Productive organization and solidarity economy: The Urban Commune Dom Hélder Câmara, an urban self-management proposal to well living in the City of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

This article seeks to present the construction process of an urban self-management proposal: the Dom Hélder Câmara Urban Commune, one of the urban expressions of the Landless Rural Workers Movement in São Paulo, Brazil, one of the most historically important Latin American movements. From the dispossession of hundreds of families from the Vila Esperanza favela, an urban movement was configured supported by the banners of the Brazilian peasant struggle of this organization, as well as the solidarity economy, to build another rationality in the context of the alienated city. Both instances constituted a way for the development of the community project since they facilitated the production of organizational and technical changes of the participants, protecting their autonomy, identity, culture, and heritage, through the analycis of tools that were the product of community work for economic and social group development. The proposal of work and organization of this Commune, as well as of subsistence and supply within the conditions of the city of São Paulo, offers a transforming perspective where new forms of community, well-being, and emancipation are recognized. These as well contribute to generate ways of well living in the city. The research presented here is the result of fieldwork carried out during the months of November and December, 2013, in the Commune, as well as in other peasant settlements and the General Secretariat of the Movement. In the same way it is supported by different reports and testimonies published on the subject.