Comunidad AC

“De la trueque?…mm…pues, digamos que es una palabra pre-hispánica, porque en esa época se usó mucho. No había moneda entonces era de cambio. Eso es el trueque – cambiar una cosa por otra para cubrir sus necesidades. Y viene, pues, año atrás ano, se fue perdiendo, hasta la fecha, ya hoy no se usa igual como antes. Ya hay moneda, hay que comprar. Pero todavía en algunos pueblos muy alejados, digamos, de la ciudad, según la estructura de cada lugar, todavía [existe]. Pues usamos el trueque en la feria del pescado porque, la feria es realmente cultural, social a manera de, pues, dar a conocer a la gente la historia, la costumbre…la cultura propiamente de la época pre-hispánica, la cultura colonial y la cultura actual. Y pues, como usted, luego los jovencitos, las niñas, los niños, no saben que es trueque. Entonces darles a conocer. Pero todavía aquí se usa el trueque, ya no comúnmente, pero si una que otra persona…En mi época cuando yo era niña si todavía, a mi me tocó cuando me decía mi mamá, ‘toma un  curatito de maíz pero me vas a cambiar con carne.’ O luego, pues, ‘agarra un litro de leche, y va comprar azúcar.’”

“On trueque?…mm…let’s say that it’s a pre-hispanic word, because in that time it was used a lot. There was not any currency so everything was a matter of exchange. That is the treque – changing one thing for another in order to attend to your needs. Year after year, the practice diminished and today it is not used like before. Now there is money and one has to buy. Nevertheless there are still some communities isolated, let’s say, from the city, and depending on the structure of each community, el trueque still exists. We use the trueque in the Feria del Pescado because the fair is cultural and social. It’s a way to spread awareness to the community about our history and our customs…our prehispanic, colonial and current culture. And so, like you, the young generations, boys and girls, do not know about the trueque. And so we are trying to teach them. But here people still use the trueque, not a lot, but it is still present. In my time, when I was a young girl, it was still widely practiced. My mom would ask me to exchange corn for meat, or barter milk for sugar.”

- Transcribed quote from an interview with the founder and director of La Feria del Pescado

On Saturday, July 14th I traveled with my host family to the small indigenous town Coatetelco. My host parents travel regularly to Coatetelco to meet with the women who plan and organize the annual Feria del Pescado Artesanal y Cultural, which I have mentioned in earlier blog posts. In the beginning of the meeting Humberto and Tonia (my host parents) reviewed the right to free determination with the group:

Derecho a la libre determinación: Disponer libremente nuestras riquezas y recursos naturales que priven de nuestros medios de subsistencia y controlar nuestro desarrollo económico, social y cultural.

The right to free determination: (1) to freely dispose of our natural resources that dictate our means of subsistence (2) to control our social, economic and cultural development.

Goals and purposes of the fair:

1. Promote the culture and handicrafts of Coatetelco, Morelos and other states of the Republic of Mexico
2. Improve the economy
3. Promote bartering of goods
4. Promote coexistence, respect and dignity between different communities
5. Promote the right to organize
6. Rescue and recover ancient culture/indigenous heritage

Activities:

- Rituals

- Cultural expos

- Promotion of bartering

- Gastronomic expos

- Handicrafts from other communities

- Use of space free of charge

- Participating groups and organizations: fishermen, the church, the municipality

- Outside communities: traditional craftsmen from Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla

- Communities from Morelos: Cuentepec, Civac, Tlayacapan, Xoxocotla, Michapa

The following youtube clip provides a window into what the fair is like:

Important themes from the meeting:

- Funding. This issue came up frequently throughout the meeting and was a source of much anxiety. The fair receives little to no support from the local government and municipality. The group is responsible for fundraising its own initiative, and the individual organizers usually end up contributing their own funds to the implementation of the fair (the individual members each contribute more than governmental bodies).

- Trueque. The members of the group described el trueque as an exchange of material goods. When one of the organizers maestra María Luísa mentioned that she once offered her services for el trueque,  I asked the group if they bartered services as well. Most responded that the exchange of services did happen on an informal basis in their communities, but that their idea of the trueque largely involved goods. Indeed, the “trueque of servicios” is more often described as ‘actos de solidaridad’ or ‘actividades comunitarias’ and the term ‘trueque’ is a term reserved specifically for the exchange of material goods. Nevertheless the group was excited about the possibility of using skills and talents for the trueque and not just goods, or even combining the bartering of goods with services.

- Conference. On August 18th Desarollo Integral Autogestionario will be hosting a day-long conference that will unite the three projects they are currently supporting. In this way, women from three different parts of Morelos (Tlayacapan, Coatetelco and Temixco) will be able to come together and learn from each other’s experiences. This conference will involve workshops, communal activities and el trueque! DIA’s intervention here presents an exciting example of economic solidarity: here a woman’s cooperative, a group of campesina women and the women organized the Fish Fair will be able to exchange goods, services, ideas, insights and feedback. As a reminder I have included the diagram indicating the three projects of DIA:

DIA uniting three disparate projects

Nour and I visited Cooperativa Bandera in Cuernavaca and yesterday Cooperativa Tlahuica in Tepoztlan.
Both cooperatives have similar modes of operating and similar visions as far as I can tell. Don Pedro Romero director of Bandera who co-founded the cooperative 50 years ago, also gave the impulse to transform the Tlahuica organization into a similar cooperative in 2001. They also form the group COSEM (Consejo de cooperativas de Morelos), which used to count 3 other members who broke apart.
In Tlahuica we spoke with Julia San Martin Elisanto, who is head of the department of education. At Cooperativa Bandera we spoke with Pedro Romero and on another occasion with Armando, who works at the store.

The credit unions
They have a credit union: one must pay a certain amount to become member, and the rate at which you deposit as well as buy from the coop store determines how much you may borrow from it. At both cooperative the interest rate is below 2 percent; at Tlahuica it is 1.8 percent. Armando borrowed money to buy his nice rimless glasses at 5000 pesos. He had not saved much money, just a small percent of his salary each month, nor did he buy much from the store (though he worked there, he said he finds it inconvenient because he lives elsewhere in Cuernavaca and has no car); he was allowed to borrow that amount because he had worked for 14 years without borrowing much.
Tlahuica started as a credit union in 1991 called Unión de Tlahuica. At that moment, its founders did not know about the cooperative system. When the Fox administration passed the infamous Ley de ahorro y credito popular in 2001, which regulated the cajas populares, Unión Tlahuica became Cooperativa Tlahuica, and a consumer cooperative as well as a credit union

Mrs. Elisanto laments that the law regulated the number of members as well the amounts that the institution can lend. It imposed the Impuesto a los Depósitos en Efectivo (IDE), a tax on cash deposits which applies in all banking institutions in the event of a deposit exceeding 15,000 pesos. Exempted from the tax are non-profit legal persons. The law then reduced the tax status of caja popular to that of any for-profit banking institution, in this case a small mercentile bank, that should be placed under the supervision of the Comision Nacional de Bancaria y de Valores. These regulations were deemed necessary in part because the some cajas could launder large amounts of money from the narcotrafficants, for example. Some cajas, like the nearby Coop. Tepoztlan, welcomed the law. One of its directors, Salvador Diaz Lopez, said that it was good because it prevented fraud; on another occasion he mentioned that it marked a division between Coop. Tepoztlan and ALCONA (Allianza cooperativista Nacional)  who fought against the law juridically by establishing that the law was unconstitutional. Indeed, the law was viewed as an imposition by ALCONA and many others, including Coop. Tlahuica. In fact Mrs. Elisanto denounced Coop. Tepoztlan for its support of the law. This law strongly weakened the “movimiento cajista”. Many cajas had to shut down, most being in small rural towns where they were only alternative for credit to usurers with up to 20 percent interest rates. Mrs. Elisanto suggested that there was a division between those who supported the law and those who stood against it. It is reasonable to infer that the law was and is a factor of division and polarization  within the solidarity economy movement, perhaps between its moderate and radical elements.
So, in 2001, by becoming a consumer cooperative, it could avoid certain of the regulations and preserve the non-profit status. I wonder, what regulations did it then avoid? And, what regulation does Marin’s “cooperativa integral” (which once was and currently is not a legal status, is technically illegal) fall under, and which does it escape?
It also now  does not function as a regular credit union because it relies on a system of “ayuda mutua”: when one wishes to borrow money, one paired oneself with another, the lender, most often an acquaintance, who sets the time frame, and is held responsible for enforcing it.
Mrs. Elisanto says that most people borrow to invert, for medical emergencies and educational costs.

The stores
These sell products to their members at reduced prices. Bandera runs a relatively large store, down from three a few years ago (the other two were too expensives because they rented the space). Tlahuica runs two stores, one in the center of Tepoztlan, and one on its outskirts, closer to Tepoztlan’s rural populations.
Both cooperatives sell their products with a small margin of profit, smaller than other stores, to their members upon presentation of a membership card. This small “incremento” is called “aportación a la manutención”, or contribution to maintenance. All quotas which are not spent by the cooperative on projects (elaborated by the assembly) are returned to the members.
Tlahuica has seasonal promotions during which they are sold at wholesale prices. Tlahuica does not sell to non-members; because we were coming in solidarity, they sold us honey and water. We bought a bottle of water at 9,50 pesos instead of the normal 11 pesos.
Mrs. Elisanto says that Tlahuica sell the basics, food and products for the home (soaps, detergent etc.), to inculcate, she says, “the ethics of non-consumerism”. Both mostly sell products from big international and national brands. It also sells some products from its members: the avocadoes, tomatoes and cucumbers, and honey. The honey is sold by a member who works at a honey-producing cooperative. It also sells sandals and clothes from a cooperative in Tepoztlan. However these links are only individual-based and are made unsystematically at the request of a member; there exists no partnership between cooperatives as organizations.

Education
Mrs. Elisanto agreed that in the future producer cooperatives and local and member producers should be privileged as providers of goods. However, as yet the cooperative must refuse many offers from members to sell their goods, because she says that most people shopping there are attracted to brands. It seems that membership in a consumer cooperative does not necessarily signify a minimal sense of consumer ethics as it does in the US. It is not often a sense of social responsibility that draws people to become members. The head of the department of education believes that it must be developed a posteriori in courses and assemblies. She says that most people become members because they hear that they can thus buy products for lower prices and borrow money at lower interest rates.

The assemblies
In accordance with the law (Ley General de Sociedades Cooperativas), they hold annual, regular ordinary assemblies.
Interestingly, both hold “seccional” or partial assemblies at which they share information about its financial state and manage its expenses, elect the board of directors, the “directivo”, and elaborate new projects. Bandera has approximately 5000 members; Tlahuica has 1700. They divide themselves into smaller groups to encourage better participation from all its members and further dialogue. Pedro Romero encouraged Tlahuica to imitate Bandera in this respect.
Tlahuica divides itself in 8 to have groups of about 200 people.

The community
Both are mostly composed by members of the community. Tlahuica only includes people living in Tepoztlan, because they are more easy to track down, more trust-worthy and more susceptible to buy at the store.
Bandera mostly is composed of people living in and near Cuernavaca. Armando, a member who has worked at the store for 14 years, said that he is acquainted with most of the 5000 members. They celebrate annual assemblies as well as parties. He says that he is unmarried, and that the majority of the members are women.
Unlike Bandera, Tlahuica holds annual courses to teach the principles of cooperativism and encourage trusting relationships between its members. Mrs. Elisanto who organizes those courses identifies this as a feature of the cooperative that best distinguishes it from a capitalist institution, as well as from a nearby credit union, Cooperative Tepoztlan, which she says is a pseudo-cooperative because it does not promote relationships between its members nor a “literacy of cooperativism”.
She says that it does not distinguish itself from a capitalist organization because while acknowledging that people become and stay members out of personal economic interest, nothing is done to change this.
Mrs. Elisanto says that the concept of “solidarity” is very important for them. She says that in Tepoztlan there are many traditional and non-institutionalized forms of solidarity. She names the following:

• Coatequitl, which is a traditional form of mutual aid, which is a form of trueque of services
• civil resistance. In 1995 a group of businessmen with the support local and federal authorities planned to build a luxurious golf club inside El Tepozteco National Park. Residents of Tepoztlan demonstrated and negotiated against it. The authorities responded with threats, arrests and a murder, but finally the people won.
• Fiesta de barrios. On many occasions, residents of Tepoztlan open the doors to their house and people bring food, and have a party. There are also many street celebrations and rituals organized by barrio or neighborhood.

“In Coatetelco, a group of indigenous women organize the annual Feria de Pescado Cultural y Artesanal (Cultural and Handicraft Fish Fair). This fisherman community is located near a lake of the same name (Coatetelco) and November 2012 will mark the 12th year that these women have been hosting this fair. The purpose of this annual event is to commemorate and celebrate the cultural heritage of Coatetelco and invite handicraft artists to display and barter their products. Because there is no charge for setting up a stand at this fair, artists and cooks are able to share their recipes and traditional handicrafts directly without having to pay an intermediary.  The fair also aims to promote “el trueque,” the pre-hispanic tradition of bartering in Mexico. No modern currency is used at the fair. The women we work with never use the term economic solidarity, but what they do with bartering and supporting local handicraft artists is a perfect example of economic solidarity. Yet they would argue that what they are doing isn’t new: they are celebrating centuries-old traditions that predate the arrival of the conquistadores.”

(Paraphrased quote from a dinner table conversation with my host father in Ocotepec, Morelos).

This paraphrased quote is just one example of the numerous dinner conversations I have with my host family in Ocotepec. Throughout my time here in Mexico I have spent many a night at the dinner table listening to my host-parents recount their involvement in social activism. It is clear from these conversations that economic solidarity has long been practiced in Mexico and in Morelos, even if the actors do not employ the term. Acts of solidarity economy are present both in quotidian life and at official events like the aforementioned cultural fair.

On Monday, June 25, Atena, Craig, Erik and I interviewed my host parents to get a better sense of the work they do and the organizations they work for. My host parents Tonia and Humberto have a long history of working with Equipo Pueblo, a national Mexican organization of communist leanings that is committed to supporting cultural, economic and social empowerment of marginalized populations in rural, indigenous and urban zones of Mexico. Their work is one of solidarity, exchange and networking so that various civil society groups can come together and share their experiences. Their work is local, national and global in scale. My host father Humberto has been involved with Equipo Pueblo since its inception in D.F. in 1977. Equipo Pueblo did not establish a local chapter in Morelos until 1985, but now the majority of Mexican states have a local Equipo Pueblo office. The work of Equipo Pueblo has been subject to a great amount of transformation and various stages of evolution throughout the past three decades. It is currently at a low point in its history and its activity is beginning to die down. The local chapter of Equipo Pueblo is no longer active. As a result, today Tonia and Humberto work for Desarollo Integral Autogestionario, A.C., a splinter organization of Equipo Pueblo Morelos founded in 1992.

Chronology of Equipo Pueblo in Morelos (Click to enlarge)

Equipo Pueblo:

Equipo Pueblo provided a space for transnational solidarity. The organization worked closely with Frères des Hommes, an international solidarity association based in Europe. Frères des Hommes is committed to eradicating global poverty and sensitizing Europeans to solidarity development. For many years the Belgian chapter of Frères des Hommes funded Equipo Pueblo in its endeavors, and helped organize international conferences throughout Latin America and Europe. As a result, Tonia and Humberto have traveled many times to Belgium and have attended forums in Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Panama and other Latin American countries. Each visit to Belgium involved exchange of expertise and knowledge between social activists. Frères des Hommes has three main sectors of solidarity work: (1) Local Farming (2) Economic Solidarity (3) Democratic Citizenship. Humberto first began hearing about economic solidarity in the early 1990s through his work with Frères des Hommes, though he acknowledges time and time again that long before he ever heard the term from his colleagues in Europe he was already involved in activities of economic solidarity.

The disintegration of Equipo Pueblo in Morelos:

As stated before Humberto and Tonia now work for Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario, A.C., a civil association that provides capacity building and human rights education for various civil society groups. Equipo Pueblo in Morelos began to disintegrate after it stopped receiving funding from Frère des Hommes. When the Belgian chapter of Frère des Hommes began to split, Equipo Pueblo could not continue to operate at the same level. As a result Tonia and Humberto were left with no choice but to continue forward with Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario.

Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario:

Currently Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario is working with three different organizations. The first is a group of campesina women in San José de los Laureles, a small indigenous community located outside of Tlayacapan, Morelos. DIA provides capacity building in natural and alternative medicine for this group of women. The second group DIA works with is a women’s sewing cooperative in Temixco, Morelos. And finally, the third collaboration is with a group of women in Coatetelco, Morelos. These women organize the aforementioned annual fair on Fish, Culture and Handicrafts.

The current projects of Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario, A.C. (Click to enlarge image)

In the past DIA has also promoted organic farming. Their work with organic farming involved strengthening local food markets, so that rural Mexican communities could both produce and consume their own organic food. This project proved very challenging in light of the implementation of NAFTA in 1994.

Desarrollo Integral has also done quite a bit of work in the area of environmental justice, promoting both recycling and compost throughout Morelos. The project they worked on most extensively in relation to environmental justice was Basura Cero – (Zero Trash) – an effort to spread awareness to the local community about the value of reducing consumption and trash production.

It is important to stress here that DIA does not implement or impose its own projects, but rather supports community groups in their own activities. DIA provides regular workshops on human rights and helps facilitate initiatives authored by the members of the various groups. Thus comes the importance of the word “autogestionario.” The term autogestión is prevalent throughout Mexico and is best translated as self-determination/self-management. The type of development DIA is trying to promote is one of self-determination, autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Desarrollo Integral Autogestionario receives funding from various sources. The most prominent one is Fundación Sergio Méndez Arceo (named after a famous bishop who pioneered liberation theology in Morelos). Tonia and Humberto also receive funding from the municipalities in which they work, and various government agencies.

Promotional video of La Fundación:

Funding for Desarrollo Integral Autogestionaro, A.C.

An analysis of these sources of funding recalls the political schema we drew with Bruno Barronet. Desarrollo Integral would fall under the category of moderate, reformist organizations that work alongside the government to carry out their social work. Additionally, exploring these sources of funding have helped us identify and locate governmental offices and agencies that provide financial support ecosol projects, including SEDESOL, INDESOL and Oportunidades. (Stay tuned for additional blog posts on these agencies).

Important themes from the interview:

• Economic solidarity as a codeword for political capital/purchase/leverage. Humberto made the astute observation that the term economic solidarity is heavily utilized by politicians and governmental figures in Mexico, though they might be from the far right. He related this to a larger history and reality in Mexico in which conservative actors employ the language of the left in order to gain credibility and support. Unfortunately the result is that the language becomes empty. For one, popular and politically correct codewords like economic solidarity are not largely employed by people on the ground, nor do rural indigenous communities know much about this academic terminology. Secondly, this language is largely employed by forces, agents and institutions that have little respect for the interests of the poor and marginalized. It is a great irony that marks Mexican politics. As Humberto put it, a far-right, neoliberal politician can declare his love for Zapata.

• Economic solidarity as an academic term. Building off of the last theme, it seems that economic solidarity is a term unrecognized by the rural poor in Mexico, though they have been engaging in it for centuries.

At the UNAM conference Atena and I had the pleasure of meeting Bruno Barronet, a French scholar who has been living in Mexico for quite a while now and has written two books on indigenous social movements and indigenous education in Mexico. His current research involves mapping economic solidarity in Mexico!

When we got together with Bruno at L’arrosoir d’Arthur (Cuernavaca’s French café and cultural bazaar), he began to map out the political setting of indigenous social movements in Mexico. The following diagram is a reproduction of what Bruno quickly scribbled in my notebook (click on thumbnail to enlarge image):

Homology between the leftist politics and economic solidarity in Mexico

This schema gives us an important political framework from which to examine the presence of economic solidarity in Mexico, particularly rural Mexico. Bruno’s diagram marks a sharp, albeit porous divide between two main threads within Mexican indigenous social movements. On the radical side of the spectrum is the CNI, Congreso Nacional Indigenista, and on the more moderate end is MIN – Movimiento Indigena Nacional. Economic solidarity is situated amidst these differences in ideology, policy and praxis.

The division between CNI and MIN begins to take root in 1995 during the rise of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de la Liberación Nacional). The radical, militant and far leftist segment of the spectrum is marked by a general distrust of the government and a strong will to establish independence from the state. The moderate side collaborates with the state and seeks to achieve legislation reform.

At its onset liberation theology in Mexico was radical in its involvement in social reform. Overtime, however, it has ventured more toward moderate politics. Now groups, actors and organizations affiliated with the church and/or liberation theologists exhibit far more collaboration with the state than they did in the 1970s.

L'arrosoir d'Arthur: meeting place with Bruno and our favorite place in town to study/work.

After mapping this diagram together, Bruno asked us to go through the organizations we had already visited to see if we could begin to situate them onto this political framework. It was an extremely helpful exercise and has certainly proved useful for our interviews with various cooperatives.

The following venn diagram is an example of that exercise, where we situated various organizations onto the leftist political framework (click thumbnail to enlarge image):

Grafting ecosol onto homologous political framework

Last Thursday, Sam, Mary Clare, Nour and I attended the “Taller de discusión sobre el cooperativismo y la economía solidaria”, (“Discussion workshop on cooperativism and the solidarity economy”) at the Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas (Institute of Economic Research) of the UNAM.
The panel was held by:

• Luis Lopezllera, President of Promoción del Desarrollo Popular A.C. (PDP). His organization articulates and supports initiatives for sustainable development in communities, like indigenous, rural and urban worker communities. It also organizes monthly “multitrueque”, or bartering  fairs where consumers and producers meet and local, fair-trade and ecological products are exchanged. It has also created an alternative community currency system called Tlaloc in operation since 1995 which is used at these fairs, as well as to exchange services. Luis was accompanied by Claudia, another coordinator of the Red Tlaloc.
• Mario Monroy, Director of the Intercultural Nöñho Institute, and 3 of its students. The university is a space for intercultural dialogue and education for the Nöñho community of San Ildefonso, a town located 3 hours north of Mexico City. It was founded in 2009 under the impulse of Jesuit figures of the liberation theology movement and the town’s Union of Cooperatives – San Ildefonso apparently counts very many cooperatives and other solidarity economy initiatives. It offers a Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship in Solidarity Economies.
• Marin Rubio López of the Cooperativa Unidad, Desarrollo y Compromiso, S.C de R.L. (Sociedad Civil de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable, Article 58 of General de Sociedades Mercantiles – “Artículo 58: Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada es la que se constituye entre socios que solamente están obligados al pago de sus aportaciones, sin que las partes sociales puedan estar representadas por títulos negociables, a la orden o al portador, pues sólo serán cedibles en los casos y con los requisitos que establece la presente Ley.”), based in Anenecuilco, Morelos, with several branches in the state, including one in Cuernavaca. It serves as a microcredit and a consumer coop, and offers alternative health services and products like homeopathy and acupuncture (“naturismo”, a well-known term and important movement that gathers steam in Mexico). Nour and I are going to visit this organization soon. We are invited to come on wednesdays, when it receives students from the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo of Morelos for studies on rural development (where Marin studied and which is known to form radical students, involved in Zapatista and indigenous movements).

We also met the socioanthropologist Bruno Baronnet at the conference; he is specialized in the Zapatista and indigenous movements and wrote two books on the matter. He lives in our little town of Ocotepec, and who is also mapping the solidarity economy in Mexico for the Colegio de la Frontera Sur, ECOSUR. We met with him the following day in Cuernavaca.
He told us that he found that the division between “radicals” and “moderates” in the Mexican left is homologous to that in the economic solidarity movement.
It has been evident to us that there are divisions within the Mexican solidarity movement, but as yet we had not clearly identified and articulated them. In light of what Bruno explained, there are on the one hand individuals, organizations and initiatives that are “reformists”, and linked with, and more or less dependent on political structures, like parties and governments. Bruno says that there are many leaders of the solidarity economy that support and may be affiliated with the PRD. He names ALCONA (Allianza Cooperativista Nacional) – which organised last month’s conference we attended in the Universidad Obrera – as pertaining to this category given its links to governmental bodies.
There are other individuals, organizations and initiatives that are more radical ideologically, and anti-institutional, anti-capitalist, nonpartisan, perhaps anarchist and armed. These include the EZLN and its villages, and the Congreso Nacional Indigena (CNI).

In light of what Bruno said, it is clear that Marin Rubio Lopez and his cooperative are of the latter category. Marin described himself as a zapatista and supporter of the indigenous autonomy movement. His interesting comments on the solidarity economy sheds some light on the particularity of the radical wing of the solidarity economy.

Marin said that the solidarity economy is based on utopian socialism that wants no private property and only common, social property; but to these ends uses different, utterly pacifist means. He then named a number of communities settled in communally owned land, like the Tzotzil of Chiapas as examples. He put emphasis on a distinction within the solidarity economy between attitudes of distance from political authorities and funds, for self-sufficiency and autonomy, and tendencies to systematically “bajar fondos”, literally “bring money down” from political institutions to fund initiatives. He was alluding to many organizations and projects of the solidarity economy; some no doubt were represented in the room.

He also spoke of a recent Workshop for the Identity of cooperatives (Taller de Identidad Cooperativa), where it was defended that cooperatives are not a social model of business (“empresa social”) but rather a not-for-profit form of human organization. This is another conceptual distinction that mirrors the one between radicals and reformists.

Cooperativism-alternative currency division
It is interesting to remember Luis Lopezllera’s intervention with Bruno’s analysis in mind. It seems that his commitment to the concept of alternative currencies places him más bien on the radical end of the spectrum, like Marin. However, we observe what is perhaps another division between cooperativism and alternative currency.

Luis suggested that using community currencies is tackling the neoliberal crisis at its root by challenging the authorities of the global monetary system upfront and truly empowering the people: “Quien tiene el poder de inventar el dinero?” (“Who has the power to invent money?”), he asks. He suggests that popular power is essentially the power to create, appropriate and use its own currency. He is radically distinguishing his discourse from that of cooperativism, which suggests that systems of communal production, consumption and ownership in themselves essentially constitute popular power. Luis contended that the “focalismo de Che Guevara” had failed. Creating local “focos”, where community needs are interpreted and dynamized to set the subjective conditions for local upheaval to be reproduced throughout Latin America), is an idea which Marin gave a “pacifist interpretation” and characterized as founding cooperativism, in his intervention half an hour earlier or so, which Luis probably interprets as drawing an unmediated local-global vector, between local necessities and global endeavors and ideology. Without giving further explanation, Luis contended that the alternative currency network bases itself in the “tejido de la sociedad”, in full acknowledgment of the demographic complexity of society without a global referent nor an endeavor to expand (on this point, Claudia of the Red Tlaloc gave further emphasis).

There seems to be a lack of cooperation between these different forces within the movement. Even within the cooperative movement there is disagreement, and many lament that there is a lack of unity and communication, as we discovered at the first conference we attended. Thus even similar initiatives within the ecosol movement find difficulty in building relationships of solidarity. Divisions, albeit porous, exist on political and ideological lines, and there appears to be competing, rather than collaborative, visions of economic solidarity.

Mary Clare’s question “what is the relationship and divisions between cooperatives and alternative currency?” was left unanswered. In the Taller, there seemed to be an effort not to articulate those divisions, and Nour and I became mostly aware of them in retrospect and by “reading between the lines” and by looking at the speakers’ history. Luis was involved in the syndicalist struggle of the Ferrocarriles and of the electricity workers – Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) – and was part of the network that fought against NAFTA: he has been engaged in a long and passionate anti-institutional and anti-capitalist struggle. Marin was involved in the Zapatista and indigenous movement. He also studied at Chapingo, a university in Morelos with a very radical Zapatista student body. His cooperative is based in Anenecuilco where Zapata was born. We will visit it on Thursday hopefully and be able to develop this argument. However, when we spoke to Marin after the conference, he said in reference to MC’s question that “he does not bother about differences in terminology and methodology”. It would be interesting to see if he acknowledges those divisions, and, as he said he does not bother about them, how he is able to bridge them if he does.

What do you think?

About the Cooperativa de Unidad, Desarollo y Compromiso of Marin Rubio: www.uom.edu.mx/rev_trabajadores/pdf/61/61_Enrique_Martinez.pdf

Bruno’s blog

This Saturday Mary Clare and I went to the concert given in support to the Yo Soy 132 movement of big punk-rock, ska mexican bands like Los de Abajo and Panteon Rococo
The enormous student movement expresses its indignation at the politics of the PRI and its presidential candidate Pena Nieto, ex-governor of Mexico state, and his links to the media conglomerate Televisa.

Here is a song that was sung

Panteon Rococo- A la izquiera y abajo (to the left and down)

Humberto and Antonia, Nour’s host father and mother, were great people to talk with about the solidarity economy. They are two of five members of a civil association called “Desarollo integral autogestionario” dedicated to solidarity economy, environmental sustainability and community development. It is part of the regional branch for the state of Morelos of the national organization Equipo Pueblo.

Equipo Pueblo is based and was cofounded in 1977 in Mexico City by Humberto and Antonia among others, including the famous radical bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo, to accompany and support efforts of organization between trade unions, teachers and campesinos to cooperate for labor rights, human rights and democracy. It entertained strong links abroad; for example, it received longlasting support from the Belgium-based European organization Frères des Hommes, the Belgian government, and the EEC. Humberto was appointed as coordinator of the Pueblo-Frères partnership. He says this partnership ended, the Belgian organization was weakened following the split in the 90′s between the Belgian-French and Flemish groups, its two main units. They asked Equipo Pueblo to choose between the two, a choice from which Equipo abstained by ending the partnership.

Desarollo Integral
In the 80′s Equipo Pueblo undertook a strategy of regionalization. In 1984 in Morelos was founded the regional Equipo, and in 1992 the organization “Desarollo Integral”. It draws links between sustainable development projects and its funding source, which often are municipalities and civil associations like the Sergio Méndez Arceo Foundation, with which it entertains a key partnership. In fact, Humberto and Antonia receive a salary from the municipality of Tlayacapan, a large town to the north of Morelos, and a stipend from the Sergio Méndez Arceo Foundation. Since the 80′s, they claim to have been salary worker for over 8 different municipalities across Morelos. In Tlayacapan they lead a project to promote alternative medicine: they support workshops for women to share and promote skills and knowledge about the medical properties of local plants and minerals. Another project is the Ruben Jaramillo foundation, which is a women cooperative that sells broderies. Another organization they support is one “that does everything”. It is best known for the support it lends to a fair – the “feria del pescado” – around the laguna of Coatetelco, where they sell local fish and artesania, and do a prehispanic thanksgiving ritual to the Goddess of Fertility who inhabits the laguna.

Projects of the recent past included:

1. a cooperative that recycled plastic to produce wall anchors for screws. Our friend Pancho worked there as a technician before working at ALEM. The cooperative fell apart in the 00′s.

2. a cooperative of farmers who once produced peanuts and then, under the pressure of competition from Argentinian peanut producers, turned to peanut candy production. They still exist now, but no longer as a cooperative. This story was interesting to us because Humberto then spoke of a Morelos-Chihuahua partnership where farmers from the North visited those to the South, and vice versa, to learn from each other.

Themes that ran through our discussion were:

1. the impact of NAFTA, free trade agreements and the Salinas presidency

2. the role of the Zapatistas in the solidarity economy

3. Sergio Méndez Arceo and Liberation Theology

4. the significance of the language of the “solidarity economy”

5. the need for communal ownership of land and farming cooperatives

www.equipopueblo.org.mx

fdh.org/

“Ilusionismo Social” has been at the center of our experience in Cuernavaca.
Translating from Principios de Ilusionismo Social written by Javier Encina, director of UNILCO- espacio nomada, and others:

“What we call social illusionism: is a form of doing [forma de hacer] that bases itself in a dialectic dimension, that has a point of departure in the participative methodologies (especially in the IAP [investigacion-accion participativa: a bottom-up participative method of education and training]) and that develops itself in work with popular cultures. As central axis it has the dynamization and generation of wished social mediations [mediaciones sociales deseadas] in daily spaces and times; for this, one works with and from the people [con y desde la gente], moving within the possible toward hope of the impossible, through the resourcefulness [auto-gestión] of daily life. Without distinguishing between the thinking and the feeling, action and knowledge, the recognition and learning of knowledges.”

Javier Encina, whom we will meet in July, is friends with our closest coworkers and friends here, Polina and Juan Manuel who also work at UNILCO, and Erik. UNILCO is the Universidad Libre para la Construcción Colectiva, the free university for collective construction. It is founded on the concept of ilusionismo social, which it practices and promotes in many parts of the world. It is based in Seville and has branches in Andalucía, Madrid, Canarias, Mexico, Argentina and France.

Ilusionismo social can be understood as a process that sets itself in the dialectic between wished mediations and imposed and consensual mediations, as understood from the article “Participando con y desde la gente” by Javier Encina. It is the reverse and reversal of disillusionment, in a movement from the realm of the possible (imposed and consensual mediations [mediations are collectively constructed ways of “doing/feeling/thinking the world”]) to the realm of the impossible (wished mediations).

Because ilusionismo social happens in daily life, within communities and popular culture, it promotes popular activities, skills and knowledge as well as recognized and intuitive social ties and exchanges in daily life. By the same token, and because it acts in the spaces and times of daily life [tiempos y espacios cotidianos], it progresses non-linearly, without devising a definite product or outcome, nor a methodology and the setting of definite goal and final products, which imply the imposition of an extraneous and inflexible rhythm, regime and authority. It is thus opposed to the reliance on and compliance to institutions of any kind. In these ways ilusionismo social expresses the autonomy, self-sustainability and self-empowerment of communities.

These ideas garner substance and depth for Nour and I day by day, as we work and live (wishing not to distinguish between the two, nor knowing how) with Juan Manuel, Erik and Polina, and participating in their projects at the Texcal and La Estacion (see Nour’s post). These are led by Juan Manuel and Polina with the support of  Erik and the Fundacion Comunidad, and are carried through along the axis of ilusionismo social.

Ilusionismo social at the Texcal
Here are some aspects of the community project at the Texcal that serve to understand ilusionismo social.
It was initiated two years ago with a Tendedero de los Deseos (a clothline of wishes) at different points in the apartment complex “Unidad El Paraje”, where anyone near could write what they wished for their community. They wished for facilities for composting and recycling (the private company who collects the trash of the area sets a high price  for each trash bag – five or ten pesos depending on its size), for a soccer field, etc.
Initiatives that followed included the rehabilitation of a semi-abandoned pool complex with the participation of the comuneros, who maintain the place, and neighbors of the Unidad, who walk and bathe there. Among these are the cultivation of mushrooms and chicken breeding in abandoned concrete structures.
There are regular meetings between neighbors of the Unidad, and often Erik, Juan Manuel, Polina and us, to appreciate and discuss ongoing and future projects surrounding recycling. These projects are supported by the nearby chemical company that is leading a water sanitation project, and called for this accompanying “social” project to ensure its sustainability. There have been altercations between the company and UNILCO because it has been demanding concrete results and a definite schedule; but these imply to measure and “increase” input from individuals and accelerate the pace of life, and such measures conflict with ilusionismo social.
Discussions are held in neighbor’s houses, and carried with joy and humor, non-hierarchically and informally. They are open to anyone, and, everytime, we’ve been with at least two children, sometimes babies. The last reunion I attended was held in a family’s garden, around snacks and tamarindo juice, to talk and record for a radio program. When the radio host didn’t show up, there was no sense of dependence on the person, nor of “not sticking to the plan”; we expressed ideas and wishes regardless. It was followed by lunch and conversation at a taqueria with many from the reunion, and others, that sometimes turned to burlesque political commentary which we called “un debate taquero”.
Though neither at the Texcal nor at the Estacion, the members of UNILCO are part of the community, they nonetheless are always welcomed and accompanied by people who, in turn, become friends, and themselvesrepresentatives of ilusionismo social. Little work is done off-site and individually by members of UNILCO; most, if not all, work is done on-site and collectively for mutual training, sharing and living together.
If for Nour and I ilusionismo social is at the heart of our experience here, it is because it also defines a mode of participatory research which we wish to adopt so that our presence and work as researchers may also directly support and inform the solidarity economy here. Ilusionismo social – for autonomous, self-sustainable communities and empowered popular cultures – finally defines for me an essential form of solidarity, perhaps an ideal for the solidarity economy, and a point of resistance against assistencialism and classical capitalism that are the predominant social development strategies in Mexico and worldwide.

Atena

Juan Manuel Zaragoza’s blog
Principles of Ilusionismo Social
UNILCO’s website

In order to better contextualize our research and volunteer work here in Mexico, I thought I would take the time to introduce Fundación Comunidad, Asociación Civil, a non-profit organization based in Cuernavaca where Atena and I will be volunteering throughout the summer. Fundación Comunidad is dedicated to co-investing in sustainable community initiatives that ensure improved quality of life and self-determination for marginalized populations in the state of Morelos. More specifically, Fundación’s work involves mobilizing resources to support Mexico’s civil society groups and their development efforts. Additionally, the foundation works to build and strengthen alliances between different sectors of society, thus drawing on values of cooperation and collaboration. Its work can be divided into two different segments: A) supporting communities to strengthen social networks and enhance basic capabilities; and B) increasing communities’ productive ability through training courses in both technical and administrative skills.

We have also been working alongside Juan Manuel Zaragoza and Polina Bugayev, two amazing individuals who are part of UNILCO (see Atena’s post). It is through them, and Erik Friend at Fundación Comunidad, that we have become aware of ilusionismo social and the presence of economic solidarity in Morelos.

In many ways the work of Fundación Comunidad embodies the principles underlying economic solidarity and ilusionismo social (see Atena’s post). Rather than impose its own development programs Fundación works with pre-existing initiatives and recognizes the ways in which Mexicans are already organizing on their own and building communities in the face of growing poverty and social inequality. Central to Fundación’s work is the value of solidarity, networking and creating spaces for various communities, actors and organizations to come together and share their experiences. As volunteers Atena and I have been able to observe that the work of Fundación is as much about creating and nurturing relationships with people as it is about carrying out a specific goal or project idea. Thus what we have experienced is a civil-society group that works with people, and not for them, replacing hierarchical structures of aid and development with horizontal exchange, commitment and comradeship.

Though ilusionismo social does not define itself as a form of solidarity economy, the two movements work intimately together and share common values, interests and principles of action. Both ideologies value local, grassroots, micro-level exchange. This exchange works across social frontiers of nationality, race, gender, and various other categories of exclusion and division. Paulo Freire’s language of conscientization is strong here, although I believe it is used here much more in the way Freire intended. As Juan Manuel once pointed out to us, the word ‘conscientization’ is employed liberally in Mexican social activism, but it often comes to resemble a model in which a sage and educated person implants knowledge or ‘conocimiento’ in the empty minds of the masses. Ilusionismo social borrows from Freiren thought, but instead envisions conscientization as an exchange of knowledge and experience, a type of pedagogy and learning that takes place through action, and not the transplantation of ideas from one class of people to another.

The following are brief descriptions of some of the activities and partnerships of Fundación Comunidad:

• ALEM: Autonomía, Libertad en Movimiento. ALEM provides vocational training and employment for people with disabilities. Its diverse staff manufactures and repairs custom-made wheelchairs, bicycles, tricycles, specialized furniture and personalized equipment. The employees at ALEM work closely with their clientele to develop products that answer specifically to the needs and preferences of the customer. This mechanical workshop includes departments in welding, sewing, and painting. ALEM also makes use of recycled materials, and collects broken wheelchairs for renovation and reuse. Through this recycling and restoration program ALEM is able to create a business that is simultaneously environmentally friendly, and economical for clients who do not have the means to purchase new wheelchairs. The other facet to ALEM’s work involves advocacy and community awareness. As a civil association ALEM is dedicated to challenging the social stigmatization and marginalization of people with different abilities. ALEM’s modus operandi is grounded in the value of “trabajo en red” or networking. In conjunction with the government of Morelos, Fundación Comunidad and various other civil-society groups, ALEM works to generate and promote public policy that is socially inclusive of the so-called ‘disabled.’ In addition to nurturing a more inclusive workplace for people with diverse abilities, ALEM seeks to provide spaces for informal education in an effort to provide alternatives to Mexico’s exclusive education system. Atena and I volunteer here twice a week and we have greatly enjoyed getting to know the ALEM family. The values of co-responsibility, cooperation and collaboration are very palpable here, where ALEM staff work in a non-hierarchical, horizontal environment. We have been working on the following volunteer projects:

1. Creation of a new brochure for ALEM
2. French translation of the official website
3. Design of a new logo to use on the mural in front of the workshop
4. Paint a new mural with the help of graffiti artists in the neighborhood
5. Oral histories of the staff at ALEM

ALEM staff member at work

ALEM staff member at wor

• La Estación. La Estación is a neighborhood in Cuernavaca. This community used to be the location of the main train station of Cuernavaca. In 1990 the Mexican government removed the passenger train system throughout the country. Most inhabitants of La Estación depended on the railroad as a source of livelihood, and as a result this government initiative brought significant change (and poverty) to the community. Nevertheless La Estación is an area of rich community development and solidarity. Fundación Comunidad has been supporting the construction of a new community center that will house a great number of formal activities. In anticipation of the creation of this new cultural center members of La Estación have already organized to provide daily breakfast to children of the community and a space where both adults and children can convene to participate in workshops and social events. Additionally Fundación Comunidad is assisting an oral history project in La Estación where a team of community members and Fundación staff are involved in collecting the testimonies of older generations. This project was initiated with the goal of preserving the memory and heritage of the community, and strengthening ties across age gaps. The purpose of this project is both internal and external – on the one hand it serves to bring together the community of La Estación, but it also works to spread awareness to Cuernavaca and the surrounding region. Indeed, La Estación faces a significant amount of stigmatization – it is a community that is perceived as dangerous, crime-ridden and vagrant by outsiders, and this oral history project is committed to shattering these misconceptions. Atena and I travel to La Estación once a week to assist the oral history project.

Community Center under construction. Left to right: Atena, Nour, Polina, Juan Manuel

Abandoned site of Cuernavaca's former train station - La Estación

• El Texcal. El Texcal is an apartment complex located outside of Cuernavaca. Together with the support of Fundación Comunidad, the community of Texcal is seeking to address issues of recycling, water access and water sanitation, ecological sustainability, and community development. Near this apartment complex is an abandoned water park [balneario] constructed in the late 1970s. Built on comunero land, the people of Texcal are seeking creative ways to reuse and revamp this abandoned space. They have began cultivating mushrooms there to provide more of a source of livelihood for the community. Juan Manuel, Polina and Erik have also been working with Buckman, a nearby factory, in an effort to address the contamination of Texcal’s main water supply. In the spirit of ilusionismo social, this collaboration and partnership has been nurtured in an effort to create long-term relationships. Instead of initiating a water-cleaning project that lasts only a year and results in a re-contamination of the water supply, Polina and Juan Manuel have sought to first establish a relationship that will allow for long-lasting change. Atena and I will be helping to start a recycling campaign in the community.
• Acopio San Anton. Acopio San Anton is a recycling center in a neighborhood of Cuernavaca. Rodrigo, one of the founders of the organization, began this initiative as a teenager when he noticed the dire need of recycling in his community. The acopio is a private organization, although it receives money from the government on an irregular basis.

• Symposio sobre la Justicia Ambiental. On Wednesday Atena and I attended a conference on environmental justice, hosted by Fundación Comunidad in partnership with the Pachamama Alliance. The focus of this symposium was to highlight the ways in which social justice, environmental justice and achieving sustainability are intimately connected.

These are just a few examples of the initiatives and communities that Fundación supports. Stay tuned for blog posts on “En el Fondo: el Agua,” “Cooperativa Bandera” “FEMIN” and “Equipo Pueblo!”

Nour

On our second day, we visited the central plaza of Mexico City – the Zocalo -, one of the largest city squares in the world, and once the center of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. Ever since then, it has been the stage for national celebrations, battles, ceremonies, parades, protests, like the zocalo, or plinth, of Mexican history.

Surrounded by the ruins of the Templo Mayor, a great aztec temple razed by Cortes, the Cathedral, the Palacio Nacional and other government buildings, around the huge Mexican flag, on the pavement of the squre stands an encampment – plantón – made of colored fabrics hung on polls. First pitched by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), it is now occupied by around 40 Mexican and international labor organizations, in protest against certain recent policies of the central government led by Felipe Calderón. Important among their supporters are Mexico’s independent labor federation, the National Union of Workers (UNT), and the U.S. labor federation, the AFL-CIO.

Since its inauguration in 2006, Calderón’s government has taken many measures that fragilize unions and criminalize union activity (and try to intimate political dissent in general). They include:

• spurious legal charges against unions. For example, the Procuraduría General de la República - the office of the General Prosecutor – has drawn up charges for fraud against the SME’s General Secretary Martín Esparza, Secretary of Labor Eduardo Bobadilla. These are based on actions done two years earlier: the SME’s attempt to withdraw money, with authorization by a judge, from its own bank account after it was frozen by government authorities.
• new anti-union labor laws. Among these is one that jeopardizes the union’s democracy and independence by giving the government -the Secretary of Labor- the power to accept or reject democratically elected union officials, violating international labor standards.
• take over of unions’ facilities. For example, in October 2011, Calderón issued a decree that ordered police and military units to seize the facilities of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, the state power supplier, for the “extinction” of the company. Its 44,000 employees were terminated, and their union membership. Most were members of the highly militant SME, and 16 000 refused severance and continue to fight for their jobs with the union.

• increase in army and police presence and activity. For example, the federal police is seen all around the encampment of the Zocalo, though it is peaceful. Interestingly, it is also being argued that Calderón’s ongoing “war on drugs” that legitimates the deployment of around 50 000 soldiers and 35,000 federal police since its declaration in 2006, serves also to intimidate political militancy and activism, and unions’ demonstrations especially. It is said to be in reaction to events such as the great protest in Oaxaca in 2006 when the local teacher’s union occupied the city and set up a popular government in opposition to the state’s governor Ruiz Ortiz, which resulted in a violent police crackdown.

Driving down last week from Ocotepec, a town where Nour and I live, once an ancient Aztec village, known for celebrating its indigenous roots and actively defending its autonomy against central municipal authorities of Cuernavaca and commercial interests, we drove past perhaps eight army trucks and jeeps on their way up. Like in a parade, the soldiers were holding machineguns well in view, and one man standing at the back of each vehicle held it up horizontally in shooting position. After the last armored truck had passed, our friend Juan Manuel said to us, “Ya van por el desayuno”, they are going to breakfast. Whether recent acts of local militancy and the military parade are related or not, it was a show of power that probably could not inspire feelings of security among many in Ocotepec. This recent increase in police and army force has quite obviously now failed to intimidate protesters, especially those camping at the Zocalo.
Tonight Justin Bieber gives a concert at the Zocalo, where 200,000 fans are expected. This may be Calderon’s new strategy, to hire Bieber in the hope that he and his girls finally oust the unioners.

Crecerá el campamento del SME en el Zócalo capitalino: www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/02/01/politica/013n1pol

Mexican Electrical Workers occupy Zocalo: www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=node/1711

Decreta Calderón la extinción de Luz y Fuerza: www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/10/11/index.php?section=politica&article=005n1pol

socialistworker.org/2009/10/23/mexican-union-fights-for-life