The Social Economy as the Economics of Liberation

The four oppressions!

Capitalism—source of oppression: overwhelming rights of capital

Colonialism—source of oppression: global extension of capitalism

Communism—source of oppression: excessive power of the state

Patriarchy—source of oppression: unequal relationships between sexes

World Social Forum, Porto Alegre

Liberation from capitalism

This is where co-operation started The Webbs and the Miners’ next step Reclaiming surplus value Challenging the power of capital to buy

labour Robert Owen, William Morris and the utopian

community Guild socialism

Liberation from colonialism

Imperialism as a global extension of capitalism

Colonialism as the institutionalisation of global capitalism

Challenge engendered inferiority Ghandi’s ideas of Swaraj Vandana Shiva and the subsistence

perspective

From Medellin to Porto Alegre Latin bishops’ conference, Medellin, 1968, created

the term ‘institutionalised violence’ Comunidades eclesiales de base (CEBs: local

church communities) Gustavo Gutierrez Merino (born 1928, Lima, Peru),

A Theology of Liberation (1972) Leonardo Boff (born 1938, Concórdia, Brazil),

Church: Charism and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church

Eliminated by JPII and Cardinal Ratzinger

The concept of ‘emancipatory praxis’ Everyday experience of poverty: mutualism as a

practical rather than ideologically driven response Uses a radical reintepretation of the Bible. Jesus as

revolutionary. Marxist ideas of class struggle Deeply rooted in the local Church: importance of

mutualism as local solutions Change grows out of meetings to discuss scripture:

community involvement Realisation of the Kingdom of God on earth:

importance of utopian project: coops as real change agents rather than the ‘lottery mentality’, living on dreams, encouraged by the conventional economy

Social economy in the poor countries Social economy grew under the Pinochet dictatorship in

Chile, as a source of resistance and mutual support: from 15% of the workforce in Santiago in 1970 to some 20% by 1982. Provides around a third of jobs in the poorer quarters of Santiago.

MST in Brazil and the peasant challenge to state support for neoliberal, neocolonial land ownership patterns

Case-study from Argentina: The Take, taking over factories left idle because of financial collapse

Côte d'Ivoire: 827,000 small farmers are co-operative members

Nicaragua: 78 per cent of maize and 59 per cent of beans are cooperatively marketed

Liberation from communism

Concentration of state power: loss of initiative Issue of scale: one bicycle factory Party replaces community Bureaucracy creates inefficiency

Co-operatives in Central and Eastern Europe Gorbachev hoped to liberalise via co-ops Lost history of co-operation in Czech

Republic: in 1994 new agricultural coops operated on 47 per cent of cultivated land and controlled 67 per cent of production

Cooperative is frequently co-opted by the state and now not trusted

Liberation from patriarchy

‘Sisterhood is powerful’ Women’s strength in community Reproductive labour A different attitude to resources: ecofeminism

The Holy Family

Extended by Engels in his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1942)

In communal economies women are equal or more powerful (matrilineality)

The growth in private property undermines the role of women

Men's ability to generate a surplus creates patriarchy where women (and slaves) become themselves the property of father and husband.

Feminist views of patriarchy

Feminists focus on women's work as reproductive rather than productive labour

The invisible nature of women's work The iceberg model (Maria Mies) Ecofeminists argue that loss of

embeddedness is source of spiritual and environmental alienation

Are women natural co-operators? Ease of access to finance Sharing of skills and building of confidence Micro-finance developed in women’s co-ops

and businesses Could this idea be based on stereotyping?

What do the four have in common? Concentration of power [democratisation] Inequality of access to resources [equality] Alienation [empowerment] Self-delusion [self-realisation] Isolation [mutuality, reciprocity, sharing]

Assess the four concepts in terms of the three organisational forms

Democratisation Equality Empowerment Self-realisation Mutuality

Social firm

Social enterprise

Co-operative