I think mutual credits are a fantastic anarchist strategy that we can get dem and progressive types to support, especially in the aftermath of these natural disasters. I know we see a lot of mutual aid, but how much work goes undone because people are sitting around waiting for capital? How many times do we hear about communities waiting years for FEMA relief (e.g. Panama City, FL after Hurricane Michael). We see a bunch of institutionalized neighbors, with tradesmen and materials in their midst, but sitting around with their thumbs up their ass waiting for someone to give them capital!

Why not create their own capital? As #ThomasH.GraecoJr. points out in “New Money for Healthy Communities”:

"When needs remain unfulfilled, the first question that needs to be asked is, is it for lack of skills, resources, or motivation, or is it because of lack of money? Much “good work” is left undone because those who have the will to do it lack the money, and much “bad work" is done because it is in the narrow self-interest of those with money to do it, and others, because they need the money to live, can be persuaded to do it, too. The intentional scarcity of official money has a destructive effect which can be overcome by supplemental local currencies. . . Mutual credit currencies:

1. They can be spent only within the limited area of the community,
2. They can be created locally in accordance with the needs of the local economy, and,
3. They encourage local people to patronize one another rather than buying from outside
the community. . .

In a mutual credit system, the people empower themselves to do the same thing that banks have done for years, essentially creating their own money in the form of credit, but saving the cost of interest, while distributing the money themselves according to their own needs. In such a system, holding credits is evidence that so much value has been delivered to the community, while a debit balance represents that person’s commitment to deliver value to the community sometime in the near future. . .

[These] kinds of exchange systems . . . are ones which are both self-regulating and independent of outside control by government or any other central power. To use an organic metaphor, they function autonomically. This implies a decentralized approach in which the creation and extinction of money (the symbol) is directly linked to the creation and transfer of value (the reality which money represents). In such systems the quantity of money (symbols) should adjust automatically to increases and decreases in the value and quantity of goods and services being traded. The process of money creation should be open and accessible, or, to use Ivan Illich’s term, “convivial." It must also be debt-free and interest-free. If money were to become a symbol of merit from the very point of its creation, the producer of economic value would be properly rewarded for his/her effort and
skill, and production would be encouraged. At the same time, production would be ecologically sound, since money, in a convivial system, is more readily available and has less power to induce people to act in self-destructive ways. Money would be the product of cooperation among individuals within integral communities. . .”

So basically, individuals create and circulate their own currencies at almost zero cost. You can even have a Jubilee every however many years, cancel all the debt and start over. Or, just do the work and don’t keep track of debts. But if capital is still your hang up, and ya’ll are standing around waiting for FEMA, then why not try mutual credit. And it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. A restaurant, grocer or other business might charge cash for dead cost and accept mutual credit for effort. Whatever. The point ought to be to start introducing the anarchist concepts in a context where it makes sense to those dems and progressives who can help implement. Like, best time to get them to maybe alter the narrative in their head is in a time of need. But then maybe they start using it more and more and then all the time. Gotta watch out for tax evasion though. But Graeco’s essay has a lot of success stories and you can legally #DoThis.

#MutualCreditCurrencies