The Other World already exists. It is time to join forces and build an Inclusive World Agenda!

 

As announced in the World Social Forum of Salvador de Bahia (read March 2018 article), we have committed to starting a process of convergence, between all initiatives, movements and ways of understanding the economy that share the common goal of transforming the existing economic system, from local to international levels.

Some of these processes of convergence have already been taking place for a long time, locally and internationally; we now need to bring our strength, the common solutions and the existing practices together to build the inclusive agenda and jointly face today’s main challenges.

On June 5th, we launched this two years’ process with a first local meeting in Barcelona. The aim was to ensure that the dynamics were solidly anchored from the outset. The participants called were of different movements, grouped as follow, for the moment:

  • Feminist and Gender perspective Economies
  • Agroecological and the Food Sovereignty
  • Natural, Urban and Digital Commons
  • Social Solidarity Economy, Cooperativism, and Fair Trade
  • Ethical and Solidarity Finances

Training and Research organisations also responded to the call, and a cross-cutting axis on transformative Public Policies – with a participatory co-construction vision – was also proposed.

 

It is now essential to ensure that the construction process reflects the proposals, challenges and opportunities of all continents and close movements and networks:

We will soon launch a First International call for participation, inviting all networks, movements and initiatives that provide transformative answers, to express their interest to participate

It is the moment to get on board, to steer the process and be part in this world meeting project, before we call for a larger participation.

Different committees will facilitate the co-definition of the contents by various networks and movements and will ensure the articulation between local and global levels.

 

WHEN? WHAT STEPS?

We don’t want a show-room event that brings experts from all over the world, without continuity or impact; we have committed to turning the process of convergence, the construction of alliances and common actions into the goal itself: this will be (and needs to be) a two-year process that will be echoed in events around the world, and will include two meetings in Barcelona: a world capital of transformative economies.

  • Spring 2019: First convergence meeting

We will meet for 3 days with representatives of the main networks and social movements of the five above mentioned different thematic areas, as well as academic research groups and members of municipalities, among others. This work meeting will set up the dynamics that can develop new processes of convergence at local and international level. This meeting will be a warm up for the World Social Forum and will allow us to set the objectives and prepare the international terrain. It will also help ensure that the big event of 2020 reaches its goals and that there will be subsequent continuity.

We are counting on the participation of about 500 people from all 5 continents for this strategy building work meeting.

  • Spring 2020: World Social Forum of Transformative Economies

Reaching beyond the limits of the Thematic Social Forums, we want this event to be a useful meeting that sets a global agenda, with collective commitments and concrete agreements, ensuring a continuity of the movement through the work done after a two-year convergence process. A whole week of talks, meetings and general assembly’s, but also with a rich cultural program and involvement of the local population and transformative initiatives of Barcelona and Catalonia.

We expect more than 10.000 participants at this historical event.

 

Promoter Networks and Organizations at this stage:

Intercontinental RIPESS, RIPESS Europe, XES (Catalan SE network), REAS (Spanish SE network)

 

If you’re interested in participating and becoming co-promoters, please contact: forum2020@ripess.org