Greek crisis leads some to ditch euro on their own

VOLOS, Greece — People in this central Greek city are rejecting the euro before it rejects them.

Apostolos Arabatzis keeps bees on his farm near Volos, and the honey from his hives helps him make ends meet.

What’s remarkable about this picture isn’t the farmer’s honey — it’s the money that he receives for it.

Instead of euros, Arabatzis accepts TEMs, a Greek abbreviation for Local Alternative Unit.

A small but growing minority in about a dozen Greek towns are using an alternative exchange system to help them survive the crisis. That’s been attracting increasing attention amid concern that Greece — stricken by political chaos — will be forced to leave the euro and return to the drachma.

Volos has Greece’s first and biggest TEM network, with 600 members and 30 affiliated businesses.

Members accept payment for goods and services in TEMs, and use TEMs to obtain goods and services from others in the network.

In effect, a barter economy.

A dire economy

Enormous debt accumulated over decades sent Greece into a recession last year. Unemployment has roughly doubled in three years, and Greece has lost more than 10 percent of its output. Some 80,000 businesses were shuttered last year, and 136,000 more are expected to fail in 2012, according to the Athens Chamber of Commerce.

Elections this month failed to produce a government, and Greeks will vote again in June.

The vote is seen as a choice on whether debt-stricken Greece remains in the eurozone. The vote was split between parties that insist the country live up to its austerity pledges and continue to receive outside assistance to stave off bankruptcy, and those that want to revoke or revise the pledges because they are too punishing.

At a central market in Volos, producers gather every Saturday to haggle over items such as eggs, jam and clothes — and pay in TEMs. Members register on the network, offering goods or services. The Volos group includes computer technicians, doctors, house painters and farmers.

Members start off with empty TEM accounts and start the ball rolling by offering goods or services. They also can borrow up to 300 TEMs.

Angeliki Ioanniti, a Volos dressmaker, recently used TEMs to pay for a doctor’s visit.

“We went to the cardiologist, who is linked with our network, paid 20 euros for the visit and 10 TEMs in addition,” Ioanniti said.

The TEMs look like a personal check. Of course, they can replace money only partially. After all, taxes, utilities or most other things can’t be paid with them. Yet it’s a way forward for members such as Arabatzis during this time of crisis.

“It gives us a social relationship,” Arabatzis said, “and it detaches us from money as much as it’s possible to do so.”

A key merit of the system is that it connects people who are short of real cash and allows them to trade by using TEMs as a kind of pledge.

Rising membership

The scheme started before Greece’s financial meltdown as a fairer, more transparent way to trade. But administrators say the crisis has spurred membership, with around 300 joining in recent months.

“Definitely it’s bringing more people to the network,” said alternative therapist Euripides Siouras, 28.

Hairdresser Dimitra Vasilou, 29, joined the scheme in September. She says she was struggling to pay for essentials, let alone comforts. She now sometimes can have both by trading with others in the TEMs network.

She says she feels liberated. “Crisis? What crisis?” she joked.