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 reception dimly illuminated, a few minutes before closing down for the night

Through these reports, I will try to document some of the projects and infrastructures developed by the CIC in Catalonia.

AureaSocial’s entrance

AureaSocial is an open space for health, education and self-management. It operates as a co-op since 2010 and is one of the so-called “autonomous projects of collective initiative” of the CIC, which was launched with the aim of exemplifying CIC’s post-capitalist vision and the principles of the integral revolution. Actually, the story of the building is quite interesting: the building belongs to a company which resorted to leasing it to the CIC (in exchange for a symbolic rent) when it went bankrupt six years ago, thereby obstructing the legal process of seizure and foreclosure by the bank. This is, in short, the “strategy” that allows the CIC to appropriate this space and use it for a multitude of activities: such as for many of the meetings and assemblies of the CIC committees; for public talks, seminars, conferences and films; for yoga and kung-fu; for psychological support sessions and physiotherapy; and for all sorts of workshops (anything from workshops about how to improve one’s humour to vegan cooking)[1]. The space also hosts the office of the committee of economic management of the CIC, a free public library, a gift shop for clothes and the central warehouse of the CAC in the city, which operates as a collection point and distribution depot for a wide spectrum of products – from bread and beer to shampoo and toothpaste – ordered by members of CIC’s network in Catalonia (and which, of course, are supplied by other members of the network).

At the terrace of AureaSocial

AureaSocial is paradigmatic of the self-employment model evolved by the CIC. Most of the rooms on the 1^st floor are used as coop-working spaces during the day (from 10.00 to 20.00): they are rented by freelancers such as psychologists and physiotherapists, who, as self-employed members of the cooperative (the so-called “auto-ocupados”), use them for their professional activities. The building constitutes thus a critical organizational infrastructure for the CIC and at the same time a space hosting the entrepreneurial activities (which are unrelated to CIC’s internal organization) of members of CIC’s cooperative network. Renting out the rooms in this way generates a monthly income of about two thousand so-called “monetary units”, which means that auto-ocupados can pay for their rent either in euros or ecos, using the distributed social currency used by the CIC and by several eco-networks in Catalonia. This income is then used by the committee of economic management to cover various needs of the cooperative, such as the provision of the basic income [2] received by committee members or the payment of utility bills for Aurea Social. To ensure that nobody is excluded from making use of the coop-working spaces, an alternative way by which auto-ocupados can pay for their rent is by contributing through their labour: for example, by working at the reception or helping to clean up the building.

I hope the above notes give you an idea of what an interesting place AureaSocial must be! In my next post, I’ll write about another very interesting autonomous project of collective initiative, MaCUS.

Notes

[1] Here’s the calendar of public activities at AureaSocial: https://teamup.com/ks2721d89e700255bc

[2] The amount of basic income received by committee members is not the same for everyone, but is determined in agreement between each member and the committee of economic management. In short, the committee asks each member the amount that he or she needs. However, no member receives more than 765 euros and 135 ecos per month.

 *We are grateful for the support of the Robin Hood Cooperative, which has provided funding for this study.

The post CIC’s autonomous projects of collective initiative #1: AureaSocial appeared first on P2P Foundation.