* When generosity and direct exchange could not work, it was very frequently the recourse to violence and pillage ("I take by force whatever I urgently need"). So, money has been a prodigious human invent in order to overcome frustration and violence. It is very significative that the most common emblem of banks is a Roman temple, because in ancient times money was coined in a temple called Moneta, an epithet of Juno (goddess for the wellbeing of women!) . Money was something sacred considering its human linking and vital function.

Money was created to serve a debt & credit community.

* Money was created like a sign of debt ("I take, then I owe, then I will reciprocate"). Money is given by the beneficiary -we could say money is issued-, to the person that first delivered him/her something useful and valuable. To accept the sign, a specific money, is to get something symbolic telling the public that the keeper created a credit... The creditor keeping the sign has the right to claim for equivalent products or services, perhaps from the same beneficiary or much more probably from many other persons belonging to the same debt & credit community. When the promise of a beneficiary/buyer/debtor is in his/her turn honored by him/her -delivering something useful, as a value, to other member of the community-, the debt is redeemed and money accomplishes its task of equity... and peace.

* Linking exchangers in a virtual chain/network of provisory couples by recognizing, practicing, circulating the sign of debt & credit, buying & selling, paying & deserving, is to seed public confidence thanks to an adopted symbolic language of honor. The frequent use of this sign is like talking with matter and vital substance, not only with words, ideas and concepts, creating real life, the real value, and reinforcing not only the individual and private trust but also the social and public trust (general confidence). Trust that in fact increases the community power for production and service. That means wealth!

Money originally was a communal symbol.nurturing wealth and commitment.

* Let me say it in other words. Money is a symbolic tool for vital exchanges of goods, products, services, knowledges (anything useful satisfying needs). To create a communal currency -like a common language- is to implement a vital current which express/circulates a combination of wealth -"I got food from you as a member of the community"- and commitment -"I will pay in the future to you or other person/entity of the community who will use the same sign claiming my reciprocity". Money is nurturing and cimenting the community, we may talk about the blood of the community,

* Money belongs to the commons. Money is like a word (communication sign) -in the framework of a community- recognizing the use (consumption) of value (wealth) provided by other member(s) of the community (work) and a promise to reciprocate (debt) in an equitable way (measuring, appreciating). It is a symbol, a device, an emblem linked deeply with identity, created to express value, to express debt. The usefulness of money was more evident when social relations increased and became more complex (diversity of peoples and nations), abstract (persons and families in relation to society and anonimity) and distant (geographies and transportation of goods).

Money has had many forms in the past but it is every day more fragile.

* Women, slaves, cattle, leathers, shells, cacao seeds, were used as money. An important historical jump was made when metals like gold and silver were adopted and minted coins were created. Kings and merchants increased their power creating and managing money. But corruption and greed were almost always present. Money issuers, changers and lenders make a profit usually with fraud -debasing the metal or reducing the size of the coins- and always with usury. In the Renaissance another jump was created using paper instead of metal. Then came the modern banks at the end of the XVII century, keeping savings, issuing unsound bills and giving very profitable credits, implacable with those in need and failure, accumulating mortgages and from time to time swindling people through bankruptcies

The vital language of money was monopolized and now is a manipulated idol.

* Aristotle 2,500 years ago warned: "Do not confound ‘economy’ with ’crematistic’". Economy means the home’s wealth (the managing of a house); crematistic means looking for money and profit. Humanity did not hear his advices (advices also given by Moses, Jesus and Mohammed), and now we live in a world where money is like a god -present in every instant of our lives, pursued by almost all minds and determining our fate- despite the disarray of billions of people. "In God we Trust", says every American dollar bill. Money was converted into a commodity with price. It was like putting price to the use of honorable words of our common language expressing engagements for the common future (wills, hopes and meanings). The vital language was monopolized, in fact it was stolen from the community and put in the hands of merchants, bankers and governors.

Usury and speculation turned money in an insalubrious but planetary business.

* Now money is not circulating mainly by coins or bills but trough bank accounts and checks, credit cards and even intelligent cards. It is now produced not precisely by work creating real benefits but by national banks issuing money from thin air, indebting people, charging interests... and by speculators betting at the stock exchange, playing with the rising and lowering prices of big enterprises’assets and national currencies. Money now circulates in a planetary arena. Thanks to the most advanced information technologies it connects instantaneously the main stock exchanges of the world and it surrounds the planet following the light of sun fostering a global market that works 24 hours by day.

* This global market produces money in a very concentrated way. Georg Soros around ten years ago earned one billion pounds speculating in only one night but at the same time he did not produced not even a pin. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, earns four millon dollars by hour. And this same money is managed by fiscal paradises, by weapons’ traders, by corrupt politicians, by narcotrafikers, by crime increasing in huge amounts... But one third of the families of the humanity does not earn one dollar by day. This lack of income means famine, disease, ignorance and dead. This monstrous system is the inheritance of five hundred years of greed and exploitation. We have had and still have crude competitions and historic wars, disguised monopolies, huge accumulations, investments controlling markets... The philosophy of capitalism teaches that the individualistic aim and pursuit of gains leads to the common good, it assumes that a chain of selfish efforts produces society. In fact it is the law of the jungle where the mighty prevails and the weak, by millions -and now by billions-, is submitted, marginalised, excluded and even eliminated.

Greed for money and consumption is destroying the planet.

* This global system is not only concentrating unthinkable figures of money in a very few hands but it is also destroying the environment. Not only labor and money - human reality and human virtuality- were transformed into a commodity with relative price -the businessmen taking always advantage of the cheapest price-, but also land, natural resources and the environment were put at stake as commodities in the race of making more money. It is much more profitable in terms of money to cut a tree, to sell it and to put money to earn interest in a bank than to plant or to protect a tree for the wellbeing of future generations. Forests are disappearing. Businesses based on massive production of industrial merchandises following the american way of life have created through media and overwhelming publicity the irrational apetite for consumption ("Having & Representing" instead of "Being"). Energy is irresponsibly wasted like in the transportation industry. The planet temperature is increasing and disturbing the vital balance of the planet. Hurricans are multiplied and the sea level is rising. If the present particular automovile paradigm is going to be adopted by every Chinese family, the planet is going to exploit in a few decades.

People in the world is reacting, proacting and interacting.

* In November 1999 at Seattle, 50,000 people representing civil society organizations: labor, environment, human rights, etc., gathered and manifested their protest for a World Market that is trying to consolidate a new global empire based on money, transnational corporations and trade without limits. It was a non violent battle in Seattle -despite a few provocations- meaning the emergence of a global consciousness trying to stop the overwhelming forces that are destroying the social tissues and the environment.

* In a more subtle way, even invisible, we must be aware about the emergence of hundreds and even thousands of microexperiences, microlaboratories, all around the world trying to change the patterns of vital relations among people, local communities and regions. Their significative aim is to challenge the present money system.

It is a mutation on the making. Aternative or new money!

* It means a semiotic mutation instead of a political revolution. It does not mean changes from the top or simple reforms. It is a mutation in terms of new signs for communicating values. If the original money was invented in order to facilitate vital exchanges among peoples and the present money circulating all around the world is only working for the powerful corporations whose greed have no limits, why not to become again originals and to invent a kind of money -perhaps its antithesis: "no money"- that really works for the common people?

* We have in the past many efforts promoting "healthy money", under social control and without interest and usury. Money as a social tool but not as a privatized commodity. We may remember Robert Owen, industrialist and one of the utopian socialists at the beginning of the XIX century, issuing money based on labor and union. There are many other experiences along the modern history, emerging specially in the middle of main crisis, like wars and economic collapses (relatively recently, for instance Germany in the 20’s and USA in the 30’s). Bartering is also adopted in crisis even by huge entities: The Soviet Union changed oil for Cuban sugar without using dollars. In Guadalajara, Mexico, there are 350 established important enterprises practicing barter.

The LETS have been the pioneers in the last two decades.

* In the early 80’s, Michael Linton near Vancouver in Canada imagined the LETS (Local Employment and Trade Systems) as a social solution for the increasing unemployment. This alternative system establishes the possibility to play with debt and credit, a communal or associative "game" where the exchanges of products and services give chances -mainly to those affected by the lack of official money- to start working, producing, servicing to others and to start demanding and consuming... The LETS are based on "information & confidence", establishing this binomial as an alternative currency (not considered as a commodity and without a price) using "green" dollars. The LETS are networking self disciplined persons and fostering local groups through a multipersonal trade strategy. Every member subscribes, has a personal account and announces his or her products and services looking for demands that would come from other subscribers. Trading among the subscribers establishes a dynamic of debt and credit and the art is to keep the equilibrium as individuals and as a collective entity avoiding unbalances beyond an increasing solvency. A monitoring work is delegated to a team and a central accounting task is necessary. Periodic gatherings and parties organized like the ancient "potlachts" (indigenous celebrations of giving and distributing wealth) reinforce the solidarity among the members. The LETS are using telephones, bulletins and personal computers with electronic data. There are not coins nor bills. As they were created in an industrialized/developed country (the dominant culture in those countries is individualistic and people has the habit of hard competition and every use is commodified with a price) they are involving people living in cities, providing or asking much more for services than for industrial or rural products, so the contact with distant areas is weak and participation of peasants is scarce.

* The LETS have proliferated in the 80’s and 90’s in Northern countries like Canada, USA, UK,

Australia, New Zealand and many countries from Continental Europe. Successes and failures accompany every innovation. To overcome isolation and marginal trade is still the challenge. Today there are around 2,000 LETS in the world and their number continue to increase. There are other significative experiences in those countries including Japan, with different characteristics: Time Dollars, Ithaca Hours, etc. Ithaca Hours, promoted in the 90’s by Paul Glover in Ithaca City, New York state, is based on bills (one Hour means ten dollars) circulating hand by hand instead of the electronic monitoring of every transaction. This system is more flexible but there is always the risk of issuing much more bills -inflation damaging credibilty- than the wise proportion to improve potential transactions. This system is also proliferating mainly in the USA.

Poorer countries and peoples make their own initiatives.

* Latin America, Asia and Africa mean a more profound challenge. Extreme poverty and opulence coexist there. Besides the economic booms and the world propaganda promoted by the transnational corporations, frequent economic crisis deep the gap between the powerful and the weak. Power based on myths, weapons ...and money. Unemployment and lack of income for the many are chronic scourge. The massive movements of money all around the world animated by greed and disregard for the common good are like virtual hurricanes seriously affecting the integrity of cultures and environments there. Have we time to change this deadly trend?

* We have a few but significative experiencies on community/alternative currencies in Latin America. We may underscore the Barter Global Network in Argentina: in less than five years they could gather around 60,000 people in a network emerging in Buenos Aires, now with tens of nodes and going beyond the national borders. With different inspirations, there are now experiences in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela... In Africa it is known an experience in Senegal and in Asia, villagers from Thailand are starting another one. Everywhere the issue raises a lot of interest and there are many scholars and social activists looking for the issue and studying it in theory and practice.

The TLALOC experience in Mexico.

* In Mexico, taking advantage of a network of rooted NGO’s called "THE OTHER Stock Exchange" we started almost five years ago an exchange system for producers, servers and consumers. The name of this system is "Tianguis TLALOC" (‘Tianguis’ means market in Mexican and ‘Tlaloc’ is the divinity of life, thunder and rain). In three years this system could gather, not without obstacles, crisis and defaults, 100 personal and social entrepreneurs committed to create an alternative/complementary economy using a bill called ‘Tlaloc’. The ’Tlaloc’ unit means one hour of social work and by convention it has a worth of 30 Mexican pesos or three American dollars. There are different bills for different denominations (1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ‘Tlaloc’). Last year it was necessary to create a sort of ‘coins’ (in paper) to facilitate minor adjustments in transactions & prices, called ‘Tequio’ (‘Tequio’ means in Mexican mutual help work). This system has been fostered by a quarterly bulletin announcing the products and services offered by the members of the ‘Tianguis’: food, agroecology, health, care of children and elder, handicrafts, clothes, education, training, books and publications, building, several different services: home, car, work (secretariat, accounting, translation, etc.)... The system is also fostered by periodic fairs where people may show products and exchange, through gifts, barter, community money and even official money.

* At the beginning we could link more persons living in Mexico City but slowly step by step we were including grassroots entrepreneurs from the rural areas because one of the aims has been to bridge the gap between peasants and urban workers. We have called the attention of big entrepreneurs and authorities. With the support of a few of them and local and regional NGO’s we started new promotions in the country. Today, in year 2000, the Tianguis TLALOC is working also in tens of rural communities, mainly in the State of Tlaxcala, two hours by car from Mexico City. In three months, 20 local fairs in different towns were organized. In the Northwestern region, 30 hours by car from Mexico City, there is already another NGO promoting local money inspired by the Tlaloc. Another one is created in the Northeast. The trend surpasses the border and now Mexicans in California try to follow it.

Linking the local, the regional and the global.

* We need still to link cells, networks and regional systems. There is the challenge for communication among regions -a common code-, transportation, store and distribution of goods. Through several regional workshops we try to expand the system to the national level, taking advantage of a national progam called "Dignity and Sustainable Livelihoods". This program convenes hundreds of microenterprises & community initiatives, their leaderships and teams, and includes fairs, workshops, bulletins, videos, e-mail, a web page, all these subjects and tools supporting the basic generosity of people, practicing an economy of giving, bartering and alternative trading.

* Alternative currency is communitarian, is rooted, is environmental, is local, is small, it enhances creative labor, learnings and social links... We need also a global system linking thousands of this emergent laboratories of life. If the capitalism system could 30 years ago develop overwhelmingly an exchange system of values called VISA and now this system is gathering 700 millions of users through 10 million stores and thousands of banks... Could civil society of the world create a global network taking advantage of Internet -and the new intelligent cards- and supported by the historic and intercultural linkages of rooted NGO’s? There are 10,000 NGO’s in Mexico, we have in this country 200,000 local communities each one with several family and communal microenterpises and accompanied by voluntary and generous groups.. How many in Latin America? How many in Asia: India? China? Indonesia? How many in Africa? We are millions of organized cells. This strenght of the people is hoping for a new language, a new code of communication, new tools not for exploitation but for communion. Surely soon we may smile when someone invite us to become member of American Express and we plenty of joy and compassion will say: We have already our People’s Express card! Join us!

Secretariado:

Tláloc 40-3, 11370, México D.F.

Tels.: 5535-0325 y 5566-4265, Fax: 5592-1989

espacios@laneta.apc.org