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The Social Economy as the Economics of Liberation

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

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The Social Economy as the Economics of Liberation

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  1. The Social Economy as the Economics of Liberation

  2. 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

  3. World Social Forum, Porto Alegre

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. Liberation from communism • Concentration of state power: loss of initiative • Issue of scale: one bicycle factory • Party replaces community • Bureaucracy creates inefficiency

  10. 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

  11. Liberation from patriarchy • ‘Sisterhood is powerful’ • Women’s strength in community • Reproductive labour • A different attitude to resources: ecofeminism

  12. The Holy Family

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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?

  16. 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]

  17. Democratisation Equality Empowerment Self-realisation Mutuality Social firm Social enterprise Co-operative Assess the four concepts in terms of the three organisational forms

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