The second edition of the learning and education GTA periodical is out! I would like to invite anyone interested in continuing to contribute on these topics to please reach out. Bea and I will be proposing a project of compiling and extending the pieces of the periodical so please watch this space :-) For now a lot of energy is going towards the 2nd Physical assembly which takes place in Indonesia next week. We will report back after the Assembly. Best Vasna ------- Forwarded Message ------- From: Global Tapestry of Alternatives <[email protected]> Date: On Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 at 1:35 AM Subject: [GTA] WEAVING ALTERNATIVES #19: A periodical of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives To: GTA Observers <[email protected]>
WEAVING ALTERNATIVES #19: A periodical of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives
LEARNING AND EDUCATION II
APRIL 2026
The contents of this periodical are also available online on [this webpage](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:index).
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:index
Dear Readers,
We are delighted to share with you the 19th edition of the[GTA](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/definitions#term-gta)Periodical. In this edition, we continue to engage with learning and education drawing from the work of the Learning and Education Thematic Group within the GTA.
This periodical comes out as we face the dismantling of global systems of human rights, governance and international law. These are taking place through violent geopolitical games that are destroying lives, livelihoods and lands from Cuba to Venezuela, Gaza to Iran and beyond. As we see the collapse of the Master’s house as Audre Lourde names it, the hypocrisy beneath the unequal integration of countries and communities into a racialized international order is being laid bare. Political struggles are being mobilized across localities, and learning and (political) education are core to these projects. We need to reimagine learning as inseparable from the work of liberation. Learning, in this sense, is not an institutional activity but anemancipatory practice,something that unfolds in the everyday, in relationships, in the ways communities sustain and transform themselves. As learners and teachers, I would like to believe that we are also groovetenders asWangũi wa Kamonjidescribes in her beautiful poem. As noted in the recent GTA webinar “[Learning as Freedom](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/events:2026_learning_in_freedom)“, this is what “weaving” seeks to do: connect diverse knowledges, practices and struggles into a living fabric of alternatives. The issue presents the key messages emerging from that encounter.
In this edition of the periodical which is the second to focus on learning and education, we offer a collection of pieces that speak to this topic.Chaitali Chaudharioffers a reflection on how initiatives such as AlternativesDecentres and Alternatives Courses emerging from the living landscape of Vikalp Sangam, a GTA weaver, are an effort to listen, connect and learn from grounded practices. Similarly approaching learning from praxis,Xochitl Levya Solanoreflects on the learning that moves and mobilises, inspired by her participation in the encounter of women from Abya Yala to Kurdistan at the conference organized by the Network Women Weaving the Future held in Bogotá, Colombia this year. Similarly, in his intervention,Carlos Tornelshares his learning from visiting the Yes to Yasuni movement and presents the Radical Pedagogy of Yasuní. He notes that the pedagogy of Yasuní begins by reversing the dominant question. It is not only about “how to exit extractivism,” but about what kind of world we want to sustain once the extractive frontier closes, and with what institutions, care, and economies we make it possible. Thinking beyond the human experience,Salvador Vásquez Banda and Beatriz von SaengerHernández propose the creation of the post-humanist research and experimentation assemblage,[remanso](https://sites.google.com/ensambleremanso.net/remanso-ensamblaje/inicio)a space to learn to relate in a different way, to learn with the non-human, unlearning the logics of domination. However it is not only from the grassroots and praxis that learning happens and in our last article,The Alternatives Projectwhich works within university education offers a dialogue on how transformative educational alternatives can be facilitated. Finally we are gifted by another poem on Generational reckonings byWangũi wa Kamonjireminding us all that we do not walk this path alone.
Whilst the pieces above focus on learning and education, these practices are inseparable from the wider work of world-building. From this issue we are introducing a section that captures the essence of some of the conversations and gatherings which you may have missed attending. GTA, in its own way, has been creating and engaging in spaces that weave together ideas, experiences, and practices. At its core is an effort to hold open a pluriversal political space in a time of deep uncertainty; to recover languages of dignity and struggle that have been buried, and to bring diverse practices of autonomy, care, territorial rootedness, and collective imagination into conversation without flattening their differences.
We leave this periodical with you as both reflection and invitation; as many within the GTA prepare to gather in Indonesia for the second in-person Assembly of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives from 11–18 April 2026. It is in such spaces that we continue to learn together, and to build, step by step, the worlds we know are possible. We invite you to walk with us.
In case, you would like to get this periodical directly into your inbox then join our[mailing list](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/contact)and keep an eye on the future[events](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/events:index). In solidarity,
Guest editor:Vasna Ramasar
Editorial team:Madhuresh Kumar, Beatriz von Sanger and Franco Augusto.
Periodical Articles
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:groovetenders
groovetenders
Wangui wa Kamnoji
“Imagine winning, this is your sacred task.”
My sacred task: to know the wound, so I can know it healed,
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:groovetenders)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:reimagining
Reimagining Learning Through Alternatives Decentres
Chaitali Chaudhari
We are in a moment where many of the assumptions that shaped our societies are beginning to come undone. Ecological limits are becoming impossible to ignore; inequalities are sharpening; democratic spaces are shrinking; and there is a growing sense that the ways we have organised our economies, institutions and knowledge systems are no longer tenable. These are not isolated disruptions but part of a deeper, structural crisis in how we have come to live and learn.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:reimagining)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:xochitlleyva
Lessons from Kurdistan to Abya Yala and vice versa. “The Twenty-First Century is the Century of Women…”
Xochitl Leyva Solano
This article is about what we learned from participating in the women's conference held in Bogotá, Colombia. Women's movements have been our school. There, we learn and unlearn collectively and together. This text begins by discussing the global context and then addresses what we did and why in these times of violence, horror, and war, but also of embodied and situated hope.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:xochitlleyva)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:yasuni
Yasunizing Territories (or the Radical Pedagogy of the Yasuní)
Carlos Tornel
From November 29 to December 5, I had the honor of accompanying a large delegation of organizations and experts to Yasuní National Park in Ecuador. The visit to Block 16 allowed us to confirm how, two years after the Popular Consultation in which this country voted Yes for Yasuní, and after a second consultation in 2025 that ratified the current Constitution with its plurinational character and its recognition of the rights of nature, the Ecuadorian government has deliberately ignored its obligation to halt oil extraction and to dismantle, repair, and provide redress to the territories affected in Block 43, known as Yasuní–ITT.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:yasuni)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:remanso
Evoking the non-human: the seminar as an ecotone for more-than-human learning
Beatriz von Saenger Hernández and Salvador Vásquez Banda
Our research and experimentation practice has focused on reading circles, in-person workshops, conference organization, dérives, and seminars; we have tried to reflect on the sensibilities that emerge in an (un)expected world, and that we evoke toward more-than-human worlds . The International Seminar on Post-Humanist Art and Research “Evoking the Non-Human” was a gesture that began as a pause and has become a territory of shared knowledge that preserves more-than-human archives. So far, we have launched two editions, one in 2024 and another in 2025, with the need to open up a time-space amid contemporary turbulence, in which 18 artists and researchers from six Latin American countries have shared concerns, affections, and resonances of relationships situated with the non-human in their territories. This essay is born out of that process.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:remanso)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:tap
Amid the Polycrisis, How can we Facilitate Educational Alternatives for Societal Transformation?
The Alternatives Project (TAP)
The coauthors of the present article are all members of The Alternatives Project (TAP). Founded in 2019, TAP is a diverse, transnational collective of progressive academics, union members, civil society activists, and social movement participants working on creating a global critical voice focused on education and societal transformation. We see societal transformation as an essential response to the global polycrisis manifested by the convergence of poverty, inequality, climate breakdown, pandemics, rampant violence, war, and democratic erosion, all driven by structures of capitalism, racism, patriarchy, ableism and militarism.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:tap)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:generationalreck
generational reckonings
Wangui wa Kamonji
let me step into the ruins of your dreams
alongside you,
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:generationalreck)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:eventintro_19
Event Reports
Taken together, GTA conversations, presentations and interventions in allied spaces reveal something central to its work: trying to hold open a pluriversal political space in a time of collapse, to recover languages of dignity and struggle that dominant systems have buried, and to bring scattered practices of autonomy, care, territorial rootedness, and collective dreaming into a shared conversation without flattening their differences.
[Full Editorial Introduction to the Event Reports Section available here ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:eventintro_19)
Solidarity and Wellbeing Economy in Conversation
Crisis surrounds us from all sides, climate breakdown, obscene inequality, deepening violence and exhaustion. In this context, to discuss solidarity, wellbeing and economy is more necessary than ever. So, on March 26, GTA Solidarity Economy Thematic Group and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance organised a conversation between the two concepts, starting with the simple question: are solidarity economy and wellbeing economy the same?
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:economyevent)
Learning in Freedom: Weaving Knowledge, Unlearning Power
Our minds and imaginations are shackled by dominant neo-liberal education systems reducing learning to skills, productivity, and market alignment. In response, for years, a different conversation has also been taking shape across movements and communities. One that shifts the question from what do we learn? to something far more fundamental: how do we learn, and with whom? The session “Learning in Freedom: Building a Tapestry of Radical Alternatives”, held as part of the Re-imagining Education Conference5.0, brought together practitioners, activists, and thinkers from across the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA) to explore precisely this terrain.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:learningevent)
Reclaiming Words, Reclaiming Worlds - The Dictionary of Radical Alternatives
In a moment marked not only by ecological collapse and political fragmentation, but by a deeper erosion of meaning itself, GTA’s Dictionary of Radical Alternatives launch event was an invitation to rethink the very language through which we understand the world, and to collectively reclaim the words that shape it.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:dictionaryevent)
Rethinking the world with Iván Illich and Gustavo Esteva
The webinar, organised by the Global Tapestry of Alternatives along with the Acervus Project and CEDI in Oaxaca, unfolded as both a commemorative and forward-looking space. Framed around the commemoration of Ivan Illich’s centenary, it brought together reflections on his work alongside Gustavo Esteva, also commemorating 90 years of his birth and situating both within contemporary crises and struggles.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:rethinkingevent)
https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:weavers19
Updates from our Weavers
The Global Tapestry of Alternatives is a “network of networks”. Each of those networks acts in different parts of the planet by identifying and connecting Alternatives. They are the Weavers. In the following section, our Weavers, the networks that currently weaves it, from India, South-East Asia, Colombia, and Mexico shares updates from their recent activities and actions.
[Full Weavers’ report available here->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:weavers19)
Vikalp Sangam (India)
Over the past few months, the Vikalp Sangam process has continued to move across regions and themes, bringing together diverse practices and reflections on alternatives. These are part of ongoing efforts to deepen conversations around well-being, justice, ecology, culture, and self-governance, while staying rooted in people’s lived realities.
Crianza Mutua México
At Crianza Mutua México, the past couple of months, especially February and March, have been a period of looking inward while also preparing ourselves for what lies ahead. We have been trying to better understand who we are as a collective and how we hold our work together. As part of this, we put together a detailed directory of all those who are part of this process; collectives, organisations, movements and networks. This itself became a collective exercise. A small group gathered the messages that each collective had written and requested images, while another group worked on bringing all of this into a visual form. What has emerged from this process are materials that we will carry with us to Indonesia for the Assembly in April.
MASSA
Over the past months, MASSA has been moving through a quieter phase in terms of collective planning, as preparations for the upcoming strategy meeting in Malaysia. At the same time, members continue to be engaged in field-based work across different territories, sustaining the grounded and relational processes that shape the network.
In parallel, UPCIDS Alternative Development is co-organizing theInternational Study Conference on Autonomous Social Science and Alternative Development, in collaboration with faculty members and scholars from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) University. The conference will take place in Bogor, Indonesia, from May 21 to 23, and is envisioned as a space to deepen dialogues around autonomous knowledge production and alternative development pathways.
Updates from our Endorsers
An[Endorser](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/:definitions#term-Endorser)is an organization, collective or thematic network that publicly expresses its support to the GTA process, and is aligned to its vision and values.Endorsersare invited by, or when self-invited, endorsed by, the Facilitation Team, and then approved by the Assembly.
[Learn more about Endorsers](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/endorsements:index)
May First Movement Technology
May First Movement Technology continues to deepen its work at a time when the politics of technology have become sharper and more urgent. For over two decades, May First has been building internet infrastructure rooted in collaboration, autonomy, and movement needs. Today, that work is taking on new significance as Big Tech companies are increasingly entangled in systems of surveillance, militarisation, and control.
[Keep reading ->](https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:19:mfmt)
Thank you for reading!
Global Tapestry of Alternatives [email protected]
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