Wolf or man?

That’s all very well – the diner who listens to you attentively will tell you – but how can you persuade the shark not to eat the rays? Homo homini lupus says the Latin expression (man is a wolf to man) and many justify the current economic cannibalism as the veneration of egoism in the genetic spiral.

Felber focuses on several researches that raise this belief, including that of the neurobiologist Joachim Bauer. According to Bauer, when Darwin created the theory of evolution, it reflected the English capitalist society of the 19th century, but in no case can we say that human beings are genetically selfish. On the contrary, Bauer states that the best way to adapt to the environment is to cooperate, even biologically. Apparently, when human beings understand us, the brain perceives a stimulus and begins to flow hormonal to make us feel good.

In short, cooperation, rather than competing between companies, would be the most natural and effective way of increasing the well-being of society as a whole.

To achieve this, the GOE recipe does not have a special mystery: there would be a gradual labeling of the products (red, yellow, green) with the results of the audits so that buyers can reward or sanction companies; companies that obtain good balance sheets would get bonuses or public aid, cheaper credits, preference for contracting and research programmes… Thus, the aim of the company would no longer be a common economic benefit, but an activity.

At the time we are writing this phrase, 856 companies, 58 politicians, 147 organizations and 2,877 people have supported the economic movement for the common good. Many of them have also made a satisfactory assessment, and they are by no means mediocre. There are insurers, brewers, banks, bakeries, furnishing… Many of them give the need to hundreds of workers and have thousands of customers.

In the Egyptian company Sekem, for example, 1,850 workers work, who have been freed from their transhipments. With biodynamic agriculture, Ibrahim Abouleishek Sekem emerged in 1977 to combat the desert and poverty of its people. Companies in this cooperative use ecological resources to produce juices, spices and hard medicines, among others. Steps have also been taken in fair trade and in the participation of partners; with their benefits, nurseries and universities have been built to learn what sustainability is.

The idea of the common good has also spread in several countries of the Spanish State and in South America, especially since the Spanish version (The Economy of the Common Good) was published in June. Among the sponsors are a dozen small businesses in the Basque Country and think tanks have been set up – in Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián (see interview above). Precisely, this Spanish book recalls the experience of MCC, which in some areas shares with the economy of the common good.

“The movement is unstoppable and only he is growing,” said GOE advocates. Certainly, the project is more subversive than some simple labeling and stimuli. It did not come out of the market economy, but it does take steps to turn it around. In short, we would reach the twenty-two, when the “sovereign people” established in a convention laws that benefited all, creating a kind of “economic constitution”.

However, the capitalist beast has quickly pulled out the claws and there have been few punches that have thrown at Felber in various media: anarkomarxist, teenager, leftist pot... For many others, just as easy as the elm gives them wheat is to realize that dream of the economy. I get too big.

“We must use the strategy of the steps of Ipotx – says the Austrian in his speeches – let us do what we can. Let us not start with the Banco Santander, nor with the European Union. Let’s start with the entrepreneurs of Muro d’Alcoi.”

Muro d’Alcoi, municipality for the common good

Situated on the slopes of the first mountains that the Mediterranean observes in Valencia, Muro d’Alcoi is a left-wing town of 9,000 inhabitants – the Valencian Nationalist Bloc has won the last four municipal elections. It has carried out an experiment that can be framed in the economy for the common good: On the initiative of Joan Cascante, owner of the winery Celler la Muntanya, a few years ago the wine project Microvinya was launched.

Before Filoxera’s disease, the entire surrounding area was drawn with vineyards. When Cascant and his partners started making wine, they turned to the owners of the small abandoned vineyard plots. Thus, they have achieved a triple objective: on the one hand, to restore the vineyards and dignify the lives of the winegrowers; on the other hand, to produce a successful wine with local varieties; and, finally, to group the social and cultural groups of Muro d’Alcoi around the project.

The Microvinya wine is made with grapes of 28 minifundia and has its own stamp. The wines marketed on this label must meet a number of requirements: to win in compensation for the work carried out by the farmer; to get the grapes from their vineyards and not to harm the environment; that the winery is rooted in the environment; and to design the promotion while respecting the culture of their peoples.

This new vision of vineyard care has meant a small revolution in the village. Vineyards began to recover and have ended each year organizing days of sustainability, talking about growth and supporting the economy for the common good. Muro D’Alcoi has been proclaimed a municipality for the good of all.

Also in Austria, Bavaria, South Tyrol and Switzerland, several municipalities have announced through their website that they will also participate in the economy of the common good. A municipality of this kind has a number of requirements, among them, to make a common benefit balance in the municipal public administration and to adopt measures for the subcontractors companies and the other companies of the municipality to perform such balance. In Vienna, for example, consideration is being given to companies with this balance sheet taking precedence when the City Hall makes its purchases.

In Euskal Herria we have municipalities that bet on the generation of zero garbage and the project of the Basque currency to promote local trade, we have villages that live in auzolan, self-managed neighborhoods, districts with a great experience in social and cooperative economy... What will be the first to encourage the club for the good of all?