection to Marjorie Jouen from the Our Europe Association, for her contribution to the debate on this emerging and controversial theme.
Local resources are encouraged to follow behind exogenous development!
There is competition between territories, in the race for foreign investment. Bottom-up development retains a palliative and marginal character. Today, most means remain assigned to the attractiveness of foreign investments, ignoring the negative externalities of this model. Yet, the industrial strategies of conversion during the 70’s and 80’s in Europe have not fulfilled their promises. Other more modest strategies have been tried in the 90’s: either anticipating closures by creating a myriad of small and medium enterprises, mostly tertiary, or by gently redirecting the local economy by encouraging people’s initiatives, by cultivating a climate to generate activities, horizontal cooperation in the context of decentralization.
Local development, victim of its own success?
Even international organizations got involved. Local development is presented as an instrument suited for countries, regions and disadvantaged populations. The exogenous neo-liberal vision takes over: cumulative phenomena of concentration-agglomeration, specialization and acceleration of competition between regions, discontinuous polarization of territorial development around densely populated areas, new inequalities. Some less developed European countries were able to promote their comparative advantages and take profit of this external shock (Ireland, Finland), while others were unable for various reasons relating to their unique history and/or institutional weaknesses. The current craze for centres of training, whether rural or urban, simply reflects the general policy direction which mobilizes local resources for the benefit ... of exogenous development!
In political discourse, this movement distinguished itself by the progressive tightening of the Lisbon Strategy launched in 2000. Over the years, under the guise of streamlining, most of the recommendations relating to local development have been removed. In France, while the triennial public budget for the support of poles of competitiveness reached 1.5 billion euros, an approximate amount of 400€ million was allocated under the European Social Fund for local endogenous development, for seven years! "Ultimately, it could be said that local development has been the victim of its own success and it has been "hi-jacked" by the dominant economic model. By introducing the concept of competitiveness, the latter has been able to take over for competitive purposes intangible factors like territorial dynamism, or force neighborhood social relations into the market sphere."
Internal weaknesses and significant obstacles
It remains a matter of practice and conceptual tools are lacking. The transposition of uncommon experiments to draw conclusions is difficult, personal abilities playing a decisive role. The concept is vague: socio-political, it means autonomy and capacity for self-organization of local groups, at the socio-economic level, it attempts to provide an alternative to the dominant economy. This ambivalence nurtures diverse and sometimes contradictory expectations. The close ties that unite it to public authorities, making it vulnerable to budget cuts as well as political shifts. Between the private and public sectors, it does not always succeed to free itself from a client-centred approach. For some, it embodies the nostalgic dream of the yesterday’s world without a realistic understanding of the new globalized economic system.
The economic obstacles are considerable. On the one hand, foreign direct investment (FDI) brings new technologies, new knowledge and managerial skills. In France, one out of four new jobs is created thanks to international investment, while one job seven is linked to the existing FDI. Meanwhile, local endogenous development is characterized by a slow return on investment and a low capacity to generate profits. Five to ten years are needed to produce results, the time required to evolve mentalities and structural change in the community. It does not create economies of scale and generates little added value, hence the constant need for outside funding. Finally, it is a development based largely on short circuits and auto-consumption, which is therefore diametrically opposed to the dominant economic interests. The political obstacles stem from the social representations. Globalization can be fascinating. The easy road predominates the "greater public good". It continues to legitimize the nation states as the economic development actors, in defiance of the facts.
Revival avenues to reopen the field of possibilities
In the longer term, however, the state of the natural environment, the fragility of the financial system or the potential for conflicts induced by growing disparities of development suggest that local endogenous development has not had its last word. Do European regions and cities have no other roles than the race to “the best knowledge economy in the world "within the spatial division of labour? This is debatable. In fact, the problem comes from the exclusivity of exogenous development and its propensity to absorb all the rest. However, to function well our economies need some diversity to enable them to absorb any external shocks but also to reduce negative externalities. Nonetheless, local development plays a vital role in eco-diversity. Several avenues are suggested:
A deliberate action so exogenous and endogenous development could coexist: from regulation to financial support, through governing direction and contracting. It may be public, but also private, or rely on the wishes of civil society. In any case, it must be based on the emerging dynamics;
A logic of specification in order not to give free rein to other logic (concentration, specialization, or set of comparative advantages on the competitive model). It produces strong externalities and offers a reduced vulnerability to the exogenous impact, because it works around a set of specific accumulated resources in the territory and strengthens itself through the capacity of individuals and enterprises to redeploy.
The new consumer opportunities related to information technology and communication can aggregate at the global level very marginal applications, achieve profitable sales and production of items which had been neglected over time.
The relocation of the economy though often invoked remains at the level of a slogan. To give it political legitimacy, we must enrich and develop a coherent argument offensive, further the analysis of the negative externalities of agglomerations and establish a statistical system which goes beyond the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) indicators.
Another possibility is to accompany the "residential dynamic" which indicates the existence of motivations for mobility other than employment, notably in connection with the advent of a service-based society and an ageing population. This new situation justifies economically local or regional public policies which would not only be geared towards attracting businesses, but also for the improvement of living conditions (housing, environment, public services, etc.)
If one pushes the argument even further, one can find the basis for a new theory of local development. Other than a palliative[E1] industrial crisis, open to the world as it is, this local dynamic reflects the desire to live together, of the place of residence and the proximity of services. The road is narrow because the toppling over towards consumerism would be a poor relief and the call for civic responsibility, although most promising. remains risky. "Finally, behind the place left by exogenous development to local endogenous development looms the question of the ability of our development model to become more sustainable, in the sense of not wasting natural or human resources and the conservation of the environment as well as the reduction of tensions and conflicts of all kinds. The next twenty years will be a test for all mankind ".
Martine Theveniaut: Abstract of the paper produced under the Grand Prize (Category: Development of territories), 20 pages.
People’s Summit: an invitation
Lima, May 2008
European and Latin American social movements are convening a People’s Summit in Lima in May, in response to the Summit of Heads of State and Governments of Europe and Latin America.
All social movements in Latin America and Europe are invited to mobilize for this meeting, and to sign a call to this effect.
The website http://peoplesdialogue.org/en/node/187 provides all pertinent information regarding the Summit.
Note. This information has been sent to us by Nedda Angulo of the Grupo de Economía Red Solidaria del Perú (GRESP and RIPESS Latin America).
---
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
[E1]« Palliative »est un adjectif. On va dire « palliative care » pour les soins de fin de vie aux malades.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #45
February 1st, 2008
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Co-responsibility for the well-being of all
Social Cohesion and Territory meeting, Trento, Italy, November 29th and 30th, 2007
Renewable energies and sustainable local development
Interesting prospects
*****
Message from the Editorial Team
As 2008 begins, we wish an excellent year to everyone. The challenges remain numerous. The two articles in this issue take this into account. But at the same time we are encouraged by the many initiatives that local people around the globe undertake, in order to not only defend their rights, but also to build concretely tomorrow’s world.
As we welcome new subscribers regularly (you now number 225), we thought we would like to share with you some information about the current activities of members of the editorial team. We think it is useful to keep you informed (the team is presented in alphabetical order).
In addition to his various activities concerning local development in Portugal, Francisco Botelho is also involved with «Cooperar em português» (cooperation in the Portuguese speaking cultural sphere). This cooperation is between local development actors in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and East Timor. It was initiated in the framework of Expo Brazil meetings.
www.cooperaremportugues.org/
Yvon Poirier is mandated by the Groupe d’économie solidaire du Québec (GESQ) (Group for solidarity economy in Quebec) in order to develop international networking in the field of solidarity economy, and he is also president of the International Committee of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet). He is equally involved in the North American Network for the Solidarity Economy (NANSE).
Martine Théveniaut is president of an associative Platform BASE in Sud Audois which “brings together expertise and resources to improve the impact of a more solidarity economy and a model of development that respects people and natural resources". She is co-responsible for the dynamics Pactes Locaux (local pacts) and is vice president of the European network Euronetz for solidarity economy and local development. She is also a member of the European Steering Committee for the 4th International Meeting of Globalization of Solidarity. In December, Martine received her doctorate in sociology. Her thesis topic was Social inventors for liveable territories: Evaluation and perspective of thirty years of practice of research to serve Action (a summary in French and English is available upon request).
Francisco has been combating leukemia for over two years. The medical advances have made it possible to stabilize his condition and our friend is coping well. Yvon and Martine salute the energy he brings to remain active and militant and would like to acknowledge a collaboration that enriches them.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
***********
Co-responsibility for the well-being of all
Social Cohesion and Territory meeting, Trento, Italy, November 29th and 30th, 2007.
This meeting was organized by the Social Cohesion Development Division (CDCS) of the Council of Europe. Its theme was "Developing the potential of ethical and solidarity-based initiatives for an inclusive society", in cooperation with the Platform IRIS (Inter European Network of Ethical and Solidarity Initiatives).
Recent years have led to an awareness that economic development cannot succeed if it is at the expense of social cohesion, the fundamental condition of democratic security, sustainability, but also the well-being of our societies. This article summarizes the round table which I attended, devoted to socially responsible territories.
The road to regaining our freedom
The autonomous province of Trento has become a district of solidarity economy. "It's not only a matter of law. The problem is to tackle the whole to change mentalities," said Marta Dalmaso, an elected official, during the opening of the meeting. Gilda Farrell, from CDCS, and the initiator of the meeting, quoted in her introduction the novel by Italo Calvino, The Invisible City: Marco Polo, upon arrival at this invisible city is very astonished to note that the project to make people happy leads to a pile of waste (environmental … and human!). Gilda states that in personal accomplishment and well-being nothing is said about consumption choices. We must now reintegrate these to our social functions. "This will not be easy ... It is a long road to recover our freedom: no freedom of choice (products), but "the freedom to give meaning to our choices."
Socially Responsible Territories
The round table presented the result of a territorial application of the methodology developed under the auspices of Samuel Thirion, also from CDSC. The indicators for a "co-responsibility for the well-being of all" were tested in 4 cities: Rovereto (Trento), Timisoara (Romania), Mulhouse and Paris (which is now just starting) in France.
The method keeps its distances from statistics. It is qualitative and participatory. Meetings bring together different classes of citizens according to their ages, situations, genders, issues. The "monochrome" group meetings (e.g. the elderly, migrants, ...) are followed by "rainbow" meetings (crossing of groups). The production is considerable. Then it must be organized and validated with groups of citizens.
Some tentative conclusions resulted. Topics concerning well-being were found to be recurring: employment, income, purchasing power, housing, health, education, training, culture, with specific patterns in each city. Regarding citizenship, exchanges demonstrated the importance of dealing with situations in their context. Thus, security is viewed from the angle of what compromises it in Rovereto (fear of going out, violence, rigidity of the police), while in Timisoara it was what fosters security that was put forward (better public order, protection, control of public measures as tools). Mulhouse insisted putting the emphasis on the respect for the dignity of persons. Without a good knowledge of the context and the existing citizens' initiatives, we cannot expect to improve public policy.
Mulhouse, who had to leave earlier, is in the evaluation stage. It highlighted the differences between the initiatives of communities and people's expectations. They are sometimes trenches (social diversity, fairness in education, income or access to culture, gender equality). To have a direct impact on ongoing actions (shortcomings, mistakes, consolidation, pursuit,...), meetings were conducted between the project promoters and local authorities, following interviews with recipients on the global impact of their situation, etc. Experimentation is also a tool for dialogue.
The issues of social cohesion in the territories: from the experimental to real life?
The assessment currently underway opens the door to the following general questions:
What are the impacts of training? Means, time, strength in the long term ... Ways to communicate, to make known to others?
Are governments convinced of the role of the territories in all this? Or are they looking for more social peace "by putting a lid from above"? Which is completely different from social cohesion ... which comes from the bottom.
Are citizens prepared for this resistance?
Will companies want to play the game?
We must now leave the rewarding phase of co-construction between participants from 4 cities to move towards answers.
How can we reach groups, unintentionally or resolutely excluded from the social game or out of reach?
What to we do with everything that is not said? The suffering, the impact of the religious phenomenon positively and negatively? From the non-utterable such as racism whose display is prohibited by law, but present nonetheless?
For further information on the Directorate General of Social Cohesion:
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Social_cohesion/
Author: Martine Theveniaut
Renewable energy and sustainable local development
Encouraging prospects
The theme of the 3rd Mont Blanc Meetings summit held November 9th – 10th, 2007 was the following: The sustainable consumption, production and distribution of energy - the response of the social economy. Several speakers in plenary sessions or in workshops presented concrete examples of approaches in the social solidarity economy, mostly at the local level.
The organization of Mont Blanc Meetings (RMB) is run by mutual groups and cooperatives from France and Quebec, with a view of opening up to organizations in other continents. The aim of the RMB is to unite operators of the social economy with an outlook leading to partnerships in regards to concrete projects. For example, let us mention a decision made in 2005 having an objective to produce open source software for the financial management of social economy enterprises. It will bear fruition within the next two years.
The summit also served to launch the Call of Mont Blanc (available in 3 languages on the website).
http://www.rencontres-montblanc.coop/487-Third_Mont_Blanc_Meetings_9_10_November_2007&l=en
The meeting was very rich in various kinds of learning. An outstanding conference was given by Ralph Sims of New Zealand, one of the authors of the latest report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The awareness of the urgent need to act, and the potential of the social solidarity economy to bring about concrete answers, will have marked this meeting.
Some striking examples were presented: a region of 44,000 inhabitants in Denmark produces 100% of its energy (except for transportation) with renewable energies; solar dryers in Guinea allow fruits to be dried in order to ensure their long-term preservation; photovoltaic panels on buildings in Freiburg, Germany, the modernization of watermills in Nepal, biogas production, and so on.
What was very interesting in most, if not all of the examples, was the link with the local community. These technologies can be locally implemented and managed by the community.
This article does not allow further elaboration. Let’s simply mention that one part of the answer, or even a large part, to renewable energy production will come from local territories, which also reduces the costs and the waste of energy transportation. On the whole, as in agriculture, production and consumption must move as close as possible to one another. Is this not the only feasible path for the survival of the planet?
Author: Yvon Poirier
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
February 1st, 2008
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Co-responsibility for the well-being of all
Social Cohesion and Territory meeting, Trento, Italy, November 29th and 30th, 2007
Renewable energies and sustainable local development
Interesting prospects
*****
Message from the Editorial Team
As 2008 begins, we wish an excellent year to everyone. The challenges remain numerous. The two articles in this issue take this into account. But at the same time we are encouraged by the many initiatives that local people around the globe undertake, in order to not only defend their rights, but also to build concretely tomorrow’s world.
As we welcome new subscribers regularly (you now number 225), we thought we would like to share with you some information about the current activities of members of the editorial team. We think it is useful to keep you informed (the team is presented in alphabetical order).
In addition to his various activities concerning local development in Portugal, Francisco Botelho is also involved with «Cooperar em português» (cooperation in the Portuguese speaking cultural sphere). This cooperation is between local development actors in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and East Timor. It was initiated in the framework of Expo Brazil meetings.
www.cooperaremportugues.org/
Yvon Poirier is mandated by the Groupe d’économie solidaire du Québec (GESQ) (Group for solidarity economy in Quebec) in order to develop international networking in the field of solidarity economy, and he is also president of the International Committee of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet). He is equally involved in the North American Network for the Solidarity Economy (NANSE).
Martine Théveniaut is president of an associative Platform BASE in Sud Audois which “brings together expertise and resources to improve the impact of a more solidarity economy and a model of development that respects people and natural resources". She is co-responsible for the dynamics Pactes Locaux (local pacts) and is vice president of the European network Euronetz for solidarity economy and local development. She is also a member of the European Steering Committee for the 4th International Meeting of Globalization of Solidarity. In December, Martine received her doctorate in sociology. Her thesis topic was Social inventors for liveable territories: Evaluation and perspective of thirty years of practice of research to serve Action (a summary in French and English is available upon request).
Francisco has been combating leukemia for over two years. The medical advances have made it possible to stabilize his condition and our friend is coping well. Yvon and Martine salute the energy he brings to remain active and militant and would like to acknowledge a collaboration that enriches them.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
***********
Co-responsibility for the well-being of all
Social Cohesion and Territory meeting, Trento, Italy, November 29th and 30th, 2007.
This meeting was organized by the Social Cohesion Development Division (CDCS) of the Council of Europe. Its theme was "Developing the potential of ethical and solidarity-based initiatives for an inclusive society", in cooperation with the Platform IRIS (Inter European Network of Ethical and Solidarity Initiatives).
Recent years have led to an awareness that economic development cannot succeed if it is at the expense of social cohesion, the fundamental condition of democratic security, sustainability, but also the well-being of our societies. This article summarizes the round table which I attended, devoted to socially responsible territories.
The road to regaining our freedom
The autonomous province of Trento has become a district of solidarity economy. "It's not only a matter of law. The problem is to tackle the whole to change mentalities," said Marta Dalmaso, an elected official, during the opening of the meeting. Gilda Farrell, from CDCS, and the initiator of the meeting, quoted in her introduction the novel by Italo Calvino, The Invisible City: Marco Polo, upon arrival at this invisible city is very astonished to note that the project to make people happy leads to a pile of waste (environmental … and human!). Gilda states that in personal accomplishment and well-being nothing is said about consumption choices. We must now reintegrate these to our social functions. "This will not be easy ... It is a long road to recover our freedom: no freedom of choice (products), but "the freedom to give meaning to our choices."
Socially Responsible Territories
The round table presented the result of a territorial application of the methodology developed under the auspices of Samuel Thirion, also from CDSC. The indicators for a "co-responsibility for the well-being of all" were tested in 4 cities: Rovereto (Trento), Timisoara (Romania), Mulhouse and Paris (which is now just starting) in France.
The method keeps its distances from statistics. It is qualitative and participatory. Meetings bring together different classes of citizens according to their ages, situations, genders, issues. The "monochrome" group meetings (e.g. the elderly, migrants, ...) are followed by "rainbow" meetings (crossing of groups). The production is considerable. Then it must be organized and validated with groups of citizens.
Some tentative conclusions resulted. Topics concerning well-being were found to be recurring: employment, income, purchasing power, housing, health, education, training, culture, with specific patterns in each city. Regarding citizenship, exchanges demonstrated the importance of dealing with situations in their context. Thus, security is viewed from the angle of what compromises it in Rovereto (fear of going out, violence, rigidity of the police), while in Timisoara it was what fosters security that was put forward (better public order, protection, control of public measures as tools). Mulhouse insisted putting the emphasis on the respect for the dignity of persons. Without a good knowledge of the context and the existing citizens' initiatives, we cannot expect to improve public policy.
Mulhouse, who had to leave earlier, is in the evaluation stage. It highlighted the differences between the initiatives of communities and people's expectations. They are sometimes trenches (social diversity, fairness in education, income or access to culture, gender equality). To have a direct impact on ongoing actions (shortcomings, mistakes, consolidation, pursuit,...), meetings were conducted between the project promoters and local authorities, following interviews with recipients on the global impact of their situation, etc. Experimentation is also a tool for dialogue.
The issues of social cohesion in the territories: from the experimental to real life?
The assessment currently underway opens the door to the following general questions:
What are the impacts of training? Means, time, strength in the long term ... Ways to communicate, to make known to others?
Are governments convinced of the role of the territories in all this? Or are they looking for more social peace "by putting a lid from above"? Which is completely different from social cohesion ... which comes from the bottom.
Are citizens prepared for this resistance?
Will companies want to play the game?
We must now leave the rewarding phase of co-construction between participants from 4 cities to move towards answers.
How can we reach groups, unintentionally or resolutely excluded from the social game or out of reach?
What to we do with everything that is not said? The suffering, the impact of the religious phenomenon positively and negatively? From the non-utterable such as racism whose display is prohibited by law, but present nonetheless?
For further information on the Directorate General of Social Cohesion:
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Social_cohesion/
Author: Martine Theveniaut
Renewable energy and sustainable local development
Encouraging prospects
The theme of the 3rd Mont Blanc Meetings summit held November 9th – 10th, 2007 was the following: The sustainable consumption, production and distribution of energy - the response of the social economy. Several speakers in plenary sessions or in workshops presented concrete examples of approaches in the social solidarity economy, mostly at the local level.
The organization of Mont Blanc Meetings (RMB) is run by mutual groups and cooperatives from France and Quebec, with a view of opening up to organizations in other continents. The aim of the RMB is to unite operators of the social economy with an outlook leading to partnerships in regards to concrete projects. For example, let us mention a decision made in 2005 having an objective to produce open source software for the financial management of social economy enterprises. It will bear fruition within the next two years.
The summit also served to launch the Call of Mont Blanc (available in 3 languages on the website).
http://www.rencontres-montblanc.coop/487-Third_Mont_Blanc_Meetings_9_10_November_2007&l=en
The meeting was very rich in various kinds of learning. An outstanding conference was given by Ralph Sims of New Zealand, one of the authors of the latest report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The awareness of the urgent need to act, and the potential of the social solidarity economy to bring about concrete answers, will have marked this meeting.
Some striking examples were presented: a region of 44,000 inhabitants in Denmark produces 100% of its energy (except for transportation) with renewable energies; solar dryers in Guinea allow fruits to be dried in order to ensure their long-term preservation; photovoltaic panels on buildings in Freiburg, Germany, the modernization of watermills in Nepal, biogas production, and so on.
What was very interesting in most, if not all of the examples, was the link with the local community. These technologies can be locally implemented and managed by the community.
This article does not allow further elaboration. Let’s simply mention that one part of the answer, or even a large part, to renewable energy production will come from local territories, which also reduces the costs and the waste of energy transportation. On the whole, as in agriculture, production and consumption must move as close as possible to one another. Is this not the only feasible path for the survival of the planet?
Author: Yvon Poirier
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Sunday, December 02, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #44
December 1, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Inner City Development Cooperative (Quezon City, Philippines)
An original savings and loans initiative for the urban poor
******
Message from the Editorial Team
On October 16th, 2007 Yvon Poirier accompanied Giovanni Acquati and Viviane Vandemeulbroucke of INAISE (International Association of Investors in the Social Economy) during a visit to the area of Tatalon in Quezon City. The ground visit in this shantytown has helped to understand how this community works to emerge from extreme poverty through the activities of cooperative development. And this is achieved notably by activities of savings and microfinance.
The visit was conducted at the time of the first Asian Forum on Solidarity Economy held in the Philippines from October 17th to 20th. The meeting, which we shall revisit in a later newsletter was a great success, with 700 participants including nearly 100 people from outside the Philippines (26 countries in all).
Next issue: February 1, 2008
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
Inner City Development Cooperative (Quezon City, Philippines)
An original savings and loans initiative for the urban poor
Tatalon is one of the 39 barangays (local communities) of the 4th District of Quezon City. Altogether, Quezon City has four districts and has a total population of 2.4 million, and it is the largest of the 17 municipalities of the Manila metropolitan region (total population over 11 million).
Most of the Tatalon population (about 30,000) is either poor or extremely poor. In fact, Tatalon is one on the poorest communities in the Manila region. Most people live in slum-like dwellings and are not owners of the land. Many live in areas that are regularly flooded.
Origins
In 1989, a group of tricycle drivers decided to organize themselves. Realizing the need to break away from the endless cycle of hand to mouth existence, a savings and loan fund was introduced among the members and it became official in 1996. The members were encouraged to practice the values of thrift, resourcefulness, discipline and self-reliance using the cooperative way of life. This led to a change in attitudes of the members, which gave them hope, dignity, and self-respect. Gradually, they were able to improve their living conditions.
They gradually realised that they needed to extend this approach to other members of the community. Inspired by microfinance technology in Bangladesh, the savings and loan fund changed into the INNER CITY DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE (ICDC) on August 25, 2005. It seeks to replicate the success achieved by the savings and loan fund by helping the small entrepreneurs increase their income capabilities, enabling families improve their quality of life and helping them deal with their own problems by becoming a productive and caring community.
In just over two years, the Cooperative has progressed much. Today, about 2,600 individuals (mostly women) benefit from the microfinance activities. Each individual has a savings account. This is an obligation before obtaining a loan. Some people only have a savings account since they don’t need loans, and they know that the money will be lent to other people in the community.
Present activities
The Philippines cooperative law has provisions that allow coops to be multi-purpose coops. For example, ICDC operates mainly in savings and loans, but it could also get involved for example in housing, or funeral services. Another provision of the law allows ICDC to have savings accounts. This distinguishes ICDC from many microfinance institutions in other countries since most legislation prohibits savings accounts in non-financial institutions.
ICDC pays a 7% annual interest rate on savings (based on lowest monthly balance at the end of the year). This provision encourages participants to keep their savings as stable as possible.
The cooperative has four (4) types of loans. The first three are microfinance loans (no collateral needed):
HOPE Product
1,000 - 10,000 PhP: payable in 41 days with interest rate of 2.5%
LOVE Product
2,000 - 120,000 PhP: payable in 85 days with interest rate of 6.5 %
FAITH Product
4,000 - 50,000 PhP: payable in 23 weeks with 15% interest rate
Note: The Philippine Peso (PhP) exchange rate is 1 Euro = 62 Peso
A fourth type of loan, with collateral is called Quick loans for needs such as house repair, emergencies (like a funeral), education, etc. This type of loan is not a microfinance operation. It is like a regular banking loan.
Usually the members start with the HOPE product and they graduate to other loan cycles. Some members are already in their sixth loan cycle. As of October 2007, ICDC had a total loan portfolio of 8.5 M PhP and the repayment rate is about 97%.
Total savings of members amounts to 4 M PhP. To encourage savings, a member must have savings that amount to 40% of the loan. This limits the amount of the microfinance loan, and at the same time acts as a safety net for the cooperative. Many members have almost as much savings as they have in loans.
To become full members, with all voting rights in meetings, they need to own a common share of 1,000 Pesos. All others are associate members. With each loan, they need to put aside a minimum of 50 Pesos to be able one day to own a common share.
Children are also encouraged to save. The Dream Savers, children over 6 years old, need to save 1 peso each day. Others, in schools can save different amounts. Since children get their weekly allowance on Sunday, the savings are collected on Mondays and Tuesdays!
The cooperative is much more than microfinance and loans. They have organized the members in 77 Centers. Each Center consists of minimum of 15 members and maximum of 30 with center coordinators and a center secretary elected by the group teams. These team leaders have monthly training in leadership and management.
Impact
In just over two years, ICDC has observed many positive impacts within the community. The lives of the people are being changed on such matters as: identity, behavioral change, increased Income, regular Sources of income, reduced vulnerability and acquisition of social capital.
And, at the same time, the community is being transformed in the following way:
Ø Social Cohesion
Ø Peace and Order
Ø Economic Activities
Ø Values change
Ø Improved Community Governance
Future plans
The cooperative hopes to expand its operations in the future. Many other people in Tatalon barangay want to join ICDC since they need microfinance loans. Since total savings are not enough to finance all loans (about 50%), the cooperative has to borrow money. Since the cooperative needs to pay 13% interest rate per annum on money they borrow, this hinders greatly the development of activities. ICDC is trying to find a soft loan (a lower interest rate) in order to develop more Centers. For example, if they had a soft loan of 2 M PhP, they would be able to make loans to 500 new members (mostly mothers). They are hoping the organizations in the solidarity finance sector, either in the Philippines or in other countries will respond.
Conclusion
Inner City Development Cooperative is unique in the Philippines. Their activities clearly show how a cooperative, using microfinance as a tool, can help the people and the community empower themselves. The path to fight and overcome poverty will be long. However, the positive impacts already observed in the Tatalon community clearly show that the community and its members are more positive about their future and that through collective economic and social actions within the cooperative, hope is being transformed into improvement in daily lives.
Author: Yvon Poirier
Contact: Zeny De Jesus [zenydejesus2003@yahoo.com]
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
December 1, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Inner City Development Cooperative (Quezon City, Philippines)
An original savings and loans initiative for the urban poor
******
Message from the Editorial Team
On October 16th, 2007 Yvon Poirier accompanied Giovanni Acquati and Viviane Vandemeulbroucke of INAISE (International Association of Investors in the Social Economy) during a visit to the area of Tatalon in Quezon City. The ground visit in this shantytown has helped to understand how this community works to emerge from extreme poverty through the activities of cooperative development. And this is achieved notably by activities of savings and microfinance.
The visit was conducted at the time of the first Asian Forum on Solidarity Economy held in the Philippines from October 17th to 20th. The meeting, which we shall revisit in a later newsletter was a great success, with 700 participants including nearly 100 people from outside the Philippines (26 countries in all).
Next issue: February 1, 2008
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
Inner City Development Cooperative (Quezon City, Philippines)
An original savings and loans initiative for the urban poor
Tatalon is one of the 39 barangays (local communities) of the 4th District of Quezon City. Altogether, Quezon City has four districts and has a total population of 2.4 million, and it is the largest of the 17 municipalities of the Manila metropolitan region (total population over 11 million).
Most of the Tatalon population (about 30,000) is either poor or extremely poor. In fact, Tatalon is one on the poorest communities in the Manila region. Most people live in slum-like dwellings and are not owners of the land. Many live in areas that are regularly flooded.
Origins
In 1989, a group of tricycle drivers decided to organize themselves. Realizing the need to break away from the endless cycle of hand to mouth existence, a savings and loan fund was introduced among the members and it became official in 1996. The members were encouraged to practice the values of thrift, resourcefulness, discipline and self-reliance using the cooperative way of life. This led to a change in attitudes of the members, which gave them hope, dignity, and self-respect. Gradually, they were able to improve their living conditions.
They gradually realised that they needed to extend this approach to other members of the community. Inspired by microfinance technology in Bangladesh, the savings and loan fund changed into the INNER CITY DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE (ICDC) on August 25, 2005. It seeks to replicate the success achieved by the savings and loan fund by helping the small entrepreneurs increase their income capabilities, enabling families improve their quality of life and helping them deal with their own problems by becoming a productive and caring community.
In just over two years, the Cooperative has progressed much. Today, about 2,600 individuals (mostly women) benefit from the microfinance activities. Each individual has a savings account. This is an obligation before obtaining a loan. Some people only have a savings account since they don’t need loans, and they know that the money will be lent to other people in the community.
Present activities
The Philippines cooperative law has provisions that allow coops to be multi-purpose coops. For example, ICDC operates mainly in savings and loans, but it could also get involved for example in housing, or funeral services. Another provision of the law allows ICDC to have savings accounts. This distinguishes ICDC from many microfinance institutions in other countries since most legislation prohibits savings accounts in non-financial institutions.
ICDC pays a 7% annual interest rate on savings (based on lowest monthly balance at the end of the year). This provision encourages participants to keep their savings as stable as possible.
The cooperative has four (4) types of loans. The first three are microfinance loans (no collateral needed):
HOPE Product
1,000 - 10,000 PhP: payable in 41 days with interest rate of 2.5%
LOVE Product
2,000 - 120,000 PhP: payable in 85 days with interest rate of 6.5 %
FAITH Product
4,000 - 50,000 PhP: payable in 23 weeks with 15% interest rate
Note: The Philippine Peso (PhP) exchange rate is 1 Euro = 62 Peso
A fourth type of loan, with collateral is called Quick loans for needs such as house repair, emergencies (like a funeral), education, etc. This type of loan is not a microfinance operation. It is like a regular banking loan.
Usually the members start with the HOPE product and they graduate to other loan cycles. Some members are already in their sixth loan cycle. As of October 2007, ICDC had a total loan portfolio of 8.5 M PhP and the repayment rate is about 97%.
Total savings of members amounts to 4 M PhP. To encourage savings, a member must have savings that amount to 40% of the loan. This limits the amount of the microfinance loan, and at the same time acts as a safety net for the cooperative. Many members have almost as much savings as they have in loans.
To become full members, with all voting rights in meetings, they need to own a common share of 1,000 Pesos. All others are associate members. With each loan, they need to put aside a minimum of 50 Pesos to be able one day to own a common share.
Children are also encouraged to save. The Dream Savers, children over 6 years old, need to save 1 peso each day. Others, in schools can save different amounts. Since children get their weekly allowance on Sunday, the savings are collected on Mondays and Tuesdays!
The cooperative is much more than microfinance and loans. They have organized the members in 77 Centers. Each Center consists of minimum of 15 members and maximum of 30 with center coordinators and a center secretary elected by the group teams. These team leaders have monthly training in leadership and management.
Impact
In just over two years, ICDC has observed many positive impacts within the community. The lives of the people are being changed on such matters as: identity, behavioral change, increased Income, regular Sources of income, reduced vulnerability and acquisition of social capital.
And, at the same time, the community is being transformed in the following way:
Ø Social Cohesion
Ø Peace and Order
Ø Economic Activities
Ø Values change
Ø Improved Community Governance
Future plans
The cooperative hopes to expand its operations in the future. Many other people in Tatalon barangay want to join ICDC since they need microfinance loans. Since total savings are not enough to finance all loans (about 50%), the cooperative has to borrow money. Since the cooperative needs to pay 13% interest rate per annum on money they borrow, this hinders greatly the development of activities. ICDC is trying to find a soft loan (a lower interest rate) in order to develop more Centers. For example, if they had a soft loan of 2 M PhP, they would be able to make loans to 500 new members (mostly mothers). They are hoping the organizations in the solidarity finance sector, either in the Philippines or in other countries will respond.
Conclusion
Inner City Development Cooperative is unique in the Philippines. Their activities clearly show how a cooperative, using microfinance as a tool, can help the people and the community empower themselves. The path to fight and overcome poverty will be long. However, the positive impacts already observed in the Tatalon community clearly show that the community and its members are more positive about their future and that through collective economic and social actions within the cooperative, hope is being transformed into improvement in daily lives.
Author: Yvon Poirier
Contact: Zeny De Jesus [zenydejesus2003@yahoo.com]
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Friday, November 02, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #43
November 1, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Local development as democratic and productive mobilization
Opinion – perspective from Brazil
******
Message from the Editorial Team
We thought it appropriate to share with you an opinion article by Caio Silveira, coordinator of Expo Brasil. The challenges outlined for local development in Brazil are often the same in all countries.
This year's meeting, Expo Brasil VI, will be held from December 3rd to 5th in Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
We wish much success to our friends in Brazil who work in local development.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
***********
Local development as democratic and productive mobilization
Opinion – perspective from Brazil
The centralizing and client-centred political culture still predominant in Brazil is put into check in many spheres of the country by democratic and participatory dynamics, which are opening new development alternatives. This is where we see the thrust for local development: understanding that the mechanisms producing inequality and exclusion cannot be deconstructed from the top or by systems of decision-making outside the constituent power of local populations.
Such is the hypothesis, such is the challenge: to mobilize democratic and productive territories as a means of social transformation. There are fundamental questions - which are not limited to one country or region of the world - which allow the emergence of this hypothesis. They reside to a large extent, in the current context which combines productive restructuring, crisis in society of salaried work and the primacy of non-material labor (information, communication, knowledge). They reside particularly in the potential which is opening - taking the opposite view of the dynamics of domination and exclusion – to achieve an over-lapping between the deepening of democracy and the creation of new opportunities for productive cooperation. In other words, for the growth of democratic and productive territories. In this way, one can articulate the hypothesis of development from the local level.
The displacement of a logic of sectoral or punctual actions towards a systemic logic of territorial development is presented here as a vigorous path of social inclusion. Without cooperation in the territory, without collective intelligence circulating in the local networks, will it be possible to include and give impetus to the "bottom level” of the lower circuit of the economy, beyond the reproduction of the informal and the precarious?
The emphasis on democratic mobilization and productive territories is inseparable from the perception that economic growth, while essential, while accompanied by some redistribution of income, does not guarantee social inclusion and the reduction of inequalities. Rather, one should distribute with the goal to develop. And not only distribute income, but also knowledge and power – and this cannot be done from the top towards the bottom or from the outside towards the inside.
This means moving towards strategic agendas outside the parameters focusing on the market or the state. Local development expresses this inflection, by differentiating itself from market forces, as well as centralized and sectoral planning models. It is important to perceive the territories, not just as places of intervention (to use the jargon which still predominates in our institutions), but as an environment to constitute new movements, deconstructing the association still so common between vertical action and structural change.
This is not an idea out of context. On the contrary, this is something that is already there, that is made visible by the profusion of initiatives and experiments showing that the capacity exists to establish new democratic and productive territories from the bases of society.
The obstacles and resistances to the processes of this nature are numerous, beginning with our political culture, strongly client-centred, centralizing and corporate. Even so, Brazil is today the scene of lively innovative actions where local communities are the protagonists. These are certainly embryonic actions, with advances, setbacks and new challenges, but which already indicate development alternatives which have their bases in social networks and in local democracy.
More than a mere tactic refuge (while the "grand destinies" would be plotted by others), the search for alternative territorial and basic development touch fundamental questions, because it relates directly and concretely to the mechanisms which reproduce domination, social segregation and environmental damage.
There are reasons for the strengthening of the perception that the profound social changes - that is, changes that are not imposed, changes are not just replacements of "the men of power" - require democratic mobilization and productive territories, require the power of local realities in synergy, as forces capable of generating politics, the economy and culture in the form of new bonds.
It is in this context of initiation of alternatives that Expo Brazil Local Development is now on the national scene, proposing to be a channel of visibility, debate, learning, networking of actors and strengthening of actions relating to local development. And it is indicative, very encouraging, that every year so many people attend this event: people from all over Brazil as well as other countries and continents.
Caio Silveira is a sociologist, coordinator of special projects of Rits - Information Network for the Third Sector and coordinator of the Expo Brazil Local Development.
http://www.expobrasil.org.br/
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
November 1, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Local development as democratic and productive mobilization
Opinion – perspective from Brazil
******
Message from the Editorial Team
We thought it appropriate to share with you an opinion article by Caio Silveira, coordinator of Expo Brasil. The challenges outlined for local development in Brazil are often the same in all countries.
This year's meeting, Expo Brasil VI, will be held from December 3rd to 5th in Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.
We wish much success to our friends in Brazil who work in local development.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
***********
Local development as democratic and productive mobilization
Opinion – perspective from Brazil
The centralizing and client-centred political culture still predominant in Brazil is put into check in many spheres of the country by democratic and participatory dynamics, which are opening new development alternatives. This is where we see the thrust for local development: understanding that the mechanisms producing inequality and exclusion cannot be deconstructed from the top or by systems of decision-making outside the constituent power of local populations.
Such is the hypothesis, such is the challenge: to mobilize democratic and productive territories as a means of social transformation. There are fundamental questions - which are not limited to one country or region of the world - which allow the emergence of this hypothesis. They reside to a large extent, in the current context which combines productive restructuring, crisis in society of salaried work and the primacy of non-material labor (information, communication, knowledge). They reside particularly in the potential which is opening - taking the opposite view of the dynamics of domination and exclusion – to achieve an over-lapping between the deepening of democracy and the creation of new opportunities for productive cooperation. In other words, for the growth of democratic and productive territories. In this way, one can articulate the hypothesis of development from the local level.
The displacement of a logic of sectoral or punctual actions towards a systemic logic of territorial development is presented here as a vigorous path of social inclusion. Without cooperation in the territory, without collective intelligence circulating in the local networks, will it be possible to include and give impetus to the "bottom level” of the lower circuit of the economy, beyond the reproduction of the informal and the precarious?
The emphasis on democratic mobilization and productive territories is inseparable from the perception that economic growth, while essential, while accompanied by some redistribution of income, does not guarantee social inclusion and the reduction of inequalities. Rather, one should distribute with the goal to develop. And not only distribute income, but also knowledge and power – and this cannot be done from the top towards the bottom or from the outside towards the inside.
This means moving towards strategic agendas outside the parameters focusing on the market or the state. Local development expresses this inflection, by differentiating itself from market forces, as well as centralized and sectoral planning models. It is important to perceive the territories, not just as places of intervention (to use the jargon which still predominates in our institutions), but as an environment to constitute new movements, deconstructing the association still so common between vertical action and structural change.
This is not an idea out of context. On the contrary, this is something that is already there, that is made visible by the profusion of initiatives and experiments showing that the capacity exists to establish new democratic and productive territories from the bases of society.
The obstacles and resistances to the processes of this nature are numerous, beginning with our political culture, strongly client-centred, centralizing and corporate. Even so, Brazil is today the scene of lively innovative actions where local communities are the protagonists. These are certainly embryonic actions, with advances, setbacks and new challenges, but which already indicate development alternatives which have their bases in social networks and in local democracy.
More than a mere tactic refuge (while the "grand destinies" would be plotted by others), the search for alternative territorial and basic development touch fundamental questions, because it relates directly and concretely to the mechanisms which reproduce domination, social segregation and environmental damage.
There are reasons for the strengthening of the perception that the profound social changes - that is, changes that are not imposed, changes are not just replacements of "the men of power" - require democratic mobilization and productive territories, require the power of local realities in synergy, as forces capable of generating politics, the economy and culture in the form of new bonds.
It is in this context of initiation of alternatives that Expo Brazil Local Development is now on the national scene, proposing to be a channel of visibility, debate, learning, networking of actors and strengthening of actions relating to local development. And it is indicative, very encouraging, that every year so many people attend this event: people from all over Brazil as well as other countries and continents.
Caio Silveira is a sociologist, coordinator of special projects of Rits - Information Network for the Third Sector and coordinator of the Expo Brazil Local Development.
http://www.expobrasil.org.br/
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #42
October 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Social Forums and the construction of another globalisation
An outline of the debates
4th International Forum on the Globalisation of Solidarity
Taking up the challenges
******
Message from the Editorial Team
With this issue, we wish to share with you, even briefly, a debate in progress in relation to the World Social Forums. Yvon Poirier felt the relevance in keeping our readers apprised of these discussions, having taken part in the Social Forum of Quebec, last August. At the time of the meeting in Montreal, with more than 5,000 participants, many people were asking the very same questions!
In addition, Martine Théveniaut, member of the European Steering Committee of the 4th International Forum on the Globalisation of Solidarity will share the ambition of the forum and the host organization, the European Institute for Solidarity based Economy of Luxembourg.
Lastly, we are very happy to announce an invaluable collaboration: the Web site Dialogues, proposals, stories for a global citizenship is a data bank of more than 7,000 files/articles dedicated to the construction of a responsible world of solidarities. Thus, the DPH site, which is in four languages like our newsletter, has reproduced ten of our articles from the newsletters of the past three years and has converted them into files. We are happy to take part in this sharing of knowledge towards the construction of this responsible world of solidarities to which we mutually aspire.
http://www.d-p-h.info/
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
Social Forums and the construction of another globalisation
An outline of the debates
Since the advent of Social Forums in 2001, an important debate has developed throughout the alternate globalisation movement regarding strategies to be put into place, on approaches and processes, in order to build this new globalisation. The meetings at the Social Forums include more and more movements and participants in this space of open meetings. However, some question the relevance of the Forums because they find that the meetings do not give sufficient concrete results. Others go even as far as questioning the Forums themselves, and to wonder whether it is relevant to participate in them.
Patrick Bond from the Centre for Civil Society, South Africa summed up the four positions in a message posted May 9th, 2007 on WSFDiscuss List.
There is the "top-down" approach. The Bamako Appeal of 2006 prepared by a group of intellectuals, identified as anti or alternate globalisation leaders launched an explicitly political program as an alternative to neo-liberal globalisation.
Others critically dissected reasons not to adopt a political program, drawing upon the autonomist critique of 20th century universalist ideologies.
Another current recommends a resolutely socialist strategy in the direction of nationalization of the services and a major role for the state in the various spheres of the society.
Lastly, the foundational critiques of capitalist neo-liberalism are already located in the struggles and documents of globally connected activists. In past decades, "internationals" were forged from labour, socialist, women, youth, anti-racism/colonialism, anti-war, environment, etc. Patrick Bond shares this position.
According to him, future international initiatives will more tightly link organizations devoted to minority rights, civil rights, democracy, indigenous people, cultural freedom, human rights, sexual identity, disability rights, and elder and youth rights, just to name a few.
Through Social Forums and other ways, we must develop more coherence not only for networking among these movements, but also in finding sites of interlock where political programs can be drawn on for the sake of a larger – and firmly grounded – manifesto that would inspire a new generation of coordinated global/national/local activism. The example of the anti-war demonstrations in the first months of 2003 is an example of the potential of such a movement. Space to develop these exchanges and coordination is found in the Social Forums. If it is not done there, it will not be done elsewhere.
More recently, at the Social Forum of Quebec, Chico Whitaker, one of the cofounders of the World Social Forum, expressed in another way the idea that the construction of another globalisation cannot be built from the top.
Last August 25th, in an interview with Radio-Canada, he added that another logic must necessarily be developed. It is not by creating a movement with a new leader that one will manage to change the neo-liberal logic of competitiveness and rivalry. But to the contrary, it is by solidarity and co-operation that one will reach this goal. Not otherwise.
According to him, the great changes did not come from the top. The major changes come from inside societies, through cultural and behavioural changes, in the way of seeing the world. It is by developing the consciences of active citizens that we will gradually change the dominating system. It is through networks that these active citizens in social movements will manage to modify the system. Mr. Whitaker gave another example of such a fight. In 1998, in fact it was the social movements which blocked the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI).
Chico Whitaker remains resolutely optimistic since everywhere on planet, organized citizens fight to defend their rights and those of others. It is through this process that will be built progressively, a world which will meet the aspirations of people and which will be liveable for all.
Author : Yvon Poirier
Patrick Bond is director of the Centre for Civil Society, South Africa.
http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs (English only)
Archives of wsfdiscuss list (English only)
http://mail.openspaceforum.net/mailman/listinfo/worldsocialforum-discuss_openspaceforum.net
Chico Whitaker published a book entitled Changing the world, new user’s guide. It initially appeared in Brazil in 2005. Thereafter, a Spanish translation was published and more recently a French version.
Interview with Radio-Canada (in French)
http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/maisonneuve/27082007/91488.shtml
The European Institute for Solidarity based Economy (INEES) takes up the challenge of organizing the 4th Forum on the “Globalisation of Solidarity”
Created in 1998, INEES brings together researchers and experts from Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, France and Switzerland. It has committed to carry forward the preparation of this 4th edition of meetings of RIPESS, from April 26th to May 2nd, 2009 in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. By undertaking the organization of this event, its ambition is that Forum LUX' 09 will affirm high and strong that there is a third way. Yes, another economy exists between neo-liberalism and managed economy. This alternative economic model is also a philosophy of action that places “respect for men, women and the environment” at the forefront. It does not represent a demand to take the place of those who are already in a position of power; rather it is a new vision of society and social relations between men and women. It returns money to its rightful place, namely as an instrument that facilitates exchanges, rather than an instrument of financial speculation that may be a destructive force from a social and environmental point of view. The simplest ideas often being the best, this basis is also a philosophy of life. (INEES - Newsletter #10, October 2007 – to be published)
At this point, it is time to leave the fringes of the systems in place and to install a dialogue with the decision makers on this basis.
The innovations of the social solidarity economy do more than attest; they precede this other possible world. They show the merits of this way of proceeding to produce and guarantee the common good. They have become credible through the strength of the economic alternatives to which they gave birth and the sheer number of people who apply these practices, particularly since this number is constantly increasing. In terms of activities, they introduce an innovative approach to the production of goods and services, particularly in areas that have been abandoned by the State or the market; in its capacity to bring about a “hybridisation of market sector, non-market sector and non-monetary resources.” They involve users in the construction of responses that are tailored to meet with their needs and aspirations. They refuse to accept exclusion as the price to be paid for economic globalisation. For those who have been cast aside by a highly selective labour market, they open up new prospects for professional and personal fulfilment. They pioneer and experiment with new forms of exchanges, so as to emerge from the impasses that weigh so heavily on the lives of populations as a result of the constant efforts made to increase production and the overexploitation of natural resources.
A European Steering Committee was set up, on the initiative of the INEES, led by Eric Lavillunière.
The process of construction is truly participative and asks the networks to be involved, to make proposals and to lead discussion. Banished from our vocabulary are terms such as “there is only”, “we must” and “it would be good if,” to replace them with acts of commitment and responsibility, along with simple and clear rules such as gender equality and North/South equality… and a way of doing things which is open and collegial. “The real stars of this event will be the participants, whilst those involved in the organisation will be facilitators who will strive to guarantee the values and coherence of the overall approach.”
The work program, the sets of themes and the means and ways have just been put into place, in a process of discussions and feedback between the European Steering Committee and RIPESS. This information will be presented to you in a forthcoming newsletter, to allow our readers to determine how they may bring their share of success to this European stage for a globalisation with a human face.
For further information: European Institute for Solidarity based Economy,a.s.b.l.
1, rue du Moulin, L-3857 Schifflange, Luxembourg
Tel.: (+352) 53 04 45 0 ; Fax: (+352) 53 04 45 510
E-mail: info@inees.org Internet: www.inees.org
Martine Theveniaut : Lux’09 European Steering Committee on behalf of « Pactes Locaux » networks in France and the European network EURONETZ
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Newsletter #42
October 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Social Forums and the construction of another globalisation
An outline of the debates
4th International Forum on the Globalisation of Solidarity
Taking up the challenges
******
Message from the Editorial Team
With this issue, we wish to share with you, even briefly, a debate in progress in relation to the World Social Forums. Yvon Poirier felt the relevance in keeping our readers apprised of these discussions, having taken part in the Social Forum of Quebec, last August. At the time of the meeting in Montreal, with more than 5,000 participants, many people were asking the very same questions!
In addition, Martine Théveniaut, member of the European Steering Committee of the 4th International Forum on the Globalisation of Solidarity will share the ambition of the forum and the host organization, the European Institute for Solidarity based Economy of Luxembourg.
Lastly, we are very happy to announce an invaluable collaboration: the Web site Dialogues, proposals, stories for a global citizenship is a data bank of more than 7,000 files/articles dedicated to the construction of a responsible world of solidarities. Thus, the DPH site, which is in four languages like our newsletter, has reproduced ten of our articles from the newsletters of the past three years and has converted them into files. We are happy to take part in this sharing of knowledge towards the construction of this responsible world of solidarities to which we mutually aspire.
http://www.d-p-h.info/
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
Social Forums and the construction of another globalisation
An outline of the debates
Since the advent of Social Forums in 2001, an important debate has developed throughout the alternate globalisation movement regarding strategies to be put into place, on approaches and processes, in order to build this new globalisation. The meetings at the Social Forums include more and more movements and participants in this space of open meetings. However, some question the relevance of the Forums because they find that the meetings do not give sufficient concrete results. Others go even as far as questioning the Forums themselves, and to wonder whether it is relevant to participate in them.
Patrick Bond from the Centre for Civil Society, South Africa summed up the four positions in a message posted May 9th, 2007 on WSFDiscuss List.
There is the "top-down" approach. The Bamako Appeal of 2006 prepared by a group of intellectuals, identified as anti or alternate globalisation leaders launched an explicitly political program as an alternative to neo-liberal globalisation.
Others critically dissected reasons not to adopt a political program, drawing upon the autonomist critique of 20th century universalist ideologies.
Another current recommends a resolutely socialist strategy in the direction of nationalization of the services and a major role for the state in the various spheres of the society.
Lastly, the foundational critiques of capitalist neo-liberalism are already located in the struggles and documents of globally connected activists. In past decades, "internationals" were forged from labour, socialist, women, youth, anti-racism/colonialism, anti-war, environment, etc. Patrick Bond shares this position.
According to him, future international initiatives will more tightly link organizations devoted to minority rights, civil rights, democracy, indigenous people, cultural freedom, human rights, sexual identity, disability rights, and elder and youth rights, just to name a few.
Through Social Forums and other ways, we must develop more coherence not only for networking among these movements, but also in finding sites of interlock where political programs can be drawn on for the sake of a larger – and firmly grounded – manifesto that would inspire a new generation of coordinated global/national/local activism. The example of the anti-war demonstrations in the first months of 2003 is an example of the potential of such a movement. Space to develop these exchanges and coordination is found in the Social Forums. If it is not done there, it will not be done elsewhere.
More recently, at the Social Forum of Quebec, Chico Whitaker, one of the cofounders of the World Social Forum, expressed in another way the idea that the construction of another globalisation cannot be built from the top.
Last August 25th, in an interview with Radio-Canada, he added that another logic must necessarily be developed. It is not by creating a movement with a new leader that one will manage to change the neo-liberal logic of competitiveness and rivalry. But to the contrary, it is by solidarity and co-operation that one will reach this goal. Not otherwise.
According to him, the great changes did not come from the top. The major changes come from inside societies, through cultural and behavioural changes, in the way of seeing the world. It is by developing the consciences of active citizens that we will gradually change the dominating system. It is through networks that these active citizens in social movements will manage to modify the system. Mr. Whitaker gave another example of such a fight. In 1998, in fact it was the social movements which blocked the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI).
Chico Whitaker remains resolutely optimistic since everywhere on planet, organized citizens fight to defend their rights and those of others. It is through this process that will be built progressively, a world which will meet the aspirations of people and which will be liveable for all.
Author : Yvon Poirier
Patrick Bond is director of the Centre for Civil Society, South Africa.
http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs (English only)
Archives of wsfdiscuss list (English only)
http://mail.openspaceforum.net/mailman/listinfo/worldsocialforum-discuss_openspaceforum.net
Chico Whitaker published a book entitled Changing the world, new user’s guide. It initially appeared in Brazil in 2005. Thereafter, a Spanish translation was published and more recently a French version.
Interview with Radio-Canada (in French)
http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/maisonneuve/27082007/91488.shtml
The European Institute for Solidarity based Economy (INEES) takes up the challenge of organizing the 4th Forum on the “Globalisation of Solidarity”
Created in 1998, INEES brings together researchers and experts from Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, France and Switzerland. It has committed to carry forward the preparation of this 4th edition of meetings of RIPESS, from April 26th to May 2nd, 2009 in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. By undertaking the organization of this event, its ambition is that Forum LUX' 09 will affirm high and strong that there is a third way. Yes, another economy exists between neo-liberalism and managed economy. This alternative economic model is also a philosophy of action that places “respect for men, women and the environment” at the forefront. It does not represent a demand to take the place of those who are already in a position of power; rather it is a new vision of society and social relations between men and women. It returns money to its rightful place, namely as an instrument that facilitates exchanges, rather than an instrument of financial speculation that may be a destructive force from a social and environmental point of view. The simplest ideas often being the best, this basis is also a philosophy of life. (INEES - Newsletter #10, October 2007 – to be published)
At this point, it is time to leave the fringes of the systems in place and to install a dialogue with the decision makers on this basis.
The innovations of the social solidarity economy do more than attest; they precede this other possible world. They show the merits of this way of proceeding to produce and guarantee the common good. They have become credible through the strength of the economic alternatives to which they gave birth and the sheer number of people who apply these practices, particularly since this number is constantly increasing. In terms of activities, they introduce an innovative approach to the production of goods and services, particularly in areas that have been abandoned by the State or the market; in its capacity to bring about a “hybridisation of market sector, non-market sector and non-monetary resources.” They involve users in the construction of responses that are tailored to meet with their needs and aspirations. They refuse to accept exclusion as the price to be paid for economic globalisation. For those who have been cast aside by a highly selective labour market, they open up new prospects for professional and personal fulfilment. They pioneer and experiment with new forms of exchanges, so as to emerge from the impasses that weigh so heavily on the lives of populations as a result of the constant efforts made to increase production and the overexploitation of natural resources.
A European Steering Committee was set up, on the initiative of the INEES, led by Eric Lavillunière.
The process of construction is truly participative and asks the networks to be involved, to make proposals and to lead discussion. Banished from our vocabulary are terms such as “there is only”, “we must” and “it would be good if,” to replace them with acts of commitment and responsibility, along with simple and clear rules such as gender equality and North/South equality… and a way of doing things which is open and collegial. “The real stars of this event will be the participants, whilst those involved in the organisation will be facilitators who will strive to guarantee the values and coherence of the overall approach.”
The work program, the sets of themes and the means and ways have just been put into place, in a process of discussions and feedback between the European Steering Committee and RIPESS. This information will be presented to you in a forthcoming newsletter, to allow our readers to determine how they may bring their share of success to this European stage for a globalisation with a human face.
For further information: European Institute for Solidarity based Economy,a.s.b.l.
1, rue du Moulin, L-3857 Schifflange, Luxembourg
Tel.: (+352) 53 04 45 0 ; Fax: (+352) 53 04 45 510
E-mail: info@inees.org Internet: www.inees.org
Martine Theveniaut : Lux’09 European Steering Committee on behalf of « Pactes Locaux » networks in France and the European network EURONETZ
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Monday, September 03, 2007
Newsletter #41
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
September 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
A US Network on Solidarity Economy is born during the 2007 US Social Forum
First International Meeting on “Workers’ Economy”
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – University of Buenos Aires, July 19th -21st, 2007
Message from the Editorial Team
With this issue, we are beginning the fifth year of publication of our newsletter. Indeed, since the first number appeared in November 2003, which was only in French and in English, we have added Portuguese and Spanish versions with the help of new volunteers.
We wish to thank our subscribers for their faithfulness. We have approximately 200 subscribers, who often transmit it to their own entourage. Therefore, we count approximately 600 readers. In addition, we wish to express our gratitude to Léo Dayan who uploads all versions of our most current newsletters for downloading on the APREIS website: http://www.apreis.org/. We wish to note that the audience for the newsletter is growing. It is relayed on several websites and regularly disseminated to their members by networks in various countries or regions of the world. This increases the persons reached by our small publication to a significant degree.
Lastly, we wish to reiterate our thanks to our volunteer translators without whose collaboration, we could not continue our publication.
In this issue, we are reproducing two articles which were conveyed to us. Moreover, we wish to reiterate our interest in receiving texts from our subscribers. However, our capacity for translation is limited. As we received the second text already translated in all four languages of publication, it was easy to insert it.
The first article concerning the birth of a new network, the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (SEN), was written by members of the working group of this network. The enthusiasm shown in this article testifies well to the climate, which prevailed at the time of the meetings of U.S. Social Forum held last June in Atlanta, at which Yvon Poirier participated. It is necessary to understand that the prospect of creating a broad network in the United States, after so many years of “great darkness” in this country dominated by neo-liberalism offers a stimulating glimmer of hope. Now, there remains for these militants to channel their enthusiasm in the construction of a solid network. Most would agree that this is not an easy task.
The other article comes to us from contacts in Latin America. The Argentine experience of self-managed companies seems to us appealing, and obviously creates much interest. This is why we thought it worthy to share this information. However, we point out that the English and French versions are a little bit different than the original version in Spanish. Even if we did not have enough time to prepare identical versions, we prefer to publish anyway, since they are essentially similar. We extend our regrets for this mistake which is entirely ours.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
********************************
U.S. Solidarity Economy Network is Born at the U.S. Social Forum 2007
Most of the over 10,000 people who traveled to the first-ever U.S. Social Forum, in Atlanta last June 27-30, would consider ourselves activists, and most are acutely aware of the many systemic problems that our country faces, from increasing inequality and persistent poverty to environmental degradation, from a corrupt political system to an unjust war, from the continuing struggle with racism and sexism to the intolerant policies enacted against immigrants and gay / lesbian / trans-gendered people. We know these issues are present, but we tend to prioritize some over others, sometimes missing opportunities to form alliances with activists with similar values and different issues. Often we lose sight of the fact that “we are all in this together”.
The concept of the solidarity economy has the potential to unite these many progressive causes, not just annually in a certain physical location, but as part of a larger movement that recognizes the necessity of all types of transformative practice. At the first ever Social Forum in the United States, the Solidarity Economy Working Group for USSF2007 coordinated a track of workshops, and also convened caucuses to try to find ways to unite our common causes, and to build systemic economic transformation and strategic cooperation from the grassroots. The term “solidarity economy” is barely on the lips of activists in the U.S., even though the concept has inspired significant activism on all other continents. But the solidarity economy, which is more of a framework than a model, has great potential to link our many concerns about structural change, and to also strategically link organizing groups that are already engaged in transformative practices. The solidarity economy is held together by common values, such as cooperation, democracy, equality, justice, ecological sustainability, community, and respect for diversity. Ultimately, it is economics where human needs, human development, and solidarity form the center, instead of unfettered competition and an insatiable drive for profit.
The “Economic Alternatives and the Social/Solidarity Economy” activities at the U.S. Social Forum represented the culmination of months of work and collaboration by the Solidarity Economy Working Group. The Working Group involved a diverse coalition of academics, economists, grassroots organizers, and activists in the worker cooperative movement. Emily Kawano, Julie Matthaei, and Ethan Miller took the lead in the Working Group: Emily directs the Center for Popular Economics in Western Massachusetts, creating participatory workshops on neo-liberalism for activists; Julie, a professor of economics at Wellesley College, also works with Guramylay: Growing the Green Economy; and Ethan, from Maine, is involved in both Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) and the Data Commons Project. Dan Swinney, from the Chicago-based Center for Community and Labor Research, works to promote the high road in business, government, and labor, and is co-founder of NANSE (North American Network for the Solidarity Economy). Another member, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, teaches at the University of Maryland, is affiliated with GEO, and additionally works with the Democracy Collaborative. Melissa Hoover directs the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and Heather Schoonover works at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Yvon Poirier of GESQ, Quebec’s Solidarity Economy Network, represented the Canadian experience in the group.
The Solidarity Economy Working Group organized a Solidarity Economy Caucus to which they invited activists from a broad range of organizations involved in economic transformation. The first caucus meeting, on the very first day of the Forum, was a time to meet one another, develop a shared knowledge base of Solidarity Economy concepts, values, principles, and practice, and then discuss some of the challenges and opportunities involved in creating a solidarity economy network in the United States. A key part of this meeting was presentations from Latin American and Canadian leaders about their well-established and vibrant social/solidarity economy movements, including Michael Lewis (CED, Canadian Community Economic Development Network), Éthel Côté (RIPESS, International Solidarity Economy Network), Nancy Neamtan (Social Economy Workshop/Chantier de l'économie Sociale, Quebec).
The Working Group also organized a block of 28 workshops, and a list of 53 associated workshops, which it printed up in a program. The content of the “Economic Alternatives and the Social/Solidarity Economy” workshops was exciting and diverse. On the first day of workshops, there were roundtable discussions about economic transformation in the United States, as well as presentations on everything from green building, to ethical consumption, to worker cooperatives. Many of these workshops were interactive, and positioned the solidarity economy as a concrete alternative to low-road neo-liberal policies. On the second day of workshops, for instance, the Center for Popular Economics and Grassroots Economic Organizing hosted a session entitled “Building a Solidarity Economy from Real World Practices”. This workshop reinforced how intuitive, organic, and rich with shared meaning these solidarity values really are. After a basic introduction, descriptions of lots of different initiatives were circulated on index cards, and we discussed them in small groups. Aside from worker cooperatives, there were descriptions of non-profit groups, pushes for progressive policy initiatives, ethical consumption networks, and new sustainable technologies – constellations of different creative ideas from vastly different fulcrums of change. When it came time to construct a framework out of these practices and to name the implicit values, however, it was easy for the participants to intuitively grasp the concepts – words like cooperation, sustainability, and community kept being repeated over and over. Organizers Emily Kawano and Ethan Miller left the workshop reassured that the term “solidarity economy” could easily be explained and easily become a way to bring different groups together. (More information on these workshops, including selected transcripts and videos, is posted at TransformationCentral.org)
On Saturday, after the third and final day of USSF workshops, the second Solidarity Economy caucus was held. Enriched with some new faces, and energized by our first meeting and the content of the workshops, we concretely resolved to found a U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, SEN. We want this network to be a broad tent, linking institutions, networks, and individuals who share the values of the Solidarity Economy. SEN will be a place to exchange practice and theory, to offer support to one another, and to push together for transformation. The existing working group was charged to come up with a more concrete structure, and to plan for a meeting in the summer of 2008.
Through the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, we will continue the conversations and coalition-building that happened during the workshop sessions. The Solidarity Economy is all about building these connections; reminding us that, amidst our wonderful diversity, we are all related – as members of a society, as parts of an ecosystem, and, potentially, as creators of a new paradigm of economic life based on cooperation and solidarity as well as individuality and freedom. The Solidarity Economy activities at the U.S. Social Forum were an amazing first step at building these connections – bringing together people from all over the country and the world who are engaged in economic transformation in their own communities – and standing on the shoulders of the leaders of the Solidarity Economy movement in Canada and Latin America. The U.S. Solidarity Economy Network can help us further understand how our many ways of working towards economic transformation connect with and complement one another. It can provide us with opportunities to learn from one another as we strive to realize Solidarity Economy values. And, as part of RIPESS, the international solidarity economy network, SEN can help us make our dream of another, possible, solidarity economy a growing and thriving reality in the U.S. and across the world.
Jenna Allard and Julie Matthaei, Guramylay: Growing the Green Economy
July 2007
First International Meeting « The Worker’s Economy »
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – University of Buenos Aires 19-21 July 2007
Three highly active days of meetings brought together 300 participants from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Croatia, the United States and Canada. The group consisted of workers, managers and activists from social and political organisations, research personnel and academics. There was huge discussion on economy-related topics, based on self-managing experiments such as the Argentinean companies that have been taken over by the workers and struggles of the working class movement in the context of changes in the world of work at the global level in today’s phase of neo-liberal capitalism.
Following the introductory speeches, various presentations were made on the themes of the meeting: 1) Capital economy today: a stage of global capitalism viewed by popular movements; 2) Self-managed economy: a debate on self-managing experiments in the era of global capitalism (worker take-overs, rural co-operatives, solidarity self-managing projects, co-operative movements, exchange networks, fair trade etc.; 3) The challenge faced by popular governments in terms of social management of the economy and the State; 4) Critical evaluation of the co-operative movement ; 5) New challenges facing the Trade Union movements: unions, workers’ groups, co-management and participation in decision-making processes.
The richness of the debate was also shown in the way the discussion space was shared between workers and research personnel from the different countries. Exchange is useful for developing political action and worker’s organisation, theoretical analysis, worker’s self-management, union struggles. The debate touched on the limits and possibilities of the process of self-management in the framework of capitalist economies and the possibilities of reconstructing politico-economic projects focussed on self-managed experiments. Another lively discussion was on the subject of what is called social economy. One aspect was on how to bring to life the project of social economy as the possibility of building economic alternatives to social exclusion. An alternative aspect, which outlined facts, without examining the underlying characteristics and possibilities for self-management as part of “an economy for the poor” that takes the precarious nature of work into account, as well as the new forms of overexploitation of the global economy. The representatives of the workers’ organisations insisted on the fact that these experiments form a part of the reconstructions of a politico-economic worker’s alternative; this was one of the important conclusions of the debates.
The high level of participation in the discussions following the presentations was remarkable, and the size of the programme reached beyond the organisers’ expectations. It proved necessary to implement strict time-management. Students from the Open Faculty (many of whom made presentations) also contributed a great deal of voluntary work, as did the Babels interpreters, thus enabling language barriers to be overcome.
The final speeches by the different organisations that took part showed an expression of interest in a follow-up process to this type of meeting.
Around 50 presentations can be viewed on the Documentary Centre of the companies that have been taken over in the Open Faculty Programme (http://www.recuperadasdoc.com.ar/).
Andrés Ruggeri
Director of the Open Faculty Programme
Head organiser of the event
Secretariat for University Extension
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
University of Buenos Aires
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
September 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
A US Network on Solidarity Economy is born during the 2007 US Social Forum
First International Meeting on “Workers’ Economy”
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – University of Buenos Aires, July 19th -21st, 2007
Message from the Editorial Team
With this issue, we are beginning the fifth year of publication of our newsletter. Indeed, since the first number appeared in November 2003, which was only in French and in English, we have added Portuguese and Spanish versions with the help of new volunteers.
We wish to thank our subscribers for their faithfulness. We have approximately 200 subscribers, who often transmit it to their own entourage. Therefore, we count approximately 600 readers. In addition, we wish to express our gratitude to Léo Dayan who uploads all versions of our most current newsletters for downloading on the APREIS website: http://www.apreis.org/. We wish to note that the audience for the newsletter is growing. It is relayed on several websites and regularly disseminated to their members by networks in various countries or regions of the world. This increases the persons reached by our small publication to a significant degree.
Lastly, we wish to reiterate our thanks to our volunteer translators without whose collaboration, we could not continue our publication.
In this issue, we are reproducing two articles which were conveyed to us. Moreover, we wish to reiterate our interest in receiving texts from our subscribers. However, our capacity for translation is limited. As we received the second text already translated in all four languages of publication, it was easy to insert it.
The first article concerning the birth of a new network, the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (SEN), was written by members of the working group of this network. The enthusiasm shown in this article testifies well to the climate, which prevailed at the time of the meetings of U.S. Social Forum held last June in Atlanta, at which Yvon Poirier participated. It is necessary to understand that the prospect of creating a broad network in the United States, after so many years of “great darkness” in this country dominated by neo-liberalism offers a stimulating glimmer of hope. Now, there remains for these militants to channel their enthusiasm in the construction of a solid network. Most would agree that this is not an easy task.
The other article comes to us from contacts in Latin America. The Argentine experience of self-managed companies seems to us appealing, and obviously creates much interest. This is why we thought it worthy to share this information. However, we point out that the English and French versions are a little bit different than the original version in Spanish. Even if we did not have enough time to prepare identical versions, we prefer to publish anyway, since they are essentially similar. We extend our regrets for this mistake which is entirely ours.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
********************************
U.S. Solidarity Economy Network is Born at the U.S. Social Forum 2007
Most of the over 10,000 people who traveled to the first-ever U.S. Social Forum, in Atlanta last June 27-30, would consider ourselves activists, and most are acutely aware of the many systemic problems that our country faces, from increasing inequality and persistent poverty to environmental degradation, from a corrupt political system to an unjust war, from the continuing struggle with racism and sexism to the intolerant policies enacted against immigrants and gay / lesbian / trans-gendered people. We know these issues are present, but we tend to prioritize some over others, sometimes missing opportunities to form alliances with activists with similar values and different issues. Often we lose sight of the fact that “we are all in this together”.
The concept of the solidarity economy has the potential to unite these many progressive causes, not just annually in a certain physical location, but as part of a larger movement that recognizes the necessity of all types of transformative practice. At the first ever Social Forum in the United States, the Solidarity Economy Working Group for USSF2007 coordinated a track of workshops, and also convened caucuses to try to find ways to unite our common causes, and to build systemic economic transformation and strategic cooperation from the grassroots. The term “solidarity economy” is barely on the lips of activists in the U.S., even though the concept has inspired significant activism on all other continents. But the solidarity economy, which is more of a framework than a model, has great potential to link our many concerns about structural change, and to also strategically link organizing groups that are already engaged in transformative practices. The solidarity economy is held together by common values, such as cooperation, democracy, equality, justice, ecological sustainability, community, and respect for diversity. Ultimately, it is economics where human needs, human development, and solidarity form the center, instead of unfettered competition and an insatiable drive for profit.
The “Economic Alternatives and the Social/Solidarity Economy” activities at the U.S. Social Forum represented the culmination of months of work and collaboration by the Solidarity Economy Working Group. The Working Group involved a diverse coalition of academics, economists, grassroots organizers, and activists in the worker cooperative movement. Emily Kawano, Julie Matthaei, and Ethan Miller took the lead in the Working Group: Emily directs the Center for Popular Economics in Western Massachusetts, creating participatory workshops on neo-liberalism for activists; Julie, a professor of economics at Wellesley College, also works with Guramylay: Growing the Green Economy; and Ethan, from Maine, is involved in both Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) and the Data Commons Project. Dan Swinney, from the Chicago-based Center for Community and Labor Research, works to promote the high road in business, government, and labor, and is co-founder of NANSE (North American Network for the Solidarity Economy). Another member, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, teaches at the University of Maryland, is affiliated with GEO, and additionally works with the Democracy Collaborative. Melissa Hoover directs the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and Heather Schoonover works at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Yvon Poirier of GESQ, Quebec’s Solidarity Economy Network, represented the Canadian experience in the group.
The Solidarity Economy Working Group organized a Solidarity Economy Caucus to which they invited activists from a broad range of organizations involved in economic transformation. The first caucus meeting, on the very first day of the Forum, was a time to meet one another, develop a shared knowledge base of Solidarity Economy concepts, values, principles, and practice, and then discuss some of the challenges and opportunities involved in creating a solidarity economy network in the United States. A key part of this meeting was presentations from Latin American and Canadian leaders about their well-established and vibrant social/solidarity economy movements, including Michael Lewis (CED, Canadian Community Economic Development Network), Éthel Côté (RIPESS, International Solidarity Economy Network), Nancy Neamtan (Social Economy Workshop/Chantier de l'économie Sociale, Quebec).
The Working Group also organized a block of 28 workshops, and a list of 53 associated workshops, which it printed up in a program. The content of the “Economic Alternatives and the Social/Solidarity Economy” workshops was exciting and diverse. On the first day of workshops, there were roundtable discussions about economic transformation in the United States, as well as presentations on everything from green building, to ethical consumption, to worker cooperatives. Many of these workshops were interactive, and positioned the solidarity economy as a concrete alternative to low-road neo-liberal policies. On the second day of workshops, for instance, the Center for Popular Economics and Grassroots Economic Organizing hosted a session entitled “Building a Solidarity Economy from Real World Practices”. This workshop reinforced how intuitive, organic, and rich with shared meaning these solidarity values really are. After a basic introduction, descriptions of lots of different initiatives were circulated on index cards, and we discussed them in small groups. Aside from worker cooperatives, there were descriptions of non-profit groups, pushes for progressive policy initiatives, ethical consumption networks, and new sustainable technologies – constellations of different creative ideas from vastly different fulcrums of change. When it came time to construct a framework out of these practices and to name the implicit values, however, it was easy for the participants to intuitively grasp the concepts – words like cooperation, sustainability, and community kept being repeated over and over. Organizers Emily Kawano and Ethan Miller left the workshop reassured that the term “solidarity economy” could easily be explained and easily become a way to bring different groups together. (More information on these workshops, including selected transcripts and videos, is posted at TransformationCentral.org)
On Saturday, after the third and final day of USSF workshops, the second Solidarity Economy caucus was held. Enriched with some new faces, and energized by our first meeting and the content of the workshops, we concretely resolved to found a U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, SEN. We want this network to be a broad tent, linking institutions, networks, and individuals who share the values of the Solidarity Economy. SEN will be a place to exchange practice and theory, to offer support to one another, and to push together for transformation. The existing working group was charged to come up with a more concrete structure, and to plan for a meeting in the summer of 2008.
Through the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network, we will continue the conversations and coalition-building that happened during the workshop sessions. The Solidarity Economy is all about building these connections; reminding us that, amidst our wonderful diversity, we are all related – as members of a society, as parts of an ecosystem, and, potentially, as creators of a new paradigm of economic life based on cooperation and solidarity as well as individuality and freedom. The Solidarity Economy activities at the U.S. Social Forum were an amazing first step at building these connections – bringing together people from all over the country and the world who are engaged in economic transformation in their own communities – and standing on the shoulders of the leaders of the Solidarity Economy movement in Canada and Latin America. The U.S. Solidarity Economy Network can help us further understand how our many ways of working towards economic transformation connect with and complement one another. It can provide us with opportunities to learn from one another as we strive to realize Solidarity Economy values. And, as part of RIPESS, the international solidarity economy network, SEN can help us make our dream of another, possible, solidarity economy a growing and thriving reality in the U.S. and across the world.
Jenna Allard and Julie Matthaei, Guramylay: Growing the Green Economy
July 2007
First International Meeting « The Worker’s Economy »
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters – University of Buenos Aires 19-21 July 2007
Three highly active days of meetings brought together 300 participants from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Croatia, the United States and Canada. The group consisted of workers, managers and activists from social and political organisations, research personnel and academics. There was huge discussion on economy-related topics, based on self-managing experiments such as the Argentinean companies that have been taken over by the workers and struggles of the working class movement in the context of changes in the world of work at the global level in today’s phase of neo-liberal capitalism.
Following the introductory speeches, various presentations were made on the themes of the meeting: 1) Capital economy today: a stage of global capitalism viewed by popular movements; 2) Self-managed economy: a debate on self-managing experiments in the era of global capitalism (worker take-overs, rural co-operatives, solidarity self-managing projects, co-operative movements, exchange networks, fair trade etc.; 3) The challenge faced by popular governments in terms of social management of the economy and the State; 4) Critical evaluation of the co-operative movement ; 5) New challenges facing the Trade Union movements: unions, workers’ groups, co-management and participation in decision-making processes.
The richness of the debate was also shown in the way the discussion space was shared between workers and research personnel from the different countries. Exchange is useful for developing political action and worker’s organisation, theoretical analysis, worker’s self-management, union struggles. The debate touched on the limits and possibilities of the process of self-management in the framework of capitalist economies and the possibilities of reconstructing politico-economic projects focussed on self-managed experiments. Another lively discussion was on the subject of what is called social economy. One aspect was on how to bring to life the project of social economy as the possibility of building economic alternatives to social exclusion. An alternative aspect, which outlined facts, without examining the underlying characteristics and possibilities for self-management as part of “an economy for the poor” that takes the precarious nature of work into account, as well as the new forms of overexploitation of the global economy. The representatives of the workers’ organisations insisted on the fact that these experiments form a part of the reconstructions of a politico-economic worker’s alternative; this was one of the important conclusions of the debates.
The high level of participation in the discussions following the presentations was remarkable, and the size of the programme reached beyond the organisers’ expectations. It proved necessary to implement strict time-management. Students from the Open Faculty (many of whom made presentations) also contributed a great deal of voluntary work, as did the Babels interpreters, thus enabling language barriers to be overcome.
The final speeches by the different organisations that took part showed an expression of interest in a follow-up process to this type of meeting.
Around 50 presentations can be viewed on the Documentary Centre of the companies that have been taken over in the Open Faculty Programme (http://www.recuperadasdoc.com.ar/).
Andrés Ruggeri
Director of the Open Faculty Programme
Head organiser of the event
Secretariat for University Extension
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
University of Buenos Aires
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Monday, July 02, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #40
July 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Linking the Global and the Local
The vision of the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-Operative Union (Japan)
Message from the Editorial Team
As we did in the last issue, we are presenting another organization which has a long experience in developing a more just and sustainable society.
By working in the food consumption sector, the Seikatsu Club has developed a whole series of activities linked to local community development, with a sustainable development perspective.
During a study tour in Québec City this past June; Yvon Poirier got to know the Siekatsu Club better through a series of meetings and exchanges. The objective of the tour for the delegates was to gain a deeper knowledge of social and solidarity economy in the province of Quebec in order to prepare a more important visit next fall for a group of 12-15 people. In June, the two-man delegation was led by Mr. Takashi Sawaguchi from the Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of the Seikatsu Club. However, the group coming next autumn will be made up of a majority of women.
The delegation visited the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins, which we presented in the last issue. Even if both organizations work in different fields, they share the same values concerning solidarity economy as a perspective to transform our societies, from the local level to the global.
NEST ISSUE – September 1st
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
**************************************************************
Linking the Global and the Local
The vision the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-Operative Union (Japan)
Origins
In 1965, a citizens’ movement of women consumers emerged around the issue of food security. The quality of food (chemicals, mercury pollution, etc.) had become a major preoccupation. The movement understood very early on that just demanding stricter rules from the government was not enough. Therefore, transforming itself into a consumer coop was a natural step. At first, their activity focused on the collective purchase of milk. Since then, the co-operative has extended its activities to about 3,000 products, mainly in basic foods such as rice, chicken and pork meat, vegetable oil, soy sauce and eggs.
It’s important to specify that the word «Seikatsu» means «life» in Japanese. Therefore, even if the movement has become a union of consumers’ coops, the basic philosophy is still rooted in this linkage to life.
Today
As of June 2007, the Seikatsu Club is a union of 30 local co-operatives with a total membership of over 290,000 members, 99.9% being women. This is explained by the fact that Japanese society is in some regards very traditional. Therefore, social pressure strongly incites married women with children to quit the labour market, such as was the case in North America and in Western Europe a generation or two ago. This explains why the domestic consumption sphere is mostly a woman’s realm.
As mentioned in a previous issue (#38), pre-order collective purchasing is still the main activity of this organization. However, the issues of food security and sustainable development are still at the heart of their activities. Therefore, to get accreditation as milk, meat or cereal producers, the agricultural practices must be as healthy as possible. For example, producers do not use feed stock containing GMOs, chicken are not treated with antibiotics, etc.
Relating to these activities, the organisation naturally embraced sustainable development practices. For example, milk is distributed in glass bottles. Their recycling rate is over 77%. There is no packaging with materials containing PVCs and campaigns are organized with others, such as «Stop GMOs».
The Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union has established three jointly owned milk plants with milk farmers and also owns poultry (chicken) farms with farmers. In Japan this is the only consumers’ co-operative which has done such initiatives. At this time, the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is going to launch a new project: consumers in urban area as “the part time farmers” to support farming in rural areas in order to preserve Japanese agriculture and the environment. One of the reasons for this is that over 60% of Japanese farmers are 65 years old or more. The philosophy of the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is that if consumers want to have a sustainable society and safe foods, consumers should have responsibilities for production processes along with producers. As a result of these practices, the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is not only a consumers’ co-operative but also a producers’ co-operative.
New social initiatives
Over the years, the members have launched workers’ collectives. There are now over 700 collectives, with nearly 20,000 members. Since there is no law in Japan for workers’ co-operatives, the members had to use the non-profit organisation (NPO) status. However, they function as if they were a coop (working ownership). The range of activities is very broad: preparing meals for elderly people, homecare, kindergartens, handicrafts, recycling, etc.
Having understood that merely making demands to local authorities was not enough, some members decided to get directly involved in politics by presenting candidates for local assemblies in the Tokyo Metropolitan region. The name they chose «Seikatsusha Network», means People who live in the sense of «inhabitants». Today, there are over 140 elected members in local assemblies, all women, who work to push these concerns.
At the local level: a Community Cooperative Council
The Seikatsu Club considers that to make a global change to society, a «cooperative» society, a society that works together has to be put in place. The plan is to create local Community Cooperative Councils, especially in Tokyo, composed of all organisations in a given territory: cooperatives, local producers, citizens’ movements, unions, workers collectives, associations, educational institutions, etc. The objective is that the community takes charge of itself. The principles are quite similar to sustainable local development or community economic development as known in Canada.
At the global level: a transformative vision of the public arena
Having realized that economic and social issues are linked, that all has become «glocal»; that the global and the local are so interlinked that we must act at all levels, from the local to the global. To have an impact on issues such as GMOs, the WTO rules, poverty and war, we are forced to imagine a «global community» similar to how we conceive local or national communities. Their vision is affirmed in the following manner (excerpt from a PowerPoint presentation):
We believe it is now the time for co-operatives to play a big role, both in their various communities and as the world’s largest NPO, in building the new glocal public sphere.
International actions
The Seikatsu Club has been active for over 20 years in the field of influencing global issues. Since 1983, close links have been developed with similar organisations in Korea and Taiwan. The organisation participated in the 1992 World Summit in Rio and in a UN conference on disarmament.
The organisation is giving priority to develop exchanges and solidarity actions with similar organisations.
Author: Yvon Poirier
For information (in English) www.seikatsuclub.coop/english/index.html
News briefs
«How do we want to produce and live? The Solidarity-Based Economy in a Globalized Capitalism».
As we had announced in Newsletter #35, all international presentations made during the German Solidarity Conference held last November 24 to 26 at the Berlin Technical University are now on the EURONETZ website, in their original languages. Articles deal with India, Africa, Brazil, Canada, Eastern and Central Europe, Italy, France, Luxembourg and Greece.
To download all presentations:
http://www.european-network.de/%20englisch/news.htm
http://www.european-network.de/franz/actualite.htm
International symposium: «Socio-economic innovation. The contemporary debate »
The market economy co-exists with a public economy and allowances made on the level of reciprocity and equality. There is also « another economy » based on solidarities. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the citizens and popular university of Paris (CNAM) has identified knowledge of this «other» economy for its program of 2007-2008 meetings. A first meeting was held last June 25 and 26, 2007. The contemporary debate was approached in an international manner on two levels: at the practical level by taking into account all economic and enterprise types that cannot only be analysed with a utilitarian prism. On the theoretical level, the second day was dedicated to «Revisiting Polanyi», a major author for a new approach to relations between society and economy.
For more information: sed@lise.cnrs.fr or Cnam, Relations Service Chair – 55 rue de Turbigo – Case 255 – 75003 Paris
Martine Théveniaut
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
July 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Linking the Global and the Local
The vision of the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-Operative Union (Japan)
Message from the Editorial Team
As we did in the last issue, we are presenting another organization which has a long experience in developing a more just and sustainable society.
By working in the food consumption sector, the Seikatsu Club has developed a whole series of activities linked to local community development, with a sustainable development perspective.
During a study tour in Québec City this past June; Yvon Poirier got to know the Siekatsu Club better through a series of meetings and exchanges. The objective of the tour for the delegates was to gain a deeper knowledge of social and solidarity economy in the province of Quebec in order to prepare a more important visit next fall for a group of 12-15 people. In June, the two-man delegation was led by Mr. Takashi Sawaguchi from the Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of the Seikatsu Club. However, the group coming next autumn will be made up of a majority of women.
The delegation visited the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins, which we presented in the last issue. Even if both organizations work in different fields, they share the same values concerning solidarity economy as a perspective to transform our societies, from the local level to the global.
NEST ISSUE – September 1st
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
**************************************************************
Linking the Global and the Local
The vision the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-Operative Union (Japan)
Origins
In 1965, a citizens’ movement of women consumers emerged around the issue of food security. The quality of food (chemicals, mercury pollution, etc.) had become a major preoccupation. The movement understood very early on that just demanding stricter rules from the government was not enough. Therefore, transforming itself into a consumer coop was a natural step. At first, their activity focused on the collective purchase of milk. Since then, the co-operative has extended its activities to about 3,000 products, mainly in basic foods such as rice, chicken and pork meat, vegetable oil, soy sauce and eggs.
It’s important to specify that the word «Seikatsu» means «life» in Japanese. Therefore, even if the movement has become a union of consumers’ coops, the basic philosophy is still rooted in this linkage to life.
Today
As of June 2007, the Seikatsu Club is a union of 30 local co-operatives with a total membership of over 290,000 members, 99.9% being women. This is explained by the fact that Japanese society is in some regards very traditional. Therefore, social pressure strongly incites married women with children to quit the labour market, such as was the case in North America and in Western Europe a generation or two ago. This explains why the domestic consumption sphere is mostly a woman’s realm.
As mentioned in a previous issue (#38), pre-order collective purchasing is still the main activity of this organization. However, the issues of food security and sustainable development are still at the heart of their activities. Therefore, to get accreditation as milk, meat or cereal producers, the agricultural practices must be as healthy as possible. For example, producers do not use feed stock containing GMOs, chicken are not treated with antibiotics, etc.
Relating to these activities, the organisation naturally embraced sustainable development practices. For example, milk is distributed in glass bottles. Their recycling rate is over 77%. There is no packaging with materials containing PVCs and campaigns are organized with others, such as «Stop GMOs».
The Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union has established three jointly owned milk plants with milk farmers and also owns poultry (chicken) farms with farmers. In Japan this is the only consumers’ co-operative which has done such initiatives. At this time, the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is going to launch a new project: consumers in urban area as “the part time farmers” to support farming in rural areas in order to preserve Japanese agriculture and the environment. One of the reasons for this is that over 60% of Japanese farmers are 65 years old or more. The philosophy of the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is that if consumers want to have a sustainable society and safe foods, consumers should have responsibilities for production processes along with producers. As a result of these practices, the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union is not only a consumers’ co-operative but also a producers’ co-operative.
New social initiatives
Over the years, the members have launched workers’ collectives. There are now over 700 collectives, with nearly 20,000 members. Since there is no law in Japan for workers’ co-operatives, the members had to use the non-profit organisation (NPO) status. However, they function as if they were a coop (working ownership). The range of activities is very broad: preparing meals for elderly people, homecare, kindergartens, handicrafts, recycling, etc.
Having understood that merely making demands to local authorities was not enough, some members decided to get directly involved in politics by presenting candidates for local assemblies in the Tokyo Metropolitan region. The name they chose «Seikatsusha Network», means People who live in the sense of «inhabitants». Today, there are over 140 elected members in local assemblies, all women, who work to push these concerns.
At the local level: a Community Cooperative Council
The Seikatsu Club considers that to make a global change to society, a «cooperative» society, a society that works together has to be put in place. The plan is to create local Community Cooperative Councils, especially in Tokyo, composed of all organisations in a given territory: cooperatives, local producers, citizens’ movements, unions, workers collectives, associations, educational institutions, etc. The objective is that the community takes charge of itself. The principles are quite similar to sustainable local development or community economic development as known in Canada.
At the global level: a transformative vision of the public arena
Having realized that economic and social issues are linked, that all has become «glocal»; that the global and the local are so interlinked that we must act at all levels, from the local to the global. To have an impact on issues such as GMOs, the WTO rules, poverty and war, we are forced to imagine a «global community» similar to how we conceive local or national communities. Their vision is affirmed in the following manner (excerpt from a PowerPoint presentation):
We believe it is now the time for co-operatives to play a big role, both in their various communities and as the world’s largest NPO, in building the new glocal public sphere.
International actions
The Seikatsu Club has been active for over 20 years in the field of influencing global issues. Since 1983, close links have been developed with similar organisations in Korea and Taiwan. The organisation participated in the 1992 World Summit in Rio and in a UN conference on disarmament.
The organisation is giving priority to develop exchanges and solidarity actions with similar organisations.
Author: Yvon Poirier
For information (in English) www.seikatsuclub.coop/english/index.html
News briefs
«How do we want to produce and live? The Solidarity-Based Economy in a Globalized Capitalism».
As we had announced in Newsletter #35, all international presentations made during the German Solidarity Conference held last November 24 to 26 at the Berlin Technical University are now on the EURONETZ website, in their original languages. Articles deal with India, Africa, Brazil, Canada, Eastern and Central Europe, Italy, France, Luxembourg and Greece.
To download all presentations:
http://www.european-network.de/%20englisch/news.htm
http://www.european-network.de/franz/actualite.htm
International symposium: «Socio-economic innovation. The contemporary debate »
The market economy co-exists with a public economy and allowances made on the level of reciprocity and equality. There is also « another economy » based on solidarities. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the citizens and popular university of Paris (CNAM) has identified knowledge of this «other» economy for its program of 2007-2008 meetings. A first meeting was held last June 25 and 26, 2007. The contemporary debate was approached in an international manner on two levels: at the practical level by taking into account all economic and enterprise types that cannot only be analysed with a utilitarian prism. On the theoretical level, the second day was dedicated to «Revisiting Polanyi», a major author for a new approach to relations between society and economy.
For more information: sed@lise.cnrs.fr or Cnam, Relations Service Chair – 55 rue de Turbigo – Case 255 – 75003 Paris
Martine Théveniaut
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael from France for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin from Brazil for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Friday, June 01, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #39
June 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins
A unique financial institution
Message from the Editorial Team
In this issue we are presenting a very active financial institution in the field of social economy. This Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins (credit union) is one of the major levers for entrepreneurship at the service of community development in Quebec.
Very few financial institutions act as a banking institution (deposits and loans, mortgages, bank cards, etc.) and at the same time as an agent to support local initiatives. Since very few financial institutions adopt this type of social role, it is difficult to promote projects of social and solidarity economy on a large scale. This issue of the Newsletter is entirely devoted to this topic.
It should be noted that Yvon Poirier, author of the article and member of our team, is also a member of the Caisse since its inception. This has enabled him to have access to complete and up to date information.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
**************************************************************
Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins
A unique financial institution
Operating under the relatively traditional legal status of financial institutions, and within the Québécois statutory framework, the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins (Desjardins Solidarity Credit Union) is one of the rare savings and credit co-operatives to use the financial framework to develop the social and solidarity economy. But anchoring itself in collective action and dreams does not make it an amateur! Within the Desjardins network, the Caisse ranks number one as a group credit union and 49th of some 550 Desjardins Credit Unions in terms of average assets. 97% of all funds lent by this credit union over the years, were fully reimbursed, which makes it the best performing financial institution in Quebec in this regard.
But what makes it such a unique financial institution is its networking. The Caisse is one of the economic development organizations, established through the CSN initiative (Confédération des syndicats nationaux), the second biggest trade union confederation in Quebec. Together, the three most important organizations, the Caisse, the Fondaction Workers Fund and the National Union retirement Committee of Bâtirente channel assets of $1.3 billion (850 € million) annually. In addition to the fact that they were all created by the CSN, these institutions jointly share the same vision of sustainable and solidarity development centred on workers’ and communities’ participation.
Origins
Union militants of the CSN founded this credit union in 1971 in Quebec City. Apart from meeting their needs for a financial institution, it targeted social transformation. It later amalgamated with two other credit unions, also founded by the trade unions. It is useful to know that in Quebec, a credit union is territorial, whereas a group credit union is linked to the employees from one or more organizations. Its activity extends throughout the territory of Quebec, the second biggest province of Canada.
Mission and vision
Due to its social mission, many organizations and community associations, either cultural or co-operative became members over the years. At the end of 2006, the Caisse had 2,500 collective members (non-profit businesses, co-operatives, community organizations and unions) as well as 7,137 individual members (usually employees of the collective members). It is important to stress that there is no restriction to becoming a member of this type of credit union by buying shares, contrary to the example of the United Kingdom where this possibility is restricted to individual members only. However the same principle of “one member - one vote” applies, even if it is an organization or an important business.
In the 2006 Annual Report, the Caisse affirms its vision:
The four founding options of our organization are living together, ecology, solidarity and democracy.
These four options constitute both the pillars that provide the basic momentum of our action and the end-objectives on which the vision of the society to which we aspire are founded and to which we aim to contribute. We propose to fundamentally measure wealth with the following criteria: democracy, solidarity, the respect for living beings in their environment, and our capacity to accommodate others, respectful of their difference. This is how we see sustainable solidarity development for our society.
In this vision, economic action is resituated in its rightful place of being secondary compared with human objectives - economy should serve more fundamental projects both for us as human beings, and for our planet.
The Caisse’s entrepreneurial spirit
The spirit of entrepreneurship guiding us is grounded in deep human and social motivation. Its principal nature is not primarily to start businesses, but rather to solve problems. It is an entrepreneurship which tries to establish justice, which aims to solve the problem of poverty as well as the problem of development and which tries to provide answers to human needs. When we consider the current state of the world, with its immense economic and social challenges, we believe that only a spirit of entrepreneurship of this nature is able to convey the high and generous values required to generate adequate and sustainable solutions.
The commitment of the Caisse towards its community
Beyond service provision to its members, its Aid Fund for Community Development openly demonstrates the commitment of the Caisse to the community and to society. Like all credit unions, it sets aside sums for donations and partnerships. But, what basically distinguishes this credit union from the others is how members use their surplus from operations. In almost all other credit unions, the practice is to distribute a rebate to members (in proportion to their financial activity). However, since its creation, members have voted in their annual general meetings to forego this rebate. In this way in 2006, the Caisse devoted over $800,000 to community development based on the fundamental principles stated above, bringing the total devoted by the Caisse to its mission of solidarity economy to more than $1.2 million for the entire year.
Some exemplary actions
The Caisse has constantly innovated in several spheres of activity. For example, this credit union is highly recognized in the field of culture. In this respect, the leaders of the credit union are proud to recall that they granted a first loan to the two young people who created the Cirque du Soleil. The Caisse is also the financial institution of the Federation of the 14 Inuit Co-operatives of Nunavik (the northern part of Quebec). In the context of establishing a territorial government, the Caisse is currently collaborating in the setting up of an independent financial institution in Nunavik.
Finally, the Caisse works for the development of solidarity finance at international level. It has an active partnership with Banca Etica in Italy and is member of INAISE (International Association of Investors in the Social Economy). They have jointly participated in projects in Brazil.
Like any institution, the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins is the product of its own society. In this sense, it is unique and cannot be reproduced as such elsewhere. Nevertheless, its solidarity practice can provide inspiration in the field of finance.
Author – Yvon Poirier
www.cecosol.coop
http://www.fondaction.com/
www.bancaetica.com/
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael for the Spanish translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Newsletter #39
June 1st, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins
A unique financial institution
Message from the Editorial Team
In this issue we are presenting a very active financial institution in the field of social economy. This Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins (credit union) is one of the major levers for entrepreneurship at the service of community development in Quebec.
Very few financial institutions act as a banking institution (deposits and loans, mortgages, bank cards, etc.) and at the same time as an agent to support local initiatives. Since very few financial institutions adopt this type of social role, it is difficult to promote projects of social and solidarity economy on a large scale. This issue of the Newsletter is entirely devoted to this topic.
It should be noted that Yvon Poirier, author of the article and member of our team, is also a member of the Caisse since its inception. This has enabled him to have access to complete and up to date information.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
**************************************************************
Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins
A unique financial institution
Operating under the relatively traditional legal status of financial institutions, and within the Québécois statutory framework, the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins (Desjardins Solidarity Credit Union) is one of the rare savings and credit co-operatives to use the financial framework to develop the social and solidarity economy. But anchoring itself in collective action and dreams does not make it an amateur! Within the Desjardins network, the Caisse ranks number one as a group credit union and 49th of some 550 Desjardins Credit Unions in terms of average assets. 97% of all funds lent by this credit union over the years, were fully reimbursed, which makes it the best performing financial institution in Quebec in this regard.
But what makes it such a unique financial institution is its networking. The Caisse is one of the economic development organizations, established through the CSN initiative (Confédération des syndicats nationaux), the second biggest trade union confederation in Quebec. Together, the three most important organizations, the Caisse, the Fondaction Workers Fund and the National Union retirement Committee of Bâtirente channel assets of $1.3 billion (850 € million) annually. In addition to the fact that they were all created by the CSN, these institutions jointly share the same vision of sustainable and solidarity development centred on workers’ and communities’ participation.
Origins
Union militants of the CSN founded this credit union in 1971 in Quebec City. Apart from meeting their needs for a financial institution, it targeted social transformation. It later amalgamated with two other credit unions, also founded by the trade unions. It is useful to know that in Quebec, a credit union is territorial, whereas a group credit union is linked to the employees from one or more organizations. Its activity extends throughout the territory of Quebec, the second biggest province of Canada.
Mission and vision
Due to its social mission, many organizations and community associations, either cultural or co-operative became members over the years. At the end of 2006, the Caisse had 2,500 collective members (non-profit businesses, co-operatives, community organizations and unions) as well as 7,137 individual members (usually employees of the collective members). It is important to stress that there is no restriction to becoming a member of this type of credit union by buying shares, contrary to the example of the United Kingdom where this possibility is restricted to individual members only. However the same principle of “one member - one vote” applies, even if it is an organization or an important business.
In the 2006 Annual Report, the Caisse affirms its vision:
The four founding options of our organization are living together, ecology, solidarity and democracy.
These four options constitute both the pillars that provide the basic momentum of our action and the end-objectives on which the vision of the society to which we aspire are founded and to which we aim to contribute. We propose to fundamentally measure wealth with the following criteria: democracy, solidarity, the respect for living beings in their environment, and our capacity to accommodate others, respectful of their difference. This is how we see sustainable solidarity development for our society.
In this vision, economic action is resituated in its rightful place of being secondary compared with human objectives - economy should serve more fundamental projects both for us as human beings, and for our planet.
The Caisse’s entrepreneurial spirit
The spirit of entrepreneurship guiding us is grounded in deep human and social motivation. Its principal nature is not primarily to start businesses, but rather to solve problems. It is an entrepreneurship which tries to establish justice, which aims to solve the problem of poverty as well as the problem of development and which tries to provide answers to human needs. When we consider the current state of the world, with its immense economic and social challenges, we believe that only a spirit of entrepreneurship of this nature is able to convey the high and generous values required to generate adequate and sustainable solutions.
The commitment of the Caisse towards its community
Beyond service provision to its members, its Aid Fund for Community Development openly demonstrates the commitment of the Caisse to the community and to society. Like all credit unions, it sets aside sums for donations and partnerships. But, what basically distinguishes this credit union from the others is how members use their surplus from operations. In almost all other credit unions, the practice is to distribute a rebate to members (in proportion to their financial activity). However, since its creation, members have voted in their annual general meetings to forego this rebate. In this way in 2006, the Caisse devoted over $800,000 to community development based on the fundamental principles stated above, bringing the total devoted by the Caisse to its mission of solidarity economy to more than $1.2 million for the entire year.
Some exemplary actions
The Caisse has constantly innovated in several spheres of activity. For example, this credit union is highly recognized in the field of culture. In this respect, the leaders of the credit union are proud to recall that they granted a first loan to the two young people who created the Cirque du Soleil. The Caisse is also the financial institution of the Federation of the 14 Inuit Co-operatives of Nunavik (the northern part of Quebec). In the context of establishing a territorial government, the Caisse is currently collaborating in the setting up of an independent financial institution in Nunavik.
Finally, the Caisse works for the development of solidarity finance at international level. It has an active partnership with Banca Etica in Italy and is member of INAISE (International Association of Investors in the Social Economy). They have jointly participated in projects in Brazil.
Like any institution, the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins is the product of its own society. In this sense, it is unique and cannot be reproduced as such elsewhere. Nevertheless, its solidarity practice can provide inspiration in the field of finance.
Author – Yvon Poirier
www.cecosol.coop
http://www.fondaction.com/
www.bancaetica.com/
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael for the Spanish translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #38
May 1, 2007
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Food Sovereignty – A tool for local development
Discovering two organizations
Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union
Nepal Federation of Savings & Credit Co-operative Unions Ltd. (NEFSCUN)
Message from the Editorial Team
The question of food supply constitutes the principal subject of this issue. We are presenting an article which deals with an initiative originating from producers known as food sovereignty, and an initiative coming from consumers, the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative in Japan.
From our point of view, they are both cases of exemplary initiatives which rest on the assumption of responsibility, either by the producers, or by the consumers, themselves, in their respective communities.
In both cases, one sees an approach different from that which is dictated by globalized markets. It is encouraging and stimulating.
Editorial Team
Francisco Botelho
Yvon Poirier
Martine Théveniaut
**************************************************************
Food Sovereignty – Tool for local development
Food sovereignty is a term originally coined by members of Via Campesina (an international movement) in 1996 to refer to a policy framework advocated by a number of farmers', peasants', pastoralists', fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples', womens', rural youth and environmental organizations, namely the claimed "right of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems," in contrast to having food largely subject to international market forces.
At the Forum for Food Sovereignty in Sélingué, Mali, 27 February 2007, about 500 delegates from more than 80 countries adopted the Declaration of Nyéléni, which says in part:
Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just income to all peoples and the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage our lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations. (1)
This Forum, while respecting many of the fundamental principles of the World Social Forum in terms of democratic practice and diversity, was also highly innovative. Firstly, the methodology used was highly complex and also very effective, working on a bottom-up approach and crossing themes, sectors and specific interests in such as way as to allow real in-depth participation and enhancing of ideas.
Observing the way in which the work progressed from the ‘bird’s eye’ vantage point of the interpreter’s booth, what struck me most was not necessarily the novelty of the work carried out (although there were some interesting new ideas that can be read on the Nyeleni site), but rather the appropriation of the work by the different interest groups and the strengthening of networks that had not necessarily worked together in close co-operation in the past. For example, fishing issues and pastoralists’ preoccupations had never before been pooled so effectively with women’s concerns (particularly land ownership), rights of indigenous peoples etc.
Behind all these questions lies the right of people to self-determination and control of their own forms of sustainable local development. This means a significant effort can now be made to work together to jointly fight the multinational corporations’ ever-increasing pressure, be it in terms of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), industrial aquaculture or expropriation of ancestral forests for industrial-scale farming.
Ultimately, it is only through such strengthening of international networks that truly effective pressure can be brought to bear at a local level to preserve and protect rights and achieve full food sovereignty.
Author – Judith Hitchman
Interpretor and consultant
For further information
(1) http://www.abcburkina.net/content/view/359/56/
(2) http://www.nyeleni2007.org/spip.php?article286
Discovering two organizations
Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union
This consumers’ co-operative in Japan is an extremely large scale example of the direct bond between consumers and producers. This co-operative of 268,400 members, most of whom are women, rests on the principle of pre-ordering collective purchases.
Therefore, foods such as rice, milk and meat are transported directly and quickly (less than 48 hours) from producers to consumers. Thus, the products are always fresh and are at reasonable prices. Moreover, there is a total assurance that the products do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), nor antibiotic vaccinations for poultry, etc.
Also, this co-operative conducts campaigns against GMOs and the respect of the environment. For example, glass bottles are used for milk.
In the next months, we will present more details on the activities of this co-operative, which I will meet in September during a study trip in Quebec. I am collaborating in organizing this event.
Author: Yvon Poirier
For further information :
http://www.seikatsuclub.coop/english/index.html
Nepal Federation of Savings & Credit Co-operative Unions Ltd. (NEFSCUN)
Last March 22nd, in Montreal I met Suman Khanal, CEO of NEFSCUN. Suman Khanal is also a member of the Board of Directors of RIPESS, which we frequently referred to in previous issues.
This federation, with 19 years of existence, has over 150,000 individual members in the 450 affiliated co-operatives. The members of the federation are present in 52 of the 75 districts of Nepal. The website gives detailed information on the activities of NEFSCUN, including links with partners from several countries.
As there will soon be a Constituent Assembly in order to write a new constitution, following the mass upsurge that rolled back the king’s direct rule, the federation has deferred to later its effort to equip Nepal with a first law on Savings and Credit Co-operatives. Indeed, as such a law does not exist; the federation is not able to offer all the usual services.
With the overthrow of absolute monarchism, the capacity of the Nepalese organizations to act is facilitated.
Author – Yvon Poirier
For further information:
http://www.nefscun.org.np
Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Évéline Poirier from Canada for the English translation
Brunilda Rafael for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin for the Portuguese translation
To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca
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