Case Social Economy and the Commons in Portugal

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Social solidarity economy is a comprehensive concept referring to economic practices that serve as alternatives to the capitalist economic system and to the commodification and exploitation of all spheres of life including basic human needs. As opposed to capitalism, these alternatives often involve “community ownership, democratic non-hierarchical and consensual decision-making, as well as mutual cooperation and embeddedness in a local social and ecological context… Profits and self-interest tend to remain secondary to larger concerns such as equity and solidarity, right to a dignified livelihood and ecological integrity”. One of these practices are the commons. Commons are, according to De Angelis (2019), social systems that are formed by three basic and interconnected elements: a commonwealth, a community of commoners, and a praxis of commoning, that is of doing in common: a social process based on participatory and democratic principles.

Disgraca, RDA69 | disgraca@riseup.net

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, Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal PT

Authors Linnea Kronnebrant
Topics Commons, Leadership, Rights, Social changeCommons, Leadership, Rights, Social change
Case Report Volume 2: "Resilience in the Face of COVID-19"
Number of participants
Photo courtesy: Tortuga

Process that led to the community being resilient (Pre-covid)

Disgraca and RDA69 are two autonomous/anarchist social centers in Lisbon that have existed for five and ten years respectively. The two centers share the same political foundation and are built around the same values and principles. They both have social kitchens where they are serving food for a low or no price, and they are organizing social events such as rock concerts, art exhibitions, book clubs, movie screenings, and more, where people can come together and meet.

RDA 69 was created as a common space to organize politically, to meet and discuss common interests, an anti-authoritarian political space that promotes other forms of political participation than the traditional ones. It has been an important meeting point for various movements in the city.

The centers are promoting the decommodification of basic human needs. They want to provide a material autonomy as well as a cultural one. In this regard they are offering services, but they do not call it that. You will for example have to wash your own dishes when you’re done eating. RDA 69 presents itself not as a bar or a restaurant. Rather, these spaces are about community building and sharing, liberation and empowerment, the celebration of food and flavors, and of conviviality which is social transformation rooted in interdependence and the turning of individuals into collectives. With everyone’s participation, it is possible to have a space that can be a bar, library, restaurant, association, cinema, school – all of this or none of this – at the same time.

Photo courtesy: Regueirão dos Anjos
Photo courtesy: Disgraça Facebook

Disgraca wants to deconstruct the shame and social stigma associated with access to social kitchens: of not being able to care for oneself and the usual top-down relationships associated with charity. The running of the social kitchens at Disgraca and RDA 69 is built on trust in people’s ability to show solidarity and empathy with other people. The centers do not communicate that the food is for people who cannot afford to buy it themselves. Instead they trust that people can self-regulate and put themselves in other people’s position by not taking resources from those who might need it more. This commons-based approach is grounded in an ethics of love to self and others based on a shared humanity, and an understanding of everyone’s capacity to contribute to the whole.

How resilience that was established has helped during the pandemic

When the pandemic hit and many people lost their job and income, the access to food and social kitchens became even more important than they were before. More people have been seen in the food lines in Lisbon. RDA 69 moved its social kitchen out to the streets to meet the crisis and to offer food for anyone who wants to come and especially for those in need.

Sara from Disgraca tells how during the national lockdown, after some days, the social inequalities got even more visible and they got to know that there were homeless people starving on the streets.

So, we decided to use our experience cooking meals to start a solidarity kitchen to create a mutual aid network in the community. The project had two stations on the entrance of the space, one to collect donations of foodstuff, and another to distribute all the free meals by take away. There was also a team distributing meals on the streets by bike or car. For three months we could clearly experience that when different people get together and organize themselves to react towards adversities, what comes from it has an impact that is powerful.

Another important aspect of the social centers during COVID-19 is that they are providing spaces of conviviality – of coming together as a collective – something that has been under threat in times of social distancing and isolation. Disgraca has been inviting people to come over at their door to socialize, while still maintaining the physical distancing, to discuss the transition into the new normal and to encourage participation in that transition. On their Facebook page, they are inviting people to come and discuss neighborhood relationships, the rebuilding of their neighborhood communities, mutual support and relationships based on solidarity. They recognize that the pandemic is making visible products of decades of capitalism and state repression and exploitation: the intense social alienation, economic poverty and lack of real solutions to care for each other’s needs on a daily basis. They want to restore trust and community bonds and together think of how communities can help each other overcome difficulties without leaderships and hierarchies, which they assert is fundamental to build a more just world.

There has been a multiplication of initiatives based on commoning and social care during the pandemic. These initiatives are not limited to civil society. State actors are adopting strategies that used to be a characteristic of autonomous and anarchist groups. One example is employees at Lisbon municipality who are calling the elders just to chat and check on how they are doing, asking them if they need help with anything.

Lessons learnt

Crisis can serve as an opportunity as it can help us see the strengths that we already had but once were undervalued. It can show the urgency of taking on and scaling up already existing practices. This is being shown by the examples above and the fact that more and more actors are taking on commons-based strategies to ensure basic human needs. The development of a social economy and a culture that is based on seeing to other people’s needs, putting oneself in other people’s position, showing solidarity and working together creates strong and resilient communities.

There are many initiatives that see the link between commoning and resilience and want to turn this into systemic change. One of these initiatives is the Social and Solidarity Economy Action Plan promoted by the Catalan Solidarity Economy Network. The aim is to make cities, towns and villages more resilient, not only to pandemics but to social and environmental crises, through the localization of supply chains and promotion of cooperative structures.

References

  • Disgraca (2020) Disgraca Facebook homepage. Available at: https://www.facebook. com/disgracadiycenter/. Accessed on 04 May 2022
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