NEWSLETTER - April 2020
Inter-connect SSE in Europe
www.ripess.eu
info@ripess.eu

Our April newsletter will be entirely devoted to the Coronavirus crisis. This is not to be redundant on what the media are reporting on: the number of people infected, the number of deaths, the state of the stocks of masks and respirators, etc. All information undoubtedly useful but whose effect on the population is anxiety-provoking. In this newsletter we have chosen to collect the initiatives that are emerging in European countries and in the world to face in solidarity the difficulties generated in daily life [link to our page Solidarity and pandemic crisis - France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Poland, International]. Some initiatives come from public authorities, such as the European answer here. We are also publishing texts for reflection on the post-epidemic period in order to drastically renew the economic model that many of us consider unsuitable for the advent of a society compatible with the well-being of humanity.

This period places under the microscope the negligence of a system that endangers the lives of the most fragile people and places the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of personnel exposed without protection, and subjected to a lack of means and a pace of work that is incompatible with the serenity required in dealing with the sick and bereaved families. It is a glaring example of the inequalities resulting from the unfairness of the rewards allocated to those who contribute to the smooth running of a society and the neglect of a system that considers those who do not have access to jobs to be useless by putting them both at risk of death.

We are sad to inform you that, as for many other events being organised in this period, the World Social Forum on Transforming Economies (WSFTE) that was scheduled to be celebrated from 25 to 28 June 2020 in Barcelona, will not take place due to the current pandemic crisis generated by the COVID-19.

The WSFTE aims to be a process that is situated within the international agenda and where the different transformative economy movements that seek to put change the economic system putting people and the environment at the centre of their action, find a space to converge and collaborate.

Since its beginning, it has been articulated as a two-year process with two fundamental milestones: a preparatory meeting held in April 2019 and the celebration of the Forum in 2020, both in Barcelona. The Coordinating Committee of the WSFTE is made up of 25 other international networks - including RIPESS, which has been the convening organisation since the beginning.

Although the Forum will not take place as a physical event, we are currently working to see options for the continuity of this process, as we believe that transformative economies must continue to generate confluences and build a common agenda of proposals to move towards a new economic paradigm, which is even more necessary at this time of multiple crises.

We invite you to contribute with ideas and proposals for the future of the WSFTE by participating in this space:

Dear all,

These are very problematic times. The Covid 19 crisis has created a totally new situation: a threat of pandemic that everyone, after possibly doubting its reality, is forced to take seriously. Epidemiological issues are not new (HIV, mad cow disease, SARS, Ebola, Zika, H1N1), not to mention the major pandemics such as cholera, smallpox and tuberculosis, which killed several million people before medicine found the means to treat and immunize populations. What is undoubtedly changing is the realisation that our lifestyles are in essence vectors of pandemics and first and foremost the flow of people and goods. But this has to be linked to the possible failures of health systems that are highly dependent on components manufactured abroad but above all very weakened in their organisations by the attacks on public systems due to the ideology of “cost cutting”.

It would be indecent to welcome a demonstration to the advantage of what we have been advocating for a very long time, namely the relocation of survival economies: food, health, energy, education. Yet this crisis calls into question globalized systems while endangering local structures that were resisting the hegemony of the major groups. The logics are questionable to say the least: resorting to mass distribution for supplies and banning local shops when the latter are better able to regulate access by imposing a limited number of people at the same time. The result is likely to be catastrophic: small producers, bookshops, performing arts venues, small rural or neighbourhood cinemas, self-employed workers, etc., to the benefit, alas, of mass distribution which benefit fully from the confinement of consumers. 

In the face of this situation, solidarity is the essential response. Almost everywhere, people are organizing to save what can be saved: solidarity grocery stores, group purchases, conversion of stocks in deserted restaurants to make solidarity meals, support for caregivers, platforms for listening to isolated people, etc.

By Josette Combes

RIPESS EUROPE - Solidarity Economy Europe asbl 
1, Rue de Moulin - Esch / Alzette, L-4251 Luxembourg 
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