Solidarity economy enterprises management in the Northwest of the State of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Solidarity economy is a socioeconomic, political and cultural project which aims at human development under democratic principles and respect for the environment, based on social relations of selfmanageable, democratic and solidarity production. Under the term ‘solidarity economy’, often unknown even to its own participants, there is an extremely wide range of solidarity economy enterprises, varying from bankrupted companies selfmanaged by their own workers to groups of production to selfconsume. The social relations of production developed in those enterprises are not of salaried employees and, ideally, solidarity economy enterprise’s relations are supposed to be cooperative and management collective. Under this point of view, we aim at discussing the principles of democracy and of selfmanagement applied to the reality of those solidarity economy enterprises and also at questioning some results obtained by 276 solidarity economy enterprises in the northwest border, former colonial northwest, Missões and Alto Jacuí regions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, according to the responses in the form of the National Secretary of Solidarity Economy (Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária – Senaes), a branch of the Ministry of Work and Job (Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego – MTE).