This is a CTP of initiative: ICA/COVILPI (Argentina)
For the referents of COVILPI, the housing problem was always associated with the broader problem of Habitat. From its beginnings, the housing cooperative was part of a broader strategy associated with the local development of the neighborhood of La Boca. During its history, members of COVILPI also promoted a community Kitchen, a textile workshop and a school for adults.
Thus, in March 2014 was inaugurated the "Paseo y Mercado de la Economía Popular Oso Cisneros" (Market of the Popular Economy Oso Cisneros) (in honor of the name of a historic militant in the neighborhood of La Boca murdered in 2005), in a plot that used the cooperative. This project has as main objective to offer an alternative marketing system in which producers and consumers can be found without intermediaries and benefit each other.
"What we try with the organization of this walk is to understand that it is necessary to build territorial instances, from which the organizations become protagonists, so that together with the neighbors the organization of the economic issues"
To materialize this project, was necessary the incorporation of COVILPI to the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP, in its initials in Spanish). This organization groups different movements and organizations of workers that are outside the formal structures (artisans, street traders, family farmers, etc.).
In addition, the "Paseo de la Economía Popular Oso Cisneros" is offered as a space of more extensive exchange that exceeds the commercialization of goods. It is a meeting place of the neighbors of the neighborhood with each other and with occasional visitors.
The "Paseo de la Economía Popular" is the product of a sustained process of co-production by the direct relationship that had from its origins the Housing Cooperative with the social organization "Los Pibes" in the neighborhood of La Boca. The COVILPI's referents always understood the housing problem in terms of building conditions of popular habitat and right to the city.
Since the late 1990s, the problem of lack of access to housing was accompanied by a lack of work and access to basic goods and services. In this way, the organization Los Pibes promoted a textile workshop, a community radio station and cooperatives to provide public services in the neighborhood, among other initiatives.
The emergence of the project was directly linked to the incorporation of COVILPI to the CTEP. The Paseo de la Economia Popular was part of the broader strategy of boosting and recognizing the different economic activities associated with the popular economy. On the other hand, this initiative was thought as a tool to deal with the serious situation of price increases generated by the concentration of marketing chains controlled by large stores and supermarkets.
In concrete terms, the Paseo and the Fair were the product of the community work of cooperative members, residents of the neighborhood of La Boca, artisans and family farmers:
"We hold the fair with a lot of effort. The companions empty the refrigerators of their houses to make them available to the market, people work very to the lung, in a very handmade way"
This CTP, like the entire trajectory of COVILPI, is related to the problems experienced by the popular sectors in the south of the city of Buenos Aires. In the late 1990s, Argentina experienced an economic recession that was accompanied by an increase in unemployment. This economic situation had a great impact in the south of the city where informal work grew.
The situation worsened with the economic and social crisis of late 2001 and early 2002. Unemployment reached 25% and poverty exceeded 50% of the country's population. In the south of the city of Buenos Aires, different solutions were organized to the problems associated with the crisis. Thus, the neighborhood assemblies, barter clubs and labor cooperatives were multiplied.
Since 2003, the economic situation began to improve steadily and unemployment began to decline. Also, the new national government promoted different social policies that benefited social and neighborhood organizations with credits and subsidies. However, the economic recovery was accompanied by a new problem that began to manifest itself as of 2005: the inflation.
The Commercialization structure in Argentina was transformed during the 1990s and underwent a process of concentration. In this way, a group of big stores and supermarkets were consolidated that became price-makers and that they harmed both producers and consumers alike. This situation was aggravated in January 2014 with the devaluation applied by the government that eroded the purchasing power of wages.
Was in this context that the creation of the Paseo de la Economía Popular was promoted as an alternative that sought to generate new forms of commercialization for the popular economy and also to offer a market in the neighborhood where the neighbors can access goods at affordable prices.
Finally, in November of 2015, after a year of negotiations, the Legislature of the City approved the project of assignment in comodato of the premises of the Paseo de la Economía Popular "Martín 'Oso' Cisneros" to the Social Organization "Los Pibes". The project was presented by the Legislator Jorge Taiana and was approved unanimously with the vote of the legislators of all the political blocs.
“This legal recognition did justice to a task that was developed two years ago in the neighborhood of La Boca, backed by hundreds of neighbors and dozens of producers.”
The creation of the Paseo de la Economia Popular represents a challenge to the dominant Commercialization model based on large stores and supermarket chains. Large commercial companies consolidated in the last 30 years as the main channel that producers of food and basic supplies have for their products to reach consumers.
The producers of the popular economy do not have access to these commercialization channels because they can not fulfill the required volumes or they do not have the financial capacity that allows them to adapt to the payment systems imposed by the big stores. On the other hand, consumers do not have access to goods at affordable prices.
On the other hand, many of the workers of the popular economy (artisans, small farmers or street traders) generated commercialization alternatives using public spaces. However, this practice are resisted and pursued by the city government. For this reason, the Paseo and the fair offer a valid alternative to reduce the conflict generated by this activity.
The installation of the Paseo de la Economía Popular on the COVILPI property was the product of a long trajectory that was already partly reported. If this trajectory is reconstructed, we can affirmed that there was a certain anticipation of this CTP.
The linkage of COVILPI with the CTEP was an advance that some initiative of this type could generate in the neighborhood of La Boca. Many organizations belonging to the CTEP were developing similar projects such as the Social Economy and Solidarity Fairs or Fair Trade Fairs.
As the inflationary process became more visible, many voices proposed to develop alternative commercialization models to reduce the speculation of price-makers. Thus, this initiative was not entirely original. What was new was that it was developed on the premises of a Housing Cooperative and was associated as a part of the struggle for the Popular Habitat.
This CTP is the product of a long process of learning that the members of COVILPI accumulated over the years. With each complementary project that they were developing, they were incorporating new experience to face the next one.
In order to realize this project, the participation of COVILPI in the CTEP was fundamental. This articulation allowed to incorporate new problems to be addressed by that organization. Likewise, the incorporation of COVILPI in the CTEP gave the first new capabilities of political negotiation. Thanks to this was that the cession of the property in which the Paseo de la Economía Popular works was achieved.
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