Article by Josette Combes, co-president of MES France
This is the last editorial I will be writing before stepping down from my position as communications coordinator, which I have held for several years, first unofficially, before the structuring of a real dedicated team, and then subsequently. It has been a great pleasure for me to contribute to the work of RIPESS Europe, not only because I am an activist for the development of the solidarity economy as one of the solutions, if not the only one, to pull the world out of the senseless drift in which it finds itself, but also because during all these years I have met some wonderful and inspiring people. During the GA, which will take place from 19 to 21 September, we will have the pleasure of meeting again to reflect together on the values that unite us (we will be “refreshing” the RIPESS Europe charter) and on the alliance strategies that we need to consolidate or commit to in order to advance the solidarity economy in the collective imagination and in society’s structuring mechanisms.
The summer provided an opportunity to do just that. Here are the reports of these assemblies, whether it was the ecovillage assembly, the social movements assembly, or the Colombian assembly in which our counterparts from RIPESS LAC took part.
We are devoting an article to the problems encountered by opponents of mega-farming in France in connection with the dissolution of the “Earth Rising” movement, which was finally opposed by the French Council of State. This is just one example of the repression suffered by all those who physically demonstrate their refusal to waste resources that should be common property for the benefit of economic interests monopolised by big business.
At a time when we need to put a stop to the artificialization of land, the various forms of pollution of water, including the oceans, air and land, and the profligacy of useless objects, predation continues and even increases. This summer, the images of the planet burning are a terrifying sight on all the media, with images of mega-fires attacking the ‘paradises’ consumed by tourists: Rhodes, Corfu in Greece, Tenerife in the Canary archipelago, Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago with its capital destroyed, its 12,000 inhabitants, those who didn’t die in the flames becoming refugees from the interior, forcing tourists and campers to flee in swimming costumes, the flames licking their skin and the asphyxiating fumes burning their lungs; while Canadian forests suffer the same fate, spewing into the atmosphere the equivalent of a year’s worth of carbon emissions from Japan, a developed country with a fetish for commodities. (http://hypathie.blogspot.com/2023/08/la-planete-malade.html). COP after COP has failed to produce any significant results. Civil society has not finished protesting
And suffering. As I write, Morocco is counting the dead from the terrible earthquake that struck on the night of 8 to 9 September. We would like to express our sincere solidarity with all those affected by this tragedy. We think particularly to our friends of the University of Marrakech, hope that they are sains and saufs.
A new disaster has struck, this time in Libya, where the bursting of two barrages has devastated several towns and could claim up to 20,000 lives, according to the mayor of Derna (the worst affected area). These tragedies will increase the number of refugees seeking refuge in Europe, at the risk of provoking even more resistance from the local population.
Against this backdrop of pessimism, we could be delighted that UNTFSSE, the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Social and Solidarity Economy, is launching a series of training courses to raise awareness of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and how it can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. One cannot help but be impressed by the ambition of the objective: “an open online course that will enable UN Member States and intergovernmental bodies, UN entities, governments and regional organisations, policy-makers, universities and think tanks, development banks, civil society (NGOs, foundations, voluntary groups, etc.), the private sector and the media to learn more about the SSE and how it can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. ), the private sector and the media to familiarise themselves with the basic concepts and practices of the social solidarity economy (SSE) and its central role in promoting inclusive and sustainable development”. Will this finally get the ball rolling?
To conclude this post, I would like to remind you that RIPESS Europe, together with Socioeco, has begun to create online training modules via Moodle and, based on the wikipedia model, Solecopia, an interactive encyclopedia dedicated exclusively to the solidarity economy. We hope that our members will contribute to it by enriching it with their own approaches to the concepts.
That’s it, I’m going to devote myself to my own writing. I’m happy to be stepping away at a time when RIPESS Europe is doing well; these ten years have been a great adventure that has seen the network prosper and grow stronger. I’ll continue to follow its progress, particularly by reading the newsletter that Georgia and Maria from DOCK (Greece) have taken over. Thank you to them and thank you to Juliette, Jason, Andréa and Françoise with whom I’ve had so much pleasure working. Thank you for all the friendship that flowed and nourished our energies.
Good luck to you and your projects, and long live the solidarity economy.
