By Jason Nardi, based on the WSFTE official communiqué of the 09 December.
After 3 years of building the convergence process that gave life to the WSFTE, the sense of urgency for a comprehensive transformation of the socio-economic system that moved us as a network to expand our alliances, commitments and actions towards an economy for life and that led RIPESS Europe and the entire RIPESS network to invest in it, is even stronger as we reach a first milestone at the end of this year. Hundreds of meetings were held around the world and the framework of “transformative economies” has been recognised both institutionally and by many movements. Now we have to think about the future, strengthening the new alliances and hoping that the seeds that have been planted will start to grow.
The World Social Forum for Transformative Economies 2020 has come to an end, but the process continues and we continue to work on building the Transformative Economies Agenda and on our next steps towards the World Social Forum, which will take place online from 25-29 January 2021 (wsf2021.org).
These have been months in which we have experienced complex and contradictory events, expressed in the influence of a virus capable of altering the life of the population on a planetary scale. With the pandemic, structural injustices and inequalities have been laid bare, exacerbated by the predominance of neo-liberal agendas of unprotection and commodification of life, health, education, and the production of basic goods and
services. As in other crises, but in unprecedented proportions, households – converted into workplaces, education, comprehensive care – and women’s work have absorbed, with enormous human costs, all the impacts of this situation.
On the other hand, the flow of production, services, relationships generated by transformative economies around the world has shown its capacity to respond in extreme conditions. Basic food, inputs and health care, among others, have been provided from these environments. Social, collective, community, and neighborhood
initiatives, in combination with public policies and resources in some cases, have allowed life to be sustained. The proximity of transformative economies to essential goods and services, to the economic and social fabric that preserves and reproduces life, has become evident.
At the same time, the deployment and threat of corporate formulas for managing crises is present. More concentration of great fortunes, dispute over private and commercial modalities of treatment of the pandemic, the onslaught of speculative financial capital, expansion of ‘surveillance capitalism’ in a world that is confined and dependent on internet connection.
A scenario of uncertainty in the face of which the transformative economies confirm today the ways out.
That is why, from the FSMET we continue and will continue to bet on the defense of life and we have begun to outline an agenda that constitutes a pact, an alliance of the Transformative Economies of the world. This Agenda, which is already available in the Virtual Forum of the FSMET, is co-constructed around 4 dimensions of transformation:
- Transforming Power Relations and Flows
- Transforming the Economy and Finance
- Transforming Knowledge and Culture
- Transforming the Relationship with Nature and Ecosystems
The process of co-construction of the Agenda will be open until December 31 and it is already possible to make contributions about elements to be included in the agenda HERE – just register and select “new proposal”-. We are not going to wait for an indefinite future, but we will bet on continuing to build
societies that are worthwhile. We have understood that life without shared spaces is not true life, we understood that a systemic, political, economic, environmental and cultural alternative is possible.
More information here: forum.transformadora.org / video.transformadora.org
Contact: hola@transformadora.org
