Interview with Jason Nardi, RIPESS Intercontinental Coordinator, \nabout the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies (WSFTE) that \nstarts this week in Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by Gabriel Boichat, RIPESS.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first meeting of the World Social Forum of Transformative \nEconomies (WSFTE 2020) will be held in Barcelona from 5th to 7th April. \nThis will allow us to establish the basis of the process that will take \nus until May 2020, when the main meeting will be held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RIPESS, as the International Network for the Promotion of Social \nSolidarity Economy, is one of the three networks promoting this process,\n together with the Network of Alternative and Solidarity Economy \nNetworks of Spain (REAS) and the Catalan Network of Solidarity Economy \n(XES).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We interviewed Jason Nardi, Coordinator of RIPESS Intercontinental, \nto ask him why RIPESS decided to promote the WSFTE 2020, the objectives \npursued and what opportunities present themselves for RIPESS to \nparticipate in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is RIPESS one of the promoters of the WSFTE 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n RIPESS is a network made up of various networks, platforms, campaigns\n and very heterogeneous initiatives from all around the world. The \ndifferent countries and continents all have experiences that identify as\n Social Solidarity Economy (SSE). Some are more focused on the community\n aspect, others on the business side of local and cooperative \ndevelopment, while others are oriented towards caring for people, \ndefending rights and nature, and how we can rethink the economy to \npreserve the environment and habitat and promote a more dignified and \nfreer life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why RIPESS, as a coordinating structure is open to the \ndifferent ways of interpreting another economy, to meeting and working \ntogether with other visions and other alternative movements to the \ndominant neoliberal market economy, that is the opposite of all the \nvalues we represent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have seen how many times there are not only common struggles, but \ncomplementarities and possibilities to cooperate to build a stronger \nvoice that can multiply and be recognized as a plural voice of citizens \ntrying to build another society in different spaces of dialogue with \nother movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the starting point of the WSFTE 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a need to move to another level. Not necessarily to build \nthe economic growth of solidarity economy activities, although this can \nalso be the case, but rather an intellectual growth, a growth of \nexperience, a growth in our capacity to influence society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, a forum like this is an attempt to create an open space between \nthose who are practicing another economy. Not just imagining, not just \ntheorizing. It is not a meeting of heterodox economists, but between \nnetworks and experiences that are practicing another economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is a process like the WSFTE 2020 necessary for movements that create a different economy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For RIPESS, the idea of convergence has been the basis of our \nstrategic approach in recent years. RIPESS is a daughter of the \nconvergence of social movements, such as the World Social Forum or other\n spaces between movements that fight for food sovereignty at the United \nNations and among the different ways of valuing traditions and social \ninnovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are not many of these global spaces to share struggles and \nproposals, campaigns and solutions. And it is not easy to organize them \nbecause each initiative, each network, each organization has its \nstructure, its own culture, its approach to participation, and \nsometimes, if a space is not perceived as open and welcoming, people do \nnot participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what happened to the World Social Forum, which began as a \nreal space for sharing global struggles between very local movements \nwith a strong political focus. However, due to the lack of capacity to \norganize these spaces, it has become a space that is neither a movement \nnor a real place of convergence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was missing then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a lack of a more specific approach that reached beyond \nrecognizing that we have shared global problems. We are already building\n solutions we can mutualize using an open source community approach, and\n we have to work to overcome the existing difficulties in organizing \nthese spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I see RIPESS as an agent provocateur<\/em>. We can see \nmore and more different sectors that identify with SSE in the networks \nthat we are involved with around the world. This is not because our SSE \nprinciples have changed or expanded, but because they are the producers \nand, above all, consumers who are increasingly aware of the \ninterconnection between the different levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WSFTE 2020 is therefore a very important opportunity to practice \nalternative networking, business, community and the care for people and \nplanet that characterise SSE. We believe that this approach to \nnetworking and convergence can be transferred to other spaces and this \nis our contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can different worldviews be integrated into SSE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that we must allow ourselves to be open and positive in our\n attitude to the innovations that have grown enormously in various parts\n of the world in recent years. The proposals from feminist economies, \nfor example that are not just a demand for gender justice, but a \ndifferent worldview of how to organize society, work, care, the \nrelationship between people, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This needs to be integrated into and become part of a vision of SSE, \nnot only because it is a principle, a fundamental right, but also \nbecause it is part of the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something similar happens with indigenous visions of how to organize a\n resilient economy, respectful of mother earth and its sacredness, which\n although not religious in the Western sense of the term, is understood \nas a cosmovision. This broader and more global vision is a very \nimportant contribution to all the initiatives that we promote every day \nthrough cooperatives of people who work together in a horizontal \napproach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WSFTE 2020 is holding this first big event this week in Barcelona. What is going to happen from now on? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Forum is part of the more general process of the WSF: social \nmovements are the basis of transformation and also because we do not \nwant to create a new network of networks or a new political movement \u2013 \nwhich does not mean that we do not include a political approach in our \nwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal is therefore to create a space that allows a strategic \nexchange of co-construction with a process that has a long-term vision. \nAnd the Forum is a moment in time of this process; it will be built with\n the contributions of many, and with some clear guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what is the purpose?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The main focus here is convergence. Why convergence? To define is the\n minimum common denominator multiplier that will allows us to build a \ncommon action agenda, as defined by Carlos Askunze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this process really works, as we hope it will, in 2020, after a \nyear of virtual interaction at international level and of local or \ntranslocal convergence, we aim to formulate a proposal that will be \nvalidated during the Forum, It will be a kind of political programme \ncreated by a movement of movements, a plural movement. This is the real \naim of this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does RIPESS aim to participate in the Forum and the process? How will it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We will be present to contribute, but above all to enjoy meeting \nother organisations that can contribute to our work on issues to which \nwe are already committed, such as gender, local and international public\n policies, the media, and how to localise the Sustainable Development \nGoals (SDG), among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, we will try to provide a specific perspective on \nthe reorganization of economic activities and services and the value \nchain. If we really want to transform the economy, we not only have to \nproduce differently, more ecologically, with emphasis on more human \nrights, we also have to rethink the relationship between production and\n consumption, and how the distribution of wealth can be transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This implies rethinking public and public-community systems. For \nexample, what formula can we apply where there are services that have \nbeen privatized, bearing in mind that we do not want them to be \ncompletely controlled by the State either. Or how we can economically \nre-imagine international trade, migrations or relations between \ncommunities that are not in the same bioregion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that this is part of the RIPESS Global Vision and we can \ntherefore contribute our ideas and formulas from the approach of a \nsolidarity economy of liberation. Euclides Mance defends the idea that, \ncontrary to what is happening today where the economy is a modality of \ncontrol and submission, the economy can still be a means of liberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the WSFTE 2020 is also an opportunity for RIPESS to renew \nitself, to rethink itself, to come into contact with new realities, with\n organizations and new territories. This is therefore a great \nopportunity to discover, to contribute and to become known as network \nthat promotes a movement for another economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview with Jason Nardi, RIPESS Intercontinental Coordinator, about the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies (WSFTE) that starts this week in Barcelona. Written by Gabriel Boichat, RIPESS. The first meeting of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7021,"featured_media":4989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[948,1655,1342,1378,1587],"class_list":["post-4988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-barcelona-2","tag-nl-0519-en","tag-transformative-economies","tag-world-social-forum-of-transformative-economies","tag-wsfte","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.eu.ripess.rio20.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}