THE SOLIDARY SOCIAL ECONOMY AND RED COMPARTE IN LATIN AMERICA IN PANDEMIC TIMES

Abstract

This article discusses the social solidarity economy in Latin America based on the experience and principles of the COMPARTE Network, addressing the initiatives of this sector of the popular economy in the conjuncture of the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, it is part of a reflection on the health crisis inserted in a larger context of structural crisis of reproduction of relations and capitalist accumulation, as a premise of the public policies adopted by some governments of the continent, such as Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, in face of the social emergencies of the pandemic. The initiatives of solidarity segments are seen as alternative ways of social action and productive reorganization of popular sectors in front of the incapacity of capital, in crisis, to incorporate broad sectors of Latin American population to the production of goods, services and social care. Thus, autonomous actions, in regions of high levels of inequality and disconnection from governments, may have avoided an even greater number of illnesses and deaths.  In this perspective, the solidarity initiatives that have been approached show signs of recovery of moral values, production methods and social relations, in general, very different from those produced by market dynamics. Therefore, the solidarity initiatives contribute to the reorganization of community life in other forms, breaking with subjectivity based on egoistic ethical-moral values. Along this path, the experience of the COMPARTE Network reflects multiple expressions of alternative economies, at various levels of progress and growth, which may converge towards a social movement that transforms and, most importantly, multiplies the principle of care for life and perhaps breaks with capitalist logic and its speculative-financial nature.