Article by Andrea Rodriguez, Project Manager Ripess Europe

Skills for the World Based on Solidarity and Mutual Care

Life on our planet today faces several interrelated crises as a result of prevailing social relations. Over the last decades, despite the intensive efforts of millions of people organized in emancipatory social movements, the negative trends have not been reversed. Inequalities between people are increasing, the climate crisis is worsening, biodiversity is disappearing, and authoritarianism and militarism are on the rise. All of this is moving us away from a world in which respect for life, freedom and diversity is a central value and a society in which everyone lives well. Late capitalism can only maintain its legitimacy by gaslighting people, fear-mongering and waging war against the development of utopian thinking. The liberal imagination has been captured by the mantra “There is no alternative” and a flood of dystopian stories. The progressivist vision of universal human development has been reduced to a self-serving stream of technological innovations that pose a real threat to the preservation of organic life. However, the search for real alternatives has not disappeared and in “hard times” it is becoming a necessity.

Among the successful strategies used by the emancipatory and anti-authoritarian movement since immemorial times has been prefigurative politics: the attempt to create real utopias or islands of positive deviance – as zones in which, already today, in the midst of an old, unjust and depressing world, a world of a convivial future, a world without harmful hierarchies, authoritarianism and oppression, is being created and enacted in everyday practice. The solidarity economy is part of this tradition. It is made up of a diverse range of organizations, initiatives and projects from all over the world working mostly from below to achieve radical democratic change (not only) of economic relations. It places the well-being of the whole biosphere above the desire for profit or the accumulation of power and wealth. The principles that guide it are derived from this goal. Among them is the struggle against all forms of oppression and fostering of racial and social justice, democratic organizing and decision-making, rejection of speciesism and respect for all life, mutual aid and care for self and others, mutual education and peer-to-peer learning, involvement in the activities of the movement, and cooperation with organizations and initiatives that are part of the movement.

Solidarity economy organizations and initiatives face a number of challenges as a result of the prevailing social relations. They work in a hostile environment shaped and regulated by the elitist ideology of (neo)liberalism and with people who have been socialized into it. The way to change the structural conditions is through organizing within the movement, and through individual organizations working together and building a supportive infrastructure. The way to break our toxic habits is through creating a new culture of cooperation, communication and mutual care within our organizations and within the movement. We wanted to use our experience to contribute to making it easier for solidarity economy actors to deal with the challenges mentioned above. Therefore, we have created sample Soft Skills Training programmes, which are essential for strengthening the whole solidarity economy movement, its individual organizations, but also the specific people involved in its development. We then tested the training in practice. We have incorporated the findings from the testing into our initial proposals and summarised them in the publication Soft Skills for a Better World. In addition, we created a special Training for Activists designed for people involved in organizing larger events where they meet, network and plan joint activities or share experiences of solidarity economy initiatives. We also tested it in practice and together with the participants of this training we prepared a Central European Solidarity Economy Forum in Budapest, Hungary. We have summarised the tips and insights from this process in another publication in the form of a handbook for organizers. Throughout our common work and also through cooperation with many activists, we have repeatedly realized that a cross-cutting theme and skill that we must always keep in mind is self-care within the context of collective care – caring for ourselves and for other people in the movement. It is extremely important in preventing burnout that greatly weakens our movement. But at the same time, we must always be aware that the soft skills we learn to use together should always be utilized to create a new culture and a safe environment for all, not new forms of hierarchies, exploitation and oppression. We believe that together we have succeeded in contributing to this goal.

You can download outputs from the project at the following address: https://www.socioeco.org/hati-SOS