Summer Camp for Radicals: The Union of Radical Political Economics 2007 Summer Conference

Jenna Allard, Solidarity Economy, Solidaritycents

This past weekend I traveled to Pine Bush, New York, for my first . This three-day conference was located at Camp Deer Run, and we all discussed economics around campfires and swimming pools as well as in workshops and plenaries. It was a small and relaxed conference –there were about 90 participants, and many of them had been coming for years, if not decades, and saw their old friends every year. I was presenting with Julie Matthaei and Germai Medhanie, and was initially nervous about presenting without a PhD, but I found a nice mix of practitioners and theorists, and some non-economists. Of course, the old “new left” was well-represented, but there were also members of the new “new left”, and this younger generation of radicals was predominantly involved in grassroots action (and the classically radical leftist activity of union organizing) rather than high theory. Of course there were not as many young women as young men, as I have found before, and I wonder again about the circumstances in our society that might make women less likely to travel alone to conference they had only heard of second-hand, or more likely to be intimidated at the potential of a gathering that promises to be mostly economists with serious academic credentials. At of course, there was the ever-present challenge of trying to build community sustainably; I met some fantastic people and had some fascinating conversations in this community of values, but this community did not express its values in consumption, as we were sitting around talking about climate change while eating off of Styrofoam plates and drinking out of plastic cups.

 

Besides those great conversations and those plastic cups of wine, however, I was there to introduce the concept of the solidarity economy, and to gain support for SEN-US. In this community, socialism, particularly Marxist socialism, was the main, if not the only, alternative to capitalism discussed. So, when we initially introduced the concepts of the solidarity economy, many participants expressed concern about the possibilities for organization or discipline within the movement – after all, this was certainly quite different from union or party organizing. In addition, others feared that need to support for inclusive diversity of vision within the solidarity economy movement would restrict members from advocating a very specific vision of Marxist socialism. These concerns were exacerbated by the fact that the solidarity economy is often difficult to define, but, after three workshops on the topic, most conference-goers were pretty excited by the concept. Though the solidarity economy is essentially value-based economic activity, I always find that a plethora of concrete examples always make it easier to grasp, so in my workshop, I started my discussion of the solidarity economy from discussions of real world practices.

 

Yet, this certain anarchist tendency about the solidarity economy makes some nervous; they argue that this sort of “patchwork” society could never work. I have to say, pragmatically, that, in the short run, creating these inclusive coalitions is the way that an alternative society can be realized. I do have my own vision of socialism, but I admit that it would be simply impossible to organize a mass international movement around it. So, I advocate the solidarity economy for theoretical and pragmatic reasons. In fact, I would describe the solidarity economy concept in a threefold way. First of all, it is framework of values – a theoretical construction. Secondly, the solidarity economy is a form of “naming” by certain organizations to mobilize horizontal connections; describing one’s activities as part of the solidarity economy to tap into an international movement that organizes itself around this term. Thirdly, the solidarity economy movement is an organizing tactic to bring people and initiatives under one big tent in order to create a mass movement for change. To me, the solidarity economy is a possible answer to these concerns about organization and discipline, because it is able to create broader coalitions, and to get people talking who have never talked before. The solidarity economy is a way of building power, and the radical left really needs to be more frank with itself about the issue of power anyway. We need to be unafraid to offer concrete resources, and discuss actual economic bases of power. In fact, the keynote David Gordon lecture at the conference was about exactly that; Jim Stanford, an economist who works with the Canadian Auto Workers Union, spoke engagingly about how activist organizations and radical academics can exchange concrete resources to further the movement. Yet, at the same time, we don’t need to jump wholesale into the right’s definition of power, believing that it is merely the ability to get people to tote the party line. In a community of values, I might have to accept the majority’s priorities, but smaller communities and smaller scales make these choices less frequent and less difficult. I suppose that, in this way, the slight anarchist tendencies of the solidarity economy don’t bother me at all. The trick is balance the need for preserving community-level meaning and values within the solidarity economy movement, and preserving the universal content of the values in the larger mass movement.

Jenna Allard August 24, 2007 at 10:37 am