Solidarity Economy at USSF

Unfortunately, I haven't blogged much on my experience at the US Social Forum. in short, it was great and I recommend attending any one you can get to. Hopefully Iĺl follow up on that statement. I have multiple social interests, so my time was divided. I also attended as part of a family vacation, so my attention was divided.

I took part in a workshop on Solidarity Economy. There were representatives from the US, Canada and Peru speaking about very active programs. Canada and Peru
have very developed programs worth learning about.

Information about the workshop is at:
https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/2142

I made a digital recording. Not the best quality, but the extreme majority is legible. If I get a chance to play with it and remove some noise, etc. I will and repost.
http://www.archive.org/details/SolidarityEconomyAsAStrategyForChangingTheEconomy

I also ran in to the Asheville LETS group:
http://www.ashevillelets.org/

They started with the same PHP based Local Exchange Trading System open source software we did. If I understand correctly, they plan on releasing their software open source eventually.

I also met the makers of "Argentina: Hope in Hard Times":
http://www.movingimages.org
A planned screening didn't work out, but it looks like a promising film from a crew with a good track record.

If you can tolerate the slight background noise of the recording, it was an enriching experience listening to the experience of two nations well developed in their solidarity economy efforts. The recording has a bad start and then picks up.

For me, complementary currency, alternative currency, local exchange and whatever other terms we choose were underlying themes in the social forum. A means for a reasonable community and social justice.

Ithaca Hours on NPR

This morning, a few friends brought to my attention the NPR story on Ithaca Hours. There seems to be an upswing in media coverage. Amy also notes the NPR story and that she paid for her yoga class in time dollars. I wonder if I'll ever be able to use the Austin Time exchange for cooperatively-owned beer. I think an hour of work is worth a beer or two. I didn't realize so many people listen to NPR in the morning.