Surviving Capitalism (Not) : As Spain's Recession Darkens, Alternative Economies Rise

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, September 3, 2012

As Spain's Recession Darkens, Alternative Economies Rise

Click here to access article by staff at Common Dreams.

The most pernicious form of private ownership and control is in relation to a nation's money supply. Spanish activists may be the leading edge in building alternative institutions that may undermine this key institution of capitalism.While the Spanish ruling class is continuing with austerity programs and borrowing from capitalist financial institutions, Spanish activists are abandoning their money and creating alternative methods of value exchange.

...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....