In the form of a fair, with the aesthetics of a kermese or under the high roof of a neighborhood club, barter spaces have recently taken center stage again. A practice that had its rise after the fateful December 2001 and that after the last adjustments made by the current Government, emerged as a way out of the crisis that Argentine society is experiencing.
Distributed throughout the country, barter centers emerge as a response to a policy that corners the citizen’s pocketbook. The equation is simple, expenses increase due to inflation, the salary remains static and all the money that comes in goes towards mandatory payments. The rest is sought as compensation, one thing for another, whether it is a good or a service.
Revival. Horacio Covas is one of the pioneers of the art of bartering. In 1995 he founded the Barter Club in the Quilmes district, a space where he implemented a new form of market, which was amplified many years later in almost all the neighborhoods and provinces of Argentina. “I currently coordinate the Victoria Barter Club, in Bernal; but in all provinces this same format is carried out. Each one is independent and autonomous but by sharing the same ethical principles, we are united in what is called the Global Barter Network. In Ensenada there are 6 barter clubs that, due to the great public demand, open one every day of the week, from Monday to Saturday,” Covas himself explains to NEWS about this network that branches out without being conditioned to money.
Regarding the mode of exchange, Covas colloquially develops his “Multireciprocal exchange system”. “We manage the credit as a unit, which would be one peso a credit, under the same market parity. So if a person comes with a t-shirt that costs $6000 in a store, he has 6000 credits in his possession and can exchange them for anything worth 6000 credits. “This is not a model of accumulation, but of redistribution.”
Covas manages a WhatsApp group with many participants. It opens every Sunday morning in a Retirement Center and the ideal is that there should be no more than 100 people per day so that everything is done dynamically. “Although we have never closed since ’95, there were times when the audience dropped considerably. However, since December the number of participants began to rise. From the usual 50 we became 100 and we are already managing a universe of 300 people who want to bring their goods and services. What people bring the most is clothing, food and household products and they look for the same thing.”
Other places where barter spaces are present are El Jagüel, José C. Paz, Floresta, La Boca and Parque Patricios, where once a week people meet on one side of the park to offer their goods. NEWS toured its stands, which mostly offer clothing for children and teenagers, homemade food and cleaning products in generic packaging.
Susana, a 38-year-old neighbor and proudly wearing the Huracán t-shirt, acknowledges: “I brought my youngest son’s clothes that no longer fit him and I took products for the home that I need. I’m happy. With some mothers we already know each other, with others we don’t, but it works because there is respect and we understand each other’s needs.”
Federalism. But this practice locks up the entire country. In the city of Posadas, Misiones, the one that generated this movement at the explicit request of its inhabitants was Dalila Blachwho coordinates the “Misiones Barter Club”, which opens its halls every Friday at Plaza de Felix Bogado at 1288 in Posadas, Misiones. “We started this space during a pandemic, when people were very complicated because they had lost their income and commercial activity was paralyzed. In 2021 we closed it but in December of last year many neighbors asked me to please open it again. People are in crisis. He increases everything and has no money. The only way you can acquire things is by bartering or exchanging a product for a service.” Regarding the possibility that they do not agree on the value of the exchange, Blach explains: “We have moderators who intervene based on market values, but the truth is that it was never necessary because people do it out of necessity and in response to the need is not in the mood to fight or defraud the other.”
This plaza looks more like a party than a barter club. Oscar, “old barter” as he calls himself, comments: “Today went very well. I changed clothes and food, which is what I needed for my baby. I even brought a window thinking I wasn’t going to change it and I changed it for a water pump. For me this is real commerce because it is value for value.” Others make their job the currency of exchange and among the most exchanged items are hairdressing, massages, manicures and tarot.
Without money on the street, barter clubs seem like a balm to alleviate the moment. As Covas concludes: “By bartering you don’t earn money but you do save money”. And that seems to be the only truth.
