Solidarity Economics: Land and Liberty
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Create dreams and your own alternative to the world of
"George Bush, Dick Cheney and Corporate Violence"
— Everywhere we are:
listening to each other, building friendships across
borders and languages, and we dance with Zapatistas and
the children of the street.
Against our joy and camaraderie there can be no limits,
no boundaries, only life and a fine day
when the carnaval is alive for all to share & shape.
—We are everywhere...
The Carnival of Our Hearts Beats
Their Guns and Hate
All of us are trying to communicate to everyone else --
to assist an Articulate Rebellion:
We want to be the microphone for All Voices:
The Amplifier of A Song that Can Never be Silenced
- Sing Us Forward! Rebeldes Articulados...
Everywhere we are listening and learning.
We speak out, share our feelings, seek the connections among
the resistance forces that are everywhere... and
WE Celebrate this Carnival of Life to Shame Bush & Blair - Anzar & Uribe
- the Cannibals of Life and All those Puppets Who Have Lost Their Hearts
to Greed.
We Are Everywhere
Join us! Send your thoughts, your fears, your stories of how a
Solidarity Economics can create sustainable communities of sharing
and friendship -- security and belongingness.
Saturday, November 29, 2003
PART II: Solidarity Economics: What Kind of Economy Do We Want ?
What Kind of Economy Can We Have?
We observe that capitalist-oriented market systems are inefficient from moral, social, environmental and sustainability perspectives. Rather than maximize output and then support government bureaucracies and complex legal systems in order to compensate for all the externalities and problems of a growth oriented market system, we propose a new orientation called Solidarity Economics.(28)
In the Solidarity Economics model the fixation on growth and maximizing output are substituted for providing the basics of life (food, housing, education, health and dignity) and sustainable designs (policy structures) as a first priority. In the Solidarity model social equity, community self-reliance and sustainability are maximized first. This is accomplished through import substitution at the national then the regional and finally the community level. A nation gradually replaces its imports starting with the easiest first and through education and investment moves up to other goods and services. Simultaneously this program prepares for regional and community import substitution too. (29)
Understanding the policies that give direction to a new kind of economics is necessary if the world is to move away from a war on the poor and the ecology. The growth in the availability of basic needs goods with a declining impact on the environment is the goal of Solidarity Economics and the world’s best hope for security and peace.
The real choice that people have is: Do they want a sustainable and just economy that is kind to people and neighbors or do they want to destroy the planet and lose their humanity fighting ugly resource wars? An economic system is only as complex as a people allow it to be. People can have the sustainable economy that they want. It will be different and poorer in many ways than the late 20th Century US economic model. But it will be understandable because it is local, open (transparent) and decided by the people themselves.
Except for the myth of the invisible hand, economics is simple. People will buy a certain amount of a product at a particular price. The invisible hand is supposed to be the price signal that purchasers send to producers through the market. This price signal works for eggs and labor (wages) as well as the purity of water and the experience of art. The problem with markets is that corrupt governments write the laws to benefit the wealthy, the big companies and growth. These are corporate subsidies and state socialism.(30) The invisible hand of government policies shapes the prices of goods, both the production costs and the price consumers are willing to pay. If people want a country with many small farms producing organic products then they will be able to employ many people in a labor-intensive program. But people will pay more for food in the short run than they would if they continued to let rich people gobble up farmland and poison it with chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and GMOs. Prices are only lower in the corporate farm system because so many of the externalized costs are not paid by the corporation. These costs include slave labor, child labor, cheap loans, social suffering from the displacement of small farmers, repression of farm workers and impacts on the environment.(31)
Markets and democracy are good things when they work together. A democratic society keeps markets functional and serving human and community needs and security. A democratic government regulates problems caused by imperfect markets. The safest way to do this is to keep all the market players of similar size, knowledge and security. Complex markets or complicated choices for a democracy make it likely that prudence is lost among poor information and the rush of events. The experiments with participatory budgeting in Rio Grande du Sol, Brazil (a state of 12 million people) suggest that average people can solve these problems simultaneously. The problems encountered in Brazil also show how difficult any program is when the government has to pay half its budget to foreign bankers for debts caused by previous corrupt governments.(32)
Instead of a profit maximizing and export-based decision-making criteria Solidarity Economics would create a long-run soil conserving and biologically diverse system of farming where inputs - especially imported inputs - were not needed and expensive machinery would be replaced with labor, local resources and ingenuity.
Agrarian-Based Localization: The Four Directions of Priority
Ecosolidarity Andes has conducted investigations and workshops on the political Economy of Change throughout Latin America in 2003. They have concluded that prioritizing four or five key basic needs of any society, results in an eventual transformation of a society. A new type of economic structure is then born along the lines of a green local-socialist decentralization program.
The four directions of priority are:
A comprehensive restructuring of state and local policies and spending for: women and children; education for a Solidarity Society of pure food, dignity for indigenous people and all workers; and health for all including the environment. Any country or region that seeks to provide these basic needs in a sustainable way will have little additional funds to waste on militaries and corporate subsidies. In parts of Latin American one can see a new world being born. It’s a world where people create the space and freedom to be themselves and care for themselves and their families. New economic structures can accomplish this in ways that build thriving, sustainable communities.
The sciences of Agro-Ecology and Watershed Management can guide localization planning with prioritization for sustainability and equity. With common sense, lessons learned from the past and citizen empowerment through participation, all aspects of this world will evolve differently than the chaotic and cruel dictates experienced when international capital and the powerful elite forced rapid change and modernization on every corner of the planet.
A Structure for Solidarity, Local Power and Sustainable Economics
Solidarity Economics argues for a bias toward rural areas and a policy structure of localization where local resources are used sustainably to produce most of the basic needs goods and a surplus for trade with its nearest neighbors first This structure solves the problems of bureaucracies, political conflict and concentration of wealth. Markets are used locally, but trade is regulated beyond regions through toll roads and high fuel taxes. Toxic chemicals, genetically altered organisms (GMOs) and the weapons trade would be banned. Combined with ecological guidelines and additional restrictions on trade and land ownership, the market would create economic conditions that support small, medium and cooperative-based farms and rural enterprises.(33) The importance of political democracy beyond a locality will eventually decline because most of the decisions over public policy are set in a well-biased constitution or made locally.
Agrarian Reform: The Unfinished Revolution
6o percent of the processed foods in US supermarkets have GMOs in their ingredients.
Agriculture and photosynthesis are important renewable resource of most countries. Even poorly endowed places must take advantage of whatever will grow. Trees and riparian areas protect the water and biological resources (biodoversity). Some food, fish or export crops are necessary output from all places. Protecting renewable resources like the soils, forests, estuaries and fisheries is a duty and the basis of natural wealth.
The “who owns the good farmlands” determines the wealth distribution of a region. The “What is farmed” determines the food dependency/food sovereignty of a place. The “Where” of farming determined the impacts on the ecology and the longrun productivity of the country. Overproduction near rivers or steep hills has a potentially large impact. Light grazing rotations and tree crops would be chosen by a community if it exercised control over the uses of its resources. The “Why of farming” determines the importance of culture, respect, sustainability and the connections of the people to the land and the ecology that they live in and depend on. The “How” of farming is connected to and grows out of all of these other factors. Investments and trade polices accelerate or control trends in production and growth and thus affect all aspects or rural life and the whole country. For decades investments in Latin America have been capital intensive thus creating greater unemployment and a rural exodus to mega-city slums.(34)
Government commissions and scientific research panels (drawn from local and regional experts, students and faculty) will draw up detailed lists of each region’s resources: grazing lands, farmlands ( in several categories of richness and environmental sensitivity), damaged lands, forests, special wildlands or habit zones, erosion zones, fishing zones and tourist or recreation areas. After these studies are completed lands would be redistributed for free to competent farmers and ranchers. Current owners of land could retain twice the standard limit that is set locally for a particular land type (typically 5 to 10 hectares for the highest quality lands and 20-40 hectares for marginal or grazing lands). Adults over 21 can only own the land that they live on and their vehicle license plate must be from that locality too. Initially land is redistributed to three sectors: small holders, coops and locally owned lands held for distribution to newcomers and population growth.(35)
Next the government would analyze imports and exports at national and regional levels. A plan or recommendation is drawn up that considers priority for basic needs goods and the national and regional production advantages: resources, skills, interests and existing complimentary infrastructure. From this point in the process the popular assemblies and research panels devise the final plans for land use, investments and subsidies.
Ideas for Local Solidarity Projects and Import Substitution with Value Adding
Millions of people in Brazil have poor housing and tens of millions more throughout Latin America are without roofs – Sin Techos. In Buenos Aires, Argentina the piqueteros and asembleas have formed voluntary roofing collectives to repair old houses. They have also set up thrift stores to clothe the poor and the penniless; bakeries to feed the hungry and schools for children and adults where people can also learn about imperialism and the socialist solutions to capitalism’s crimes. Market gardens; sewer and water repair cooperatives; community-based TV and radio facilities; clothing manufacture and repairs; barter networks; and food processing are examples of local enterprises that governments and communities should subsidize. In remote areas or in nations lacking petroleum, a program for bio-diesel derived from African Palm plantations could be a beneficial enterprise for collectives and communities.
In a livestock industry keep as much as possible of the leather industry, the by-products (bonemeal, bloodmeal, manure), fencing material production, dairy, feedstocks, agricultural extension, veterinary services and training and livestock breeding in the community and certainly in the region. This builds local links to a variety of businesses, small and large, and guides education programs (University and Secondary) to create diverse skills in the region. Other examples are micro-credit small business development lending and advice (Grameen Banks); soya farming with seed production, storage, experiments, exports, processing (tofu-feed-soy milk) or direct conversion to animal products (meat and egg industries). And all of these activities would be kept in the hands of local or regional businesses.
As an economy shifts from one based on mega-city pollution, trade and travel to one based on making the best use of local resources and ingenuity, many factories will close and new employment strategies must be devised. Improved rural development schemes will eventually draw workers out of the cities. In the transition period the government and entrepreneurs should focus on policies and businesses that recycle and reuse existing buildings and machinery in urban areas. Recycling and modification of existing equipment for export or use in rural areas requires low investment capital and compliments the overall localization program. Food processing, light manufacturing (farm and building material supplies) and value-added export enterprises are also possible employment and income-generating activities.(36)
Debt defaults and capital flight will bankrupt or gut many enterprises. Abandoned or defunct enterprises should be turned over to the workers. Argentina has shown the ability of workers to self-manage production with volunteer assistance from academics and professionals. In Venezuela the government is introducing legislation to allow worker cooperatives to operate businesses that were abandoned by the leaders of the 2002 coup attempt or that went bankrupt from the bosses strike that shut down the oil industry and caused a severe economic contraction. Many urban areas around the world may eventually become giant open-air bazaars (mercados) of reusable and remanufactured goods and materials.
BANKS: OWNED AND MANAGED BY LOCAL COMMUNITIES
All pension funds, insurance policies, credit and banking would be done through public institutions and audited by an elected regional Board of Supervisors.(37) Only local lending would be allowed and it must meet community prioritization guidelines. Banks are to serve long-term needs and emergencies not to make money at the highest return. With currency controls in place that limit the amount of withdrawals and how much cash can be taken out of the country, the rich would be forced to invest or put their money in the local banks. Forcing businesses to apply for foreign currency use has been effective in Venezuela at identifying businesses and individuals that have not paid taxes which is a huge problem throughout Latin America and most poor countries.(38) Tax avoidance and illegal businesses would have a difficult time if banks were small, local, public and well-audited. To combat inflation and avoid some corruption possibilities banks will maintain a 90 percent reserve requirement on most deposits. Audits will be open to the public and independent audits will be done every other year before the elections of the Board of Supervisors. When a crisis deepens or a new government comes to power, banks should be nationalized with strict currency controls. Reserves and deposit withdrawals are prioritized for key imports and the lower classes. Gradually banks would be turned over to communities.(37)
Venezuela: Examples of Solidarity and Transitional Programs in Action
In 1999, President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez promised homes, health care and education for the poor. Prodded by US interests, the Venezuelan elite responded with treason, sabotage and propaganda. Chavez in the Spirit of the Brazilian MST encouraged the people to respond with their own Power because the struggle for land reform and the rights of the people will only be real when the people assert them. From a desire for modest reforms, Chavez has followed the people into a new world of Local Power, Solidarity Economics and Revolutionary Education.(38)
The first program Chavez launched was Plan Bolivar 2000 where all branches of the military devised programs that would benefit the poor. These efforts involved transportation services and projects; repairing refrigerators; organizing cooperatives and giving development and technical courses. Plan Avispa, organized by the National Guard, built homes for the poor. Plan Reviba was similar, except instead of building new homes from scratch, involved rebuilding old homes. Other aspects of Plan Bolivar 2000 involved distributing food to remote areas of the country. Plan Bolivar 2000 repaired thousands of schools, hospitals, clinics, homes, churches, and parks. Over two million people received medical treatment. Nearly a thousand inexpensive markets were opened, two million children were vaccinated, and thousands of tons of trash were collected, to name just a few of the program’s results.
Long-term anti-poverty policies started in 2001 with integrated macroeconomic policies for alleviating poverty: reducing inflation, diversifying the economy, and increasing non-oil revenues. 2002 saw the expansion of the urban and the rural land reform programs, the micro-credit programs, increased spending on primary education, and the efforts to promote cooperatives throughout the country.(39)
Rural Land Reform
Because Venezuela has high unemployment and imports much of its food, agriculture is a key import substitution target. Venezuela’s rural land reform was introduced in November 2001, as one of the package of 49 laws, which were passed at the same time concerning the state oil industry and other reforms. The law states that all adult Venezuelans have a right to apply for a piece of land for their family. This land is to be taken from state-owned land holdings, which are enormous and make up the largest part of Venezuela’s agriculturally viable land. The law opens up the possibility for the state to redistribute privately held land, if it is part of an estate of more than 100 hectares of high quality agricultural land or 5,000 hectares of low quality land. The land would be expropriated at market rates, making Venezuela’s land reform a relatively non-radical program.
The government distributed little land in 2002 due to the coup attempts. The next year it turned over 1.5 million hectares to about 130,000 families. This comes to an average of 11.5 hectares per family and a total beneficiary population of 650,000 (based on 5 persons per household). So far no land has been expropriated. There has been conflict over land which the government considers state land, but which large land owners claim to be theirs, even though they lack the documents to prove it.
The land reform is a comprehensive program that aims to avoid the typical problems by making sure that the new farmers have the skills, credit, technology, and marketing channels to actually make a living off of their newly acquired land. In addition to the national land institute (INTI), there is an institution that provides credit and skills training and an organization for marketing agricultural products that are produced by beneficiaries of the land reform. In the long-term, the reforms contribute to the diversification of the economy and to assure food sovereignty. In the medium term, the program is aimed at reducing rural poverty and also urban poverty, to the extent that people move out of urban slums and into the countryside. (40)
Urban Land Reform
Another important anti-poverty measure is the urban land reform, which will redistribute the land of the barrios (urban slums) to its inhabitants. Similar to the one Hernando de Soto has promoted in Peru, it incorporates elements that make this program an example for other countries. When people acquire title to their own self-built home in the barrio, they have security for the first time that they will not be expelled. They can use the home as collateral for a small loan, to improve their home, to buy a better home, or to invest in a small business. The process of acquiring urban land titles is a collective process, which brings the neighborhood together in the interest of improving the neighborhood’s infrastructure, such as roads, access to utilities, security, comfort, etc. (41)
The collective nature of the process is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the government’s urban land program. To acquire titles, 100 to 200 families in a neighborhood have to get together and form a land committee, which then acts as a liaison with the government on regularizing the land ownership of the families that the committee represents. A positive consequence in many cases is that the land committees have begun working on many more issues besides the negotiation and acquisition of land titles. They have also formed sub-committees that deal with public utility companies, such as the water and the electric company.
About a third of the barrio land is on government property (another third is on private property and one third on land where ownership is as yet undetermined). The process is slow because it involves many technical and legal steps. By November 2003, throughout Venezuela, about 45,000 families (befitting 225,000 individuals) had received titles to their homes, with another 65,000 families (or 330,000 individuals) to receive them soon.
In February, 2003 Agriculture and Lands (MAT) Minister Efren Andrades announced a series of food production projects for urban areas across the country. A pilot project for two slums in southern Caracas is supported by a UN FAO grant that will also go to poultry farms.
Micro-Finance and Social Economy
The social economy project of the Chavez government promotes cooperatives and micro-finance. The micro-finance program has several different institutional bases. Banco de la Mujer (Women’s Bank), Bandes (Bank for Economic and Social Development, Banfoandes (Bank for the Promotion of the Andean Region), and the Banco del Pueblo (People’s Bank) are involved in micro-finance as are institutions such as the Fund for the Development of Micro-Finance and the Ministry of Development of the Social Economy. A controversial banking law requires all conventional banks to dedicate a certain percentage of their loans to micro-finance.
Between 2001 and 2003 about $50 million worth of micro-credits have been lent out by the banks named above. The Women’s Bank and the People’s Bank have given 70,000 micro-credits between them. For the next year, the government intends to expand the micro-credits program by, according to the Minister for the Social Economy, Nelson Merentes.(43) Private and public banks also gave out micro-credits for a total of $75 million during the month of September 2003.(44)
Among the important beneficiaries of the micro-credit program are cooperatives. Venezuela had only 800 cooperatives when Chavez came to power, it is now estimated that there are over 40,000. The promotion of cooperatives boosts the small business sector, which is generally known to be the first place new jobs are created in an economy. For a discourse on solidarity, Venezuela and cooperatives see the interview of Felipe Perez-Marti at http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php/articles.php?artno=1019
Bolivarian Schools and Daycare Programs
By 1996 public spending for education had dropped to 2.1% of GDP. When the Chavez came to power he increased public spending on education to 4.3% of GDP, twice the level of 1996. Much of the investment went to the building of new schools and the transformation of old ones into "Bolivarian Schools." Bolivarian schools address Venezuela’s poverty in a variety of ways: they are day-long schools, thus freeing up both parents from daytime childcare duties; schools provide breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack, regular meals that many poor children often did not receive before. As of 2003, 2,800 Bolivarian schools have been opened (half are newly constructed). These schools serve 600,000 children, or 12% of all school-age children.(45) Complementing the Bolivarian schools program is the "Plan Simoncito," which provides free daycare and pre-school education to children from ages 0 to 6. Many households are single parents who have a hard time finding ways to balance parenthood with a job. In 1989, 19,000 infants were in state-supported daycare, they now serve over 300,000.
In 1984 70% of students from poor backgrounds who applied for entrance to the university were admitted, by 1998 only 19% were admitted.[14] For working class students the admission rate dropped from 67% to 27%. As a result, it is estimated that there are over 400,000 Venezuelans who formally fulfill the requirements and would like to attend the university. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV) is thus supposed to fill the gap. 2,400 students are enrolled in the university, which opened in October 2003. Another 20,000 are pre-registered.(46)
Short-Term Anti-Poverty Measures – The Missions
October 2003 President Chavez announced seven different "Missions" for fighting poverty. The first mission was Mission Robinson, named after Simon "Robinson" Rodriguez, who was Simon Bolivar’s teacher. Mission Robinson addresses illiteracy. Venezuela invited hundreds of Cuban literacy experts to come to Venezuela and to train teachers. Over 1 million Venezuelans are benefiting from the program, with the help of over 100,000 literacy teachers, who work throughout the country. Mission Robinson II will teach participants everything they need to reach 6th grade. It will incorporate over 629,000 students for 2003.
Mission Ribas is named after independence hero José Felix Ribas, and serves individuals who dropped out of high school. Over 5 million Venezuelans have dropped out of high school. The Minister of Energy and Mines, who is one of the main coordinators of the program, announced in early November that slightly over 700,000 Venezuelans indicated an interest in the program. The program is free. Once students complete their studies, the state-owned oil company PDVSA and the electric company CADAFE will offer to place students in the mining, oil, and energy sector. The whole program is being primarily coordinated by PDVSA and CADAFE, which are also providing most of the funding for the program. For the poor, one of the greatest hindrances to a university education is their lack of financing. Mission Sucre is a scholarship program through which 100,000 poor Venezuelans will receive $100 per month for their university education.
Mission "Barrio Adentro" (Inside the Neighborhood) – Community Health Care
To address health problems in the "Barrios," the Chavez government launched a community health program called, "Barrio Adentro." This program, with the help of just over 1,000 Cuban doctors, places small community health clinics in the Barrios, in areas that previously never had doctors nearby. The program was first launched in Caracas and is now being expanded to the rest of the country. After six months of existence, the program had served three million Venezuelans, primarily in the greater Caracas metropolitan area. Maria Urbaneja, the health minister at the time, said that even though there were plenty of unemployed doctors in Venezuela, not enough could be found who were willing to work in the barrios. There is a plan to gradually replace the Cuban doctors with Venezuelan ones.
Mission Miranda – Military Reservists
Venezuela’s military has long been a place where people from poor backgrounds can find an education and a place to work. Chavez launched Mission Miranda, named after independence hero, General Francisco de Miranda, to create a military reserve out of people who once served in the military. Participants receive the minimum wage, training in forming cooperatives, and the opportunity to apply for micro-credits. When the program was announced in October 50,000 soldiers had already signed up, with another 50,000 to be added before the end of the year. All of the reservists who signed up are currently unemployed. The opposition questioned the intentions behind Mission Miranda, saying that Chavez is creating a parallel army that would be directly under his personal command. The suspicion is that Chavez would use this armed force to keep himself in power, even if he loses the recall referendum.
Mission Mercal – Food Distribution
Mission Mercal is a network for distributing food throughout the country at slightly below market rates at government supported supermarkets. This program emerged as a result of the December 2002 employer sponsored general strike, which shut down food distribution. As of November 2003 there were 100 government markets around the country. The government is accelerating the building of these supermarkets, so that the number will double to 200 in December. The opposition criticizes this program saying that the Mercal markets undermine the private sector. Mercal markets primarily serve areas that are neglected by the private sector.
Venezuela’s government places emphasis on education: a strategy which takes time to bear fruit. May 2003 marked the beginning of a fourth phase of the Chavez Presidency when the country’s oil industry recovered and the rightwing opposition began to fall apart. The government had more resources to implement short-term anti-poverty measures and to refocus on its medium term strategies, placing particular emphasis on land reform and on the Bolivarian University. Conferences are often held in Caracas now as people from all over the world come to see this popular experiment called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Indigenous leaders and agrarian reform students have flocked here and there is planning for a hemisphere-wide school for teaching peasant agriculture and policy studies. Venezuela is well on its way to a Solidarity Economics.(48)
The Last Step is a Whopper
Many economists and poverty activists endorse Solidarity Economics to one degree or another. Venezuela, the Zapatistas, the poor of Argentina, many people in Bolivia and the millions who support the MST landless workers movement in Brazil are moving in the direction of a new kind of society, politics and economy. But few people really understand what that will actually entail. Even if the US and the rich were not hostile, the road would be hard and full of speed bumps. The biggest hurdle that we all must face is to give up on economic growth, to give up on any kind of prosperity that is measured in the old ways. As many of the on-the-farm MST have decided in Brazil: we want to be simple, to survive with dignity and perfect our subsistence technique and customs. That is all: community, a healthy life for the children and enough to eat.(49)
There are gleanings of this perspective in the social economy project of the Chavez government. It is not "just" an anti-poverty measure, but constitutes a central element in Chavez’ Bolivarian project. It is designed to alleviate poverty and is also a central aspect for creating a more egalitarian, democratic, and solidaristic society. The government’s website defines the social economy as encompassing the following seven elements:(50)
1. The social economy is an alternative economy.
2. Where democratic and self-governing practices dominate.
3. It is driven by forms of work based on partnership and not on wage-earning.
4. Ownership over the means of production is collective (except in the case of micro-enterprises).
5. It is based on the equal distribution of surplus.
6. It is solidaristic with the environment in which it develops.
7. It holds on to its own autonomy in the face of monopolistic centers of economic or political power.
Extending Solidarity Economics
I. Global Issues:
a. Incentives for countries to turn in arms or reduce defense spending
b. Deglobalization: radically reducing the powers and roles of the TNC-driven WTO and Bretton Woods institutions. The formation of new institutions helping to devolve the greater part of production, trade and economic decision-making to national and local levels (Walden Bello).
c. Sharing the Solidarity Economics Alternative to War and Global Collapse with all nations and people. Lower consumption world wide, especially of fossil fuels and high energy products like cars, steel and port facilities.
d. Abolish corporations outright or through the steps outlined by the International Forum on Globalization. (Utne Reader, May-June 2003, p. 55)
e. The WTO, FTAA, NAFTA, IMF and World Banks cease to exist.
f. Research biodiversity and threats to the Amazon Basin region and other key biodiversity zones.
g. GMOs are forbidden along with most toxic chemicals (at local regional and global levels). The US pays reparations for the damages done by these bio-terror weapons.
II. Polices for Transitional Periods, Austerity or Future Improvements
Severe penalties for bribery or fraud related to the following policies:
a. Phase-out private land ownership beyond subsistence needs and reduce the area required for subsistence with improved knowledge and techniques.
b. Restrict water use for non-essential uses
c. Identify economic bottlenecks, excess profits, pollution sources, corruption and economic activities with input substitution potential.
d. Watershed planning for ecological development with land reform (condemnation) to protect and to wisely share available resources
e. Research and experimentation on small development projects: State and regional micro credit for sustainability; Mini canteens locally or coop-owned to travel remote areas and sell things cheap (trade/barter) with some subsidies for important, health, education and sustainable farming items; Donations of Cattle, pig or chicken herds with the condition that in the second year the community turnover a part of the herd to neighboring communities (or farmers chosen by ballot or lot) A condition being that the operations are run collectively or as a cooperative.
g. Farming bottlenecks are common in transport, marketing, sales, value adding, packaging and promotion, so locally owned and operated cooperatives should be subsidized to provide abundant employment in these enterprises.
h. More equitable and democratic processes for economic planning that incorporate participatory budgeting, popular assemblies, planning from below and new mixtures of all of these.
i. Develop weighted criteria for participatory budgeting and new social accounting practices.
j. Stiff environmental regulation of all uses of all petroleum products and other chemicals. Large taxes on all toxic products to pay for their regulation and disposal.
k. Improve the usefulness and facilitation skills of the rotating panels of scientists, planners and citizens from other regions who review and investigate communities to see how their development plans operate, were arrived at, and how well they meet the IAPE/Earth Charter/ Regional Plans.
l. Mechanisms for appeal and precaution, avenues for citizen feedback.
m. Rural repatriation programs.
III. TRANSPORTATION ISSUES (52)
a. Phase out private car use
b. Put the Localization Alternative first; more local production, import substitution and support to infant industries.
c. Urban Transport Polices: no car zones and increased fees for vehicle registration.
d. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel (60-90% of price)
e. Free buses and trains; a clean moped exchange program..
f. Bicycle manufacture, repair and price subsidies.
g. Lower speed limits to save energy, lives and the costs of high-speed roads.
IV. Three actions that most of the world supports:
1. Abolish corporations.(54)
2. Ban GMOs and reduce toxic chemical use in agriculture and throughout our lives.
3. End US military adventurism and send its troops home from the 100 military bases it has set up around the world.
Conclusions and Footnotes to Follow
Everywhere we are listening and learning. We speak out, share our feelings, seek the connections among the resistance forces that are everywhere... and WE Celebrate this Carnival of Life to Shame Bush & Blair - Anzar & Uribe - the Canibals of Life and All those Puppets Who Have Lost Their Hearts to Greed.
We Are EverywhereJoin us! Send your thoughts, your fears, your stories of how a Solidarity Economics can create sustainable communities of sharing and friendship -- security and belongingness.
Updates and Alerts:
Part Two of Solidarity Economics will be posted soon.
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Thursday, November 27, 2003
Everywhere we are listening and learning. We speak out, share our feelings, seek the connections among the resistance forces that are everywhere... and WE Celebrate this Carnival of Life to Shame Bush & Blair - Anzar & Uribe - the Canibals of Life and All those Puppets Who Have Lost Their Hearts to Greed.
We Are Everywhere
Join us! Send your thoughts, your fears, your stories of how a Solidarity Economics can create sustainable communities of sharing and friendship -- security and belongingness.
