Navigating the Economic Crisis Through a Solidarity Economy
Five years after Lebanon's economic collapse, the country's myriad of crises — financial, socio-economic, and political — continue to rage on. Today, few still rely on the government to provide them with even basic public services. Instead, many have leaned on their communities for support, creating their own microcosmos of mutual aid networks and cooperative work.
Lebanon is not unique in its crisis or its residents' response to it. Many countries have experienced similarly multifaceted crises due to a neoliberal international economy, coupled with corruption and political impasse, and facilitated by international financial institutions. At the same time, the world is brimming with social movements that build community control over economic resources. Initiatives started from below can not only act as an emergency safety net for populations plunged into despair, poverty, and precariousness, but can become, in themselves, key steps towards building a fairer society.
In that aim, we can draw lessons from other countries that have dealt with economic and financial crises to address some of the fundamental problems that ruin our everyday lives, and in so doing, create conditions for alleviating poverty and fostering collective prosperity.
This is not a blueprint for a future utopia, but the nuts-and-bolts of simple and practiced organizational and social models that often begin as desperate acts to save jobs or rescue communities, to become new foundations for more just economic relations that, in turn, advances social justice issues.
These types of initiatives constitute a part of what is called solidarity economies, a catch-all term for action, practices, infrastructure, and networks that share a set of principles with a strong focus on cooperation, social justice, and ecological sustainability. It covers a number of economic organizational models, such as consumer, workplace, and housing cooperatives, fair-trade initiatives, alternative currencies, community-run social enterprises that are centered on social, cultural, or environmental issues, and cooperative initiatives for more affordable food and fuel. To understand the value of solidarity economies, and how they function, we first have to lay out the main issues with capitalism, and understand why it is a system riddled with crisis.
This is not a blueprint for a future utopia, but the nuts-and-bolts of simple and practiced organizational and social models that often begin as desperate acts to save jobs or rescue communities, to become new foundations for more just economic relations that, in turn, advances social justice issues.
In brief, capitalist socio-economic relations between labor, resources, and property (private or communal) are built on private profit-making, capital accumulation, and resource depletion, resulting in the concentration of wealth and power, especially in the absence of state regulations. The role of the state becomes to facilitate these neoliberal conditions by forgoing its responsibilities to provide social protections and invest in public goods. While this economic model leads to increased inequality, it is within the cracks of this system that worker co-ops and community control can thrive.
Solidarity economy covers a wide spectrum of initiatives that vary in nature. Some aim to reform capitalism while others seek some degree of autonomy within its economic structures. These initiatives can be grassroots social movements that provide an alternative to neoliberalism and capitalism, or policy-oriented top-down models. Solidarity economies should not be mistaken for communist economies, as they take root within dominant capitalist social relations.
Economies based on solidarity and cooperation have historically been used by oppressed peoples in many parts of the world, notably across the Global South, as well as by Black communities in the U.S., residents of low-income neighborhoods, and historically disadvantaged groups that frequently experience economic disparities and limited access to resources. As these communities often have distinct needs and face various hardships, they develop solutions that reflect their particular social contexts, such as community-owned businesses, cooperatives, and mutual aid networks.
As economic and social crises hit larger sections of the population, these models find wider adoption, offering more sustainable solutions to deep-seated structural problems rather than quick temporary fixes. With solidarity at its core, this economy fosters the development of social networks, cooperative structures, and reciprocal relationships that strengthen community bonds and enhance resilience.
Solidarity Economy Principles
The core principles of an economy of solidarity are democracy, sustainability, equity, solidarity, and reciprocity. Enterprises promote long-term environmental and social well-being, alongside fairness in the distribution of resources, with mutual support and collaboration among community members. This practice embodies a collective and all-encompassing approach to the problems of a society riven by crisis. Its key organizational form is horizontalism, characterized by collective leadership that defuses decision-making and organizes using consensus-based processes.
These models can take the form of community farms, cooperative housing, and community land trusts that hold land for the benefit of a community — making land affordable and accessible for housing or community projects
The solidarity economy is a movement that pulls together people, organizations, and initiatives dedicated to reshaping economic systems from below. One of the main aspects to grasp is a shared commitment to a set of values. Crucially, it fosters democratic structures that put limits on the concentration of power. Voluntary cooperation, active participation, and individual autonomy stand as its fundamental tenets.
These models can take the form of community farms, cooperative housing, and community land trusts that hold land for the benefit of a community — making land affordable and accessible for housing or community projects. On a social level, they can take the form of community-based childcare and similar neighborhood initiatives. Solidarity economy models have become popular as financial instruments for marginalized communities, such as migrant savings clubs that pool financial resources, alternative currencies, and barter-based swap clubs.
In theory, the principles underpinning a solidarity economy stand in opposition to the profit-driven, resource-depleting, wealth-concentrating tendencies of capitalism. It prioritizes collective well-being, community empowerment, sustainability, wealth democratization, and distribution of power. And by looking at examples from different economic sectors, regions, and initiatives within crisis-afflicted societies, we can get a broader perspective of potential solutions for Lebanon's own socio-economic malaise.
The roots of the solidarity economy in Europe can be traced back to the late 18th and early 19th century, representing an initial response to the rise of the cult of individualism in newly-emerging capitalism. Its early expressions found its footing within marginalized communities that were becoming systematically excluded in the development of new social relations under capitalism.
In occupied Palestine, solidarity economies flourished to resist the intertwined violence of settler colonialism and neoliberalism. Similarly to other Indigenous people’s resistance economy, Palestinians often referred to cooperatives, mainly in the agricultural sector, as a way to oppose the integration of their economy with the Zionist one, to limit dependency on the colonial economy, and to reject the neoliberal framework adopted after the Oslo Accords.
In recent decades, especially following the 2008 financial crisis, solidarity initiatives have seen a resurgence. Countries such as Tunisia, Greece, Spain, and Argentina offer a number of models worth examining. They signify a shift in aspirations, attempting to establish self-sustaining, autonomous, and equitable economic models that challenge the dominant neoliberal systems — encompassing cooperatives, community gardening, fair-trade initiatives, alternative currencies, and community-operated social centers, among others.
In occupied Palestine, solidarity economies flourished to resist the intertwined violence of settler colonialism and neoliberalism. Similarly to other Indigenous people’s resistance economy, Palestinians often referred to cooperatives, mainly in the agricultural sector, as a way to oppose the integration of their economy with the Zionist one, to limit dependency on the colonial economy, and to reject the neoliberal framework adopted after the Oslo Accords.
It is worth noting that various forms of solidarity economy can coexist: some are grassroots-led initiatives, while others receive state sponsorship or international funding.
Organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the European Commission have actively championed solidarity initiatives. They view these models as a tool for fostering sustainable development within small communities, and as pathways toward achieving the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Policy and implementation, however, are two different worlds. Despite aims that claim to support solidarity initiatives, these same organizations often end up advocating for and reproducing problematic pro-growth principles and structures that harm the most vulnerable. As the SDGs are explicitly rooted in a highly contested neoliberal agenda, meeting these sustainable development goals seems unfeasible considering the unchanged context of liberalized economic and social policies which were a root cause of unsustainable development.
In contrast, grassroots movements in Tunisia, Greece, Argentina, and Spain, among many others, have been mobilizing resources to catalyze the growth of solidarity economy initiatives.
Dates hang from palm trees in the Jemna date oasis, which was previously owned by the Tunisian government, and leased to private companies up until 2011. During the Tunisian revolution, Jemna's residents organized a 69-day sit-in and the Association for the Protection of Jemna's Oases reclaimed the land. It is now managed by the Association under cooperative ownership. October 3, 2019. (George Gale/Creative Commons)
The Reclamation of Land and the Commons in Tunisia
During the 2011 uprisings against Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the residents of Jemna, a town of some 8,000 inhabitants in deprived rural southern Tunisia, took control of a date oasis of approximately 11,000 date trees — following a 69-day sit-in. The land had been exploited by private companies associated with the former dictator’s family. This “popular nationalization” and conversion into a cooperative venture led to a fourfold increase in date production and revitalized the date-based agro-food business, creating new jobs, from 22 workers in 2011 to 133 in 2016.
The Association for the Protection of Jemna's Oases invested its profits in community development and infrastructure, building classrooms, improving healthcare, and boosting the market for dates.
Before Jemna's land reclamation, investors reaped an estimated 1 million Tunisian Dinars (DT) in 2002 ($300,000), while the state earned a modest 16,000 DT ($4,800). By 2016, the entire profit was channeled to the Association for the Protection of Jemna's Oases (APJO), an estimated 1.5 million DT ($450,000). Keeping with the principles of solidarity economy, the Jemna association invested its profits in community development and infrastructure, building classrooms, improving healthcare, and boosting the market for dates. There were similar popular nationalizations across the country, each achieving varying degrees of success.
This interest translated into advocacy efforts led by grassroots organizations, including influential labor union Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT). By 2020, the post-revolution government proposed policies aimed at supporting similar initiatives.
Greek Community Support Agriculture Programs
In response to the shockwaves that unfolded following the 2008 global economic downturn, solidarity initiatives gained prominence in Greece, as part of a broader resurgence of alternative economic models in crisis-ridden neoliberalism in Southern Europe. Greece, like many other neoliberal economies, implemented harsh austerity measures in the early 2010s. This period saw a collapse in real income, a surge in inflation, a national debt-to-GDP ratio of 175 percent, alongside a 30 percent decline in GDP. By 2014, unemployment had soared to 26.2 percent, with youth unemployment reaching a staggering 52.4 percent. Disposable income plummeted by 27.5 percent, and purchasing power declined by 37 percent.
Notable among these initiatives were grassroot movements that reconfigured the supply chain of agricultural products, relocalized part of the economy, and built direct relations between small-scale producers and consumers, without the need for retail chains or intermediaries. Amid the crisis, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), sometimes referred to as Socially Supported Agriculture, or Community Backed Agricultural Production, started spreading. Through CSA, consumers have mutual agreements with farmers, and can subscribe and receive weekly baskets of organic seasonal produce. CSA programs work through different governance models, but they share the tenets of a core organizing group, alongside networks of volunteers who manage the day-to-day operations such as home deliveries and distribution. In a few programs, consumers visit the farm, pick their produce, and take part in its other activities.
Community Supported Agriculture programs are a win-win. Consumers pay a fair price for fresh, healthy products directly from the farm, while producers are guaranteed a stable income throughout the season.
CSA programs are a win-win. Consumers pay a fair price for fresh, healthy products directly from the farm, while producers are guaranteed a stable income throughout the season. Both share the risk of unfavorable weather conditions or poor harvests. The community-supported agriculture model provides fresh produce with reduced food miles, and in turn, is mutually beneficial to local rural economies.
The Recovery of Workspaces in Argentina
In response to Argentina's prolonged economic and financial crisis of 2001, various movements emerged or expanded and became more visible. The most notable among them was the worker-recuperated enterprises (ERTs) such as the Cooperativa de Trabajo Chilavert Artes Gráficas, whose workers took control of factories in response to closures or downsizing. The primary goal was to save jobs threatened by the financial crisis. ERTs emerged a decade before the crisis deepened, but they were fragmented and marginal. With the deepened crisis and widespread social mobilization, ERTs spread, varying widely in size, from small operations to those employing over 3,000 workers. Some were aimed solely at preserving jobs, while others sought to transform labor-capital relations by redefining the concept of work itself and challenging the multinational restructuring taking place at that time. ERTs adopt autogestion, workers' self-management, and this practice allowed ERTs to collectively address the devastating effects of the crisis, defending jobs and livelihoods while rooting the factories into the lives of the local communities.
At a time of hyperinflation and rampant currency depreciation, Chilavert doubled its workforce, expanded its network, and became more politically engaged.
The Chilavert Cooperative emerged when print plant workers occupied their workplace in response to closure and redundancy. The factory owner had engaged in exploitative labor practices, leaving workers unpaid at the onset of the crisis. Workers transformed the cooperative and expanded its activities beyond printing books, such as giving space to a community art center. ERTs such as Chilavert built significant public support despite being deemed in violation of Argentina’s private property laws. At a time of hyperinflation and rampant currency depreciation, Chilavert doubled its workforce, expanded its network, and became more politically engaged. Similar movements emerged in Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Paraguay.
Grassroots Renewable Energy Cooperatives in Spain
Spain saw a surge in grassroots Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RE co-ops) in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Their objectives had interrelated socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. They challenged the commodified and privatized energy sector, dominated by five big profit-hungry corporations that prioritized shareholders over customers — even as people faced financial difficulties. The energy giants cut supplies, cementing the principle that corporate interests always came before community well-being. RE co-ops stabilized the prices, and in so doing, empowered the local economy while creating local jobs.
By September 2012, the Spanish renewable energy cooperative "Som Energia" had reached 10,000 members. September 2012. (Photo Credit: Som Energia)
At the environmental level, many of these corporate and state-owned energy companies relied on fossil fuels for energy production, while cooperatives embraced renewable energy. Growing awareness of ecological issues and the demand for sustainable solutions fueled the proliferation of renewable energy co-ops.
An exemplary grassroots green energy cooperative is Som Energia, which emerged in Catalonia in 2010, engaged in both renewable energy production projects and the supply of electricity. Som Energia promoted a collective purchase program through which they finance capital costs with community “energy shares,” each worth 100 Euros ($108). This project, called Generation Kwh, guaranteed subscribers 25 years of electricity supply at cost value. Over a seven-year period, its membership skyrocketed from 150 to 47,000. Som Energia currently supplies electricity to more than 70,000 people. Despite the growth in membership and the alternative operating model that renewable energy co-ops have established, it is too early to evaluate their ability to disrupt the oligopolistic market, especially with the entry of European multinationals into the Spanish market.
Finally, in Lebanon, successful cooperatives, mainly agricultural or in the agribusiness, emerged in the 1950s and 1960s among nationwide revolts against agribusiness monopolies — with tobacco farmers refusing to sell their product. More recently, new initiatives have emerged in the aftermath of the October 17 Uprising, such as consumer cooperatives like the Dikkenneh Co-op, CSA pilot projects led by Jibal NGO, and various other projects (catalogued by Daleel Tadamon). While it is still too early to assess the impact they are having on their communities, we do know that solidarity economic models that emerge out of revolutionary upsurges and community-oriented solutions to economic crises are essential to building alternative economies. Crucially, they have the potential to reshape the foundations of our societies from the ground up.