[P2P-F] Fwd: Cashless transactions: Greeks’ creative crisis solution

Sat Nov 12 00:29:41 CET 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kevin Carson <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 1:45 AM
Subject: Cashless transactions: Greeks’ creative crisis solution
To: "free. market. anticapitalist" <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com>

Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader:

Cashless transactions: Greeks’ creative crisis
solution<http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/2011/10/cashless-transactions-greeks-creative.html>
via Trust is the Only Currency <http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/> by Mira
Luna on 10/31/11

>From Question More <http://rt.com/news/greek-creative-crisis-solution-841/>
27 October, 2011

Whether the EU anti-crisis plan is effective or not, for the austerity-hit
Greek people a creative solution could be the answer to some of their
problems. In a country where cash is in short supply, time has taken on a
whole different value.

They same time is money, and now it’s being used as a currency in an
emerging barter system developed by cash-strapped Greeks who want to swap
goods and services.

“In the Time Bank we exchange voluntary services.Sometimes I give painting
lessons for free but I take yoga for free also,” says Niki Roubani of the
Bank of Voluntary Time project. “It’s huge, it’s everything we do without
money. It’s looking after people and making things ourselves.”

The Time Bank is just one of a growing number of service-swapping
alternatives that are providing people in Greece with an imaginative way to
cope with the tough economic conditions.

Tsakalotos Efklidis, an economics professor, says a financial crisis can
have terrible and divisive consequences for society.

“[It divides] public sector workers from private sector workers, it divides
richer workers to poorer workers, immigrant workers from home workers. And
that’s a terrible thing,” he said.

For a country in crisis, building social unity can be an uphill struggle.
However, the barter networks have proven a great way of bringing together
large groups of people. A popular slogan in Greece now is, "No-one's alone
in the crisis."

Organizations are arranging swap-shops to exchange clothes, and one town in
Greece has even started its own barter currency.

“We still have the memory of an agricultural society in Greece, where
people used to do things together. They would harvest the olive tree of my
family this week and then the next week we do the olive trees of your
family. So they would exchange services – and people like that,” says Niki
Roubani.

Nikki gives her friend Alexandra, who is also a member of the time bank, an
art lesson. In exchange, Alexandra helps Nikki with the gardening, and the
time is repaid.

“It’s an amazing way of receiving by giving to others,” says Alexandra.

As many Greeks struggle with wage cuts and tax increases, and with
unemployment in the country now cripplingly high, there has been huge
interest in the time banks and barter networks.

No wonder the idea of swapping goods and services has proven so popular –
it is building solidarity at a time when the economic situation is
extremely uncertain. Whilst these barter networks will not solve Greece’s
financial problems, they do provide a massive amount of help and support
for the participants.

“It’s not a response to the crisis, in the sense that it’s going to
overturn the government, but it’s giving support and comfort to those who
would like to overturn the terrible economic policies that are being
imposed by the Troika. It’s giving people support to feel that they can do
something,” says Tsakalotos Efklidis.

While these tough economic times are leaving many Greeks feeling worthless,
there is real value in projects like the time bank. With the Greek
government drowning in debt, these creative solutions are offering not only
support but also encouragement to the people here, which at a time of deep
economic recession, are proving priceless commodities.

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-- 
Kevin Carson
Research Associate, Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Desktop Regulatory State:  The Countervailing Power of Super-Empowered
Individuals http://desktopregulatorystate.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
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