For the past year, the Community Exchange System (CES) has been discussing the formation of an alliance with the world’s biggest and most influential, community-based, non-monetary exchange systems.

Recently, CES, TimeBanking USA, Timebanks UK and Seva Exchange formed the Community Exchange Alliance (CEA). They drafted a mission statement:

Our mission is to promote tools, knowledge and opportunities for local communities to facilitate the sharing and exchange of physical and human resources in ways that contribute to a more just, equitable and sustainable world.

…and a vision statement:

We envision a global network of change makers and local, interdependent communities that exists to make connections and exchange value in ways that allow them to determine their own futures and that bypasses the monopoly of money.

CEA will promote non-monetary exchange worldwide and attempt to unite alternative exchange systems to provide an ecosystem of non-monetry exchange options. In these times of economic uncertainty, it is important that alternatives are developed to ensure that ‘lifeboats’ exist if/when the global financial ‘ship’ sinks. Talk of a single global currency urges us to look in the opposite direction: to create as many, community-based, exchange options as possible.

Go to www.communityexchangealliance.org to find out more. We are working on a series of podcasts to discuss the world of alternative exchange.