Category: English

Alternatives, English

Capitalism is destroying the Earth. We need a new human right for future generations

[George Monbiot/The Guardian/15 de marzo del 2019] The children on climate strike are right: their lives should not be sacrificed to satisfy our greed The young people taking to the streetsfor the climate strike are right: their future is being stolen. The economy is an environmental pyramid scheme, dumping its liabilities on the young and the unborn. Its current growth depends on intergenerational theft. At … Continue reading Capitalism is destroying the Earth. We need a new human right for future generations

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Alternatives, Analysis, English, Events

Systemic Alternatives Symposium: Addressing the hard questions

We are at a critical moment and choices and actions we take now will determine if we contribute further to the various crises threatening our planet and people, or if we actively join those who would face the different crises and work together to dismantle the system of root causes of these crises and in its place, push forward both existing and new systemic alternatives. … Continue reading Systemic Alternatives Symposium: Addressing the hard questions

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Analysis, English

The beginning of a social “Stalingrad” in Europe: The Yellow Vests against the totalitarian Financial Empire

[Dimitris Konstantakopoulos/Defend Democracy Press/ 06 de marzo del 2019] Back to the Future! Elated, with the single-mindedness of the “We” of the many, suddenly aware of its power, the crowd pours out of the narrow street in which it was crammed, to the spacious Place de la Republique while singing the Marseillaise. It is by far the most popular song among Yellow Vests. The second … Continue reading The beginning of a social “Stalingrad” in Europe: The Yellow Vests against the totalitarian Financial Empire

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Alternatives, English

Revolution returns to Europe. How and why

[Dimitris Konstantakopoulos/Defend Democracy Press/06 de enero del 2019] “Your heart is too small to hold this many people” lyrics to a song of the Yellow Vests addressed to Macron “I am not a seed of Chance I, the moulder of the new life I am a child of Need and a mature child of Wrath… …Listen to the voice of the winds For thousands of … Continue reading Revolution returns to Europe. How and why

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Alternatives, Commons, Deglobalization, Degrowth, English, Graphs & Images, Mother Earth Rights, Vivir Bien

Alternatives Systémiques: Infographies

Nous vivons des crises systémiques. Les crises économique, sociale, environnementale et politique font partie d’un tout. Il est impossible de résoudre l’une de ces crises sans s’attaquer aux autres. Les stratégies unidimensionnelles sont incapables de résoudre ces crises systémiques et au contraire parfois les aggravent. Pour construire des alternatives systémiques, il est nécessaire de forger des stratégies et des propositions qui, à différents niveaux, confrontent … Continue reading Alternatives Systémiques: Infographies

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Analysis, English

Degrowth as a concrete utopia

[Riccardo Mastini/ Open Democracy/07 de noviembre de 2018] The emergence of interest in degrowth can be traced back to the 1st International Degrowth Conference organized in Paris in 2008. At this conference, degrowth was defined as a “voluntary transition towards a just, participatory, and ecologically sustainable society,” so challenging the dogma of economic growth. Another five international conferences were organized between 2010 and 2018, with … Continue reading Degrowth as a concrete utopia

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Analysis, English, Social Movements, Walden Bello

Brazil: Can the Workers’ Party surmount its current crisis?

Walden Bello & Cecilia Lero, 04 November 2015, Published at Rappler The 13-year-reign of the Workers’ Party (PT) in Brazil hangs by a thread. More accurately, it hangs on 342 members of the lower legislative house, the number of votes needed to accept any one of a seemingly constant stream of impeachment requests, and begin the trial of President Dilma Rousseff.An impeachment trial would immediately suspend President Rousseff … Continue reading Brazil: Can the Workers’ Party surmount its current crisis?

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Analysis, English, Nature

Do We Really Have the Time and the Tools to Fix Climate Change?

[Rachel Smolker/Truthout/ 11 de octubre de 2018/ ] As part of the Paris agreement, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was asked “to provide a special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 [degrees Celsius] above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways.” That report was released on October 8. The report’s “Headline Statements” are divided into four … Continue reading Do We Really Have the Time and the Tools to Fix Climate Change?

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Alternatives, Analysis, English, Feminism, Social Movements, Various

Neither victims nor entrepreneurs: The feminist mobilizations against the W20 in Buenos Aires

Marta Musić  While the women’s affinity group of the G20, the Women’s 20 (W20), met from 1-3 October in Buenos Aires with the aim of promoting women’s economic empowerment, the Feminist Forum against the G20 organized in parallel a series of actions to denounce the neoliberal perspective of the W20 while proposing alternatives based on radical, popular feminisms. “Not in our name”. This was the … Continue reading Neither victims nor entrepreneurs: The feminist mobilizations against the W20 in Buenos Aires

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English, Events

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE RIGHTS OF NATURE 10 YEARS OF RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS OF NATURE IN THE ECUADORIAN CONSTITUTION

[Equipo de la Alianza Global por los Derechos de la Naturaleza/08 de Octubre de 2018] INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE RIGHTS OF NATURE 10 YEARS OF RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS OF NATURE IN THE ECUADORIAN CONSTITUTION QUITO-ECUADOR 27-28th of September, 2018 QUITO, Ecuador – On September 27th and 28th, 2018, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN), together with its members and allies held the … Continue reading INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE RIGHTS OF NATURE 10 YEARS OF RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS OF NATURE IN THE ECUADORIAN CONSTITUTION

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Alternatives, Commons, Deglobalization, Degrowth, English, Feminism, Graphs & Images, Mother Earth Rights, Vivir Bien

Infographics: Systemic Alternatives

We live systemic crises. The economic, social, environmental and political crises are part of a whole. It is impossible to solve one of these crises without addressing the others. One-dimensional strategies are unable to solve these systemic crises and on the contrary sometimes aggravate it. To build systemic alternatives it is necessary to forge strategies and proposals that at different levels confront capitalism, extractivism, productivism, … Continue reading Infographics: Systemic Alternatives

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Alternatives, Economy..., English

Why Growth Can’t Be Green

[JASON HICKEL/ FP/ 12 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2018] New data proves you can support capitalism or the environment—but it’s hard to do both. Warnings about ecological breakdown have become ubiquitous. Over the past few years, major newspapers, including the Guardian and the New York Times, have carried alarming stories on soil depletion, deforestation, and the collapse of fish stocks and insect populations. These crises are … Continue reading Why Growth Can’t Be Green

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Analysis, Economic, English

A decade after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse, finance remains a major risk

[SUSAN GEORGE/ NEWSTATESMAN/ 14 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2018] It is clear that change will only come from below. It is ten years since the fall of Lehman Brothers and the start of the financial crash; the greatest European crisis since the Second World War. Politicians from all sides, but especially the centre and centre-left of European politics, have written many serious texts and spoken many … Continue reading A decade after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse, finance remains a major risk

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Analysis, Economic, English, Nature

Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise

[NAFEEZ AHMED/ MOTHERBOARD/27 DE AGOSTO DE 2018) A climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change. Capitalism as we know it is over. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. The main reason? We’re transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation … Continue reading Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise

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English

Movements around systemic alternatives, for systemic change

[RUBY VAN DER WEKKEN/COMMONS.FI/ 25 DE JUNIO DEL 2018] This writing was originally published in Peruste Lehti,  (in Finnish) The European Commons Assembly represents new movement building around the commons. However, rather then to look at this and other movements as standing alone, another perspective points to the actual complementarity of different envisionings for systemic change as the commons, degrowth, and feminism and to the … Continue reading Movements around systemic alternatives, for systemic change

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Analysis, English, Global

Nicaragua: Where Is The Rebellion Going?

[NEW POLITICS/ DAN LA BOTZ/ 6 DE JUNIO DE 2018] The popular rebellion against the dictatorial government of Daniel Ortega, four-time president of Nicaragua, has been going on now for more than a month. And the Ortega government has continued its violent repression. In the last 47 days, it is reported that 104 people have been killed, while some have been arrested or tortured and … Continue reading Nicaragua: Where Is The Rebellion Going?

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Analysis, Economic, English, Mary Louise Malig

The whole of Mercosur in exchange for a plate of beef

By: Mary Louise Malig, Global Forest Coalition After 20 years of negotiations, the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is entering a crucial moment where it can come to a tragic end. To paraphrase a well-known saying, Mercosur is offering its kingdom for a plate of lentils, or in this case, its sovereignty for a plate of beef. Free trade agreements are not only about commodity … Continue reading The whole of Mercosur in exchange for a plate of beef

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Analysis, Ecosocialism, English, Pablo Solón, Vivir Bien

Roundtable on Vivir Bien

During January 2018 the Great Transition Initiative organized a discussion around an  essay prepared by Pablo Solón, “Vivir Bien: Old Cosmovisions and New Paradigms.” Solón introduced Vivir Bien (also known as Buen Vivir), the disputes around this concept, the contradictions in its implementation by the government of Bolivia and how Vivir Bien can contribute and needs the complementarity with other visions. Below you will find the … Continue reading Roundtable on Vivir Bien

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Alternatives, English, Vivir Bien

Roundtable on Vivir Bien An exchange on Vivir Bien: Old Cosmovisions and New Paradigms

[NNIMMO BASSEY / CREAT TRANSITION INITIATIVE/FEBRERO DE 2018] Nnimmo Bassey is the director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), an environmental think tank based in Nigeria. He chaired Friends of the Earth International from 2008 to 2012. His books include To Cook a Continent – Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa and Oil Politics – Echoes of Ecological War. The pathway of … Continue reading Roundtable on Vivir Bien An exchange on Vivir Bien: Old Cosmovisions and New Paradigms

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Analysis, English, Vivir Bien

Author’s Response: Roundtable on Vivir Bien / Pablo Solón

[GREAT TRANSITION INITIATIVE/ FEBRERO DEL 2018] An exchange on Vivir Bien: Old Cosmovisions and New Paradigms Pablo Solón, a Bolivian social and environmental activist, is the director of Fundación Solón and former executive director of Focus on the Global South. He served as the Bolivian Extraordinary Ambassador for Integration and Trade (2006–2008) and Ambassador to the United Nations (2009–2011) before parting ways with President Evo … Continue reading Author’s Response: Roundtable on Vivir Bien / Pablo Solón

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