São Paulo – Journalists Paula Quental and Joel Santos Guimarães are set to launch this Friday (6th) the new Solidare blog (http://agenciasolidare.com.br/), specializing on solidarity economy. The duo was responsible for creating ANBA in 2003, at the behest of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, and currently runs content provider Hipermeios Agência de Conteúdos.
Solidarity economy, according to the blog’s creators, is the “counterculture for capitalism.” “The object is to show the workings and organization of initiatives that relate to the so-called solidarity economy: ventures that focus on camaraderie, self-management, association, group work, cooperative work, and locally-oriented, sustainable development,” said Quental.
The framework, according to the authors, is a “boss-free, fraternal, egalitarian economy.” In other words, says Quental, it’s all about alternative practices for developing small-scale collective enterprises. In Brazil, 2,300 million people make a living out of these outfits, according to data from the National Secretariat for Solidarity Economy of the Brazilian Ministry of Labour (Senaes/MT), and they spur economic growth in dozens of municipalities.
Solidarity economy is applied to a bevy of areas, such as handicraft, textile, food, waste management and recycling, financial activities, forest products, fisheries, and family farming.
The website’s founders argue that although the number of enterprises following this template has grown by 124% from 2005 to 2012, information to the general public on the subject is scarce. Hence the idea for the blog, which the authors say will eventually give way to a namesake News Agency on Solidarity Economy and Responsible Consumption in the medium-term.
“Through articles, news reports, debates and short updates, always focusing on workers as the subjects of action, Solidare intends to show Brazilians that a different economy is possible. And it has a name: solidarity economy, the most viable alternative to capitalism,” said Guimarães. He adds that the federal government and important sectors of Brazilian society regard the template as a “way out” of programs like the Bolsa Família government income transfer scheme.
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*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
