The Global Tapestry of Alternatives (Spanish below)
The world is going through an unprecedented crisis engendered by a dominant regime that has resulted in deepening inequalities, increasing and new forms of deprivation, the destruction of ecosystems, climate change, the tearing off of social fabric and the dispossession of all living beings with immense violence.
However, the past two decades have witnessed the emergence of an immense variety of radical alternatives to this dominant regime and to its roots in capitalist, patriarchal, racist, statist, and anthropocentric forces. These range from initiatives in specific sectors such as sustainable and holistic agriculture, community led water/energy/food sovereignty, solidarity and sharing economy, worker control of production facilities, resource/knowledge commons, and inter-ethnic peace and harmony, to more holistic or rounded transformations such as those being attempted by the Zapatista and the Kurds in Rojava, to the revival of ancient traditions or the emergence of new worldviews that re-establish humanity’s place within nature and the values of human dignity, equality and the respect of history.
The Global Tapestry of Alternatives is an initiative seeking to create solidarity networks and strategic alliance amongst all these alternatives on local, regional and global levels. It starts in the local interaction among alternatives, to gradually organize forms of agreement at the regional, national and global scale, through diverse and light structures, defined in each space, horizontal, democratic, inclusive and non-centralized, using diverse local languages and other ways of communicating. The initiative has no central structure or control mechanisms. It spreads step by step as an ever-expanding, complex set of tapestries, constructed by already existing communal or collective webs, organized as alternatives to the dominant regimes, each of them autonomously weaving itself with other such webs.
It organizes mechanisms of interaction between those regional and national structures and with the societies, in which they exist, in diverse languages and different means, promoting periodically regional, national and global encounters, when the conditions allow for them, as well as close and synergistic linkages with existing organizations, like the World Social Forum.
The Global Tapestry of Alternatives is about creating spaces of collaboration and exchange, in order to learn about and from each other, critically challenge each other, offer active solidarity to each other whenever needed, interweave the initiatives in common actions, give them visibility to inspire other people to create their own initiatives and to go further along existing paths or forge new ones that strengthen alternatives wherever they are, until the point in which a critical mass of alternative ways can create the conditions for the radical systemic changes we need.
A small group of activists from several regions of the world started the initiative, which will create its structure as it takes shape in different parts of the world. The initial group will continue supporting the initiative as long as necessary. It has some sponsors, who subscribe this document, and will try to weave itself with similar initiatives around the world. Anyone interested in following the evolution of the initiative or participate in it may write a mail to globaltapestryofalternatives@riseup.net.
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A two-year process of convergence to build an Inclusive World Agenda from networked local nodes!
As shared in the World Social Forum of Salvador de Bahia (read March 2018 article), as Intercontinental RIPESS , RIPESS Europa, XES (Catalan Solidarity Economy Network) and REAS (Spanish SE Network), we are happy to announce our commitment to a Thematic World Social Forum of Convergence of Transformative Economies, from local to international levels, by 2020 :
The objective is to start a process of convergence between all initiatives, practices, movements and ways of understanding the economy that share the common goal of transforming the existing economic system, beyond Social and Solidarity Economy. Some of these processes of convergence have already been taking place for a long time :
Another World already exists. We now need to bring together our strength, the common solutions and practices both locally and internationally, to build an inclusive world agenda, and jointly face today’s main challenges!
See the First International Call inviting all interested movements and networks to express their interest in participating and/or in becoming co-promoters of the initiative.
It is essential to ensure that the construction process reflects the proposals, challenges and opportunities of all continents, movements and networks.
To this end, different committees will facilitate the co-definition of the contents by various networks and movements and will ensure the articulation between local and global levels.
STARTING THE DYNAMICS, AND INVITED MOVEMENTS
In order to ensure that the dynamics were solidly anchored from the outset, on June 5th XES launched this two years’ process with a first local meeting in Barcelona (See 26th of June’s article) .The participants called were of different movements, grouped as follow, for the moment:
- Feminist and Gender perspective Economies
- Agroecological and the Food Sovereignty
- Natural, Urban and Digital Commons
- Social Solidarity Economy, Cooperativism, and Fair Trade
- Ethical and Solidarity Finances
Training and Research organisations also responded to the call, and a cross-cutting axis on transformative Public Policies – with a participatory co-construction vision – was also proposed.
WHEN? WHAT STEPS?
We don’t want a show-room event that brings experts from all over the world, without continuity or impact; we have committed to turning the process of convergence, the construction of alliances and common actions into the goal itself: this will be (and needs to be) a two-year process that will be echoed in events around the world, and will include two meetings in Barcelona
- Spring 2019: First convergence meeting
We will meet for 3 days with representatives of the main networks and social movements, as well as academic groups and members of municipalities, among others. This work meeting will set up the dynamics that can develop new processes of convergence at local and international level. This meeting will also be a warm up for the World Social Forum and will allow us to set the objectives and prepare the international terrain. It will also help ensure that the big event of 2020 reaches its goals and that there will be subsequent continuity. We are counting on the participation of about 500 people from all 5 continents for this strategy building work meeting.
- Spring 2020: World Social Forum of Transformative Economies
Reaching beyond the limits of the Social Forums, we want this event to be a useful meeting that sets a global agenda, with collective commitments and concrete agreements, ensuring a continuity of the movement through the work done after a two-year convergence process. A whole week of talks, meetings and general assembly’s, but also with a rich cultural program and involvement of the local population and transformative initiatives of Barcelona and Catalonia. We expect more than 10.000 participants at this historical event.
Promoter Networks at this stage:
Intercontinental RIPESS, RIPESS Europe, XES (Catalan SE network), REAS (Spanish SE network)
Movements and networks that are interested in participating and/or becoming co-promoters, please contact: forum2020@ripess.org
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El Tejido Global de Alternativas
El mundo atraviesa una crisis sistémica sin precedentes creada por un régimen dominante que produce desigualdades, cada vez más agudas, nuevas formas de depravación, la destrucción de los ecosistemas, el cambio climático, la ruptura del tejido social y el despojo de todos los seres vivos con inmensa violencia.
En el curso de las últimas dos décadas ha aparecido una inmensa variedad de alternativas radicales al régimen dominante y sus raíces capitalistas, patriarcales, racistas, estatistas y antropocéntricas. Estas van desde iniciativas en sectores específicos como agricultura sostenible y holística, soberanía comunitaria de agua / energía / alimentación, la toma de los medios de producción por parte de los trabajadores, recursos comunes del conocimiento y paz y armonía interétnica, hasta transformaciones más holísticas, como las que intentan los zapatistas y los kurdos en Rojava, incluyendo la recuperación de antiguas tradiciones o la adopción de nuevas actitudes que restablecen el lugar de la humanidad dentro de la naturaleza y los valores de la dignidad humana y el respeto de la historia.
El Tejido Global de Alternativas es una iniciativa que busca crear redes de solidaridad y alianzas estratégicas entre todas estas alternativas a nivel local, regional y global. Se inicia en la interacción local entre alternativas, para gradualmente organizar formas de acuerdo a escala regional, nacional y global, a través de estructuras diversas y ligeras, definidas en cada espacio, horizontales, democráticas, inclusivas y no centralizadas, utilizando diversos idiomas locales y otras maneras de comunicarse. La iniciativa no tiene estructura central ni mecanismos de control. Se difunde paso a paso como un conjunto complejo de tejidos en constante expansión, construidos por redes comunitarias o colectivos ya existentes, organizados como alternativas al régimen dominante, cuando cada uno de ellos se entrelaza de forma autónoma con otras redes comunes.
El Tejido Global organiza mecanismos de interacción entre esas estructuras regionales y nacionales y con las sociedades, en diversos idiomas y diferentes medios, promoviendo periódicamente encuentros regionales, nacionales y mundiales, cuando las condiciones lo permiten, así como vínculos sinérgicos con otras organizaciones como el Foro Social Mundial.
Esta iniciativa trata de crear espacios de colaboración e intercambio entre alternativas para aprender unxs de otrxs, desafiarse críticamente, ofrecerse una solidaridad activa cuando sea necesario, entretejer iniciativas en acciones comunes, darles visibilidad para inspirar a otras personas a crear sus propias iniciativas más allá de los caminos existentes oara fortalecer las alternativas donde quiera que estén, hasta que una masa crítica de alternativas pueda crear las condiciones para los cambios sistémicos radicales que necesitamos.
Un pequeño grupo de activistas de varios países puso en marcha la iniciativa, que generará sus propias estructuras al arraigarse en diversas partes del mundo, aunque el grupo inicial se mantendrá mientras sea necesaria. Cuenta con los patrocinadores de la iniciativa, que suscriben este documento, y tratará de enlazarse con otras iniciativas semejantes. Personas interesadas en seguir la evolución de la iniciativa o involucrarse más pueden enviar un correo electrónico a:
Si desea obtener más información sobre el Tejido Global de Alternativas o involucrarse más, envíe un correo electrónico a: globaltapestryofalternatives@riseup.net
