I spoke to Tanya Hawkes who has been working as a manager at CAT (the Centre for Alternative Technology) for four years. As a single mother with a young child and as a feminist, she has found that the cooperative approach used at CAT (employing 150 personnel at the height of the season) is a direct way of empowering women workers. CAT has evolved organically since the 1970s and now women and men have equal roles, with a majority of older women on the elected management group. ("Although that's a voluntary role, " she muses, " perhaps if it attracted extra pay or other benefits, there might be more men on it...") (more...)
While decisions are made by the management group, there is a strict lobby system which enables any staff member to questions any management decisions and these can be discussed and overturned at the permanent monthly staff meeting. "So there are checks and balances," Tanya explains, "which means that no one person can get in a position of power and exploit it."
"This structure works well in terms of gender equality in decision-making, but other aspects of CAT also reflect women's contribution. Most of the main buildings you see there were designed and built by women - and women are well represented in all areas of work (scientific, education, media etc). But it's a long time since we actually discussed gender as an issue. The environment comes first and there's a tendency for people to say: what's more important - saving the world or gender equality?"
(Pat: "This kind of false dichotomy has been the downfall of socialist experiments, like Nicaragua, where it was ‘we have to save the country first (from the US-driven contra war) and then we can tackle women's needs.' True socialism necessarily promotes gender equality, as Venezuela has committed itself to doing by recognising that women's contribution is essential in sustainable development." )
A recent visit to Cuba, where she stayed with a rural family, impressed Tanya (as it did me) as regards freedom of expression of ordinary Cubans: "Yes, people speak with their own voice there, whether they're openly critical of the government, pro-Castro or somewhere in between." And as regards women's role: "everyone's a fixer, a doer, they're able to make do, to make things. And in this respect there's no gender difference. My hostess fixed up a radio system from old parts while I was there."
(Pat: "Yes, as Paul Allen (from CAT) pointed out at the workshop, when support from soviet oil was switched off, Cubans had to learn to make do with their own resources. Outsiders (the US) hoped this would be their downfall, but in fact Cuban efforts have been successful - and sustainable, as even the CIA's statistics indicate." )
In contrast, in the UK, Tanya sees that "women are bred to be consumers, to be serviced, we're not encouraged to do or make things. All the labour-saving devices we have make it possible for me to work fulltime... but how does that work for women in developing countries - in Africa for example, where they spend so much time on basic household chores (and their workload is increasing because of climate change) - how do they get to play a role in politics if they don't have the time to get to the meeting?"
"Although we don't use the terms' socialism' or ‘feminism' any more, everyone at CAT is against the capitalist line that the ‘market will sort it all out'. The personal is still political and how we do things is important in promoting democracy, teaching people how to lobby, how to access government. In fact, living and working in a cooperative structure, people learn those skills of diplomacy and negotiation, which are not really learned at school any more."
Conclusion? "No! Sustainability isn't possible unless it comes from well-informed grassroots communities, it has to be a bottom-up process."
