Cooperação entre camponeses: um estudo a partir dos fundos rotativos solidários.

Abstract

In the State of Paraíba, many actions have been coordinated by Semi-arid Committee - formed by the union of institutions and people whose aim is to introduce social and technological alternatives in order to allow the peasant to live within the semi-arid (ASA - PB) since the 90s. One of these alternatives is the Solidarity Circulating Funds (FRS) which is a credit circulation association based on the cooperation, reputation, solidarity ties, reliability and reciprocity among its members. The objective of Solidarity Circulating Funds is to unable the peasants organized in groups to obtain credit for build some low cost goods such as water-tank, underground dams, wire fence. Each member cooperates with its labor force to build these goods. The process which involves the Solidarity Circulating Funds overcomes the question of buying a material good, it promotes the insertion into new social practice guided by the Semi-Arid Committee Network which is based on the management and organization of the funds by the own peasants. The research was done in the rural community of Mandacaru placed in the municipality of Soledade, in the Cariri Paraibano. Data revealed that the Solidarity Circulating Funds is supported on and reinforce the social ties of reliability, reciprocity and solidarity in the community. And it is in the community where they express their true face considering their direct insertion in the established social relations The Solidarity Circulating Funds depend on how the members of the groups relate to each other and with the mediators, as well as how they conduct their individual and collective actions. They are strongly tied to social norms of the group. Therefore, if in one community prevail the individuality and asymmetric social relations, the cooperation required by the Solidarity Circulating Funds can reinforce the inequalities; on the contrary, if the mutual aid feeling is the feeling which guides the symmeíric relations, the cooperation is facilitated, reinforcing the solidarity feeling and the collective action. In Mandacaru, at first, the Solidarity Circulating Funds exaggerated the social differences and the power concentration of the group who historically had a power position in the community. However, the shared experiences among the individuais, in particular the fact that the community has the possibility to take over the management of the funds and to decide about its use, have allowed a new situation which favors the cooperation among the peasants and the good management of the funds.