[Van-Parecon] Looking Backward, Looking Forward: One Year of Parecon Organizing

[vancouverparecon at resist.ca]

Looking Backward, Looking Forward: One Year of Parecon Organizing
By the Vancouver Parecon Collective:


It’s been just over one year since the Vancouver Parecon
Collective came into existence. It was sometime in
September 2003 that a few of us Vancouver Pareconistas
stumbled upon one another. Since then we have created a
project that has far exceeded any of our expectations of 12
months ago. In fact, we have opened further doors for
future possibilities that are exciting, intimidating,
inspiring and hopeful. Here, we want to review some of our
achievements as well as some of our failures. We also share
some of our aspirations for the near future. We do this
with the hopes of encouraging others to pursue similar
adventures.


Looking Backward


After meeting each other we discovered that we all shared a
very strong interest in economic justice. But not the kind
of economic justice that is claimed in the myths and lies
extolling the virtues of capitalism, with its privately
owned productive property, competition, markets, corporate
hierarchies, class rule and inequitable remuneration
schemes. Nor were we interested in the kind of economic
justice that has been heralded by promoters of
authoritarian models of communism characterized by central
planning, state owned productive property and a small elite
of coordinators who plan the over all economic course of
society. No, we found our commitment to economic justice
articulated in Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert’s vision of
Participatory Economics. A model with federations of
workers and consumers councils, decentralized participatory
planning, balanced job complexes, remuneration for effort
and sacrifice, and indicative pricing. An economic system
that promotes the values of solidarity, equity, self-
management, diversity and efficiency.


Beyond discovering our similar commitments to social and
economic justice we also had the luck of good timing.
Before meeting, one of us was asked to give a parecon
presentation to a bunch of university students. We quickly
mobilized to create leaflets, a web site and mailing list.
We even recorded the talk with the hopes of disseminating
the audio. The night was very memorable because it was
raining cats and dogs, with may other activist events
happening all over town. We had a very impressive turn out
for the circumstances, 15-18 people. The evening was filled
with very insightful discussion from a wide diversity of
perspectives. We emerged from the evening with a sense
inspiring success. It affirmed our belief that people were
interested in a model of economic justice that transcended
both the failures of capitalism and central planning.


We quickly began organizing regular monthly meetings to
encourage participation. Our collective then grew, and
fluctuated. We were, are, and have been teachers, students,
social service workers, computer programmers, journalists,
antiwar activists, mothers, political party
representatives, vegetarians, vegans and carnivores.


Tabling events also became a common, and effective,
outreach tool for our initial organizing. We tabled the
first four opening nights for the film “The Corporation”,
literally reaching thousands. Vancouver’s “Under the
Volcano” festival and May Day fair were also a good places
for us to mix, mingle and meet new and like minded people.


Soon we were organizing our next workshop, "Participatory
Economics: A just alternative to capitalism & communism"
held at the University of British Columbia. And only a few
months later we gave another workshop for “Critical U”, a
Simon Fraser University program aimed at giving people
access to university curriculum, outside the university, in
Vancouver’s east side. This presentation was also a success
and you can view pictures of the event here:
http://vanparecon.resist.ca/photos.html


In April of 2003 Global Justice TV broadcast our UBC
presentation on televisions across British Columbia’s lower
mainland. Not just once, but three times! They did an
excellent job editing and producing a program with high
production qualities. You can down load the video file by
clicking on this link:
http://globaljustice.ca/video/parecon.mov


In May, the Vancouver Area Anti-Capitalist Convergence
asked the Vancouver Parecon Collective to present a
workshop on “Alternative Economic Models”. We presented
various models of capitalist, socialist and democratically
planned economies; specifically participatory economics.
Our purpose was to orient Vancouver’s anti-capitalist
movement towards thinking about what alternatives are
available. We also attempted to explore the desirability
and feasibility of these different economic models, and how
to get there. The result was our talk “Parecon & Other
Alternatives to Capitalism”. You can listen to the talk by
down loading the file here:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=9200


Around this time we asked Noam Chomsky to comment for us
about the importance of organizing for a participatory
economy. We thought we’d use it on our web site and other
promotional material. To our pleasant surprise, Noam kindly
generated a comment in which he said, "A great many
activists and concerned people ask, quite rightly, what
alternative form of social organization can be imagined
that might overcome the grave flaws -- often real crimes --
of contemporary society in more far-reaching ways than
short-term reform. Parecon is the most serious effort I
know to provide a very detailed possible answer to some of
these questions, crucial ones, based on serious thought and
careful analysis."


This comment obviously exceeded any of our expectations. We
are very grateful to Noam for this.


Perhaps one of the most difficult events to organize to
date has been our showing of the documentary film “The
Corporation”. This was supposed to be a fundraiser for a
local anarchist book store, Sparticus Books, which caught
fire and burnt to the ground. We also hoped to raise money
for another parecon project, The NewStandard. For this
event we had The Corporation’s co-director Bart Simpson
present to introduce the film. After the film we held a
workshop on parecon. The whole event went off without a
hitch, with one substantial exception. Organizationally, it
was a success. We put an enormous amount of effort into the
event and it went very smoothly. However, financially it
was a total failure... We put close to a thousand dollars
into it and made only $150.00 back, collective bummer. That
didn’t stop us from enjoying the rest of the day out for
lunch and at the beach. There was even a strong sense of
accomplishment in our experience organizing the event. We
decided we wouldn’t keep the money we raised, that’d be
better to give it to the groups we were fundraising for. So
in the end we felt it was a success. You can view photos
for this event here:
http://vanparecon.resist.ca/photoscorp.html


Another notable event was the “Post-Market” flea market and
discussion group, a two day event organized by “Counter
Publics”, a group of local activist artists. They invited
us to hold an info table at their flea market for the first
day. The flea market was a very stimulating experience
offering an opportunity to interact in new ways via barter
and exchange. Participants could trade goods and services
for any other goods and services, the only rule being that
participants couldn’t use money. One of us traded a copy of
“Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty
First Century” for a bottle of juice. We didn’t even try to
calculate whether the indicative prices embodied in our
goods made this an equal exchange, such are the limitations
to barter, and we were thirsty.


For the second day we participated on a discussion weaving
together the topics of participatory economics, the open
source software movement and surrealism. It was here that
we were able to fully elaborate on the benefits of a full
system of democratic planning as compared to markets or
barter systems. We also discussed art in a parecon and the
implications of the open source movement for the anti-
capitalist movement.


Another area of our work has been our attempts to generate
more content, via audio and print media, exploring all
aspect of participatory economics. We have written,
published and produced commentary, interviews, reviews and
essays on a wide variety of parecon related focuses. From
“Parecon: The Unofficial Economics of Star Trek” to a look
at the possible future of architecture in a parecon in our
essay “Architecture of the New Society”. Most recently we
interviewed Stephen Shalom on “ParPolity: Political vision
for the Good Society”. And, an interview with Robin Hahnel,
“Participatory Economics and the Environment”, will be on
our web site in the new year. You can find all of these on
our home page: http://vanparecon.resist.ca


All this has been very exciting and again, more than any of
us have expected over the past year. However, there are
still areas that we want to work on that we think are very
important, but have been unable to make very much progress.
This area is the creation of actual parecon institutions to
put our theories into concrete practice. This is different
than the work we are already doing in the sense that we are
all volunteering our time and energy to parecon organizing.
The organizing is dispersed among what our own time and
commitments allow us to do. This means that, even though we
may try to share our work equitably, some times our efforts
are scattered and even dissipate around certain projects.
In this context we are constantly fighting against
institutional pressures, capitalist and other, in order for
us to make our project sustainable. And not only
sustainable, but to grow. In this effort we have had many
ideas and plans to try to create divers parecon
enterprises. These efforts have been overwhelmed by the
enormity of redirecting our energies from everyday
commitments in our lives. Instead, and this is reaffirming,
we seem to be making progress on many other fronts. One of
which is the battle to make parecon a visible alternative
economic system that people can then choose from. Locally
we have made very impressive progress. Globally, we hope to
act as an inspiration and perhaps one model , for how
others can organize for a participatory economy.


Looking Forward

One way we have tried to over come some of these barriers
over the last year is to develop a “One Year Plan” which
looks forward mapping out the coming twelve months.
However, the process of looking forward is harder then
reviewing our past. It demands much more creativity and, in
the process, a reevaluation and realignment of our
commitments. Below are some of our ideas for the coming
year:


- Make our collective organizing efforts financially
sustainable, and even allow growth.

This would be done by trying to generate regular parecon
content for our web site, mostly from Vancouver Parecon
Collective members, but also from other divers writers,
activists and theorists. This would mean developing some
kind of membership and donation base for our web site. In
addition to creating regular systems for generating
content, applying editorial practices, skills, tasks and
deadlines, just to name a few things we’d have to do on top
of what we already do as volunteers.


- Proposal for Participatory Budgeting

This is someting we are currently working on. We hope to
make a broad proposal for participatory budgeting, both
locally in Vancouver, provincially in British Columbia and
also nationally for Canada. We hope to stimulate efforts
between divers activists, community groups, Left think
tanks and policy institutes to create a “shadow
participatory budget” which will demonstrate its
effectiveness at empowering workers and consumers. This
would be used to critique official budgets and push for a
series of non-reformist reforms of participatory policy
proposals. The outcome would hopefully be to stimulate mass
movements and political will power to implement these
alternatives.


- Further Education: talks, workshops, radio programs,
essays and interviews

Something for us to look forward to this winter is our
showing of the “Parecon Shed Sessions”, a seven part video
series examining many aspects of parecon and other
alternatives to capitalism. This would be accompanied by
after movie discussions and weekly readings.

We also hope to continue holding workshops and other
educational events. In addition we are currently
brainstorming new ideas and focuses for articles, essays,
and interviews.


- Canadian National Parecon Organization

This is something that we think is definitely feasible
since Canada already has a rich history and practice of
experimentation in parecon institutions. The folks in
Winnipeg are the main source of this experimentation. They
have the Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse, G7 Welcoming
Committee Records and the Arbeiter Ring Publishing house.
We think we should some how network with the folks in
Winnipeg but have not made any attempts at this so far. In
addition, our experience in Vancouver tells us that there
is interest in parecon across the country. Some kind of
national organization could help facilitate interaction and
organizing for parecon groups across Canada, becoming an
effective tool for advocacy. However, many issues arise and
these are also similar to those found in the next
possibility.


- An International Organization for Participatory Economics

This is motivated by a reoccurring desire among us in the
Vancouver Parecon Collective to establish, networks,
cooperation and solidarity among all parecon organizations,
enterprises and individuals. The purpose would be to create
an effective parecon advocacy group internationally. We
have periodic discussions about this but have no clear
ideas. In his March 10, 2004 blog entry, “Advocating
Parecon: An Organization”, Michael Albert explores this
issue. It’s worth quoting the whole blog entry at length
for the clarity of the issues Michael outlines:


“What about creating an organization of pareconists, so
to speak? I don’t know whether this would be positive if it
were it to grow to considerable size, nor even whether it
would grow at all, for that matter. So this is an idea that
pounds away in my mind
not escaping those borders into
actual practice.


On the one hand, and this is always the easy part, imagine
we had an organization for participatory economics called
ope or something. Suppose it had ten thousand or even a
hundred thousand or a million members worldwide, with
chapters in dozens of countries. Suppose it was internally
self managing. Suppose it advocated, explored, debated, and
tried to flexibly, locally implement pareconish structure
as well as trying to win non-reformist reforms in a
trajectory leading toward parecon. Would this be a good
thing?


To my thinking, of course if parecon is a good thing then
such an organization would be wonderful.


But, you say, if we did this now it wouldn’t be this big
and so powerful and so structurally consistent with
pareconish values at the outset. Well of course it wouldn’t
– that takes time. But nor could it ever get to that
desired stature unless it got started at some initial time
and place and scale, however initially small and inferior
to ultimate hopes. So there is an argument for doing it.


On the other hand, who is going to define such an
organization at its outset? What confidence can we have it
would remain or become self-managing as its membership
grew? What confidence can we have, for that matter, that it
would grow rather than petering out at the expense of our
efforts? What confidence can we have that such an
organization would be open and exploratory and constantly
innovative, as compared to being stodgy and sectarian. How
can we be confident that it would implement changes
flexibly as compared to being an adventurist nuisance or
just plain incompetent? Should these and other concerns
cause us only to function with great care, or should they
cause us to entirely reject such an attempt?”


We hope our experience over the last year, and our hopes
for the coming, can help explore the possibility of such an
attempt. However, we also hope that our experience inspires
others to start organizing themselves, both locally and
globally. And we want to hear your ideas too. So please e-
mail us at vancouverparecon at resist.ca


The Vancouver Parecon Collective is currently Jamie
Campbell, Dave Collins, Bryan Berndt, Matt Grinder, Daniel
Palmer, Chris Spannos, David Pehota
http://vanparecon.resist.ca