The ICH logo

ICH was born in 2015 through two local networking initiatives with an activist bent. On the one hand, the Platform for Autonomy, Self-Sufficiency and Equality, an intiative of people from the milieu of Autonomy, had been preparing the ground since 2013, propagandizing and agitating for the networking of productive projects on the basis of a framework of values inspired by the ideological principles of the CIC. During the same period, another networking initiative had begun to germinate in the bosom of the local movement of the Commons (dating back to the 1^st Festival of the Commons in 2013), which was also influenced by the cooperative model of the CIC.

Τhe two networking initiatives came close through a CommonsFest event in April 2015: in the context of this event, three core members of the CIC came to Crete for a week of workshops and meetings with local projects, which gave a strong impetus to the idea of creating a local ‘integral cooperative’. The arrival a few months later of the self-exiled charismatic leader of the CIC (who is now the driving force behind FairCoop), Enric Duran, pushed in the same direction. A visionary himself, Duran showed great zeal in propagandizing the reproduction of the CIC model in Crete. And so, the ICH emerged through the processes (in the milieu of local projects) triggered by the visit of the CIC members to the island, which resulted in the informal founding of the ICH at an open assembly in Heraklion at the end of the summer of 2015.

CommonsFest workshop by CIC members in April 2015

From the moment of its launch two years ago, the ICH has been closely integrated with the local exchange network in Heraklion, the so-called ‘Kouki’, which the ICH set up with the aim of covering the daily needs of the community. As in the case of the CIC in Catalonia, the local exchange network is a structure embedded in the operation of the Integral Cooperative and one of the main ‘tools’ it offers its members. More specifically, through the ‘kouki’ the ICH provides its members with a marketplace where they can exchange products and services by using the alternative currency of the local exchange network.

In practice, the exchange network constitutes a self-organized marketplace for the local community in which its members can buy and sell locally-available products and services. The payment can take the form of barter exchange or if that is not possible, it can be made by means of the alternative currency of the exchange network. From a technical point of view, keeping track of transactions and of members’ credit and debit balances is done through the Integral CES online platform (which, though originally developed by the CIC for its own needs, provides a plethora of local exchange networks around the world with the ‘technological infrastructure’ required for their operation); to put it simply, it is the ‘tool’ that members of local exchange networks use to manage their accounts.

Some of the stalls at the 1st ‘autonomous public market’ in April 2016

One of the most important things ICH has done to increase its visibility is the autonomous public market, which it has been organizing (in collaboration with the local exchange group) since April 2016. At this public market, which takes place once a month at Georgiadis Park in the centre of the city, members can set up their stalls and exchange products with alternative currency. In parallel, various events – such as talks by ICH members – serve the purpose of spreading the principles of the ICH and mobilizing visitors. As a true cooperatively-organized project, there is an open assembly at the end of every autonomous public market, with the aim of coordinating the tasks required for the organization of the next one after a month.

Presentation about the CIC at the 1st ‘autonomous public market’ in April 2016

The reason why this public market is called ‘autonomous’ is because it has consciously chosen to operate without the relevant license from the authorities: in that way it demonstrates in practice its autonomy from the structures of the state and exemplifies the principle of ‘economic disobedience’, that is, the conscious refusal to strengthen the state by paying taxes.

After two years of hard work, ICH believes that the time has come to scale-up its activities. Its immediate plans for the future include the development of ‘common infrastructures’ (like the cauldron ICH members could use this autumn to distil alcohol) and the provision of support for ‘partner projects’ like the retail outlet for the products made available through the local exchange network that some ICH members plan to open in the city in the coming months. Another important goal of ICH for the future is the organization of the autonomous public market on a more frequent basis and its expansion outside the city, helping thus the ICH reach out to the agrarian population in the countryside.

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A technology is considered ‘open’ when it gives users the freedom (a) to study it, (b) to use it any way they wish, (c) to reproduce it and (d) modify it according to their own needs. By contrast, closed technologies are those that restrict these freedoms, limiting users’ ability to study them, reproduce them and modify them so as to adapt them to their needs. That is precisely the advantage of open technologies from the perspective of end users: whereas closed technologies limit the spectrum of possibilities of what end users can do, open technologies ‘liberate’ them, giving them the possibility to tinker with them and evolve them. Paradoxically, despite the fact that open technologies are greatly appreciated by the global technological community because of the freedoms they offer, the technology products manufactured and marketed by the vast majority of technology firms around the world are ‘closed’. This, of course, does not happen because of technological reasons: most of these companies supply their clients with closed machines and tools simply because in that way they can easily ‘lock’ them into a relationship of dependence.

It is not hard to see why this type of client-supplier relationship is particularly harmful for SSE organizations, as it implies their dependence on economic agents with diametrically opposed values and interests. To put it simply, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for SSE organizations to evolve into a vehicle for the transition to a truly social economy when they are dependent on the above economic agents for the tools they need on a daily basis. By contrast, open technologies may well be strategic resources for their autonomy and technological sovereignty. As brazilian activist-philosopher Euclides Mance remarks, SSE organizations should turn to open design and free software tools (like the Linux operating system for computers) in order to extricate themselves from the relationship of dependence they have unwillingly developed with closed technology companies.

A documentary about Sarantaporo.gr

To find the tools which fit their needs and goals, SSE agents should turn to the ‘community’ itself: in most cases, the development and the transfer of open technology to the field of its application and end-use is carried out by collaborative technology projects with the primary aim of covering needs, rather than making a profit. A great example is that of Sarantaporo.gr in Greece, which operates a modern telecom infrastructure of wireless networking in the area of Sarantaporo since 2013, through which more than twenty villages have acquired access to the Internet. The contribution of those collaborative projects – and that is crucial – is not limited to high-technology products, but extends to all kinds of tools and machines. A characteristic example is the Catalan Integral Cooperative in Catalonia and L’Atelier Paysan in France, which develop agricultural (open design) tools geared to the particular needs of small producers of their region.

The above examples show clearly the great potential of the SSE for positive change. However, for that to happen, it should have sufficient support structures for reinforcing its entrepreneurial action. That is where it is lagging behind. The SSE does not have structures analogous to the incubators for start-ups, the ‘accelerators’ and the liaison offices operating at most universities for the transfer of know-how to capitalist firms. Addressing this need is an area in which government policy could play a strategic role: in that regard, it is extremely positive that the recent action plan of the Greek Government tries to combat this problem through the development of more than a hundred cooperatively-organized support centres for the SSE across the entire country by 2023. That is precisely the kind of impetus that the SSE needs in order to grow. Of course, the capacity of these centres to support the SSE technologically will be of decisive importance: those are the structures that can and must make open technology accessible and user-friendly at local level, supplying the SSE organizations of their region with technology tools that promote the principles of the SSE and ensure its autonomy.

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The CIC moto: ‘social transformation from below through self-management, self-organization and networking’

My colleagues at the P2P Foundation and I have long been interested in exploring the ‘CIC model’ as an organizational template for the transition to a commons-oriented economy: with that purpose in mind, Michel Bauwens and some colleagues from the P2PF had visited the CIC for two weeks in 2015. This experience prove to be very fruitful, convincing them that the case of the CIC merits further study. So, when the opportunity arose, the P2PF asked me to travel to Catalonia in order to study the CIC more extensively, with the aim of documenting its organizational model.

Doing fieldwork in the CIC means I lived with CIC activists for about two months so as to familiarize myself with their activities. Using the building of AureaSocial – the unofficial headquarters of the CIC in Barcelona, where I had the luck to be hosted – as my ‘base’, I embedded myself in the cooperativa, taking part in its daily life and visited many exciting projects which are connected to the CIC, like the Calafou post-capitalist colony and the MaCUS makerspace.

Chatting with CIC members at the ‘Bioregional’ assembly in Ultramort in May 2016. Photo by Luis Camargo (https://bioregionalnordcic.blogspot.gr/2016/04/album-de-fotos-de-lassemblea-duitramort.html)

The result of this research experience is this special report, which has just been published by the P2P Foundation and the Robin Hood Coop on the Commons Transition website. I hope that fellow commoners and co-operators will find it interesting!

Photo by cuboctahedron

The post Exploring the Catalan Integral Cooperative in the Age of Crisis appeared first on P2P Foundation.

The kernel of this economic model are the so-called local exchange networks (or exchange groups), which are usually made up of tens or hundreds of members who exchange products and services by using their own digital currencies. In essence, each exchange network constitutes a self-organized marketplace for the local community in which its members can buy and sell locally-available products and services. The payment can take the form of barter exchange or if that is not possible, it can be made by means of the local currency used by each exchange network. Transactions made by using these local currencies are based on the principle of mutual credit, which means that when a transaction between two persons occurs, the account of one person is credited, the other’s debited. To illustrate with an example: if two individuals have no credits in their account and they exchange a loaf of bread at a price of 3 “monetary units”, then one of them will end up with 3 units and the other with 3 units below zero (that is, a “negative balance” of 3 units). From a technical point of view, keeping track of transactions and of members’ credit and debit balances is done through online platforms known as community exchange systems. These platforms constitute the tool with which members of exchange networks manage their accounts, as well as a virtual marketplace for buying and selling locally-available products and services.

A documentary about the local exchange network in Garrotxa

In Catalonia, in specific, there are more than 40 exchange networks known as “eco-networks” (“ecoxarxes” in Catalan) because of the local Catalan currency “eco”, some variant of which they all use. Its “birth” in Catalonia can be traced back to 2009 – about a year before the formation of the CIC in 2010 – when the eco-networks of Tarragona and Montseny introduced their own alternative currency (CIC 2015, Flores 2015).

Number of transactions per month in CIC’s eco-network (Source: IntegralCES)

Although their size differs substantially, some eco-networks have thousands of members: indicatively, the eco-network launched by CIC in 2010 has 2782 members (IntegralCES). From a technical point of view, the operation of about half of the eco-networks is based on the community exchange system (CES), while the rest, including the CIC, have “migrated” to the IntegralCES platform, which was developed upon the initiative of the CIC and several eco-networks as a modified version of CES that is adapted to their local needs.

The IntegralCES homepage

Despite the fact that eco-networks represent an autonomous local structure, they are not cut off from each other: first of all, the software platforms they rely upon for their operation make it possible for members of different eco-networks to engage in transactions. Secondly, though each eco-network has its own autonomous assembly, they are all connected through the “institutions of meta-governance” evolved by the community of eco-networks, such as the “Space for the coordination of social currencies” (Espai de coordinació de monedes socials) and the so-called Bioregional assemblies of the South and the North of Catalonia, which serve as an informally-organized coordinating organ for eco-networks across the Catalan territory.

Bioregional assembly (Ultramort, May 2016)

These are the outlines of the economic ecosystem in which the CIC is embedded and which it proposes as a tool for the transition to the post-capitalist society it envisions: a horizontally organized network of self-managed exchange networks with their own community currencies.

The post CIC’s economic ecosystem: Community exchange networks and local currencies in Catalonia appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Fira FESC: the trade fair organized by XES in Barcelona

In addition to networking, the activities of XES are centered on lobbying Catalan municipalities for the adoption of an appropriate legal and regulatory framework for the social and solidarity economy. In parallel, XES is involved in several projects, which include the organization of training courses (such as the summer school it launched this summer and a new educational program starting in September), the creation of an interest-free mutual credit market based on a local social currency (called “ecosol”), the publishing of books and the InfoXES journal, the development of an indicator (called “Balanç Social”) for measuring the social and environmental contribution of social economy organizations and the collaboratively-developed map “Pam a Pam” for the Catalan social economy.

Pam a Pam: mapping the Catalan social economy

Internally, the organization of XES’ activities is based on a dozen autonomous committees made up of about 60 volunteers, whose work is coordinated by the so-called “permanent committee”. Aside from the committees, for the purpose of strategy formulation and decision-making XES holds three assemblies per year, in which all members of its network can participate.

The governance model of XES

For its economic sustainability, XES depends on the fees paid by its members and on public funding it receives for specific projects (e.g. the Catalan government provides funding for the creation of local networks and the Municipality of Barcelona for the development of “Balanç Social”), while the costs of the trade fair it organizes every year in Barcelona are covered by the rent (of 100-150 euros) paid by the participating producers for their stands.

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The colony was set up with the participation of several CIC members with the aim of becoming a collectivist model for living and organizing the productive activities of a small local community based on the principles of self-management, ecological sustainability, free culture and technological sovereignty. At the same time, it represents an example of the form that former industrial villages could assume in a post-capitalist era.

Calafou’s post-apocalyptic aesthetics

The first thing one is struck by when visiting Calafou is the aesthetics of the space which gives the impression of a Mad Max-like post-apocalyptic scene, as many of the buildings of the village remain abandoned and half-dilapidated. In reality, however, Calafou is anything but abandoned: at the moment, the colony accommodates a multitude of productive activities and community infrastructures, including a carpentry, a mechanical workshop, a botanical garden, a community kitchen, a biolab, a hacklab, a soap production lab, a professional music studio, a guest-house for visitors, a social centre with a free shop, as well as a plethora of other productive projects.

The Calafou hacklab

As far as its property regime is concerned, the village has been leased to Calafou members based on the following agreement: the “colonists” gave the owner a security deposit of seventy thousand euros and committed themselves to paying a monthly rent of an average of two and a half thousand euros (inclusive of the cost of utilities) for the next ten years. Presently, the colony, which has twenty-seven houses (of 60m² each), is inhabited by about thirty people. For the collective management of housing, Calafou members have set up a housing cooperative, which grants them as tenants only the right to use the space they inhabit. In that way, as tenants do not have the right to re-sell or lease their rights of use to others, the land and the houses of the village remain the unalienable property of the housing cooperative. Thus, based on the above agreement, tenants pay 175 euros per month for each house.

A bird’s-eye view of the village

According to some of its members, one of Calafou’s most significant accomplishments is its consensus-oriented assembly, which is held every Sunday for the purpose of making decisions as well as for the coordination of daily tasks like cleaning up common spaces, which – like everything else that needs to be done – are self-selected on a voluntary basis by “Calafou-ers”. The assembly character is however not always the same, as its thematology alternates between “political” (for discussion of political issues), “managerial” (for management issues) and “monographic” based on presentations made by Calafou’s working groups.[1]

For its economic sustainability, Calafou depends on three main sources of income: first, the revenues of the housing cooperative (based on the rent paid by residents); second, the contributions made by Calafou’s productive projects [2]; and third, the income generated by the various cultural events taking place at the village (like conferences, concerts and festivals).

Notes

[1] Although Calafou has quite a few working groups, all of which have direct input into the assembly process, the presentations at “monographic” assemblies are made only by the four most important ones (i.e. the working groups on economics, on communication, on renovation-restoration and on productive projects).

[2] Productive projects have to pay a monthly rent of one euro for every square metre of space they occupy at Calafou.

The post CIC’s autonomous projects of collective initiative #5: Calafou appeared first on P2P Foundation.

One of the XCTIT prototypes

Presently, XCTIT’s activities focus on the development of various prototypes – mostly of agricultural tools and machines – and the organization of training workshops for the purpose of knowledge sharing. XCTIT is also engaged in the production of theory (e.g. through publications like this) and in the licensing of the technology artefacts developed by the committee and its collaborators. XCTIT’s last undertaking is an open design license called “XCTIT-GPL”, which gives end-users the right to modify and redistribute XCTIT-GPL-licensed technologies, thereby protecting legally the free sharing of knowledge.

The committee is made up of five core members (working full-time) and about twenty collaborators who are actively involved in its activities. For the coordination of the group and decision-making, XCTIT has a meeting once a week at Can Fugarolas, where its workshop has been hosted since 2014.

XCTIT’s workshop at Can Fugarolas

Can Fugarolas is not just a building. It is a collectively managed space of 4000 m² in the seaside town of Mataró (near Barcelona) in Catalonia, which is host to the activities of about a dozen collectivities like XCTIT. For the payment of the rent, which is a thousand euros per month, each collectivity contributes according to (a) the character of its activities – whether or nor they are profit-oriented and “eco-friendly” – and (b) how much space it occupies inside the building. For XCTIT, in specific, the rent of the space occupied by its workshop is a hundred euros per month.

To this day, the work of the committee has been supported by the “basic income” of four hundred “monetary units” received by each of its members. However, in the context of CIC’s strategy of decentralization, the last permanent assembly (in Barcelona in May 2016) decided to discontinue the provision of basic income to the XCTIT, thereby turning it from a committee into a financially autonomous project. Consequently, in order to ensure its sustainability, from now on XCTIT plans to rely on the following two sources of income: first, it collects 20% of the revenue from the workshops organized by other groups and collectivities at XCTIT’s space inside Can Fugarolas.[1] Furthermore, it aspires to complement its income through replicat.net, which it recently launched as an electronic marketplace for the prototypes developed by XCTIT and its collaborators.[2]

Notes

[1] So far this income has been used to fund projects in XCTIT’s network, such as Faboratory and Can Cuadres.

[2] XCTIT collects 2% of the revenue from the sales of prototypes developed by its collaborators.

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The Central d’Abastiment Catalana (CAC), which means “Catalan Supply Center”, was formed in 2012 with the purpose of creating a logistics network for the transportation and delivery of the products of small producers, who are (“self-employed”) CIC members, across the entire Catalonia. In effect, it is a public service that CIC offers to small producers and consumer-prosumer groups in Catalonia.

The CAC logo

The main infrastructure of the network are the so-called “rebosts”, that is, the self-managed pantries that the CIC has set up all over Catalonia – twenty of them, to be exact – which constitute the “cell” of the organizational structure of the network. Each one of them is run autonomously by a local consumer group that wishes to have access to local products as well as products made (by producers associated with the CIC) in other parts of Catalonia through the list of products provided by the CAC (which currently includes more than a thousand products). The way that the supply chain is organized is as follows: the products go from the seventy producers that currently supply the network to the two principal rebosts in L’Arn and Villafranca and then are distributed by the CAC vans to the local rebosts, where from the local consumer groups collect them.

CAC is made up of a team of four persons, half of whom are working full-time. This team is responsible for coordinating the network of rebosts through CAC’s online platform, which the rebosts use in order to choose the products they want and submit their orders. The payment for the orders can be made in euros, ecos or by using CAC’s preferred mode of payment, which is barter exchange. In this way, the CAC platform serves as the “instrument” which enables the coordination of consumption and production in such a distributed environment.

In addition to performing a coordinating role through its online platform, CAC is also responsible for the transportation and delivery of products from the producers to the rebosts. In this task, it is assisted by five-six more persons, who use their own vehicles to transport and deliver products to some areas of the network. To cover their expenses, these collaborators receive 21 cents for every kilometer they make.

CAC member Vadó and the CAC van

For its sustainability, CAC relies on income from two main sources: first, it collects 5% of the price of every product, as well as 18 cents for every kilo it delivers. At the same time, CAC members receive a “basic income” from CIC.

For organizational matters, the CAC team has three meetings per month, which often have the character of an assembly. However, the place where they are held is not fixed: each meeting is held in a different rebost in order to facilitate interaction between the “coordinating organ” and the “local nuclei of self-organization”, as the CIC calls the local consumer groups that are responsible for the operation of each rebost.

In line with CIC’s strategy of decentralization, CAC’s plans for the future are focused on strengthening the links between rebosts and producers so that payments can be made directly by the rebosts without the intermediation of the CAC.

Following up on this “profile” of the CAC, in my next post I will discuss another important CIC committee, the so-called XCTIT, which is responsible for the development of tools and machines geared to the needs of the productive projects in CIC’s network.

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SOM Pujarnol at night

The tower  (which is known as the tower of Pujarnol in Banyoles) and the seventy acres of land surrounding it belong to a Foundation, which has leased it to the CIC for a period of fifteen years in exchange for a thousand euros per month, with the proviso that the cooperative will repair those parts of the tower which have suffered the wear and tear of time. That is, besides, the main reason why the rent of a 600 m² tower is that low, as the ones responsible for its restoration are the members of the group living here, which is presently made up of nine persons, including two children.

For the purpose of decision making, the group has an assembly once a week, in which its members make decisions about the management of the project based on consensus. As for routine tasks like cooking and cleaning up common spaces, they are assigned through a system of job rotation, so that all members participate equally in carrying them out.

The “wheel” used by SOM Pujarnol members for the purpose of job rotation

SOM Pujarnol’s relationship with the CIC is not a relation of economic dependency, but one of collaboration based on common principles,[1] as the community no longer receives any financial support from the cooperative. Thus, for the economic viability of the project, SOM Pujarnol depends on income from three main sources: it produces and sells products – like falafel, sauces (e.g. ketchup), veggie burgers and humus – through the local eco-network in Girona and CIC’s Catalan Supply Center (CAC); it organizes events, such as jam sessions on Fridays; and it provides “bed & breakfast” accommodation for travelers who wish to spend a few days at the tower.

Music night at SOM Pujarnol

Notes

[1] It is indicative of the nature of that collaboration that SOM Pujarnol performs the function of the CIC committee that is responsible for the recruitment and induction of new CIC members (the so-called “Comissió d’Acollida”) in the province of Garrotxa.

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The CASX logo

Launched in 2012 as an “autonomous project of collective initiative” of the CIC, CASX has been operating as a co-op since 2013, using the legal form of Xarxa d’Autogestio Social SCCL, which is one of the “legal tools” the CIC offers to its member-projects. Presently, CASX has 155 members, of which many represent other cooperatives and collectivities. The membership fee for individual projects is 15 euros and 51 euros for collective projects. Taking into account the activist character of the project as well as the fact that deposits to CASX are interest-free, it is truly remarkable that the total amount of deposits made in the last four years exceeds 250 thousand euros (for a more detailed analysis, see graph below).

CASX deposits (Source: CASX presentation at the permanent assembly of the CIC, 2015)

The members of CASX make decisions based on consensus through its assembly, which takes place once a month at AureaSocial. In case that consensus is not possible among co-op members as to whether a project should be funded or not, “the ones that agree to go on with the funding can do so individually” by using their personal CASX deposits in a manner akin to crowd-funding (CIC). As fas as its daily operation is concerned, CASX relies on two CIC members, who receive a basic income of 70 “monetary units” (which, in their case, amount to 60 euros and 10 ecos) per month.

CASX has suspended temporarily its operation since the beginning of the year in order to re-engineer its organization around a deposits and funding model based exclusively on ecos, which is slated to roll out when CASX resumes its operation in about two months. Alongside with the implementation of this business model, one of CASX’s goals for the future is the decentralization of its model through its local reproduction “so that every neighborhood, town or city can start generating their own CASX assembly, redirecting the resources of their local members to local projects” (CIC).

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