Tue, 16 Jan 2007

Building the solidarity-based economy

By Jakob Steigerwald

BERLIN (NNA) – “How do we want to produce and live?” This was the motto under which a congress on “the solidarity-based economy in globalised capitalism” was held at the end of November in Berlin. Although one of the aims of the congress was to raise the profile of the concept of the solidarity-based economy in Germany, participants came from all over the world – Africa, Asia, North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe – to share experiences, debate and learn from one another in over 100 forums, workshops and panel discussions.

Dagmar Embshoff from the Bewegungsakademie e. V. opened the congress with some good news: with more than 800 registrations, the originally anticipated attendance of 500 participants had been vastly exceeded. The Bewegungsakademie e. V. was one of the main organisers of the event together with Berlin’s Technical University and support from organisations such as Attac, the German Trade Union Federation in Berlin-Brandenburg and sponsorship from the GLS Bank, among others.

In her opening address, Embshoff spoke about the roots and aims of the solidarity-based economy (also known as social economy, community economy, third system, people-centred development). Her words were translated into at least three other languages – a sign of the international outlook of the congress.

Sven Giegold from Attac Germany also began his speech with a positive statistic on the growing number of hits for the search term “solidarity-based economy” in Google. But he urged his listeners not to abandon their critical thinking. Why was there still so little solidarity-based production, he asked, although the movement had been in existence for about 200 years?

After Hanns-Fred Rathenow from the Institute for Social Sciences and Historical and Political Education had welcomed the guests on behalf of Berlin’s Technical University, as the host, a number of international projects presented themselves. They included Georg Rath from the Cecosesola Cooperative in Venezuela, Jutta Sundermann from the Free Knowledge Network (Netzwerk freies Wissen) and Norman Chipakupaku from Trade Africa 2000, originally from Zambia but now living in Scotland, to name but three from many around the world.

In conclusion, the Brazilian state secretary for the solidarity-based economy, Paul Singer, spoke about how to create the conditions for and support the solidarity-based economy.

The event was organised around nine forums with plenary sessions and workshops, including good practice in the solidarity-based economy and the solidarity-based economy in the context of neo-liberalism and globalisation and the wider political and social framework.

And if at the end there was no single, all-embracing recipe as to how to create a better world, then this was not the intention of the congress in any case. The aim, together with creating increased publicity for the solidarity-based economy, was to exchange information and ideas and to network the many different projects and initiatives.

At the end, the participants departed from Berlin with a positive assessment of the event and the wish for further conferences of this kind. The results will be published in the form of a short book. The speeches and materials from the congress will also shortly be available on the Internet.

Link: www.solidarische-oekonomie.de

Item: 070115-01EN Date: 15 January 2007

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