kamikazebear@gn.apc.org
Dear Comrade,
The brief mention of LETS in the pisces horoscope entry: sod knows who wrote it but s/he hasn't a clue about how the scheme works. a) It isn't "the answer to life, the universe and everything" that some of lifestyle-reformist prats would argue: if not for this scheme they would always find some "alternative" to class struggle elsewhere. There are some even-more-stupid-sad-reformists that would try to make out that it is a route to making us all into "micro- businesses" but that cannot possibly work. GOOD!!
b) (the bit actually mentioned in the paper!!) It is not some kind of *@@&%%!!!ing kind of workfare scheme.
One of the key arguments of the bosses and the state is that we, the workers, are such lazy fucks that we need the fear of the brutal state machine and the "incentive" of the money economy if we aren't to fritter away our lives drinking beer and watching non-stop "Neighbours". You also ignore all those people who are involved in volunteering for various projects: I know about those in the conservation area because I am one one every week but this does not count as "work", so far as the capitalist system is concerned because it does not feed their mad economy and I don't get paid and the latter means that all mad vols like me have the DSS on our backs about our "availability to work".
With LETS we each offer a "service" which is something we like to do anyway whether it is gardening, fixing bikes, or you may be a dab hand when it comes to simple plumbing, able to keep your eyes on a neighbour's pets/plants while they are away, or look after their kids for a few hours while they are out at "Work".
In return you get transferrable vouchers which can be used for anything that anybody on the local network can provide whether it is that much needed lift to the demo or meeting, music/language lessons, veggies that you know to be 1000% organically grown, access to alternative therapies such as aromatherapy (there's a lot of it about!!) and massage, and WHAT THE F@&%'S WRONG WITH BROWN RICE??
There is no "profit motive", no interest to pay if you over"spend", and no interest gained from the scheme if you keep your "trading units", whatever they are called, stashed away someplace. Of course there is a symbolic parallel, the tranfer-unit, the account, &c., but bearing in mind that the money economy has dominated the scene for so long, its terms and frames of reference could all too easily break into our language and some of the structures we may use and that can't be helped. The point is to expand what limited space we have, wherever that may be, and keep tackling the lousy sytem ON ALL FRONTS AT ONCE whether the call for a minimum wage or in the campaign to smash the Asylum and Immigration Act.
Some more money may be useful in the short term but that does not limit our ambition to some kind of state-capitalist tinkering with the lousy capitalist system, even if such an option was available.
SHOW, BY WHATEVER MEANS AVAILABLE, THAT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE.