SOLIDARITY BASED ECONOMY AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO UNEMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Abstract

The work analyzes a set of so called solidarity economy in Pemambuco, Brazil, that want to break away from capitalist connections beginning with new ways of thinking, produetion, distribution, saving and investrnent in goods and serviees. Solidary economy ean be an instrument ofwork innovation, meeting material needs and a way of fighting against the processes of social exclusion. Based on authors such as Gaiger, Singer, Santos (2002) and França and Laville (2004) it argues organizational principies oflabor relations, administration, power, ownership and finaneing means of produetion, the eo-operation and solidarity developed in commercial enterprises eontrasting those of the capitalist and joint liability eeonomies. It is understood that unemployment, exclusion from the employment market, informelity of labor relations and the relationship between State and soeiety, negotiation oi public and private interests, small business, evaluation ofthe impact ofprojects to combat poverty are problems that challenge solutions to surpass the capitalist order. The principal concems are privation, inequality, and dissoeiability experienced by the poor population of the state. The practiees of businesses, co-operatives, and associations are eonsidered ways of overcoming these situations. It questions labor reorganization in a given co-operative rationality as the potential innovator and strategist in disconnecting from the capitalist economy. The facts from 166 businesses studied showed that with an unemployment rate of 17.8% in 2004 (DIEESE, 2005, P 148), economic or social privation caused the search for social inclusion through economic initiatives and attention to material and/or immaterial needs ofthe workforce; among the principies that govem a labor organization, meeting the needs of the members of co-operatives and assoeiations; ownership of means of production is not separate from the workers or society; the control of businesses and decision making are fulfilled in a more or less autonomous manner, in the sense of business formalization by co-operative and association members, and closer to equalitarianism; the organization ofthe labor process by the members, however support from the joint responsibility can differ depending on previous personal or assoeiative experiences, there still exist conversions of workforce in goods under the form of salaried work or independent work; eonsequently more worth is given to salaried workers eontracted by the holders ofthe means ofproduction, being: co-operative, association, N. G. O., small business, ete., but far from strategies of incessant increases in production investrnent or the only objective being profit and increased capital retums, and as approximately 30% of the organizations are operating with limited or no profits, it can be confirmed that predominant economic rationality is closer to solidary eeonomy than eapitalist, as there is unity, equality, inter-personal relations, and mutual interest in the process and organization of labor and production; as they are themselves in the sphere of social inclusion, material needs are met and they exist with different fonns of organization and administration; power and decision making point toward a certain internal hierarchy; the co-operation is still not established in the equalitarian partition oflabor, organization of production, and profits, as salaried and co-operative workers exist in the same business, but the fact is they appear equidistant from co-operation, labor organization and the capitalist mode of production. The businesses in Pernambuco are almost solidary economy, becorning alternatives in the ending of unemployment, searching for answers to material needs and social reproduction. It is the first step in breaking the cycle of social exclusion in search of a more equalitarian society. They are bearers of, if not innovative proposals, at least distinct from the reasoning, organization and socialization of production, labor, and distribution of wealth of capitalism.