Charter of Principles (FBES)

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Defining the Sector

In June 2003, the Brazilian Solidarity Economy Forum (FBES) convened to codify exactly what their movement was – and, crucially, what it was not. I have selected this Charter for translation because it draws a sharp, necessary line in the sand. It explicitly states that the Solidarity Economy is not the 'Third Sector', a term it rejects for merely substituting the State and inhibiting worker emancipation by treating them as recipients of aid rather than protagonists of their own rights.

Sovereignty and Self-Management

My translation focusses on the Charter's uncompromising stance on autogestão (self-management). Unlike soft definitions of 'participation', the Charter demands autonomy without 'tutelage' from the state. It reframes finance not as a market service, but as a right to sovereignty over one's own resources, advocating for community currencies and ethical banks that circulate wealth locally rather than extracting it.

For the modern practitioner, this text serves as a reminder that the Social Economy is not a poverty alleviation strategy for the margins of capitalism, but a structural 'new actor' capable of reorganising both production and social reproduction.