Introduction

We have not reached the end of history after all. The historical moment that globalization has reached requires a deeper analysis of the contradictory movements embedded in global processes. The global integration of markets and the global expansion of the division of labor may look efficient in managerial terms, but the mushrooming of a severe economic crisis has challenged this rather crude picture of efficiency. In addition to the crisis itself, the inconsistencies of political responses to it – bailing out corporations on the one hand and enforcing austerity measures on the other – is another contradiction of the existing capitalist economic system. The Polanyi problem, or Karl Polanyi’s theory of the double movement, proves to be highly explanatory in this regard: the self-regulating market running on the fictitious commodities of land, labor and capital will eventually lead to social problems and economic instability, which in turn will only be able to be resolved by regulating the market. This leads to the vicious circle of deregulation and regulation, or, put differently, the inherent contradictions of capitalism. The shattering images of globalization, the age of uncertainty, namely, the

immigrant bodies lying on the seabed of the Mediterranean, the peoples of South America making another world possible, and the resistance movements of various sizes and scopes appearing all around the world are an indication that change is on the horizon. The capitalist world economy and the nation-state will not be the premises of the next generation of political and economic organization. It is not possible to aggregate demand in broad categories of economic development, equality, political representation, and democracy. The interests that culminate in the new social movements are much more diverse and intersectional, and they can hardly be resolved into purely rational choices toward progress, efficiency, and optimality. The solidarity alternative constructed in this book seeks to present a new

way of thinking about political and economic organization that prioritizes social issues over economic ones. The market in an alternative economy is regarded as no more than a domain of exchange. The rules of the capitalist market, namely, supply and demand and perfect competition, among others, become secondary to supplying the needs of a larger constituency, cooperating in the production process, and maintaining an environmentally sound, fair

production system. The solidarity alternative does not presuppose the existence or the support of the state. In fact, the alliance of the state with the capitalist market shows historical resilience.1 The state has been the sole administrator of the social problems generated by capitalism, and has been the sole party responsible for the control and management of the so-called “dangerous classes”2 and the task of redistribution (but not redistributive justice). The state in general and the welfare state in particular redistributed enough to maintain the dangerous classes and yet keep the capitalist gears rolling. The solidarity alternative integrates production and redistribution within the same institutional and social contexts in order to overcome the clash of interests between different segments of society. In a system where the material bases of social organization are unified under one roof, conflict resolution requires greater room for participation and the individualization of democratic practices. Representative democracy provides limited opportunities to embrace this kind of diversity. Workplace democracy as a vertically integrated local system of representation is better able to address immediate issues on site, overriding bureaucratic processes and party interests. This form of democracy is not only a procedural challenge, but an issue-based enhancement as well, since issues pertaining to the spheres of work and non-work often overlap in communities. Finally, unions are a necessary yet insufficient means for worker organization. The recent growth of alternative organization models is also indicative of the transformations taking place, albeit sporadically, across the world. New labor internationalism seeks to break the traditional bond between labor and unions in order to build a new bond between labor and a diverse set of organizations that includes worker centers, community groups, and worker associations. The four tasks and organizational dimensions of the solidarity alternative – reorganization of production, redistribution, workplace democracy, and new labor solidarity – unite at the local level. The local as the epicenter of these multiple constituencies provides the grounds on which solidarity can operate. This is neither a revolutionary overthrow of, nor a replacement of, the now ancien régime of the capitalist state. This is an alternative for those hoping to opt out of a system that they are only peripherally attached to. The solidarity alternative does not come in a single form, a standard institu-

tional context, based on a typical economic domain. It comes in many forms and shapes derived from the multiplicity of human and natural resources in a specific locus. It is unique in the way it responds to the social and economic issues of that locus. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico, has been active in organizing an autonomous community movement under indigenous leadership since 1994. The movement struggles against the Mexican government and its neoliberal commitments, as well as against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The movement is locally autonomous in terms of health, education and agrarian production. In South America, Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), in which the landless rural workers occupied large estates of land for agrarian production, became a national

movement in 1984. It is a grassroots movement that seeks to overcome the social and economic problems of the rural population by acquiring land necessary to sustain agrarian production. Education and agrarian production are the main issues in the movement, which now has about two million members and a national network. However, these alternative movements do not necessarily emerge in agrarian contexts. In Argentina, bankrupt or abandoned factories have been taken over by unemployed workers and converted into cooperatives. La Base Fund in Argentina provides microcredit to unemployed workers to start their own economic activity and evolve into cooperatives. Although most of these alternative economic models come from Latin America, there are emerging movements elsewhere, as the struggle to find away out of the global economic crisis is also a global one. Factory takeovers have also taken place in France, Spain, Greece, and Turkey, although not as often as in Argentina. Solidarity does not necessarily emerge as a result of economic motivation; it also emerges as a result of the empowerment and emancipation of indigenous peoples and/or local communities. A more recent local struggle has emerged out of war-torn Syria, where the Kurdish population is not only defending their territory against the brutal Islamic State, but is also pushing for women’s empowerment, democratic participation and autonomous governance. A very loose, unstructured and fluid revolution is in the making. It is geo-

graphically dispersed, and its pace of progress is varied. The scope, outreach and constituents of each movement are different. The tasks that are undertaken and the goals that are set are unique to the local setting. But it is the very culmination of a non-state, non-market3 mode of social organization that defines social well-being beyond material well-being. The efforts to recover the community and local organization will intensify as the malfunctions of the capitalist world economy worsen. The next task is to make sense out of this rather amorphous transformation.