Justxchanges
JustXChanges is a solidarity economy network in New York City led by people of color and people with disabilities which organizes the exchange of goods and services through a New York-based community currency. Before the current COVID-19 pandemic, there was an acute need for an initiative such as JustXChanges. Now, it is even more urgent. During these trying times of extreme income inequality and health crisis, massive amounts of workers of color and others are unemployed, and face stigma and racial injustices that are compounded by the twin crises. In this climate, JustXChanges seeks to build and promote a more inclusive, just and equitable urban economy for all.
JustXChanges aims to strengthen community relations, local economies, and collective expression through the recognition and organization of underutilized and unrecognized skills, histories, and resources within each of the project’s pilot community of the Lower East Side/Loisaida. The initiative offers relief in the present and also represents an opportunity to envision and enact the values of a more equitable society not anchored in zero-sum individualism, resource accumulation, and competition.
For the past six months, the JustXChanges project steering committee, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Libertad Guerra, Monxo López, Jonathan González, Ana Sepúlveda, have engaged in a robust research and planning period that was abruptly disrupted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although our public roll out has been compromised, its feasibility is not at all eclipsed, and in fact more relevant and necessary than ever.
We are currently constructing our website and developing software to beta-test the exchange platform, and polling a sample of 100 artists during this initial crisis period.
We see Mutual Aid as a tactic of the solidarity economy project. As such we have created a database of mutual aid projects across the city and across the globe in order to activate our network and open with a greater risk.
How it works
JustXChanges allows each member to get some of their needs met without dollars. Each individual or organization includes a good or service that they can offer the network and in exchange the network disburses currency for each member to participate. For instance, let’s say that a member needs childcare for two hours a day, four days a week. The member may exchange a number currencies for this service. In turn, the member who provides the service can use their currency to obtain a service or good she needs. Due to social distancing measures, the currency will first exist as a digital currency. Once the quarantine is lifted, currency will also be available in paper currency for use in markets and other establishments.
Moving Forward
We intend to process our survey and begin beta-testing immediately, and aim for an April 1st launch. Due to the financial losses facing the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, where the project is partially anchored, we need a cash injection, not only to buoy this institution, which primarily serves Latinx and multicultural communities, but to provide funding to the many artists and cultural workers to execute the project. This project is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation.