A B C

I spent most of yesterday keeping up with Jon Snow's tweets about what was happening in Brussels.  The things I talked about in the last blog Greece defaulting, Italy beginning to shake are happening;  soon Greece will default on the entire loan because they won't be able to repay even 40% of the debt and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Italy's government doesn't fall and Berlusconi leaves office.  Then I lay awake most of the night thinking about what I can do.  Doesn't that sound arrogant, I am not an economist, when I was young I could hardly add up and now I am trying to untangle the mess we are in and make suggestions that are practical.
In the last blog I wrote a little bit about the "people of the abyss".  The Victorians loathed, feared and shunned them.  I started thinking again about our "people of the abyss" they are not the poor they are the ultra rich, the power brokers, the food and commodities speculators, the bankers - they are the feral criminal class and we need to try and break their hold on our society.  I am not advocating revolution or violence.  I am saying A B C.      A is for Allotments.  Very few of us have small holdings or allotments which would let us be self sufficient but as I said in "Days of Thrift" most of us have yards or little gardens and all of us have window sills where we can grow vegetables in pots or grow bags or perma tunnels if we have enough room in the garden.  A grow bag will support tomatoes, herbs, potatoes (look at all the different sites on the internet where you can get information).
This leads onto B.  B is for Barter, you can barter the excess produce for other goods and services.  Because no money is involved you don't have to declare anything to the dole office if you are on any benefits.  I would love someone to hoover my floors, I find this the hardest of the cleaning jobs because I find it difficult to stand for any length of time.  I may not have grown any fruit or veg to trade but I can offer to help someone with their reading or writing, help write a CV, edit a story or piece of writing you may have done and I can swap an hour of help with a child's homework (unless it is maths or foreign languages) for an hours hoovering.  I am going to send a flyer to every house in my street explaining what I think we can do together and see if anyone wants to join me, I am just going to cover my street, this is a small scale operation; each street can organise their own Barter and support their own neighbours.  I will let you know what happens.
C is for Credit Unions.  Take the money and its manipulation away from the bankers and their offshore tax havens. Credit unions are financial co-operatives owned and managed by the members who use them. They offer a convenient way to save and the opportunity to access low cost loans and a range of other benefits including stopping desperate people using loan sharks or those dishonest companies with the friendly names that advertise on television giving a helpful loan with an APR of 2,000%.

Members of a credit union save in a common fund. This fund can be then used to make low interest loans to the credit union's members. All interest on loan repayments is reinvested in the credit union and nothing leaves the community. Many credit unions now offer a range of services including Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), insurance products, budgeting and debt management advice.  I know not everyone can save anything at the moment because "moneys too tight to mention" but this a way for the community to take control away from the City of London.
I can hear people saying what you are talking about is so little, a tiny bandage on gangrene what about job losses and pensions being degraded, high university fees and now they want to be able to dismiss someone from a job if the boss "doesn't like you".  We can only start from where we are.  Although its not fashionable to quote Mao he said "a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step" and that was a man who knew about walking a long way.