MLT Newsletter
October, 1991
PROJECT UPDATE
Earlier this year, the MLT contacted the Kalamazoo-area Habitat
for Humanity in hopes of one day integrating permaculture designs with
some of that agency's home sites. By spring, MLT farm co-manager,
Jon Towne, had met with a HFH home buyer and a rough plan was
developed. Afterwards, Jon came up with detailed plans and
drawings that were met with enthusiasm from the home owner.
Included in the design were a variety of fruits, berries, and
ornamentals that were suitable for that particular site. A local
nursery donated the stock, and the project was to be included in the
area's "Parade of Homes.
Optimally, the effort will be good publicity for the MLT, and it will
help increase awareness as to the use of perennial plantings. Jon
reported at the most recent board meeting, that he will contact the
homeowner for an evaluation of the project.
A THIRD WAY IN ECONOMICS
Maynard Kaufman
A Review of Post-Crisis Equilibrium: From Growth to Harmony by Alfredo Lopez de Romana
For too long economics has been out there serving the interests of
industry and government, generating profit and revenue as it
commodified whatever it could. A Peruvian.architect/economist,
Alfredo de Romana, is now calling for the homecoming of
economics. He sees "local solutions to global problems" as part
of an "authentic movement of social renewal" (19)* which might support
a more humane and ecological economics.
After a decade of exceptionally wide reading, de Romana has published the first two parts of his major work, Post-Crisis Equilibrium: From Growth to Harmony.
In it he is exploring the outlines of an alternative economic paradigm,
different from the growth-oriented economics of industrial societies,
whether capitalist or socialist. Most of us are by now familiar
with the social and environmental crises created by the conventional
market economy and we like to criticize it and even propose
reforms. Those of us living under capitalism might urge
more socialist policies to mitigate the ravages of free enterprise.
Those in socialist societies are currently looking toward more free
markets as a solution to their problems. Neither side has yet
caught the vision of a third way, and it is this that de Romana is
trying to discover. Much of this new paradigm is still outside
the framework of conventional economic thought and its parts need to be
understood in the context of the new paradigm, not judged by the old.
From Growth to Harmony
implies a shift from economic growth to ecological harmony. De
Romana argues that this shift is possible as we seek a better balance
or "equilibrium" between the market economy of industrial societies,
where money mediates between production and consumption, and what he
calls the "vernacular/informal sphere." The term "vernacular" (an
old Roman word referring to household production
and activity, as in the language we learn at home) is borrowed from
Ivan Illich to suggest that which is home-made or home-grown,
production for use rather than for sale or exchange. And, given
the social and environmental crises created by the production and
consumption of commodities, more vernacular activity could lead to a Post-Crisis Equilibrium.
The subtitle. Economic Implications of Human Welfare and Ecological Sustainabilitity,
suggests that de Romana is seeking an economics that would be geared to
human welfare and ecological sustainability rather than simply
productivity, as in the present commodity-intensive economy. De Romana
challenges the prevailing myth of productivity-that more goods and
services will abolish scarcity. Since people understand their own
needs better than centralized markets, the key dimension of this new
economics is vernacular activity—production for use in the
household and community. "Without a regeneration of the
vernacular realm, it will be impossible to ensure simultaneously
ecological sustainability, socioeconomic security and the flowering of
cultural vitality" (163).
Part 1 of de Romana's work is called "The Vernacular/Informal Sphere
vis-a-vis the Industrial/Formal Sector." Since we are exploring a
new paradigm it is necessary to develop a vocabulary to distinguish it
from the industrial paradigm. Non-monetary vernacular activities
are largely invisible to people in industrial societies where nearly
all needs from food to leisure activities are satisfied by commodities.
Moreover, the radical monopoly of commodities for the satisfaction of
human needs is gradually obliterating the cultural possibility of
vernacular competence. Many people, for example, no longer know
how to raise and cook food. De Romana sees the penetration of the
formal/industrial sector into the informal/vernacular realm as a kind
of parasitism, and as the vernacular realm of household and community
is thus parasitized the social fabric is disintegrating.
In contrast to cashless vernacular activity, de Romana identifies the
informal economy as consisting of odd jobs, small businesses, and
community organizations which do involve cash transactions but "are
based less on capital investment than on the investment of effort and
creation of organization through autonomous work" (37). Thus the
informal economy includes craftsmanship versus industry, it is
cost-effective rather than capital-intensive, the activity of
resourceful humans rather than the product of human resources, and it
is motivated by need or personal growth rather than profit.
The vernacular and informal together constitute the autonomous sphere
of economic activity which de Romana contrasts to our conventional
economy, the "accumulation-intensive sector." He emphasizes this
kind of contrast and argues that the conventional contrast of market
versus state-controlled economies is false (since market economies are
also state supported and regulated) and misleading because this
conventional
contrast obscures the autonomous sphere. Most of the second part of de
Romana's work is devoted to a critique of the accumulation-intensive
economy. This critique is informed by the many writers who have
exposed the problems in the industrial economy. These problems
include the devastating ecological impact of a growth-crazed economy,
the disintegration of the social fabric, artificial scarcity,
waste,bureaucratic inefficiency, inequity as structural unemployment
increases, and materialistic values.
A major problem is that the industrial mode of production seems to
be more efficient than vernacular activities because so many of its
costs are externalized and absorbed by the public or by the ecosystem.
Forcing polluting industries to internalize these costs is a
possibility, but since this would threaten the viability of the
only means of production in industrial societies, de Romana proposes it
not be done until more opportunities for vernacular and informal
production are provided.
Another problem looming in industrialized societies is the spectre of
"shadow work." This, another concept borrowed from Illich, refers
to the growing amount of unpaid work done within the industrial
economy. Such unpaid work includes shopping, commuting, required job
training, and, more recently, recycling the packaging of industrial
goods. In one of his more original passages de Romana worries about the
extension of shadow work in the provision of social services with
professional management of unpaid volunteers, especially as tax
revenues are diverted to support failing industries.
Despite his critique of the industrial system and his focus on
vernacular possibilities, de Romana is not proposing a return to
pre-industrial ways of life. Rather, he believes that "an
extremely efficient synergy is possible between the formal and
autonomous sectors, between the exchange economy and vernacular
autoproduction" (56). But first it is necessary to recognize that
the formal economy enjoys a parasitical relationship with the
autonomous economy. Once this is recognized and the industrial
economy has contracted, de Romana anticipate a "Post-crisis
equilibrium." "We need to arrive at a state of equilibrium
between: 1) vernacular activity, informal work and industrial
employment; between: 2) vernacular culture, informal knowledge and
engineered systems; and between: 3) vernacular, informal and industrial
capital" (155).
De Romana's work is still in progress-he is working on a third part
devoted to post-industrial social organization with its new economic
and political paradigms. His recommendations at this point are
largely negative: deconstruct the ideology of economic
growth,"disestablish the official imposition of consumption and
industrialized lifestyles" (144) and "disestablish the official
commoditization of work, land and money" (154). This would
liberate labor, land and capital from the hegemony established with the
growth of the market economy. Therefore instead of continuing
official support for "employment," (the form which work was given in
the industrial era) de Romana proposes opportunities for vernacular
activity. Every person should be guaranteed free access to the
use of land for household production. The abolition of work, land
and money as commodities, at least under some conditions, is, according
to de Romana, "a precondition for the vernacular realm to regenerate"
(154).
Finally, de Romana is urging that it is time to begin the process
of"re-embedding" the economy. (He is here referring to Karl
Polanyi's contention that as the market economy grew it was disembedded
from its cultural framework or social matrix so that it began to
determine political policy and cultural development.) A
re-embedded economy would serve human welfare rather than economic
growth. No longer a Faustian instrument aspiring to limitless
growth, it would, as re-embedded be heedful of ecological
constraints. This would be a "third way" clearly distinct from
the market economy or the state-controlled economy. And, says de
Romana, it "can be found only if social organization revolves around a
central vernacular realm" (162). Local production geared to local
needs rather than to the imperatives of centralized markets, would be
ecologically more efficient, using fever resources and generating less
pollution.
Alfredo de Romana is a careful and creative reader of alternative
economics and he brings a much needed Latin-American perspective to his
work. He deserves a wider audience. We can only hope that
when the entire work is ready it will be widely available.
________________________
*Parenthetical page numbers refer to de
Romana's work as published in Interculture, Issues 104 and 105 (Summer
and Fall, 1989). Copies are available from Monchanin Cross-cultural
Centre, 4917 rue St. Urbain. Montreal. Canada, H2T 2W1, for $4.25 each.
Living in the Sticks by Mike Phillips
BALLOT BOX FOLLIES
An old friend and ex-neighbor. Swan, always argued that exercising
one's right to vote in this day and age was senseless. Over the years,
and over a lot of beer and herbal tea, we would sit around and run that
premise right into the ground. Ultimately, I could never give him
a compelling reason to go to the polls. Our democratic process-though
not inherently evil-is at the very least absurd. And in light of
recent events. Swan's steadfast declaration rings in my ears:
"Why vote?"
It's estimated that George Bush's pyrotechnics over Iraq will
eventually leave over 250,000 people dead (figure in untreated sewage,
contaminated water, disease, hunger, etc.). Here in the
heartland, as the bombs fell the masses cheered while the democratic
party cowered and slipped further into oblivion. Can millions of
yellow ribbon-donning yahoos lining the streets and watching a
seemingly endless succession of victory parades all be wrong?
Yes. Nonetheless, the war was a soothing balm for our national
psyche left traumatized by Vietnam. It will also secure Bush a
second term as president. I fear that he may run unopposed.
Speaking of democrats in oblivion, during the last presidential primary
my wife and I slipped into the polls shortly before they closed.
When we signed-in we were horrified to learn that we were only the 39th
and 40th persons to vote in the democratic primary for our entire
precinct. Since then I've noticed that in the local general
elections almost all the canidates are republicans running unopposed or
against each other. So much
for the two-party system. A couple of times a year the 4th
District rank and file democrats probably sit around a picnic table,
drink a few beers, and have a good cry. Ard in state politics,
our vaguely-populist democratic senator up for re-election was one of
the Keating Five. Oh, hell.
On a much brighter note, the MX missle will no longer be based in
Michigan. Ten years ago we marched in protest of its arrival and
now it's leaving. It wasn't driven out by referendum or by the
peace movement. A congressional committee chose to shut down the
base where it was housed. Michigan politicians mourn as the
trickle of returning federal tax dollars continue to be diverted to the
south and west.
I am still obliged to go to the polls on election day-asthe crow flies
the township hall is only a couple of hundred yards away. The
good thing about having so little faith in the political process is
that it compels a person to get more involved. Swanmay not vote,
but he still has devoted countless hours to community service." And
just last night my neighbor called. He wants to organize the
neighborhood to stop the county from spraying herbicides on our lands
that adjoin county roads. While we're at it, he suggested that
one of us should always be in attendence at the monthly township
meetings. We had better get going.
NOTICES
The fourth Great Lakes Bioregional Congress takes place October
4th through 6th in Hell, Michigan For more information contact: GLBC
'91 P.O. Box 724, Petoskey, Michigan 49770
The exhibition, AS SEEN BY BOTH SIDES—American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War, is showing at Art Center of Battle Creek now through October 13, 1991.
Southwest Michigan Greens meeting on Monday, October 28th at 7:30 pm at
the Wesley Foundation, 2101 Wilbur on the campus of Western Michigan
University.
--Michael Phillips, editor
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