WEAVING ALTERNATIVES #14: A periodical of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives

WEAVING ALTERNATIVES #14: A periodical of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives

Editorial Note

Picking up from our 13th periodical on weaving, how communities weave and what this weaving looks like on varied levels, the 14th periodical is a follow-up to this topic. As mentioned in our last Note, weaving is an integral part of many communities in and around the Global TapestryThe weaving of networks of Alternatives of Alternatives, and “is a source of identity, meaning, sense making and a way of life. Many folklores, songs, myths revolve around weaving as if it holds the entire fabric of the community.”

This practice of interconnections, composed of the vertical warp-thread and the horizontal weft-thread intersecting to respond to the multifaceted crises we all face today, is what we aim to focus on through both these periodical issues. In our last periodical, we received a plethora of submissions, of differing natures, from many areas of the world including Colombia, India, Taiwan, Ecuador and South Africa among many others. The pieces were also in many different formats, such as videos and a poem. ‘Threading Life and Futures’ looked at weaving in specifically local contexts in India, while ‘A few notes and meditations on the notion of weaving’ explored the implications of a broader understanding of this practice. Some pieces also explored rethinking Life, linking with the larger Living Tapestry. Crianzas Mutuas Colombia talked about ‘Weave(ing) as stress(ing) singularity within and among a plurality’, in their article ‘How to Weave’. In ‘Tending to the Lōma’, the article wove together like a patchwork of individual experiences (articulated through text, pictures and drawings) which then presented a collective understanding of this practice for the ten (The Emergence Network) network.

Thus, for the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, as articulated in the last periodical’s Note:
“Weaving is a practice of everyday life trying to build possibilities together”. GTAGlobal Tapestry of Alternatives is a network of networks and each of these networks in different parts of the planet are (re)creating, living, and dreaming, and at the same time, also documenting, identifying, connecting and weaving a tapestry of alternatives; hence they are our weavers.

We define a weaver as a local, regional, or national network or organization that connects or consists of multiple Alternatives on different themes/spheres, in an inter-sectorial way. Our current weavers- Vikalp Sangam- Alternatives Confluence, India; Crianza Mutua Mexico; Crianzas Mutuas Colombia; and Movement for Alternatives and Solidarity in Southeast Asia (MASSAMovement for Alternatives and Solidarity in Southeast Asia (South East Asia)) are weaving ways of dialogue, interconnection, collaboration and solidarity with other WeaversThey are local, regional, or national networks or organizations that connects or consists of multiple Alternatives on different themes/spheres, in an inter-sectorial way. A global network cannot be a Waever, neither a thematic one. It should be a collective process of some kind, rather than only a single individual or single organization. By being a "weaver", they are committed to participate in the GTA, developing ways of dialogue, interconnection, collaboration and solidarity with other Weavers. GTA promotes the interconnection of the Weavers, identifying [[:weavers:criteria|a series common criteria for the weaving of Alternatives]]. Examples: Vikalp Sangam and Crianza Mutua.. In addition, there are several other organisations and networks who are weaving alternatives in their respective regions - some as our endorsers, and some who are movements we are in solidarity with but not (yet) part of the GTA.

…in different contexts people are weaving differently, in ways that are locally appropriate. These radical alternatives are grounded by common principles such as autonomy, self-determination, cultural democracy, cooperation, solidarity, peace, and respect for all life forms, among others that celebrate life. All the weavers of GTA stress on visibilising grounded practices of communities, peoples, and networks who are resisting the oppressive systems by creating different ways of knowing, being and doing things. Another important element of praxis is creating the spaces of exchanges, learning, cross-sectoral dialogues, and solidarity… If we could look at the Alternative Tapestry, it would be filled with different colours and patterns but would be collectively threading a tapestry of possibilities, made stronger by each thread.

Through the 14th periodical, we further explore the idea of weaving conceptualised and practised by different members who constitute the GTA. Ana Inés Heras explores what it is to weave alternatives in the times of political crises in Argentina, Mugdha Trifaley on the other hand explores the dimensions of weaving intergenerationally, and we have a beautiful poem ‘Planting Seeds’ reflecting on weaving by Tannur Ali. In addition, the periodical also has some wonderful updates from our weavers and endorsers. We hope you enjoy reading our periodical, keep reading and sharing along!

In Solidarity,

GTA Periodical Editorial Team

Updates from the GTA

Articulating Crisis and creating Radical Alternatives

Recently, Shrishtee Bajpai and Vasna Ramasar of the GTA Facilitation team published a report The report traces the history and experiences of the GTA process, drawing from in- depth reflections from the GTA facilitation team as well as contributions from Weavers and EndorsersThey are organizations, collectives or thematic networks that publicly expresses its support to the GTA process and it's approved by it. Examples: [[endorsements:index|Full list of current Endorsers]] to the process. This is grounded in community and activist articulations of what radical alternatives and a pluriverse are. The authors, as members of the GTA facilitation team, share the findings and process to bring the voices from the global south/ majority world together in both conceptualising the polycrisis and responding to it.

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More than Human Webinar Series | Episode 1

We have started a new webinar series titled ‘More than Human: Creative Explorations’, as a follow-up to our Climate Fiction series. It features people connecting to other species and the rest of nature in spiritual, artistic, and visceral ways; of course, Indigenous peoples and other nature dependent local communities have always been in communication with the more-than human world, as everything has been alive with agency. Through this series, we would like to see how writers, artists, researchers, activists are exploring these dimensions from a decolonial, indigenous, and justice perspective. We would further explore our themes of collectively examining the potential of such mediums in transforming the alienation some of us have from the rest of the earth, and of bringing back multiple aspects of being embedded within nature in our lives. Our first episode is titled 'The River is Us: A Conversation with Alyen Foning'.

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Encounter in Defense of Life: weaving territories of Crianza Mutua in Mexico with Colombia

From May 23 to 27 the meeting organized by Crianza Mutua Mexico (CMMCrianza Mutua Mexico) was held, under the theme “Meeting in Defense of Life, weaving territories of the North, Central and Southeast”. Collectives, groups, activists and academics seeking new paths for the care of life and the defense of territory gathered in a face-to-face meeting; the encounter had the presence of members of Crianzas Mutuas Colombia (CMCCrianza Mutua Colombia). These processes, coming from different regions of Mexico and Colombia, met with the objective of sharing their daily lives, organizational experiences, popular education, resistance and struggle in defense of their land, water, soil, landscape, animals, plants and culture.

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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.

Keep reading ->

Updates from our Endorsers

Ecoversities

How do we tend to our different soils? How often do we check beneath the surface? At the end of the day, it is what holds us in our co-creation.

This year, we bring the spirits of the underground, the mycelial connections, the rooted knowledge, and the wisdom beneath the surface to the 4th edition of the Re-Imagining Education Conference (REC 4.0).

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Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN)

We welcome the Colombian government's commitment to prioritize Peace with Nature as a central theme at the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity- COP 16, to be held at the end of the year in Cali, Colombia. To this effect, Alberto Acosta and Enrique Viale have written a statement in response to this COP.

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Planting Seeds

by Tannur Ali

The poem, Planting Seeds reflects on the intersection of farming and building solidarity in a new economy, and expands on Tannur's vocation of supporting the holistic growth of African American homesteaders reclaiming their relationships with the land in the 21st century. Operating as an affinity group for Historically Disadvantaged Beginning Farmers, specifically those who are descendants of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Homestead Incubation Program is a safe space for learning, healing, and development while taking concrete steps to turn the tide of land loss within the Black community in the US.

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Weaving dynamic coalitions of strength in difficult times

by Ana Inés Heras

Ever since 1974, Argentina started to become a neoliberal nation-state, meaning that the differences in the distribution of income and surplus became more and more obscene. The years of the dictatorship consolidated an economic policy geared towards privatizing public services and engrossing the foreign acquired debt. This became more and more difficult over time. Therefore, the president now in office continues to deepen aspects that have already been in place for decades… (as a counter to this) An urgent question thus comes to mind: What would it be like if public policy, not only in Argentina but the world, would be aligned with cooperative-like, social solidarity perspectives? And also, how could we continue networking worldly to make these ways of living well together become what is expected versus something that is looked at as “on the side”?

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Weaving intergenerationally: A young person's experience in the GTA

by Mugdha Trifaley

Our larger Tapestry is created from ‘outscaling’ as a way of horizontal networking. To paraphrase from Ashish Kothari and Shrishtee Bajpai’s article, collectives across geographies learn from each others’ experiences of transformation to strengthen their own processes, building collective strengths… For me, weaving is sharing knowledge. While global problems have manifested on the ground in localised ways, the answers to these conflicts have to be local ones, all existing in a pluriverse: a world of co-existing worldviews, belief systems and practices. I think this is collective activism in conversation (so to say) with individual change, building a common context through a shared value system.

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