Everything’s almost free in Spain’s parallel barter economy

There are neither salespeople nor cash counters in the “free shop” in an abandoned block of flats in Madrid. Anyone can walk in, drop off goods they no longer use, and pick up anything they need. Hundreds of thousands of people are participating in a parallel economy, bartering goods and services. “We operate outside the capitalist system,” Tomas Fuentes says.

The economist, 42, is part of a nation-wide network of activists trying to set up alternatives to the current economic system, which they blame for the global crisis that sparked Spain’s economic meltdown. In Madrid’s central neighbourhood of Malasana, the activists have occupied abandoned flats, which Fuentes and others use for meetings.

A worn wooden staircase leads from room to room. “Office of social rights,” reads a sign above one door. In another area, a group debates the future of nuclear energy. Elsewhere several people are deep in meditation, chanting a mantra. There are free yoga and drama classes on offer here.

A slogan painted in the stairwell puts it simply: “I have nothing, I fear nothing.” Many of these activists belong to the 15-M or The Indignant Ones protest movement. The name refers to May 15, 2011, when young internet campaigners managed to bring tens of thousands of people to the streets to vent their rage against political corruption and privileges and the power of banks.

The movement may have disappeared from the headlines, but its activities have not ceased. Activists organise meetings at the community and city level, and over the internet at the national level, Fuentes and fellow activist Marina Sancho told dpa. 15-M stages rallies against evictions of mortgage defaulters. Proposals for social change are posted on the internet and exchanged with similar-minded groups elsewhere in Europe.

15-M and other neighbourhood groups run projects allowing people to partly live outside the monetary system. Dozens of people in Malasana are on an internet mailing list allowing residents to offer old furniture, television sets or other consumer goods they are about to discard – for free. The Malasana activists hold a monthly barter market where residents exchange second-hand goods or pick them up for free. “Many people are ashamed to take things without paying, because they are not used to the idea,” Sancho says. Services are also offered at no cost, such as haircuts by trainees at salons.

So-called “time banks” allow people to exchange services, ranging from computer expertise and tax counselling to language lessons and childcare – with participants giving each other about the same amount of time. In 2012, there were about 300 “time banks”, according to a list compiled by the website Vivir Sin Empleo.

Other projects do not abolish the use of money, but reduce the costs. The group has organised a system of discounts for customers of shops whose owners share its goals. Each time a customer purchases something at one of the shops, he or she gets discount units known as boniatos (sweet potatoes). These units, which are registered online, allow customers to get a discount when shopping at another store from the chain.

Similar initiatives are springing up all over the country, such as car pools. Home owners or tenants offer cheap accommodation to those who cannot afford hotels. Entrepreneurs pay their rent with office materials or services. Some websites offering free goods and services are visited by as many as 200,000 people a month. “The barter system makes us realise how much is produced and purchased unnecessarily,” Fuentes says.

Most people using free services, however, do so out of sheer necessity. Some 26 per cent of the Spanish workforce and 55 per cent of young people are currently unemployed. Spain is in its second recession in three years, and the economy is expected to take a decade to fully recover.

“I don’t care about the demise of capitalism. But this is the only way for me to get books for my kids,” said an unemployed advertising agent who was given a bag full of second-hand books. Informal economic systems have become a means of survival, says Miguel Angel Garcia, an economist with CCOO, one of Spain’s two top trade union confederations. He is, however, not happy about their growth.

“They operate illegally, without paying taxes or social security contributions,” Garcia said. He feels that informal systems weaken the social fabric. “We need to strengthen the existing institutions, instead of rejecting them,” he said. But Fuentes of 15-M said: “The political, economic and social crisis will either lead to radical change, or spark a global class war.”