More and more voices are questioning the current capitalist model and the unjust economic, financial and social system it has generated. The demand for change has been made for a long time by various movements, including REAS, the Network of Alternative Economy and Solidarity. “The economy must be at the service of individual and collective development and be a means and not an objective,” explains Carlos Askunz, coordinator of REAS Euskadi. This definition of a solidarity economy is based on its activities (financing, production, marketing and consumption), and this definition brings together all REAS members. “The capitalist economy has made economic activity an objective, mainly in the face of massive profits, and we want to recover the real concept of economy, which is a means for people’s development. Therefore, we claim that people must be prioritized and not profits”.

Currently, REAS Euskadi and REAS Navarra have 70 companies and social entities, including 1,670 direct jobs, with incomes above 86 million euros, and about 4,300 volunteers work in a local association or entity. Although REAS Euskadi was born in 1997, in recent years it has experienced the greatest increase, “in some cases it has been the company that has addressed us directly for interest, and in others we have come to different economic experiences because we have seen that they had the same philosophy as us.” In fact, it aims to bring together as many experiences as possible in an environment that is based on the alternative economy. Thus, the organizations that are part of REAS develop all kinds of activities: hospitality, architecture and accessibility, cleaning and maintenance, sociocultural animation, retail trade, new technologies, socio-occupational mediation, construction guilds, ecological messaging...

Now, quick and ecological messaging.

The Fast Messaging Bilbaine company, Orain, opened its doors in 1998 with the aim of helping people with the most difficulties to participate in the labour market. “We work for sustainable development and now we use the electric bicycle to carry out courier tasks throughout Bilbao. The engine and van to work in the surroundings (Getxo, Barakaldo, Zamudio, Galdakao…),” explains Berbisne Aizpurua, a worker. Aoiz, besides in Bilbao, has representation in Pamplona/Iruña.

In any case, the seed of the REAS movement was sown by a small number of organizations that worked in the collection, reuse and recycling of the garbage and by entities that were promoting companies of solidarity economy. The latter, in fact, rejected the operation of the conventional company and resorted to the most difficult people to have access to a job. Currently, REAS and Gizatea (Institute of Integration Companies of the Basque Country) collaborate and most of the jobs they generate are mainly for women. “About 60% of the staff of the companies that we have within REAS Euskadi are women, and in which they are specifically oriented towards labor integration, that amount grows,” explains Askunz. Along with women, in recent years, foreigners, basic income recipients, those who have suffered some dependency or those who come from criminal proceedings have increased. In the case of Orain, for example, people have been present since the beginning who have suffered drug dependence and have been in rehabilitation and unemployed for a long time. “If you work with conflicting sectors, you can’t create a very technical insertion company because people aren’t ready for it,” Aizpurua explains. That’s why they created Orain, “because to work in messaging you just have a little bit of a physicist to ride a bicycle and get to know the streets of Bilbao well.” Companies seeking social inclusion are, however, of a transitional nature and can therefore only be between six months and three years old. During this time, provision is made for the acquisition of personal and professional skills, which will subsequently help them to gain access to a decent job in the ordinary market.

On the contrary, solidarity economy companies seek the labour integration of people with difficulties of integration and, in general, workers remain in the company. In any case, both in companies aimed at social inclusion and in companies with a solidarity economy, the objective is to manage business activity in an alternative way. “We require associated entities or companies to carry out or carry out an economic activity and to assume the principles of the solidarity economy.” That is, equity, work, sustainable environment, cooperation, non-profit making and commitment to the environment.

Social audit for self-assessment

From REAS, performance evaluation tools are channeled. One of them is the social audit carried out by all members every two years: it is the process that serves to verify to what extent and how they achieve the social objectives set by a company or entity. In order to measure it, the principles that all share are divided into sub-principles and a hundred sets of indicators. For example, with regard to equity, they account for the number of women working in positions of maximum responsibility. “It helps the organization see where it is and where it has to go to improve the situation,” explains Askunz. Once these data have been obtained, each organization is asked to select two or three indicators that have achieved the worst results and to set objectives and means of improvement in them. Askunz said that “the members of the Network support these tasks, on which our activity is largely based: information, improvement, awareness-raising and others”.

On the other hand, they aim to promote the widest possible participation of all members and, to this end, they have sections such as social interest, the social market and responsible consumption, improved management and responsible public purchasing. About a dozen fixed persons work in the development of the worklines related to them, but the entity or person who wishes to participate can also participate.

REAS seeks the permanent construction of forms of solidarity and alternatives to make economy, but it also has a goal beyond: social transformation. “We try that these experiences of companies or internal entities of REAS are not just testimonies of small experiences, but all of them form a network oriented to the search for social transformation,” says the coordinator of the network. Therefore, they also understand the economy as a social movement that is transforming, from local to local and from local to global.

Reflecting this vision is precisely the character of a network. REAS is currently present in 11 territories of the Spanish State and has sectoral networks that bring together organisations working in a particular sector, such as the banking ethics sector (FIARE), organisations and companies working in the field of recovery and recycling (grouped in the AERESS network) and small savings and local credits. At international level is RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy).

“For us some axes are essential and one of them is Fiare,” said the coordinator. It is inside Fiare REAS and at the same time it depends on REAS Fiare. Fiare is an ethical banking project created in 2005 in Hego Euskal Herria. More than a hundred social organisations are driving the fight against social exclusion, protecting the money of savers and providing low-interest loans to those who fight social exclusion. In his opinion, all economic decisions are basically ethical decisions, framed within a framework of beliefs and their consequences benefit some and harm others. It has offices in all the capitals of Hego Euskal Herria and are doing great outreach work through awareness-raising campaigns and village talks. They also have a website economiasolidaria.org and a fortnightly newsletter to disseminate information.

The social market as a challenge

Asked about future projects, Carlos Askunz raised the issue of the social market: “We want a person who is aware of the need for more responsible, fair and ethical consumption to achieve solidarity and alternative consumption in all areas of the economy.” To do so, they intend to combine the largest number of goods and services in the solidarity economy with the critical and solidary consumption that exists in society. In this regard, they envisage establishing alliances with Nekasare (a network of baserritarras and citizen groups), Fiare, the insertion entities and joint ventures integrated into REAS or groups that make a fair trade.

The coordinator tells us that the number of members has increased: “The crisis has helped people become more critical of the system, to have more initiative and hope and to convince themselves that the economy can be done differently. A few years ago, few had news about the solidarity economy, and if they did, it was thought to be an economy for the poor. In the last regional elections, however, almost all parties included in their programs the slogan ‘Fostering the solidarity economy’. That’s right, another thing is that then that has a practical echo.” Precisely, Orain's worker has denounced that the supposed will of politicians remains in nothing: “We cannot compete against strong companies in terms of prices, so our work depends to a large extent on the attitude of public institutions to these issues.”

In any case, according to Askunze, positive experiences have been implemented in smaller municipalities and ecology is, in general, an increasingly important area. It is clear to Askunz that citizenship wants to have more weight in the economic, political and social world, and that is reflected in the movement of the outraged.