The first stage of the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies has already ended with some figures that prove that the change in format has not stopped our desire to change the world.
We have counted almost 2000 people registered between the forum and the general registration – in addition to the unregistered participants who were able to attend the different sessions, which were open – and some 400 organizations from all over. Thanks to this engine, in one week, more than 150 online activities have been carried out (open tables, confluence meetings, seminars and exhibition panels). In terms of themes and perspectives, all have in common the desire to promote a radical transformation of the economic and social organization with the common objective of confronting the present and future crises caused by the current socioeconomic system.
If you missed the opening ceremony in which participated worldwide references, you can watch it now HERE. It was a very enriching dialogue between Michel Bauwens, director of the P2P Foundation and of the research of commonstransition.org; Marta Guadalupe Rivera Ferre, director of the Chair of Agroecology and Food Systems at the University of VIC-UCC and member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Euclides Mance, one of the main theorists of the solidarity economy and the economy of liberation in Latin America and co-founder of the Institute of Philosophy of Liberation and the Solidarius network; Ashish Kotari, coordinator of the Vikalp Sangam forum (Confluence of Alternatives) and promoter of the World Tapestry of Alternatives; Geneviève Azam, French economist, environmental and alterglobalization activist in the organization Attac France and co-author of a “Manifesto of Coexistence”.
The time has come to close this virtual WSFTE, which, from June 25 to July 1 2020, has shown us what extent and powerful our meetings are for the continuity of transformative economies. In just one month, many of you have mobilized and proposed activities from around the world, and for that, we will never thank you enough. So, congratulations and thanks to all of you, the actors and actress of Transformative Economies!
In order to advance and continue to keep alive this process of the WSFTE, which has been going on for more than two years, we would like to have your comments and impressions in an online platform that will be available on the website and in the virtual Forum from next week. On the other hand, we would also like to open a common space in the Forum, allowing to publish online, to add all the documentation, videos and photos of the Forum…, the first step of a long collaborative work to be continued in October.
We also recommend the closing ceremony, which encourages us to set our eyes on the following date: in October, coinciding with the FESC, the FSMET returns! Under the slogan “We accept the challenge”, we encourage you to propose transformative initiatives“(struggles, projects, policies…) that seek to respond to the great global challenges from concrete and localised practices.
We will build this agenda, together, from the rich exchanges produced during the dialogues between movements and territorial and thematic confluences, based on 4 axes of transformation: power, knowledge and culture, economy and finance and the relationship with nature.
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