The barter market

An alternative to money-based trading

In several previous articles, I've discussed money, its principles, its limits and also alternatives to the current dominant model, based on debt and whose currency in circulation is highly controlled, and increasingly so.

The design of money

For reasons of autonomy in the definition of our designs, i.e. in order to be able to match our real needs with the solutions we consciously develop, I would like to add in this article a local solution that I consider very relevant.

So relevant, in fact, that one of my best friends has been conscientiously applying it for 7 years now, and the success is only growing.

These are punctual markets (twice a year, in spring and autumn) where we bring what we don't need but someone could still use, and where we can take what we need. No form of currency is involved and in this case, even the G.A.M.E I was talking about in a precedent article is irrelevant.

Libre currencies: comparison between the Ğ1 and the G.A.M.E

To organize these markets, a large hall is required as well as a small group of motivated people to help (preparation, sorting, welcoming, cleaning).

Last week, this event brought together over 200 people in a small village in Normandy. Some of the participants came directly from the village, but many others came from neighboring villages.

Communication was simple: information leaflets distributed through the letterboxes of the village hosting the barter market. No website, no Facebook page, very few text messages and lots of viva voce.

There are three secrets to make this kind of initiative as successful as it is where I live:

• consistency

• people's goodwill

• identity homogeneity

Indeed, when it comes to consistency, some of this year's participants have been aware of the existence of these events from the outset, but hesitated for 7 years before realizing that they might be able to donate or find something of interest, and some of them were even ashamed to come and take things without giving anything in return. Moreover, the market always takes place in the same building around the same periods of time, making a simple and effective impression. It is now an event in its own right that people look forward to!

Goodwill is essential to any project, and the fact that my friend's barter markets work so well is due to the fact that, locally, the inhabitants have a sincere desire to see the revival of true solidarity and simple, serene exchanges in their village.

The items exchanged include clothes, crockery, books, tools, toys and decorations.

However, and this is the whole point of collective dynamics, these events are also naturally conducive to meetings and discussions, and it is often the case that participants agree to later exchange on their own services, lend a hand, equipment or swap foodstuffs or materials.

As soon as we manage to unlock in our minds what prevents us from taking care of each other, many beautiful things can happen.

However, a very important element to consider is that all these people have a very similar identity: mostly Norman ethnicity from a poor countryside, respectful upbringing, a sense of hard work and equity for the most part. At present, they are relearning the meaning of mutual aid and even of giving, by trying to get rid of certain rigid capitalist reflexes, which see giving and taking without financial compensation as a form of injustice. It is not that difficult, because these are ways of doing things that existed a century ago in the region. They are simply learning to de-condition themselves from modern individualistic capitalism.

The only real threat to this type of initiative is the one I describe in my article on bloodthirsty demagoguery, namely internal dissension exaggerated by immaturely politicized attitudes (and encouraged by media propaganda): men versus women, young versus old, Norman versus non-Norman, rich versus poor, and so on. Indeed, this is potentially the case as a local feminist group regularly tries to oust men from local organizing structures, which sometimes happens.

Don't kill your neighbour (yet)

Another threat, for the moment secondary, would be to see a drastic ethnic modification of the region, as is the case in many parts of Europe today and some places in Normandy, one of whose first effects (expected by the globalist oligarchy, let's not be naive) is to break down any sense of identity and belonging, and prevent autonomous solidarities that wouldn't go along with the forced march. This phenomenon is well known to modern managers, since the formation of multi-ethnic teams within large companies is encouraged for it makes cohesion impossible, and thus, in the end, foster collective submission to the established order due to the group's weakness in the balance of power between workers and bosses.

This phenomenon is also provoked by all forms of more or less minority particularism, amplified, mediatized, exaggerated, simultaneously with a discourse on friendship, inclusion and tolerance, generating situations of paradoxical injunctions whose sole aim is to nip in the bud any form of free thought, to prevent any autonomy of design, so to speak.

Here, then, the strength of a collective showing a minimum of common ground and references acquired collectively serves a healthy local dynamic, freed from techno-capitalist tyranny. As long as it lasts, such projects can rejuvenate the joy of sharing and exercising one's freedom as a conscious, confident human being. I sincerely believe, however, that we must not overlook the conditions that allow such initiatives to emerge, for it would be naive to think that potentates, variously convinced by a world order reigning over isolated and weak individuals, would not be attentive to the very fact that they precisely do not emerge.

In the end, it is a skilful blend of tolerance and intolerance, as with all design: a framework with limits, and therefore spaces for flexibility and spaces for rigidity. It is also a pattern that is omnipresent in nature and in the structuring of organisms and ecosystems. Too much intolerance and everything freezes, nothing can live and communicate, too much tolerance and everything is destroyed in chaos.

Even if it is already a real success in my opinion, I personally see two possible improvements to this barter market initiative in the future:

• that the goods and services exchanged be more varied, so as to achieve a situation where the majority of exchanges take place without any currency, in order to be truly free of the tyrannical banking system

• that other villages start to organize this type of event, so that the model becomes more widespread and more commonplace

To achieve this, as always, we need committed people and a bit of daring to try out a model we are no longer used to, and rediscover the joy of sharing in an informed way, with an adult perspective on what makes it work for real.

In any case, taken far enough, this model could well give villages an incredible degree of autonomy, and free us in no small measure from our slavery to money-debt.

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