Farewell professor Paul Singer, promoter of Solidarity Economy

Foto: Agência Brasil

Professor Paul Singer, Austrian economist and tireless promotor of the Solidarity economy in Brazil, died at age 86. He published several books on the subject and is a reference for studies on local development. His performance in Brazil and his intellectual production yielded him the honored Grand Order of Merit of the Republic of Austria, received in 2009..

From Austria Paul Singer arrived in Brazil in 1940, at the age of eight. At age 20, he worked as an electrotechnician, was affiliated to the Metalworkers Union of São Paulo and had active participation in the 300,000 strike that paralyzed the city in 1953. He graduated in Economics from the University of São Paulo (USP) , he received his doctorate in Sociology, he became a free teacher in Demography and a professor in Economics at the same university. He was one of the founders of Cebrap (which brought together intellectuals against the military dictatorship), of the PT in 1980 and of the Technological Incubator of Popular Cooperatives in USP.

From 2003 to 2016, he was National Secretary of Solidarity Economy, where he worked in close collaboration with the FBES (Foro Brasileiro de Economia Solidaria) and where he defended, among others, the creation of community banks as an instrument for the eradication of poverty.

In the month that Paul Singer completed 86 years, the book “Ensaios sobre Economia Solidária” organized by Rui Namorado of Editora Almeidina was launched in Portugal. The book integrates a theoretical perspective of solidarity economy, which values its historical depth, with its anchorage in Brazilian reality. It is divided into two parts, each of which comprises eight texts. The first is predominantly constituted by essays in which Singer shows how he conceives solidarity economy theoretically, valuing it as a struggle against the exclusion of the exploited and as a possible emancipatory opportunity, towards a future that consubstantizes full humanism. The second one leads us through experiences of the solidarity economy in Brazil, in interaction with the political position of Singer, as a member of the federal government, taking as a backdrop his fraternal closeness with the organizations involved.

See his site for this book, documents, interviews, articles and videos: (in Portuguese): http://paulsinger.com.br/

See socioeco.org documents, interviews and videos in Spanish, Portuguese, English, German and French: http://www.socioeco.org/bdf_auteur-71_fr.html, among others:

Dez anos de Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária (SENAES), (Ten years of National Secretary of the Solidarity Economy (SENAES) Paul Singer, juin 2013: about his work in the National Secretariat of Solidarity Economy of Brazil (SENAES)