Solidarity Economics: Relegating profits, promoting people. Part 2of 2

In our previous offering, we introduced Solidarity Economics as an alternative to the exploitative, capitalist system that is worker unfriendly and funnels profits to headquarters far away from where they are made.
In this article, we shall give more examples of Solidarity Economics at the community level and provide a summation of those that may be adapted to the Kenyan rural situation.
Mali: The Gift Economy
Gift economies, in which human beings are worth more than the market, are fundamental to most traditional and indigenous peoples. In its purest form, a gift economy is about the collective, allocation based on need, and abundance. Behind gifting is human relationship, generation of goodwill, and attention to the nurturance of the whole society and not just one’s immediate self and family.
One of these gift systems is alive and well in Mali, West Africa. It is known as Dama. The value of the gift is immaterial because its purpose is to maintain social connections by creating and strengthening friendships, family, regional community, religious grouping, and other social networks.
A second purpose of dama is to sustain and celebrate the values of sharing and humanity—what is known as maaya or ‘being human.’ Dama as a gift or service links neighbors, parents and relatives. An example would be if parent’s children are at a neighbor’s house at mealtime, they will be fed. If it is bath time, the neighbors will bathe them as well.
Thirdly, dama is an essential strategy for keeping the community well. Malians’ understanding of community is that it is only as strong as its parts. Only by all providing for each other will all survive and thrive.
In addition to trying to prevent anyone from being too poor, yet another purpose of dama is to prevent most everyone from becoming too rich. In Mali the cultural norm is to give away as much of your accumulation as possible, with generosity and the generous being most respected. Being rich in Mali means that the person has abandoned his or her values, that he or she is not giving enough to the needs around.
Services are also offered as Dama too. Examples include girls sweeping or washing dishes, running to the corner to buy sugar, tending a market stall, braiding hair and women caring for the children of a neighbor who has to leave home to work.
Gifts encircle each life cycle. When a woman gives birth, neighbors care for all her material needs for the first forty days, organizing themselves to share in providing meals, milk, and the like.
Malians today face the challenge of keeping dama alive despite the expansion of cash transactions. Dama and other non-market economies will remain strong and viable only if organized movements vigorously defend them.
Gifting in other parts of the world
Freecycle are Web-based gift networks where individuals can post or request free items from others in their community. Freecycle facilitates sharing and re-use and it claims to keep 55 tons of stuff out of the landfill each day.
More than 3,000 groups with more than 1.3 members have self-organized in more than 50 countries, with especially large concentrations in U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, and Australia.
Really Really Free Market is face to face version of Freecycle. These non-commercial markets take place once a week or once a month, in a park or a roving location. To them people can bring things they no longer want and take things they now want. No cash is ever accepted, and bartering rarely is. Beyond goods, Really Really Free Markets give services like hair cutting, plus food and entertainment. Developing community, keeping items out of the waste stream, and having fun are all part of it.
Baby clothing exchanges are another form of gifting. In Queens, NY, parents leave too-small clothing for younger ones and pick up the next size for free.
Gift of Kindness is a group actively promoting gifting and compassion in all spheres of life. Among other ideas, they promote committing random acts of kindness such as paying for a neighbor or co-workers food at the local diner.
Community Land Trusts: Preserving land for posterity
A community land trust (CLT) is a non-profit, regionally based organization that takes land out of the speculative market and holds it for farmland or conservation, or as sites for housing or businesses. The long-term lease provides lessees with private ownership of buildings and improvements to the land. The resale formula excludes the land value from any future sale, keeping housing and farming permanently affordable.
Community land trusts are also used to support farm homesteads, the re-gathering of tribal lands, and the development of scattered sites for affordable housing.
Housing Trust Basics in the U.S.A
Buying land through a housing trust starts when the trust acquires a parcel through purchase, foreclosure, tax abatements, or donation. The trust arranges for a housing unit to be built on the parcel if one does not yet exist, then sells the building but retains ownership of the land beneath. The new homeowner leases the land for a nominal sum (for example, $25 per month), generally for 99 years or until the house is resold.
This model supports affordable housing in several ways. First, homebuyers have to meet low-income requirements. Second, the buying price of the home is reduced because it does not include the price of the land. Third, the trust works with lenders to reduce mortgage costs by using the equity of the land as part of the mortgage calculation. This reduces the size of the down payment and other closing costs, and eliminates the need for private mortgage insurance. In all, the trust can cut the cost of home ownership by 25 percent or more.
Informal revolving loan funds
Usually found in various forms throughout Africa and embraced by Africans in the Diaspora. It involves a group of people, most of the time women, who know each other either as friends or co-workers, contributing a set sum from every member per determined period. This money is kept in trust by one member and every period, one member will get the entire kitty. This then revolves until every member is paid then it starts all over again. The logic behind this participatory savings is that as an individual it is hard to save the required sum on your own. Once one is required to give their share in a timely manner as a condition of remaining a participant, it instills discipline and forced budgeting. Also the money is like a welcome surprise although in actuality it was your own periodic contributions that you were given at the end.
Pertinent lessons
• From House holding economies, we learn that we need to teach our children basic life skills (previous article).
• From Scavenging Economies, we learn that recycling could be economically beneficial if embraced (previous article).
• From the cooperative model, we learn that workers can buy out their factories or other workplace and be joint owners. They may even be able to open up credit unions to benefit their members. In a downturn they may work fewer shifts without any of them being laid off.
• From the Community Land Trusts example, we may set aside land in rural or urban areas for affordable housing or for farmland. We may even set aside land in urban areas for parks and recreational activities.

Conclusion
It is our opinion that government development policy as it is in Kenya will not move the nation forward. A few days ago the Nation newspaper reported that:
“Taxpayers had lost Sh445 million through theft and mismanagement of constituency funds. According to a report released by the lobby group, National Taxpayers Association, the cash that could not be accounted for, is feared to have either been pocketed by individuals or mismanaged by various Constituency Development Funds (CDF) boards in the financial years 2006/07 and 2007/08”.
This is dire news indeed. Coupled with all the other recent scandals, the one option we have is to embrace Solidarity Economics as a non exploitative people- first system of social and economic advancement.
The ideas housed in this blog will form the basis of a new people-power movement to be known as the African Economic Democracy Movement whose manifesto we are working on. Economic revolutionaries are needed. Apply within.
Reader responses welcome.