Original version in Portuguese is available at: http://base.socioeco.org/docs/cartilha_fbes.pdf

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Campanha da Fraternidade Ecumênica (Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign) 2010

Conselho Nacional de Igrejas Cristãs do Brasil (National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil) -CONIC

Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy - FBES

SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

another economy IN SERVICE FOR LIFE is happening

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SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

another economy in service for life is happening

Text edited by: Ademar Bertucci, Claudia Lima, Daniel Tygel, Fernanda Nagem, RizoneideAmorim, Robson Patrocínio de Souza, Rosana Kirsch and Shirlei Silva.

Revised by: Divina Queiroz

English translation: Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota

Graphic design and illustrations: Engenho – support in communication

Printing:

Number of copies:

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Presentation

The idea to publish a booklet for people specifically on solidarity economy came up afterdialogues between the Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy, the Cáritas Brasileira, the InstitutoMarista de Solidariedade and the Conselho Nacional de Igrejas Cristãs do Brasil - CONIC.Dialogues was done within the framework to prepare for the Campanha da Fraternidade

Ecumênica (Ecumenical Fraternity Campaign, CFE) 2010 which will have “Economy and Life” astheme and “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6,24) as slogan. The booklet is partof the whole series of materials of the EFC 2010 which will be distributed all over Brazil.

It’s born at a special moment, when the Campanha da Fraternidade Ecumênica brings thechance for us to talk on Economy as something which makes part of our day-to-day life as lifemanagement.

The word “Economy” means “taking care of the house”. Then, when we talk about managementor caretaking of the house, we’re already practicing Economy. But about which “house” are wetalking? About our planet, our country, our state? About the neighbourhood where we live?About our schools, theatres, movies, squares? All this is my house where I live with thousandsand millions of people.

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This poses us another question: “in which way do I contribute for the well-being in my house, inmy neighbourhood, in my city and in all other spaces where I show my presence, I live and Iparticipate?”. We believe that the Solidarity Economy gives answers to these questions, or atleast a path to answer them!

Given the importance of the theme of the CFE 2010 “Economy and Life”, the Fórum Brasileiro deEconomia Solidária (Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy, FBES) took the initiative to edit thisbooklet “Solidarity Economy: another economy in SERVICE FOR LIFE is happening”. Thisbooklet’s goal is to show what the Solidarity Economy in Brazil is, its basis, principles, struggles,conquests and organisation in states and cities.

We hope that this material should be more than a study tool on solidarity economy, should getpublished to facilitate our dialogue with other social movements and different players andpeople of the society, and should contribute to think the economy in service for theimprovement of the life in all its dimensions.

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PART I

Why another economy?

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1.1 TO BEGIN OUR TALK...

When we talk about ECONOMY we’re dealing with those activities to produce, distribute,commercialise and consume goods and services. The term economy comes from Greek, madeup of the words oikos (house) and nomos (habits or law). Then came its meaning as thecaretaking with the house, with the environment where people live. To take care means toattend the needs of the house, in other words, those who make up for the house.

Despite that the origin of the term mentions a width of private life (of family, of the house), theeconomy is a social activity, or it´s practiced in the society because it includes relationship whichis established among people of a community, of a country, of the world, our planet. Therefore,we can understand the house in the broadest way: the place where we live, the environmentwhere we are with other people, with (economic, political, cultural, social) institutions and withother beings of the nature.

We can understand better the meaning of the economy as the whole series of social activities orways to solve relationship between existing needs (of people and of human groups or societies)and the available resources to satisfy them.

A way which became popular to ponder on the economy begins with the principle that needsare many or unlimited while resources are few or limited. This means that the economy is leadby the scarcity of the resources. Then came up the understanding that being economical(economise) is to be efficient, in other words, to attend more for more needs with less resources,which are scarce.

In some way it makes sense. We know, for instance, that the nature has limits and that it’snecessary to take care of her so that the economic exploitation of the natural resources shouldnot be incompatible with the life of the planet and should not put jeopardise the life of presentand future generations.

The problem is that not always the available resources are enough to attend everybody’s needs,exactly because they’re concentrated to the few. In this case, if you say that resources are scarcefor many people’s needs, you are only advocating a way to organise the economy of abundancefor the few.

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Let’s understand better: the way adopted by people and economic, political and socialinstitutions to solve the relation between the satisfaction of needs and availability of resourcesdefines the ECONOMIC SYSTEMS. We’re talking about systems to organise production,distribution and consumption of goods and services.

These economic systems are part of the day-to-day life of people, of nations and the wholeworld. To explain it even better, if the economic system works to pile up the resources (goods,wealth) to satisfy, above all, the needs of who already own them, it creates inequality amongpeople, among communities, among regions and countries. The pursuit for the accumulation ofwealth generates deaths, including in the wars which are always triggered by economic interests,death done by famine, by diseases and by lack of knowledge.

This isn’t news because, with some few exceptions, the society in which we live works exactly thisway.

1.2. THE ECONOMY TODAY IS SERVING FOR THE CAPITAL

In the CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM economic activities are targeted to generate wealth tobe accumulated or appropriated by those who own goods, capital, resources and knowledge.The capital’s base is the private property of goods, of resources and, what’s the most importantabove others, of means and of factors of production: devices, enterprises, land property etc.

In the capitalist societies, those who have none of these resources can’t satisfy their basic needs(food, house, protection, health, transportation, education, leisure...) and remain poor.

On top of that, those who have neither goods nor resources have to sell their capacity to workto generate wealth. That’s why, most people only own their own WORKforce which is sold forthose who already have accumulated goods and wealth (the CAPITAL), in exchange for a salary.Even so, most salaried workers can’t satisfy their fundamental needs with the income that theyget in the work. What’s worse is that sometimes they even don’t know how to exercise this“freedom” or need to sale their workforce. So the unemployment means the condemnation tothe misery for millions of people.

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The social inequality is a result of an economic system which is directed for the production ofwealth to be concentrated to those who already own capital (the capital) and to keep the socialinequality. They resort to their desire for profit, at any price. Poverty and misery areconsequences of this concentration of wealth for some, while most people can’t satisfy theirbasic needs in a good manner. Poverty is to have no access to food, to house, to protection, tohealth, to education… It doesn’t only mean to have no income (money).

Economic, social, political and cultural institutions which were conceived in this systemreproduce the social inequality. Conquests by pro-democracy movements are importantbecause they can trigger internal contradictions in these societies, with the warrant of the right

to organise the society – in social and political movements – to pressure for changes ininstitutions to reduce such inequalities and to build other economic systems.

1.3. WILL THERE BE SOME WAYS?

So it’s possible to think about other possibilities to organise the economy whose goal isn’t tomake money nor serves for the thirst for profits to be accumulated to generate inequality. Willit be possible to satisfy needs with available resources? It’s possible to reconsider the economy,to define what to produce, when to produce, how much to produce and for whom to produceon the basis of other values – of justice, of equality, of solidarity.

This is what we’re talking about: the economy can generate equalities, as far as it’s directed forsocial justice, which means the fair sharing of goods and resources to satisfy everybody’s needsand no some people’s.

Before going ahead in this subject, let’s understand why it’s urgent and necessary to buildanother economy and what to do so that it can come true.

1.4. THINK ANOTHER ECONOMY BOUND FOR ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT

THE DEVELOPMENT has been interpreted and sought for by people and societies as progress: apromise of the future. The enhancement of material wealth and the generation of well-being –of comfort – leads to the satisfaction of human needs.

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The expansion of the current concept of development, understood as economic growth,happened in the middle of the 20th century, after the World War II, when a global climate wasbrewed up in favour of the so-called “development”, whose driving force consisted of theindustrialisation and urbanisation. The growth of the economy, measured by the increase ofproductivity and of the production of wealth, by the enhancement of capacity to consume incities and by the technological modernisation, in the production and in consumer goods, turnedto be synonym of development.

Actually, this concept of development is now in crisis! The promise of future came true in somecountries and only for a fistful of people. Economic and social indicators point out theborderlines of poverty and of richness among continents, countries and their populations. It’sabout a development model whose base is the constant increase of economic profitability andof competitiveness at markets, disrespecting social and environmental aspects, and as a resultpractices of competition, domination, corruption, accumulation, individualism, fragmentation,exploitation and submission etc. are prevailing in the society.

The degradation of the environment and the worsening of the social inequalities endangerpresent and future generations. In some cases, contrary to the promise of future, the capitalistmodel of development destroys that possibility, just like past civilisations did, trying to destroyor submit traditional cultures which currently resist, promotes the exploitation of naturalresources as much as possible and introduces sophisticated techniques which replace thehuman labour, leading to a degradation of people’s life standard.

In the midst of the 21st century, we witness a social setback, in a world characterised by thefamine of food and justice! The FOOD CRISIS is a result of the agro-financial speculation whichraises food prices artificially at markets; of obscene consumption and waste of food by a smallpart of population; of a sort of intensive agriculture which devastates the land, wastes water andsuffocates the rural family agriculture, among other factors. The truth is that the number ofstarving people in the world increased. In the last few years we could witness the “Famine War”caused by the absurd food prices in many impoverished countries.

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The current ECONOMIC CRISIS is the result of the current model of the domineering speculativefinancial capital, or in other words, of gambles at markets. Who pays the bill of this crisis areworkers; the unemployment increases; wage cut makes workers poor; precarious jobs increase,among other consequences. Due to this, millions of people, especially in impoverishedcountries, make up for the queue of extreme poverty, increasing the dependence on assistanceprogrammes, if they exist.

Another current consequence produced by this model of development is the ECOLOGICALCRISIS. Our planet Earth is at stake! Symptoms are becoming more and more obvious to showclimate changes as consequences of the substantial increase of air pollution with concentrationof carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide, triggering green gas effect and global warming.The natural resources, which are vital to our survival, give signals of scarcity and depletion: thesoil is threatened, with part of farming fields in the status of degradation and desertification;millions of people live in regions of chronic scarcity of water, among other symptoms.

In short, this is what we call as UNSUSTAINABILITY. This was why Celso Furtado warned, still inthe beginning of 1970s, that these crises are part of the way the very capitalism is.

“The lifestyle created by the industrial capitalism will always be a minority’s privilege. The costthat we have of pillage from the physical world, of this lifestyle is so high that every trial togeneralise it would lead mercilessly to the collapse of a whole civilisation, jeopardising thesurvival of the human species“ (The Myth of the Economic Growth – Celso Furtado, 1974)

The criticism on the limits of the economic growth stimulates the debate on the SUSTAINABILITYof the development as the harmonisation among social justice, ecological prudence, efficiencyand political citizenship. The recognition onto the unity of life on the Earth requires the balanceamong these different environmental, social, cultural, political and economic dimensions ofdevelopment.

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The other perspective to change the current direction of development is the SOLIDARITY:inclusion of everybody into the benefits given by the development as right of the citizenship.It’s about the valorisation of cooperation, of collective and shared responsibility in favour of theconstruction of a fairer society, overcoming socioeconomic, ethnic, gender and generationalinequalities.

1.5. ANOTHER ECONOMY IS POSSIBLE

The colonising and dominant vision of the capitalist economic system denied and broke almostcompletely all the other ways to run economy, especially the ways in which people andtraditional communities (indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and peasants’ ones, among others)produced their life conditions, satisfied their needs and developed their skills, considering andvalorising the environment, their beliefs and the respect for the life.

So it’s necessary to rescue and to (re)introduce this and other values into the essence of theeconomy. The starting point is to recognise the existence of material limits for the economicgrowth and the unfeasibility to keep the growing internal inequality in countries, between thebeneficiaries and the marginalised of the process and among nations.

What would be, then, the economic alternative for a sustainable development? This questionhas been done many years ago and, although there’re little advertisements, there’re manyalternatives and experiments which can lead to a satisfactory answer to the very question.

Today we know that for an economy to be sustainable it’s necessary to be adequate to the localconditions, to the environment, considering ecological diversities – biomass and ecosystems –and to the diversities of culture, of communities and of traditional ethnic people.

It’s also required to democratise the access to necessary means for the production of goods andservices, like production means and natural goods. In Brazil, for instance, the strategy ofsustainable rural development should enable the access to the land for rural workers to developfarming activities which can warrant

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food and nutritional security, attending to the needs of the internal market, guaranteeing thesocial function of farmers’ property, raising its yield and, basically, distributing the yield betterfor the sake of the whole collectivity.

On top of that, for the development to be sustainable it’s necessary to be lead for the conquestof new rights: of access and use of healthy environment, of cultural diversity, of people’s self-determination and of gender, racial and ethnic equality. The life quality will be understood asright to a decent life, to the realisation of aspirations and of everybody’s skills.

Another way for the sustainability is the valorisation of solidarity economy initiatives on thebasis of the associativism, in the cooperation and their different alternative ways of solidarity innetwork.

1.6. BUT WHAT IS THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY?

The Solidarity Economy is a way to make the economic activity of production, offer of services,commercialisation, finances and consumption based on democracy and on cooperation, whatwe call as self-management. In other words, in the solidarity Economy there are neitheremployers nor employees, as every member of the enterprise (association, cooperative or group)are at the same time workers and owners.

The Solidarity Economy is also a way to create and consume (at home, at events or at workplace)local and healthy produces of the Solidarity Economy which neither affect the environment norhas GMO nor benefits big corporations.

The Solidarity Economy is a social movement which struggles for social change, by way ofanother development method which is based neither on big corporations nor on latifundia withtheir owners and stockholders, but is a development for people and built by people on the basisof values of solidarity, of democracy, of cooperation, of environmental preservation and ofhuman rights.

And last but not least, it isn’t only a dream, a hope, it’s already happening in different parts ofthe world. You can find somebody well aware of it quite close to you!

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This another economy appreciates labour more than capital, contributing for the developmentof peoples’ skills, with the collective management (self-management) of economic activities andwith sharing the result of the work, considering the whole human being as subject and goal ofthe economic activity.

In this way, the 1st National Conference of Solidarity Economy, which took place in 2006,affirmed that the solidarity economy is a strategy for the sustainable and solidarity-baseddevelopment, generating jobs and distributing income by way of an economic growth withecosystem protection.

The solidarity economy owns the following features:

- the cooperation as existence of common interests and objectives, linkage of efforts and skills,collective ownership of goods, sharing of results and solidarity-based responsibility on potentialtasks. It includes different sorts of collective organisation which can add a whole range ofindividual and family activities;

- the self-management is the guideline for a series of democratic and participatory practices inday-to-day strategic decisions of the enterprises, above all in terms of the choice of leaders andof coordination of actions in its different levels and interest, in the definition of workingprocesses, in decisions about the application and distribution of results and surplus, on top ofthe collective ownership of the whole or part of goods and means of production for theenterprise.

- The solidarity is shown in different dimensions, from the accumulation of participants’ mutualefforts to achieve common goals; in values which show the fair distribution of achieved results,in chances which bring to the development of participants’ skills and to the improvement oftheir life standard; in relations to be established with the environment, showing the compromisewith the healthy environment; in relationships to be established with the local community; in theactive participation into

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sustainable development processes on the communitarian, regional and national basis; inrelationship with the other social and people’s movements of emancipating character; in theconcern with the well-being of the workers and consumers and respecting workers’ rights; and

- the economic action is one of the bases to motivate the cohesion of personal efforts andresources and of other organisations for production, benefits, credit, commercialisation andconsumption, which includes elements of economic feasibility, pierced into by efficiency andeffectiveness standards, as well as cultural, environmental and social aspects.

1.7. THE RECENT TRAJECTORY OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMY IN BRAZIL

The solidarity economy isn’t today’s invention. It already has a long history, both in Brazil and inother countries. We can say that one of the first sources are indigenous people, who culturallypracticed and still practice their economy on the basis of sharing and solidarity. According to

Paul Singer, the urban origin of solidarity economy comes from workers’ historic struggle in thebeginning of the 19th century, under the form of cooperativism, as one of ways of resistanceagainst the overwhelming advance of industrial capitalism.

In Brazil, it surges again at the end of the 20th century as workers’ answer to the new ways ofexclusion and exploitation in the labour world. In the countryside, the solidarity economy hasbeen adopted as a way to organise productive activities at settlements of agrarian reform, infamily farming, in the handicrafts, in traditional fishing activities, beekeeping, among others.Traditional communities and people, such as the indigenous, Afro-Brazilians, and waterside ones,also understand solidarity economy more and more as strategy to promote the endogenousdevelopment (development which respects these peoples’ ethnic and cultural features).

In urban areas, the solidarity economy has been receiving incentives by people’s urbanmovements and syndical ones, as strategy of economic organisation and alternative tounemployment, in the

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following initiatives: the strengthening of people’s cooperativism and of associativism of smallindividual and family producers; the creation of barter clubs, community banks and solidarityfunds; in the process to recover enterprises which were on the bankrupt process and that arerecovered by their former employees in the form of self-management. In this way, the solidarityeconomy has been shown, in the last few years, as innovative alternative to create jobs andincomes and as an answer in favour of the social inclusion.

A portrait of the solidarity economy in Brazil

The Sistema de Informações em Economia Solidária (Information System in Solidarity Economy,SIES) identified, between 2005 and 2007, 21,859 Solidarity Economic Enterprises (EES inPortuguese abbreviation). These enterprises have approximately 1,700,000 male and femaleassociates. The survey was done at 2,934 municipalities (52% of municipalities in Brazil), by theNational Secretary of Solidarity Economy (SENAES in Portuguese abbreviation), in partnershipwith the Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy (FBES in Portuguese abbreviation) and other civilsociety organisations. In other words, it’s not about a census and there’re still many to beidentified in Brazil.

The main motives to create EES are: alternative to the unemployment (46%), complement tomembers’ income (44%) and access to more income in an associative activity (36%). In order toattain that, EES develop a wide variety and impressive amount of products and services, with themost frequently mentioned ones those related to farming and cattle raising activities, huntingand fishing (42%), production of foods and beverages (18.3%); different handicrafts (13,9%);

textile production and ready-made clothes (10%) and provision of services (7%). These productsand services are aimed prevailingly to local spaces, to local and communitarian businesses andmunicipal markets/businesses.

Despite the importance that they’ve been winning, these enterprises show huge fragilities andface with enormous difficulties: 68% of mapped Solidarity Economy Enterprises referred to thecommercialisation as main bottleneck of their activities, 53% referred to the access to credit and27% referred to the lack of technical assistance, basically in the field of technical training. Thisreality requires the strengthening of organisation process of solidarity economy in Brazil.

1.8. THE POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMY IN BRAZIL

The solidarity economy in Brazil is going ahead in its political organisation, building forums andnetworks. Since the beginning of 1980s we have seen the emergence of some support initiativesand organisations for solidarity economy, such as the Alternative Communitarian Projects, withincentives from the Cáritas Brasileira; the farming cooperation at settlements of agrarian reform,organised by the MST (Landless Workers’ Movement), among others. This process won its driveduring 1990s, with the following initiatives:

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- the creation of ANTEAG (Portuguese: Associação Nacional de Trabalhadores de Empresas deAutogestão, National Association of Workers of Self-managed Enterprises), articulatinginitiatives of enterprises recovered by workers and other self-managed enterprises.

- in the actions which give incentives to solidarity social economy of the Projeto Alternativas doCone Sul (Alternative Project of South Cone, PACS) which, together with other organisations,resulted in the creation of the Brazilian Network of Solidarity Social Economy;

- in the initiatives promoted by the Action of the Citizenship Against Famine and Misery and ForLife, encouraged by the sociologist José Herbert de Souza, Betinho, together with hundreds ofNGOs and public entities;

- with the surge of the Incubadoras Tecnológicas de Cooperativas Populares (TechnologicalIncubators of People’s Cooperatives, ITCP) which were organised in ICTP Networks and with theUniversity Work network which enhanced the horizons of university extension withemancipating character, engaging universities with the promotion and support to initiatives ofsolidarity economy in urban communities where extreme poverty is concentrated.

- with the recognition and adhesion of the part of syndical movement, shown in the creation ofthe Agência de Desenvolvimento Solidário (Solidarity Development Agency) and CUT (Central

Única dos Trabalhadores, Unified Workers' Central) which came to support different initiatives ofsolidarity economy with the support and mobilization of labour unions.

- with experiences of governmental actions in support for solidarity economy, highlighting casesof Porto Alegre, Belém, Santo André and later Recife and São Paulo, as the most emblematicones, and the State Government of Rio Grande do Sul as the pioneer, in the end of 1990s, in theimplementation of state-level policies.

An important qualitative step forward in the organisation happened in 2001, with the creation ofthe Brazilian Working Group of Solidarity Economy at World Social Forums, articulating thesedifferent initiatives to organise. The achievement of this working group brought viability andprovided exchange of experiences and integration among different practices of solidarityeconomy in Brazil and in different parts of the world. As the strong contribution of organisationprocess for World Social Forum, the movement of solidarity economy grew and wasstrengthened all over the national territory.

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All these efforts came to realise the 1st National Plenary of Solidarity Economy, in 2002, at SãoPaulo/SP, which started the elaboration of a National Platform of Solidarity Economy anddecided to demand the recently-elect government to create public policies on SolidarityEconomy.

In 2003, the National Secretary of Solidarity Economy was founded within the Ministry of Labourand Employment, fruit of joint political efforts of a series of organisations which act withsolidarity economy in Brazil.

At the same time, in June 2003, the 3rd National Plenary of Solidarity Economy took place,creating the Fórum Brasileiro de Economia Solidária (Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy,FBES). The FBES is a tool of the Solidarity Economy movement, a space of articulation anddialogue among different players and social movements for the construction of solidarityeconomy as fundamental base of another socio-economic development of the country,departing from the local reality, in an ecologically sustainably and solidarity-based way. Todaythere’re more than 120 Micro-regional Forums and 27 State Forums (all states which make upBrazil) all over the country with the participation of more than 3,000 solidarity-based enterprises,500 counseling entities and 100 representatives of municipal and state governments. The FBESis also compromised to build the solidarity economy movement at the international level by wayof the Intercontinental Network of Promotion of Social and Solidarity Economy and in theMERCOSUR level of Solidarity Economy.

Also in 2003 the Network of Governmental Public Policymakers of Solidarity Economy wasfounded. These networks articulate governments’ policy initiatives which exist since 1980s, withthe aim to enhance the public tools to stimulate and develop solidarity economy, as well as tostimulate and strengthen social organisation and participation of this segment in the decisionon public policies.

As people go ahead in terms of organisation process, in 2004 the 1st National Meeting ofSolidarity Economy Enterprises took place, with more than 1,000 enterprises, showing the hugeeconomic and cultural diversity achieved by the solidarity economy in Brazil.

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In this period, linkages and unions of already existing solidarity-based enterprises, such as theANTEAG and CONCRAB (Confederação de Cooperativas de Reforma Agrária, Confederation ofCooperatives of Agrarian Reform) were strengthened and new national-level organizations wasfounded, such as the União das Cooperativas de Agricultura Familiar e Economia solidária(Union of Cooperatives of Family Agriculture and Solidarity Economy, UNICAFES) and União eSolidariedade de Cooperativas e empreendimentos de Economia Social (Union and Solidarity ofCooperatives and Enterprises of Solidarityh Economy, UNISOL Brasil).

The solidarity economy in Brazil has also been conquering the public support and recognition.On top of the creation of the National Secretary of Solidarity Economy (SENAES), there’re aseries of actions developed by other government organisations in support for solidarityeconomy, in programmes to face with the poverty; of food and nutritional security; tostrengthen family agriculture and agrarian reform; of regularisation of land ownership byindigenous people, Afro-Brazilians and peasants; of mental health; of social and professionalqualification; of education of the youth and adults; of sustainable and solidarity-basedcommunity development; of promotion of gender, racial and ethnic equality, among others..

In 2006 the 1st National Conference of Solidarity Economy took place, mobilising more than15,000 people at participatory stages (at state and micro-regional levels) and 1,200 people atthe national level. The Conference established guidelines, goals and priorities for public policieson solidarity economy, as right of the civil society and obligation of the State.

Soon after the Conference, the National Council of Solidarity Economy was set up, with 56members, with 13 from Ministries of the Federal Government, 3 public banks, representatives ofthe Forum of Secretaries of Labour of State Governments and of the Network of municipalPublic Policymakers, representatives of solidarity economy enterprises and support andstimulating entities which act with solidarity economy.

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PART II

Another economy is already happening

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When we say that “Another Economy is Happening,” we are referring to the practices ofSolidarity Economy to be inserted into the flag put at the 4th National Plenary of FBES, and thatappear in the initiatives of: production, solidarity-based commercialisation and consumption,training in solidarity economy, legal framework and solidarity finance. You can find theseinitiatives at activities of:

- family members who work for agroecology-based agriculture;

- urban and semi-urban communitarian vegetable-gardens;

- different sorts of self-managing workers’ cooperatives;

- self-managing enterprises;

- associated production workshops;

- commercialisation centres of family farmers;

- craftmen’s assoiations;

- self-managing schools and projects of education for workers and associates;

- workers’ organisations of solidarity economy;

- organisations of solidarity-based microcredit1

- self-managing consumers’ organisations;

- self-managing community banks;

- solidarity-based funds for internal reinvestments;

- groups of solidarity-based barter;

- counseling entities of solidarity economy;

1 Miguel: Não consegui achar uma tradução direta do termo “fundo rotativo” em inglês. Acho que precisariamosexplicar o que é o fundo rotativo porque não é um conceito bem conhecido fora do Brasil. / I couldn’t find thedirect translation of the term “fundo rotativo” in English. So I think we need to explain what the fundo rotativo isbecause it isn’t something well known out of Brazil.

- networks of solidarity economy action public policymakers;

- network of university incubators for solidarity economy enterprises among others.

This part of our booklet shows the basic flags and conquests of Solidarity Economy these years.

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2.1 BUILDING THE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION, THE FAIR TRADE AND THE SOLIDARITY-BASEDCONSUMPTION

In the global scene, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulates this development model aswell as our consumption. Every year the World Economic Forum takes place at Davos, in theSwiss Alpes. It’s a space where rich countries, especially United States, are used to show theirplatforms to promote free trade and liberal economic policies, with the aim to define where theinternational trade is heading for as well as to influence and define the flux of internationalproduction and consumption from the economic interests of big groups. Such encountersdefine what should be produced in the world, where priorities are given for investments (inwhich territories to invest) and in which way countries (nation states) will behave, internally andexternally, from such pre-defined priorities.

What drives these groups’ interests and priorities is the enhancement of their enterprises, theincrease of profit and the accumulation of wealth. Within the same logic and using the sameprinciples, priorities are defined in the food production where the technology of geneticallymodified food is used to churn out foods with the largest added values (GMO) to lower thecosts and basically to increase profits of enterprises which retain such technologies. Consumersare seen as a uniform mass without (regional or national) identity and the mass media make useof this to give incentive to what we should produce and consume without allowing us to have acritical view.

Within this logic, the whole production’s priority is the accumulation of capital, be it goodsand/or services, be it food production, be it production of weapons. The logic is the same: thepriority is the profit and the strengthening of the system to accumulate the capital, regardless ofthe impacts onto the environment nor of the potential consumers’ health.

At the same time in which the global economic superpowers meet at Davos, there’re people,groups and organisations who promote a big global meeting: the World Social Forum (WSF).

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The first edition took place here in Brazil in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul in 2001. It’s in thisspace, which takes place at the same date as the Davos meeting, where people have built andshown that “Another World Is Possible”, another development base is possible.

The new development departs from the reality and needs of people and communities, in orderto suggest the option for investments of responsible, environmentally correct, socially fair andeconomically feasible technologies. Within the affirmations of the WSF the proposal was borntoo that Another Economy is Possible and is Happening.

Whem we say that “Another Economy is Happening”, we are referring to the practice of theSolidarity Economy, which emerges precisely in the initiatives of solidarity-based production,commercialisation and consumption. It’s about a complex axis, since it includes and articulatesdifferent stages of economic activities by solidarity-based enterprises, ranging from productionto final consumer.

One of the largest challenges is precisely to build a diversity of strategies to change the currentfunctional mechanisms of market and of economic activities, which at the same time give animmediate return to the solidarity-based enterprises so that the solidarity economy can happenconcretely and show its results and its advantages for the Brazilian society, trying to articulatethe political dimension with economic one.

We witness, recognise and appreciate experiences and processes of organic and agrocologicalfood production, of the preservation of autochthonous seeds which maintain the culture and,mainly, the food and nutritional security of communities and peoples, of producers’organisations which work arduously to create fair markets (textile, handicrafts, recycling, healthyhousing, responsible tourism among others).

The perspective of social transformation which makes up the broadest horizon of SolidarityEconomy movement can be only warranted if Solidarity Economy enterprises, articulated innetworks and solidarity-based supply chains, are driving forces of solidarity-based andsustainable local development and not conventional and capitalist big corporations.

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The economy of solidarity-based enterprises and different chances to transform the currentproduction model, market and consumption in our society depends essentially on the conquestof public policies targeted for the potentialisation, strengthening and consolidation of solidarity-based networks and supply chains, commercialisation and consumption, in the areas of logistics,infrastructure and for the creation of space for commercialisation and distribution.

The identity and the recognition of products and services of solidarity economy by consumersare also of fundamental importance. This recognition depends on warrant systems whichgenerate trust and identity. The participatory systems of warrant, by being based on the self-management and including different supply chains (producers, consumers and distributors)contribute so that the certification process and identity creation of solidarity economy shouldhappen by initiative and organisation of the very movement of solidarity economy and in ademocratic and participatory way. On top of that, these systems create an environment and anidentity within communities, strengthening the short and middle-ranged supply chains,commercialisation and consumption and therefore the solidarity-based local development.

For the recognition and identity of this another economy to go ahead, it’s important toconsolidate a National System of Solidarity-based Fair Trade which should regulate, assure andgives identity to the responsible consumer.

Today in Brazil different initiatives of commercialisation and logistics for the well-being exist(and are resisting). We have shops, agroecology markets of Solidarity Economy,commercialisation centres, warehouses, marts for commercialisation, public training andcommercialisation centre, barter clubs, consumers’ groups and many others, which areorganised in a collective way to produce, commercialise and consume in a fair and responsibleway.

Strategic partnerships are set up in different experiences of production in terms of thepreservation of life, appreciation of healthcare, of tradition and of people’s identity, where themarket is the space for barter, of encounter of knowledge, of sharing and of the construction ofsocial bonds, targeted for solidarity and peace.

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Initiatives like these, on top of producing and giving access to the result of this responsibleproduction, also take care of the outflow of production: it’s practiced too in a collective way,including with the collaboration on sale, with the distribution of merchandises to be sold inother markets.

In this sense, the consumption is seen as a politically responsible act where the result of myconsumption option will feed this new society model, putting the life as core and respectingfuture generations, as space to articulate networks and national and international supply chains.Otherwise my option will be to invest for the consumption of products and brands which areresponsible for supporting the war industry, huge chemical laboratories which promote thedevelopment of GMO, poisons and death.

2.2 BUILDING A SYSTEM OF SOLIDARITY FINANCE

To face with the current financial system it’s necessary to build a System of Solidarity Finance,which supports the development of Solidarity-based Supply Chains to be recognised as the rightof workers and associates which should come out of the Democratic State.

What happens with the financial system in the world?

The current stage of global development of the capitalism, in which money has its own andautonomous value, without corresponding to the volume of real production, alters the world,without national borders, into a huge casino where people bet for speculations of financialapplications to make money which doesn’t correspond to the growth of productive activities.

And the financial system plays a role on it.

It catches resources, savings, payments, salaries, of public or private expenditures, withdrawsthem from the communities of origin to give them to speculators’ hands, of those who havebetter access or capacity to control on the applications.

And it’s this logic that directs the so-called “Multilateral Banks of Development”, such as WorldBank, IMF (International Monetary Fund): uniting resources of the whole world applying themaccording to…

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rules which are convenient for huge capitals, almost always benefitting rich countries, keepingthe poor ones in debt. On top of that: their demands range from keeping the high interest rateon loans to the interference into the national policy of privitisation and of public expenditure.

Instead of making money serve for nations, nations serve for money.

And in Brazil?

The BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico Social, National Bank of SocialEconomic Development) is the main development bank development for Brazil and LatinAmerica. In 2005, the total amount of loans reached R$ 47 billion (US$ 26 billion), responsiblefor 20% of the whole credit of the country, whose privatisation is enormous! Its profits amountsto R$ 3.2 billion (US$ 1.8 billion).

The profits of the Caixa Econômica Federal and of Banco do Brasil ensure the “health” andefficiency of the Brazilian financial system.

BNDES finances mainly the Southeast (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and EspíritoSanto); the rest is invested for Northeast 8% (Such as Bahía (capital: Salvador) and Ceará (capital:

Fortaleza)) and only 4% is invested for the North (such as Pará (capital: Belém) and Amazonas(capital: Manaus)). For social projects, only 2.4%.

A big part of BNDES’ resources comes from PIS/PASEP, i.e. from the Fundo de Amparo aoTrabalhador (Relief Fund for Workers, FAT). What does this mean? That BNDES meansresources to which workers are entitled in order to finance the modernisation of thedevelopment, cutting jobs, privatising and submitting national initiatives to huge capitals whichare more and more internationalised.

Despite the “banking” of people’s credit, which means measures so that the access to creditshould be “for people”, it hasn’t reached, in a convenient way, most of Brazilians who are thrownaway. And when it reaches, it’s almost always to indebt them!

As competitive and pro-privatisation entrepreneurs’ logic prevails, only those who are capablecan win! Capable of facing with the privatised market alone which is regulated to satisfy theinterest of the huge corporations. And excluding the small ones. So we’re put into the law ofthe jungle! The law of the strongest! The law of the money which can have value in itself, justlike God!

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According to Paul Singer, secretary for solidarity economy, “In Brazil, the need for anotherfinancial system is compelling. It’s necessary to open a debate on how to make it achievecompatible dimensions with the need to decentralise the capital to insert the marginalised (dueto the social financial system) into the production.

Solidarity finance in practice

People’s initiatives which aim for another financial system begin to emerge:

- rescuing practices of solidarity of ancient times such as solidarity-based exchanges amongcommunities;

- reaffirming the principles of cooperativism of credit in the self-management of its savings;

- creating funds for internal reinvestments which promote solidarity and emancipation;

- founding community banks with locally-circulating money;

- Creating entities of solidarity-based microcredit.

The solidarity-based barters are practices of groups with periodical meetings where peoplebring products or provide their services in exchange for other products or services. They can

decide to have their own money which circulates only within their members. Such practiceshave been building networks of barter clubs, strengthening relationship between people andgroups.

Credit unions are a way to put together families’ savings, many times piled up by the turnover oftheir production in order to favour the credit of its associates. Today a network of solidarity-based credit union exists and is called as ANCOSOL. Most of them were born after having built,for some years, a Solidarity-based Funds for Internal Reinvestments . By having a directrelationship with the associates, many times, by way of workers’ cooperatives or of thecommercialisation, it turns out to be more efficient than the bank loan, especially when it’sabout managing public funds such as PRONAF (Programa de Apoio à Agricultura Familiar,Support Programme for Family Farming).

Community banks are spreading all over the country: they’re created and managed by the verycommunity, in a self-managing way. They work with social money which is created by thecommunity and is accepted at

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local businesses and services. Community banks provide credit using the solidarity-basedguaranties which can be provided in R$ (Brazil’s official currency) or in social money. The socialmoney, or local means of exchange, as it circulates only locally, aims to make “money” circulatewithin the community or municipality, avoiding its leakage and enhancing the power of localcommercialisation, increasing the wealth which goes around the community, creating jobs andincome locally.

There’re many initiatives of solidarity-based microcredit, many of them inspired by a bank inBangladesh, with the solidarity-based guarantee among a group of loan-takers and with theguarantee of the community where this system works. Some initiatives of solidarity-basedmicrocredit were born out of the Solidarity-based Funds which had been previously practiced.

Solidarity-based Funds for Internal Reinvestments have the widest variety of communitarianinitiatives which practice management and implementation of productive or social projects as apedagogical process of communitarian emancipation and organisation. As an effort to organizethe community, the return for volunteers can be: seeds, goats, cisterns to catch rainfall, workinghours, or even money. The Solidarity-based Funds had the setup-stage support frominternational organizations, from Solidarity Campaigns, such as the Campanha da Fraternidade,and are spread into whole Brazil, on top of being an important tool for emancipating actionstogether with families of support programmes to transfer income such as the Bolsa Família(benefit programme for poor families, demanding their children to go to school and to be

vaccinated, as a tool to struggle against short-term poverty (by subsidy) and long-term one (byschooling)).

These initiatives which will be built in networks show that it’s possible to conquer a Programa deApoio à Economia Solidária (Support Programme to the Solidarity Economy, PRONADES) whichcan finance their workers by way of this another solidarity finance system which is going forward.

2.3. BUILDING SOLIDARITY-BASED EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Nowadays we live before an educational system based on consumerist values where thecompetition is prevailing. Schools are a tool to repeat the model of excluding society, as well asa space of power and control where the knowledge is treated as merchandise and the act tostudy is both mechanical and alienating. In this system students are trained to keep the social,

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economic and cultural inequalities and, many times, don’t question the reality into which they’reput into, turning to be alienated and subaltern and reproducing the hierarchical systems.

On the other hand, there’re communities, social and professional movements which questionthis model and are getting organised, creating new practices of training and education based onthe conception of people’s education as process to build the knowledge aiming at the social,political, cultural, environmental and economic transformation as well as an ongoing training foreducators, based on emancipating pedagogies and methodologies targeted at the self-management, cooperation and solidarity.

Where local knowledge and cultures are appreciated, there’re exchanges of knowledge, on topof that different languages and transversality of subjects work, ensuring that the very workerscome to be trainers too, making the articulation of scientific and empirical knowledge.

This another way to educate privileges workers’ autonomy and emancipation, with the hope toget over the alienated work and sexual division of labour, strengthening more and more theiridentities and including the improvement of school enrollment of workers at all levels.

In these experiences we’re invited to question and build a new society where the human beingshould be the core of life, where the education happens in a context-based, emancipating,compromised and cooperating way. It should take into consideration the gender, ethnic, racialand generation diversity and promote the human rights as well as the compromise withgenerations of today and future, where the sense of human dimension is learned. Being as such,the knowledge isn’t a merchandise, but precious goods of all the human being and should beput to serve for the life and the technology serve to shorten distance, improve relationship andthe life quality.

Did you know that a number of practices exist in the country and one of them can happen nextto you?

Currently there’re a number of experiences, among others:

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- Training Centres in Solidarity Economy CFES (North, Northeast, Southeast, South and Middle-West, on top of the National CFES) which aim to the training of educators and publicpolicymakers who work with solidarity economy, contributing to strengthen the potential ofsocial inclusion and economic sustainability of solidarity-based enterprises.

- Family Farming School (Escolas Família Agrícola, EFA) which provide the youth from thecountryside with education on the basis of their reality, of their family and communitarian lifeand of their activities. In EFA the Alternation Pedagogy is practiced where the teaching methodis experienced not only among the four walls of the school, alternating the experience incommunity too, with the theory reflected on the school rooms.

- Technical Assistance in Solidarity Economy – supports the development of solidarity economyenterprises (family enterprises, cooperatives, workers’ associative enterprises and otherassociative ways), within the principles of the Solidarity Economy.

- People’s incubators at Universities are present in different Brazilian states, realising promotionactivities, supports to organisation, consolidation and sustainability of solidarity economyenterprises.

- The Network of Civil Education, which is present all over Brazil with a wide articulation of civilsociety organisations, develops a people’s education project with families in vulnerable socialconditions in Paulo Freire’s perspective: to start from the reality and of generating subjects, todeepen the knowledge and to propose alternatives of income generation on the basis of theprinciples of solidarity economy: self-management, cooperation etc.

- The Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Youth and Adults Education, EJAs) which representsanother and new possibility of access to the right to the school education under a newconception, under a new and own pedagogical model and of a relatively recent organisation.

- Cooperative Games and different social movements which act with the training in theperspective of the people’s education.

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Now that we know the importance to compromise with a transforming education dedicated to anew society, we are supposed to glimpse at a new education model which should be done

under the principles of solidarity and of cooperation. But it should be, basically, a dialoguededucation and ponder on the exercise of democracy. In order to achieve this, it’s necessary tojoin spaces where the education at your neighbourhood, in your city, at your closest school isdiscussed and to know the experiences of people’s education and solidarity economy in yourcommunity.

2.4. CONQUERING THE CITIZENSHIP: RECOGNITION AND RIGHT TO A SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

In Brazil, laws which deal with economy are, unfortunately, very limited: this leads us to believe,on reading the Brazilian legal system, that only subordinated work (paid works) or autonomousones exist, giving the idea that the formal economy is nothing but private or public enterprises.The General Law on Cooperativism (Lei do Geral do Cooperativismo, 5764/71), which deals withcooperatives, is still nowadays from the military dictatorship period and therefore doesn’tincorporate the principles, values and practices of Solidarity Economy.

The legislation recognises and assures rights solely to private economy and to state economy,with state one serving for the private one. Ignoring the existence of another economy, the rightto associated work is reduced to actions and compensatory policies.

Obviously laws don’t solve everything, but their existence warrants the legal base for thestruggle for our rights. Therefore, the struggle for the recognition of the Solidarity Economy inthe Brazilian State is seen as the struggle for the modification of laws and articles in theConstitution, consisting of 4 levels:

1. Rights: it’s necessary to recognise, in the Brazilian Constitution, the right to associated work,the right to collective property, and the assertion that the Brazilian economy is based on thecooperation and not on the competition.

2. Policy organisation: it’s necessary to establish a General Law on Solidarity Economy whichshould define what the Solidarity Economy is and give the guideline for its organisation atmunicipal, state and federal governments. This law provides a legal base for the levels 3 and 4to be depicted later.

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3. Support and promotion: it’s necessary to make up programmes and policies of solidarityfinance, of training, of technical assistance, of solidarity-based commercialisation and publicpurchase, in whole Brazil, by municipal, state and federal governments. In Brazil currently themain promotion programmes for the development are targeted for private enterprises and don’treach solidarity economy enterprises.

4. Formalisation and tax benefits: it’s necessary to guarantee that it’s easy and simple to createsolidarity-based enterprises legalised in the form of cooperatives and other juridical forms whichcan issue receipts and have its Juridical Person National Number. On top of that, it’s stillnecessary that solidarity economy enterprises should have tax cut and other fiscal benefits sothat they can be economically stable. Just to give you an idea, today a small cooperative paysmore tax than a small business!

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Conquests and challenges

Municipal and state laws and programmes of Solidarity Economy

Thanks to the organisation and mobilisation, we’ve already achieved laws of Solidarity Economyin some municipalities and states in Brazil. These laws create usually a Municipal or StateCouncil of Solidarity Economy, define what Solidarity Economy is, and create some supportprogrammes to the enterprises of solidarity economy. Discover if your municipality or state haslaw of Solidarity Economy, by way of Local Forum of Solidarity Economy, whose contact is givenat the end of this booklet.

If not, a possible action is to learn with other municipalities and articulate to approve one inyour city.

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Law of School Lunch

Another very important conquest for Brazil was the approval in 2009 of the Lei da MerendaEscolar (Law of School Lunch, 11.497/09), which obliges municipal and state governments to buyat least 30% of school lunch from local family farmers. The article 14 of this federal law says that“of the total of financial resources approved by the Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento daEducação (National Fund of Development of the Education, FNDE), at least 30% (thirty per cent)should be used in the purchase of food directly from family farming and family rural enterprisesor of their organisations, giving priority to the settlements of agrarian reform, traditionalindigenous communities and Afro-Brazilian ones.”

It’s important to find out if this law is being accomplished in your city! A way to check out is tojoin or ask for information to the Municipal Council of School Lunch at your city. This law servesas an important tool to strengthen local enterprises of the Solidarity Economy, on top ofwarranting that our children have access to locally-cropped healthy food, as our face and culture!

PRONADES

Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Economia Solidária

(National Programme of Development of Solidarity Economy)

A demand for a National Programme of Development of Soldiarity Economy (PRONADES)comes from the first encounters for articulation to build FBES and SENAES. It’s about theproposal to create with financing lines and of technical assistance, inspired at PRONAF(Programa Nacional da Agricultura Familiar, National Programme of Family Farming), but withalterations from the accumulations of the solidarity economy movement (in its practices anddiscussions) and of the experiences of other programmes, such as the Programa EconomiaSolidária em Desenvolvimento (Solidarity Economy Programme in Development), the Fome Zero(No Hunger), the Territórios da Cidadania (Citizenship Territories) and the PROGER Urbano.

It’s fundamental that a huge financing programme should exist for solidarity economyenterprises to satisfy their needs, either working capital, investment or training actions andtechnical assistances. In order to attain that, PRONADES should have its own fund and budget,from different sources, such as FAT and Fome Zero, BNDES, among others.

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Law on the cooperativism

Nowadays it’s very difficult to set up a cooperative: the law of cooperativism is from the militarydictatorship period, and demands the inscription at the commercial registry, with at least 20members, and its membership at the Organização das Cooperativas do Brasil (Organisation ofCooperatives in Brazil, OCB). On top of that, taxes are very heavy for small cooperatives andthey aren’t beneficiaries of the Law of Super Simples for small businesses.

This is why this law should change. There’re proposals in discussion at the Brazilian Senate for anew General Law of the Cooperativism which should make it easier to set up cooperatives,reducing the minimum number of members to 7 and warranting the freedom to be a memberof any representative entity of cooperatives. On top of that, there’re proposals to regulatecooperatives’ tax payment, but unfortunately these proposals still don’t plan tax cuts for smallcooperatives.

It’s necessary for us to get mobilised and press deputies and senators so that this clause shouldgo quicker at the National Congress, since otherwise it’s quite hard to set up cooperatives andto formalise solidarity economy enterprises.

General Law on the Solidarity Economy

The National Council of Solidarity Economy edited a proposal of law for Solidarity Economywhose main role is to define what the Solidarity Economy is and build the legal base for theNational Policy of Solidarity Economy in Brazil. With it, the path will be open for us to pressuremunicipal, state and federal governments for the creation of local councils of Solidarity Economyand of programmes such as PRONADES, the Sistema Nacional de Comércio Justo e Solidário(National System of Solidarity-based Fair Trade), the Política Nacional de Formação e AssistênciaTécnica (National Policy of Training and Technical Assistance), among others.

So this is one of the biggest priorities for the recognition of the Solidarity Economy within thenational laws and represents a flag which depends on the pressure and discussion at ourneighbourhood, city and state.

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PART III

How do we contribute to strengthen an economy in service for the life?

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How can we collaborate for the construction of another Economy which should have the life asits priority? What are we already doing so that another Economy should take place? How canwe build relationship which should contribute for a better world? How were we trained andwhich possibilities for changes? Ideas follow below, but they’re only some of them: use yourcreativity to practice this other economy!

Consume responsibly

It doesn’t help at all to dream of another world if at home, school, workplace, parties, events andcommunity organisations we’re still consuming products and services which create inequalityand destroy the environment: so, an important attitude is to avoid the consumption of productsand services of conventional enterprises, privileging the local production and preferentially ofthe Solidarity Economy.

Today it’s possible to find products and services of the Solidarity Economy in any Brazilian city:they’re food, bio-jewelry, handicrafts, clothes, accessories, consulting services and professionalcourses, cultural services and construction, among others. So the Farejador da EconomiaSolidária (Solidarity Economy Finder) exists, which is available at Internet.

Using it you can generate a catalogue in a simple way in the yellow page format from yoursearch results, which can be transformed into PDF and distributed via e-mail for your friends orprinted to distribute it at your neighbourhood, city, school or workplace.

To consume responsibly is to have a curious look at stuffs: where do they come from and wheredo they go? The sort of society that we want depends on the consumption option of everybody,every family, community, parish, social group, social organisations, churches and enterprises.

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Set up a Solidarity Economy enterprise

Another possible action is to get together with people from your neighbourhood or communityand organise your work collectively by way of the creation of a Solidarity Economy enterprise.

To support you in this idea, there’re hundreds of entities and universities (by way oftechnological incubators of people’s cooperatives) which give consulting services in the form ofcourses and help in challenges that you find. An easy way to localise this support is to get intouch and join your nearest solidarity economy forum.

As the proverb says: “the union makes force!”

Join Local Forums of Solidarity Economy

In this booklet we notice how much we need to get organised and be together to be really ableto build another economy and with it another development. For that, everybody’s participationinto the Solidarity Economy movement is very important.

A way to contribute with this big wave all over Brazil is to join and contribute with Local Forumsof Solidarity Economy, in which those players related to the solidarity economy meet to sum uptheir strengths and help each other.

Join and get involved with other movements and campaigns

The perspective of construction of another development based on the cooperation, on life andon solidarity is seen as need of different fundamental changes in our society. Social movementshave defended important flags which are completely converging with that of the SolidarityEconomy.

This is why it’s necessary to put our forces together and build strategic alliances at your city orneighbourhood with other social movements such as that of Women, of Agroecology, of Afro-Brazilians, of indigenous people, of Landless Workers’ Movement, that of the Homeless, that ofFood Sovereignty and Security, that of Urban Reform, that of Urban and Rural Workers, BNDESPlatform among others.

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Here we underscore some important champaign currently under way:

- Campaign for the Constitutional Amendment of Right to Food

- Campaign against GMO and for right to biodiversity

- Campaign for the Agrarian Reform and for the Regularisation of Afro-Brazilian and IndigenousTerritories

- Campaign against the MP458 and for a land regularisation in the Amazon discussed togetherwith the civil society

Pressure the public authority, city councils and deputies

If in your city there’s no support programme at all for solidarity economy, nor approved law, animportant action is to try to talk with and pressure city councils and the city hall so that theyshould go ahead in this support to promote the local, sustainable and solidarity-baseddevelopment.

In order to achieve this, an idea is to show them the already-existing municipal and state laws inother parts of Brazil, accessible at FBES Internet website, within the "farejador de leis estaduais emunicipais" (state and municipal law finder). With this material it’s enough to think about localpublic policies.

Other ideas are to get in touch with the Rede Nacional de Gestores Públicos em EconomiaSolidária (National Network of Public Policymakers in Solidarity Economy) and look for thearticulation with the local authority.

Last but not least, it’s always a good idea to sensibilise state and federal deputies in favour forthe importance of Solidarity Economy, suggesting them to join the Frente Parlamentar daEconomia Solidária (Parliamentary Front of Solidarity Economy) and to defend our flags at theCongress, such as the General Law of Cooperatives, the Law of Solidarity Economy, thePRONADES, the Sistema Nacional de Comércio Justo e Solidário (National System of Solidarity-based Fair Economy, SNCJS), the Law on People’s banks, among others!

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Help to approve a Law of People’s Initiative for Solidarity Economy

Let’s leverage this moment of Campanha da Fraternidade Ecumênica 2010 (Campaign ofEcumenical Fraternity 2010) to realise a big campaign to collect signatures for the approval ofthe Law of People’s Initiative recognising Solidarity Economy!

In order to achieve this, it’s necessary to organise a team and to collect signatures to the text tobe edited by the Conselho Nacional de Economia Solidária (National Council of SolidarityEconomy) and to be made available at FBES website.

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We’ve reached the end of our booklet and we hope the questions above just like others havetouched you enough so that you can see, think and choose what you find important to build abetter world.

Our proposal is that we can build this world well in our day-to-day practices where we establishrelationship with different people, from my home with my family, then at my neighbourhood,community, workplace, school and so on. We’re human beings who produce goods andservices but also relationships.

And it’ll be the quality of these relationships at each space where we go often that will make adifference for the construction of an Economy for Life. Big actions will be always welcome, butit’ll be my and your choices that can influence and chance many things.

I can choose to make Economy (Caretaking of Home), taking care of me and of people asimportant part of my existence, separating my garbage, not polluting streets, trying to learnabout the origin of products I eat and try to strengthen small farmers, I can go to a market andbring cloth-made bags as we used to do, avoiding to use plastic bags which pollute theenvironment, I choose not to use any further disposable cups, I can go for shopping solely orwith buy together with my family or neighbours, I can denounce injustices, join peacemovements, I can try to get products from Solidarity Economy, I can decide to join state forums,workshops and seminars, I can join solidarity-based barter and even contribute so that lawsshould favour and strengthen Solidarity Economy enterprises.

But if I don’t take care, I can also repeat all the vices of the neoliberal system, believing that I’mmaking breakthroughs, doing something good, but at the end I’m repeating exactly what thesystem does.

People!!!! This is a huge challenge, an exercise for everyday, a constant learning. There’s noquick recipe, there’s a need to be creative, to invent, to dare for, exchange knowledge, haveurgent need to practice An Economy in service for LIFE.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABREVIATIONS

Agroecology: is a way of alternative agricultural production which rescues and evaluates thetraditional knowledge of family agriculture producing without the use of agrochemicals.

ANCOSOL - Associação Nacional de Crédito da Economia Familiar e Solidária (NationalAssociation of Credit of Family and Solidarity-based Economy)

BNDES - Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico Social (National Bank of SocialEconomic Development)

BNDES Platform: an articulation of entities and social movements with the aim to look forimportant changes in policies and orientation of BNDES, by way of social control and ofproposals built with social movements’ participation.

CFES: Centro de Formação em Economia Solidária (Training Centre in Solidarity Economy)

CNES: Conselho Nacional de Economia Solidária (National Council of Solidarity Economy)

CONIT: Conselho Nacional de Igrejas Cristãs do Brasil (National Council of Christian Churches ofBrazil)

Cooperative Games: they are games which awake the cooperation and respect to the humanbeing, as what counts the most isn’t to compete but to accomplish a result where everybody isresponsible.

CUT: Central Única dos Trabalhadores (Unique Central or Workers)

EES: Empreendimentos da Economia Solidária (Solidarity Economy Enterprises)

FBES: Fórum Brasileiro de Economia Solidária (Brazilian forum of Solidarity Economy)

GMO: are organisms which suffered from genetic modification.

ITCP: Incubadora Tecnológica de Cooperativas Populares (Technological Incubator of People’sCooperatives)

Neoliberal: system which reinforces the capitalist system, transforming into merchandiseessential services, such as healthcare, education, water and energy supply: reducing goods andculture, human relationship and others.

Organic food: produces cultivated without using agrochemicals.

PRONADES: Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Economia Solidária (NationalProgramme of Development of Solidarity Economy)

SENAES: Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária (National Secretary of Solidarity Economy)

SIES: Sistema de Informação em Economia solidária (Information System in Solidarity Economy)

SNCJS: Sistema Nacional de Comércio Justo (National System of Fair Trade)

Social money: is money, complementary to Real (R$), national currency, created by theCommunitarian Bank, with the aim to make “money” circulate in the own community ormunicipality, enhancing the possibility of local commercialisation, increasing the circulatingwealth within the community, creating jobs and income locally.

Solidarity-based chains: are networks which are made by solidarity economy enterprisesarticulated within the same chain.

Working capital: is the amount of value (R$) necessary to make businesses happen.

WTO: World Trade Organisation

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TO LEARN MORE (in Portuguese)

BRAZILIAN FORUM OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

In Interent

www.fbes.org.br

National Executive Secretary

Address:

CEP (Post Code in Portuguese):

Telephone and Fax:

LOCAL FORUMS OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

Access the website of the Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy also to find telephone numbers,e-mails and addresses of State or Regional Forums of Solidarity Economy closest to you.

INFORMATION SOURCES AND SEARCH

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WEBSITES OF ORGANISATIONS AND NETWORKS

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BIBLOGRAPHY (in Portuguese)