“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

bristol | community | opinion/analysis Tuesday October 07, 2008 09:38 by Parky

Capitalism is in crisis and we are not any closer to articulating what an alternative might look like. Here in Bristol we should be talking and thinking about alternative economic systems.

If we are heading towards a serious economic crisis then this is the moment when anarchists need to start demonstrating alternative ways of doing things.

1) How many of those who consider yourselves anarchists have read, and broadly support the notions of PARECON? (I am not particularly interested in hearing from the capitalists - I already know what you think!)

Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is a proposed economic system that uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and allocation of resources in a given society. Proposed as an alternative to contemporary capitalist market economies and also an alternative to centrally planned socialism or coordinatorism, it is described as "an anarchistic economic vision",[1] although it could be considered a form of socialism as under parecon, the means of production are owned by the workers. It emerged from the work of activist and political theorist Michael Albert and of radical economist Robin Hahnel, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s.

The underlying values that parecon seeks to implement are equity, solidarity, diversity, workers' self-management and efficiency. (Efficiency here means accomplishing goals without wasting valued assets.) It proposes to attain these ends mainly through the following principles and institutions:

* workers' and consumers' councils utilizing self-managerial methods for decision making,
* balanced job complexes,
* remuneration according to effort and sacrifice, and
* participatory planning.

Albert and Hahnel stress that parecon is only meant to address an alternative economic theory and must be accompanied by equally important alternative visions in the fields of politics, culture and kinship. The authors have also discussed elements of anarchism in the field of politics, polyculturalism in the field of culture, and feminism in the field of family and gender relations as being possible foundations for future alternative visions in these other spheres of society. Stephen R. Shalom has begun work on a participatory political vision he calls "parpolity".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics

2) How many of you are involved with, or would like to get involved in community supported agriculture?

Community supported agriculture generally is the practice of focusing on the production of high quality foods using organic or biodynamic farming methods. This kind of farming operates with a much greater-than-usual degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders — resulting in a stronger than usual consumer-producer relationship. The core design includes developing a cohesive consumer group that is willing to fund a whole season’s budget in order to get quality foods. The system has many variations on how the farm budget is supported by the consumers and how the producers then deliver the foods. By CSA theory, the more a farm embraces whole-farm, whole-budget support, the more it can focus on quality and reduce the risk of food waste or financial loss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agricu...lture

If more than five people leave positive comments then we could arrange a meeting to chat about these issues?