[PeDAGoG] [GTA] GTA's Newsletter #04 - May 2021

Tue May 4 19:01:45 CEST 2021

Dear all,
Here is the fourth issue of Global Tapestry of Alternatives newsletter
bringing in news and updates from around the world on transformative
alternatives and processes.
Take a look and share among your networks.

Best,
Shrishtee (On behalf of GTA core team)

GTA's Newsletter #04 - May 2021

*The contents of this newsletter are also available online in this webpage
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:04:index>.*

Editorial
Dear readers,

It is our pleasure to share Global Tapestry of Alternatives' third
newsletter with you. The Global Tapestry of Alternatives or GTA as a
process or a dialogue began in 2014 and was officially launched in the year
2019.

The Global Tapestry of Alternatives seeks to build bridges between networks
of Alternatives around the globe and promote the creation of new processes
of confluence. You can know more about the project, in our introductory
note.

This newsletter comes to you at times of immense uncertainties that pose
very serious challenges and have social, economic, political, cultural and
ecological implications for most of us. The attempt of this newsletter is
to bring to you the news, perspectives, thoughts, ideas, reflections, and
dialogues on alternatives to the current dominant regime. Importantly, what
can do they offer us as pathways towards just, equitable and ecologically
wise futures. It is a humble attempt to bring together the collective
envisioning of these pluriversal alternatives by creating a space for
sharing and dialoguing.

We intend to share this newsletter every two months to share perspectives,
news on activities being seeded through GTA, as well as
perspectives/news/thoughts/questions from tapestry weavers and endorsing
organisations and networks. We do not see it as a newsletter that is simply
a conglomeration of news/updates but rather as a process of knowing
each-others' work, engaging with ideas, facilitating collaborations and
initiating co-writing and co-learning processes. Yes, the objectives are
ambitious and that is why we need your support, your contributions and
engagement. We invite you to this sharing, reflecting, dialoguing, healing,
and envisioning space.

This newsletter features updates from our weavers in India (Vikalp Sangam),
Mexico (Crianza Mutua), and Colombia (Crianza Mutua), updates on GTA's
activities, community responses and perspectives in these times from our
endorsing networks- The African Earth Jurisprudence Collective, Global
Alliance for Rights of Nature, Global Ecovillage Network, and a fascinating
piece by eco-feminist Ariel Salleh.

This newsletter is compiled by: Shrishtee Bajpai, Anna Hedin, Upamanyu Das
and Franco Augusto.
News from GTA Webinars and online activities
  Weaving Systemic Alternatives from the Global South

*A conversation with the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, presented by EDGE
Founders Alliance <https://edgefunders.org/>*
May 11th 14:00- 15:30 UTC - Register now
<https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0WU9mM6sR5WfAtNGyq-RoQ>

As the world struggles to find ways out of multiple global crises
(ecological, climate, inequality, health), we need to heed myriad voices
emerging from Indigenous Peoples and other local rural and urban
communities. There are thousands of alternatives, grounded in specific
ecological and socio-economic contexts, and based on diverse worldviews and
ethics that are profoundly different from the currently dominant system.
These alternatives cover the full range of human concerns, including food,
water, health, education, livelihoods, governance, culture, justice, while
attempting to sustain all life on earth.

They are, however, often isolated and fragmented. There is a need to build
more bridges amongst them to enable cross-cultural and cross-sectoral
collaborations, mutual learning and critical engagement, collective
envisioning of possible futures, and a critical mass for macro-change. The
Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA) aims to be a non-hierarchical
process, seeking to weave together myriad networks of alternatives across
the world. Though formally initiated in 2019, it builds on much longer
experience of related work by its constituents.

The webinar will present this vision, illustrated by real-life experiences
from various parts of the world, and the kind of actions being undertaken
or proposed by GTA to achieve its objectives. The list of speakers from GTA
includes Arturo Escobar (Colombia), Marta Music (ex-Yugoslavia); Alejandra
Jiménez Ramírez (Mexico); Ashish Kothari (India) and Vasna Ramasar (South
Africa).

Feminist Alternatives to the "New Normality"

Inspired by the work of community support networks of marginalized groups
located on the peripheries of institutional power, the aim of this webinar
is to explore feminist alternatives to the new normality which go beyond
the State and policy recommendations. This activity will bring together
members of different feminist movements, organizations and collectives from
the “Global South” to continue amplifying grassroots feminist alternatives
that emerged during the pandemic and collectively explore how to build and
consolidate feminist economies and societies centered around care and the
sustainability of life.

This webinar took place on past March 13th. The video recording is
available online in our website
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/webinars:2021:01>.

News from the Weavers Vikalp Sangam updates

In the month of December, the national core group of the VikalpSangam
process (which includes 67 organisations and networks from all over India)
met virtually to reflect on the year long activities of VS, how communities
and networks are responding to crises, the proposals of holding gatherings
of alternatives on various themes like health, disability, and
data/privacy. The meeting was focused on reflecting on the VS process, its
activities and its relevance in these exceptional times.

A third youth alternatives confluence was organised online with about 30 to
35 youth and a few facilitators and speakers from across the country (all
of whom may not fit into the classic definition of ‘youth’!).The confluence
attempted to share hope, learn, dialogue, discuss and more; build
friendships that we carry into the future.

The three thematic sessions during the sangam were: Visioning Alternatives:
Exploring what would make for an Alternative world - Sustainable
Livelihoods and Resilience - Sustaining Movements and Building Synergies

Updates from Crianzas Mutuas

by *Patricia Botero-Gómez* and *Alejandra Jimenez*

The process of mutual nurturing has been sharing knowledge, knowledge,
solidarity between peoples, groups and communities in resistance. In the
second meeting of mutual nurturing we shared with 38 groups linked to
peoples, organizations and communities in processes of defense of life from
the autonomic resistance, we formed learning communities with which we have
been interacting in each of the bioregions and with some itineraries to the
processes of each territory.

Weaving from below has become one of the most forceful ways to create
alternatives to mega-projects of development from the custody and care of
the seeds, the same that allow us to heal ourselves and the earth.
Likewise, we have strengthened the tapestry of different processes and
paths with which we agree on the importance of strengthening communicative
autonomies for counter-hegemonic purposes; share experiences from the
Pluriveresities of on foot (Pluriversidades de a pie), guard the stories
from the narratives of sisterhood, and the personal and communal, all of
them as practices that we do to defend life, joy and dignity. In this way,
with our tissues we try to suture broken intergenerational,
socio-territorial and communal weavings, sharing our forms of action from
our own experiences, beyond localism and globalism, is a source of
co-inspiration for all worlds.

Also, in recent months the pandemic has been a challenge that we have been
facing, without ceasing to continue weaving and sharing our paths, by the
means we have at our disposal today, seeking in the near future the
possibility of having face-to-face meetings. We recently inaugurated our
radio space, which we named “Crianza Mutua. Experiences of new worlds”,
which we will be transmitting weekly through Radio Unitierra
<http://giss.tv:8000/radiounitierra.mp3> and different friendly community
radio stations such as Radio Padiushri. In this first transmission we had
the interview of the independent editorial collective: “Fusilemos la
noche”. We invite you to listen to it soon on Untierra's Sound Cloud Site
<https://soundcloud.com/unitierra>.
Updates from the endorsers New endorsers

   - African Biodiversity Network
   - International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples
   - MINGAnet (Colombia)
   - Alexander Dunlap, Centre for Development and the Environment,
   University of Oslo, Norway.
   - Martha Giraldo, Colombian, naturist, Coordinator for MINGAnet a
   network of networks to life care.

The African Earth Jurisprudence Collective: Navigating towards a Resilient
Future

by *The African Earth Jurisprudence Collective*

A new, uniquely African hope is emerging to counter threats to the
continent’s most precious ecosystems and to revive ways of life that
restore the relationship between communities and their lands and waters
after centuries of colonial harm. The African Earth Jurisprudence
Collective is made up of dedicated Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners from
across East, West, Central and Southern Africa, working closely with The
Gaia Foundation and the Siama Programme. Together they accompany local and
Indigenous communities to put into practice African alternatives to the
destructive industrial development model, helping to navigate towards a
more resilient future for the continent.

*Keep reading ->
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:04:aejc>*
Nature is alive, she has rights

by *Natalia Greene* for Global Alliance for Rights of Nature

Nature is alive, and she has the right to exist.

This seems obvious; even a child wouldn’t question this assessment. Why
then isn’t Nature rec-ognised as a subject of rights in local, national and
global jurisprudence? The answer is that people are afraid that if Nature
has rights, it will challenge corporate power and thereby the economy.
However, it’s important to remember that the Latin root for ‘economy’ is
eco, oikos, home, for our home. Our planet is at risk, and so are all her
inhabitants. To regain the harmoni-ous balance, we need systemic change and
recognising the rights of Nature is that ground-breaking paradigm shift.

*Keep reading ->
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:04:nature>*
Building the New Normal

by *Global Ecovillage Network*

“Until living from a place of love within becomes the New Normal, our
global problems that are symptoms of that love’s absence, will remain.”

During this past year, we have heard the term “the New Normal” buzzing
around in many countries around the world. It has generally been associated
with social distancing, work from home, heightened hygiene, as well as
empty roads, skyrocketing online shopping, and closed borders.

*Keep reading ->
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:04:gen>*
Re-Worlding—with a Pluriversal New Deal

by *Ariel Salleh*

So where to start but with the Anthropocene, this non-sensical civilisation
where the ‘means’ to life has overtaken ‘ends’.

The Eurocentric fantasy of mastering nature has always been a problematic
ontology. Ecologically minded feminists believe this ancient drive to power
re-enacts a sublimated form of ‘mother killing’, allowing men to ‘birth
themselves culturally’ without dependence on mysterious natural flows. In
any event, pandemic anxieties have released a shadow epidemic of terror by
men on to the bodies of women. French statistics show a 30-per-cent rise in
domestic violence; in Australia the figure is said to be 50 per cent.

*Keep reading ->
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/newsletters:04:ariel>*

*Global Tapestry of Alternatives*
*contact at globaltapestryofalternatives.org
<contact at globaltapestryofalternatives.org>*

To subscribe and get our updates, visit this link
<https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/contact>

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