Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comitÃ© local d'Attac

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Awra Amba, a current experiment of utopian socialism inhabitants met a Tuesday to express their sister/brotherhood and friendship by collectively spinning cotton; the meeting place and the programme of spinning cotton continued to finance a social security fund. The children to be sent to study in city, the gender equality, the elderly and the seriously sick in the community and any day-to-day questions are subjects of such meetings (At05/60). Picture 5: Meeting under the big tree in the village centre, together with spinning, a Tuesday in April 2010. The cooperative members elect a number of committees, which implement the decisions of general assemblies and manage collectively many aspects of the activity. These committees are defined in the Communal Statute. It seems they are since 2007 thirteen committees elected every three years in general assembly by a show of hands (At05/60-64; Ya08/114; Jo10b/9): - The development committee, supervising the twelve others; it administers the most relevant economic issues and especially the long-term plans; - The education committee, which manages the education and the socialization of children before high school or university. It runs especially the community kindergarten, the relations with the neighbouring public school and the involvement of the community in extra lessons in this school (Question 19 in Annex); - The patient care committee taking care of the sick and of pregnant women; - The elderly care committee in charge of the elderly; - The sanitation committee, which is responsible for cleaning the communal parts of the village, encourages everyone to keep their own home clean and helps those unable to do so; - The under-development committee responsible for the poorest; - The problem solving committee in charge of the critical individual economic problems; - The work assignment committee, which assigns every day a job to each member within the cooperative; - The complaint hearing committee, which deals with the disputes between members, the police being called on only as a last resort; - The security committee in charge of the village’s security, to prevent theft and assault; 42 / 85
4. Social organisation - The lost money handling committee, which manages lost property and returns it to its owner; - The reception committee, which is in charge of contacts with visitors. It employed a chief guide, Timbwalel, and a second guide, Amane, both 22 in 2010. The first one studied up to the 11 th level, the second one up to the 12 th (completion of secondary education) (Jo10b/9); in 2012, it employs two full-time guides, Nane, Zumra's wife, and Burtukan (Crespo, 2012). Visitors pay admission fees of 5 birrs, equivalent to 0.20 Euro in 2010 (Crespo, 2011); - The by law preparation committee which prepares future rules and regulations of the community; they are decided by the general assembly. According to At05/61, there were in 2005 fifteen and not thirteen committees, like in 2008 according to Me09/40 (Question 20 in Annex). One of the above thirteen committees did not exist (the underdevelopment committee), but three other ones did exist: - The controlling committee for development committee, which controls this one and reports to the general assembly; it seems that the development committee and its controlling committee have been brought together later; - The weekly development committee, which implements day after day the decisions of the development committee; - The controlling committee for weekly development committee, which controls this one and reports to the development committee and the general assembly. As the committee members change after each election, each cooperative member should in theory participate to a committee. However, only a small number of Awra Amba members have the skills required to be chairperson, secretary, or treasurer of a committee. They have to be able to read and write and to have some management skill, and to have access to relevant contacts in the regional capital. Therefore, 12 to 15 persons share the main responsibilities, i.e. about 10 % of the cooperative adults. The committee members enjoy no special privileges and receive no material reward. Their power is limited because the key decisions are taken, not by them, but by the general assembly of the cooperative members, and because they are subject at any time to its power of recall (At05/58; Ya08/114-115; Me09/55). It should be underlined that the founder Zumra is member of both development and reception committees (Jo10b/9). According to figures of At05/62, each of the 15 committees (in 2005) brings together 3 to 5 people (1 to 4 men and 0 to 3 women), except the by law preparation committee, which amounts to 15 people (8 men and 7 women): see Table 3. The average number of members is 4.5, and 3.8 when this particular committee is excluded. Because women share the household responsibility with men, they take responsibility in the community (At05/85): they account for 44 % of committee members, which is lower than the 60 % of women in the population over 19 years, and even than the 51 % of women in the general population for all ages, that same year 2005. Only 6 committees among 15 have a women's participation equal to or slightly greater than the weight of women in the adult population, but 3 committees have a women's participation more than two times lower than their weight in the adult population. Women are especially very much absent in the main committee, the development one, and in the weekly development committee, where they account in both cases only for one member among five. They are not especially present in committees dealing with a priori female issues like education, care, elderly or sanitation. Women are leading some of the committees (Ya08/79). According to the community leaders we have contacted, in 2010, the development committee amounted for 10 members, including 5 under 30 years, one between 30 and 35 years and 4 over 35 years, including Zumra; 5 among the 15 members of the by law preparation committee were under 35 years; 3 among the 5 cooperative leaders were under 30 years. The continuity seems therefore assured. 43 / 85
Page 1 and 2: Robert JOUMARD Awra Amba, a current
Page 3 and 4: Content Executive summary..........
Page 5 and 6: Executive summary In line with the
Page 7 and 8: Executive summary secretive, cruel,
Page 9 and 10: አጭር መግለጫ የሥራ
Page 11 and 12: des membres des comités, qui sont
Page 13 and 14: Introduction The Ethiopian village
Page 15 and 16: 1. Method This work is a synthesis
Page 17: 1. Method final conclusions of Meko
Page 20 and 21: Awra Amba, a current experiment of
Page 33 and 34: 3. Values and principles Any societ
Page 35 and 36: 3. Values and principles in an atmo
Page 37 and 38: 37 / 85 3. Values and principles ph
Page 39 and 40: 39 / 85 3. Values and principles ea
Page 41: 4. Social organisation We describe
Page 45 and 46: 4. Social organisation the table: Q
Page 47 and 48: 4. Social organisation 20 birrs), a
Page 49 and 50: 4. Social organisation Yassin (2008
Page 51 and 52: Women (%) Adults Men (%) Women
Page 53 and 54: 4. Social organisation that "the co
Page 55 and 56: 55 / 85 4. Social organisation (3.7
Page 57 and 58: an electric meter according to the
Page 59 and 60: 4. Social organisation twelve small
Page 61: 4. Social organisation institutions
Page 71 and 72: 6. External relations The relations
Page 73 and 74: 6. External relations Picture 18: Z
Page 75 and 76: Conclusion Awra Amba has developed
Page 77 and 78: 77 / 85 Conclusion limits strongly
Page 79: experiments? Conclusion - Most of t

Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comitÃ© local d'Attac

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