Alternatie Economies Rise in Spain's Darkening Recession

[Dan Clore]

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/28-6
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 by Common Dreams
As Spain's Recession Darkens, Alternative Economies Rise
- Common Dreams staff

As Spain's economic recession has continued to deepen, conditions for
people within the country are expected to get worse following austerity
measures that increasingly cut into everyday economic survival, Reuters
reports Tuesday. However, as many economists grapple over numbers, and
search for signs of hope for a free market revival, many people within
Spain have increasingly started to turn to alternative currency systems,
or parallel euro-free economies -- giving up the ghost of a neoliberal
recovery in exchange for a new way.

Jacinto Garcia buys baked goods with Turutas, the social currency used
in the Catalonian fishing town of Vilanova i la Geltru, Spain (Photo:
Angel Navarrete) According to Reuters, following recent extreme
austerity measures, a rush of consumers and firms withdrew their money
from Spanish banks in July, with private sector deposits falling almost
5 percent, to 1.509 trillion euros ($1.896 trillion) at end-July from
1.583 trillion a month earlier, signally an extreme loss in faith in the
austerity economy.

"Analysts believe it is inevitable that Spain will soon have to call for
a European rescue package to help bring its debt costs down as austerity
measures designed to slash the public deficit push the economy deeper
into recession," Reuters reports.

"With much more fiscal austerity in the pipeline and unemployment at
astronomic highs, the risks are clearly tilted towards a more protracted
recession," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.

However, as the Washington Post reports today, at a time when the future
of the euro is in doubt and millions are unemployed, alternative forms
of exchange and survival are springing up in the cracks of capitalism,
allowing people to exchange, barter, and live outside of failing currencies.

One example given by the Post is the proliferation of "time banks"
throughout the country. Time banks allow people to trade their services
amongst one another in a currency of hours. One provides a service for a
certain amount of time and can 'buy' another service for that same
amount of time. Time banks allow people to exchange labor and services
without the need for abstract currencies.

In another instance, residents in the city of Malaga have established a
website which allows individuals to earn money and buy products using a
virtual currency.

In the Catalonian fishing town of Vilanova i la Geltru, residents are
experimenting with a localized currency, which is worth slightly more
than the euro when it is used at local stores.

“This is a way for people who are on the fringes of the economy to
participate again,” said Josefina Altes, coordinator of the Spanish Time
Bank Network.

"This is part of the cooperatives, credit unions, community banks,
organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate economy — that
the Occupy movement is groping towards"

Similar projects have been taking place in Greece, Portugal and other
hurting euro-zone countries.

"While each social-money project has its own accounting rules, the basic
concept is the same. You earn credits by providing services or selling
goods, and you can redeem the credits with people or businesses in the
network," the Post reports.

"These experiments aim to take communities back to a time when goods and
services were bartered, before things such as interest rates, market
speculation and derivatives complicated the financial world."

Time Bank organizers say as the crisis deepens more and more people are
signing up for such projects.

There are now more than 325 time banks and alternative currency systems
in Spain involving tens of thousands of citizens. The projects represent
one of the largest experiments in "social money" in modern times.

Peter North, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who has
written two books on alternative currencies, told the Post that the
recent efforts in Spain may last longer than similar projects in the
past because they are connected to the 15M, or “Indignados,” movement --
a protest movement which began in Spain and helped inspire the global
Occupy movement.

“Instead of just being a desperate way for people to survive a horrible
economic crisis, this is part of the cooperatives, credit unions,
community banks, organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate
economy — that the Occupy movement is groping towards,” North said.

Anger over austerity measures has consumed Spain over the past two
years. Tensions heightened again in July when the Spanish parliament
passed an $80 billion austerity package, which included pay cuts for
civil workers, an increase in sales tax, benefits cuts and a raise in
retirement age.

The package came in exchange for a $122 billion rescue package pushed
for by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, and approved finally by the
German parliament. Following the deal, protesters took to the streets on
a nearly daily basis, culminating in a countrywide protest of tens of
thousands of demonstrators across 80 cities on July 19, 2012.

The Rajoy government is expected to formally request additional Euro
bailout money by mid-September or October, and is likely to continue
drastic austerity policies.



--
Dan Clore

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"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
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