[Nick Dearden, June 3, 2019, Red Pepper] “I’ve travelled 24 hours, from Manila to Rio, to be here, yet politically I feel I haven’t left home.” Walden Bello, leading light of the ‘anti-globalisation movement’ and former Filipino congressman reflected on the rise of authoritarian right-wing ‘strong men’ from the Philippines to Brazil. I joined him in Brazil to assess what has changed in the 20 … Continue reading Trumpism is capitalism’s Plan B
Systemic Alternatives, May 2019 [Español, Français] An important symposium took place in Itaipava (Brazil),7-9 April 2019[1]. Over 50 participants came out of the marathon to analyse new and persisting trends in the global situation, build and deepen relationships, strengthen alternatives for radical systemic change, and advance strategic thinking on the creation of alternatives. What was remarkable was the mix of resistance, resilience, hope and creativity, expressed … Continue reading Social Movements: Resisting, Defending the Rights of Peoples and the Planet, Reinventing the World
[Cameron La Follette/AAG/6 de marzo del 2019] Rights of Nature is a short-hand term for a form of ecological governance that both provides for and prioritizes Nature’s right to flourish. It also provides for various subsidiary rights, such as the right to restoration, the right to its natural processes, and the right to ecosystem functioning without interference. The term “Rights of Nature” gives the impression … Continue reading Rights of Nature: The New Paradigm
Par Pablo Solón La prémisse qui sous-tend les alternatives systémiques est que les crises environnementales, économiques, sociales, géopolitiques, institutionnelles et civilisationnelles forment un tout. Elles sont interdépendantes et se nourrissent les unes les autres. Il est donc impossible de résoudre l’une de ces crises sans aborder les autres de manière complémentaire. Les stratégies unidimensionnelles sont incapables de résoudre les crises systémiques et peuvent même, à … Continue reading Que sont les alternatives systémiques ?
By Pablo Solón [Versión en español] The premise of systemic alternatives is that the environmental, economic, social, geopolitical, institutional and civilizational crises are part of a whole, are interrelated and feed into one another. Therefore, it is impossible to resolve one of these crises without addressing the others in a complementary manner. One-dimensional strategies are incapable of solving systemic crises and, on the contrary, can … Continue reading What are systemic alternatives?
[Edgardo Lander/Truthout/16 de marzo del 2019] For almost two months now, Venezuela has been caught in a tense stand-off between the incumbent government of Nicolás Maduro and the US-backed right-wing opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself president in January and who has since been trying to force Maduro from office with the active support of the Trump administration and various right-wing regional leaders. Over … Continue reading Preventing Civil War and US Intervention in Venezuela
[John Vidal/HUFFPOST/15 de marzo del 2019] A three-year UN-backed study from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has grim implications for the future of humanity. Nature is in freefall and the planet’s support systems are so stretched that we face widespread species extinctions and mass human migration unless urgent action is taken. That’s the warning hundreds of scientists are preparing to give, … Continue reading The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change
[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
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
[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
[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
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
[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
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?
[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?
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
[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
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
[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
[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
