In Urachiche, a small town in western Yaracuy state have been taken at exactly the advice of the "maximum leader of the Bolivarian revolution" and have revived an ancient practice of sharing : barter. Neris Pineda, 52, got up early Sunday and next to her husband, Tito Quiroz, was barricaded in natural products grown on his small farm to get off to a peculiar market in this enclave of 23,000 . You know they will return home penniless, but happy. "Barter is not just the commodity exchange is an exchange of values, solidarity, love, friendship. The idea is to integrate into the community," he explains as bananas out of your basket (bananas), coffee and some bunches of eucalyptus. Music Venezuelan leftist activist and singer Ali Primera Panamanian Ruben Blades liven up the frenetic pace of fifty "prosumers," who swarm around the tables talking animatedly while flicking the goods which, interestingly, are no sale.
"We call prosumers because it brings together in the same word producer and consumer, while the capitalist system divides us: we produce and consume on one side to another, "said Paul Mayayo, who helped create the Community Market Urachiche providing knowledge drawn from similar experiences his native Argentina and Colombia.
The Lionza against money
The idea of \u200b\u200bbartering Chavez threw himself, without much elaboration, two years ago to create an alternate currency promote the exchange of services and products produced by cooperatives through community currencies confined to a geographical area and specific time constraints. Other pilot programs in the country had little relevance. But Urachiche say that barter is here to stay and although the market has little more than a hundred members, between individuals and co-project leaders say it increases every week.
flour, beans, avocados, juice, covers for hand-woven cellular, books, pens, sweets, shirts, tomato sauce and even the much sought milk, which in recent months has been conspicuously absence on the shelves of the country, you can get "barter" on Sundays. And not only products but services and knowledge. Blacksmiths, mechanics, sewing cooperatives, taxi drivers and teachers offer their services to the community.
At what price?
"Price?" No, boy, here there is talk of prices, "scolds Neris Pineda as he strives to place their goods on tables to use as a desk. "Here we speak of value, prices here mean money and money has nothing to do," sentence. The people of this impoverished farming village got rid of the "filthy lucre" Maria Lionza using a popular mythological deity that has its center of pilgrimage in the mountains of Sorte, a few miles from Urachiche.
is not invoked, but baptized in his name to the common currency that serves as a tool for barter. Printed with a statue of the goddess in plastic and sealed carton, each Lionza has an "equivalent" of 1,000 Bolivars (0.5 dollars). But could not be exchanged for cash remain in the system and does not make sense accumulate. "The challenge of money is the most complicated and yet the most interesting. To break the capitalist paradigm that without money you can not do anything only need practice and a little ingenuity, as you can see here, "said Mayayo.
The" prosumers "are happy and change their products Lionza at prices that ensure they have no real competition in the economy by eliminating intermediary costs. But look beyond. "Nobody is going with the feeling of having won nothing else. People are not about winning, "said Neris, as he picks the little that he got traded. " If this is backwards, if being more human is to step back, because the delay is welcome. That depends on the vision you have of the world, of life, "he says, smiling.
* I clarify that I am not supporting Chavez or any Bolivarian revolution because it represents my enemy government, expose only the example of these Venezuelans as a real alternative to capitalism.
0 comments:
Post a Comment