February 15, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
In Porto Alegre, She is on Her Way
Part 6 - The Gift
by Stephanie Hiller
The workshop on the gift economy, "Feminists Challenge the Market Economy," drew about 40 people, most of them women. The first to arrive was a woman who was to become my friend and guide for the rest of the trip, Suelen Stone, a Brasiliera who spoke fluent English. She struck me as friendly, heartfelt, and tough. I liked her immediately.
The workshop began with a song about the tree of life: "this branch is you, this branch is me, this tree is no one's property." It is always good to sit among women, and sing.
Genevieve Vaughan opened the panel with a description of the two economies, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the hidden, unseen economy of gift giving that takes place all the time within the exchange economy. "We could call the exchange economy 'patriarchal capitalism,'" she said. This dominant economy requires scarcity. "It wastes the abundance of the world on things like armaments. Eighteen billion dollars would feed everyone for a year. That amount is spent every week, on armaments. This expenditure maintains the scarcity that the market needs in order to dominate."
Genevieve Vaughan
at the Gift workshop
The gift of household work would add 40 percent to the GNP if it were included. In addition, we give other gifts to the economy. "Surplus value or profit is a gift to the capitalist economy given by the workers. It is a forced gift but it still is a free gift." Interest on debt is a huge gift to the economy. In effect, "capitalism is a parasite on the gift of everybody."
By consciously recognizing the hidden gift economy we bring it forth. "What we need to do is go back to an economy based on gift-giving."
This talk was met with an unexpected challenge from some of the women in the audience. Speaking in Portuguese, a woman who worked as Pastoral Agent for the Catholic church explained that the poor people she worked with were always giving, all the time, while receiving very little. What could she tell them of this gift economy? What were the women on the panel trying to tell people who were already giving as much as they could, and more?
Several other women joined in protest.
It seemed that although the concept of the gift economy is intended to bring to light this unappreciated gift giving that goes on all the time in poor communities, the women did not see it that way. Indeed, they seemed to feel insulted by the very suggestion that what they were doing was the solution. Afterwards, Gen said she thought the translation was part of the problem, particularly since the translator was not familiar with her work. She regretted that she did not have an opportunity to respond to the questions before the workshop moved on to the next speaker.
Next, panelist Maria Suarez explained that changing the paradigm was essential for social transformation. "We have gone through three social forums talking very little about the type of world we want." For Suarez the gift economy provides the paradigmatic shift that we need. Kaarina Kailo spoke about the Gift as a new "imaginary." Marta Benevides, who works with her community in El Salvador, spoke also.
At the end of the panel discussion, questions remained.
Afterwards, Suelen Stone said, "In our culture, people are always sharing, taking care of each other. What did these women come to tell us?"
Suelen
Stone
At the same time she was delighted to have found us. She had spent ten hard years in America, she told us that afternoon, as she and Susan and I continued to wend our way through the Forum. Why hadn't she met anyone like us then? I was just as happy to have found her. As we sat in the café in the relative cool of the basement in the main hall at the Catholic Public University of Rio do Sul (PUCRS), where the press booth and media centers were located, she talked more about her beloved Brazil, her disappointments in the U.S. and the contrast between the two cultures. Here people took care of each other, she told us. Americans she found generally to be cold and aloof, and the plight of the American poor was far worse than that of poor people in Brazil. She saw great promise in the election of Lula; 60 percent of the popular vote meant exactly that, since Brazilians are required by law to vote. She explained the way Porto Alegre's heralded participatory budget works. The city is divided into regions; each region meets to propose additions to the budget, which are then considered in the municipal plan. The excellent bus system, for example, was put into place by popular demand. Water purification and sewage have also been put in place by this process, though wastewater disposal remains an issue in the state. It was Suelen who told us that the governor had consumed the budget for the Forum. That was the old way of politicians, and she believed it was coming to an end. Brazil, so often called the "land of tomorrow," was rising. Its future was the hope of the world.
The picture she painted of Brazilian life informed my own instinctual attraction to this land. The only complaint she had about her people was that Brazilians were too nice. "They will agree with whatever you say. It is considered rude, maleducado, to contradict."
We all have our disguises.
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