Written by Shrishtee
Bajpai and first published at Medium
Our food
systems are not just the work of humans. They are the work of the mountains, of
Pachamama [Mother Earth], of the sacred, the whole community which is centered
on reciprocity, solidarity, and respect for elements of life. This is buen vivir (‘living well’) for
us.
That’s
according to Quechua residents of Potato Park in the Peruvian Andes, where the community
has for the last three decades been involved in an inspiring process of
conserving and sustaining their own livelihoods over the vast landscape where
the potato originated. They were speaking to us through the dialogue
series initiated by the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA) to
highlight stories of community resilience and wellbeing in the face of Covid.
The pandemic
has shown the deep fractures and baseless promises of wellbeing that the
capitalist model made to the whole world. Of course, several other crises
pre-exist Covid, from the climate, biodiversity loss, and pollution, to
inequality, conflicts, authoritarianism, and right-wing fascism across the
globe.
Occurring
alongside all this is a long process of colonization or post-colonial hegemony,
and the domination of certain cultures and knowledge systems. Combinations of
these interconnected challenges have significantly impacted our individual lives,
whether it’s alienation from nature and from each other, or a heightened sense
of meaninglessness or hopelessness.
It’s in the
context of these multiple crises that GTA attempts to foster a dialogical space
to show that there are alternative ways of being, knowing, working, dreaming,
and of doing things — that the modern capitalist or nation-state dominated
system is not the only system around.
Along with
processes of resistance, across the world there are tens of thousands of
attempts to construct alternative realities, either through sustaining things
from the past which are still relevant, equitable, and just, or creating new
ones — especially from within industrial systems or the so-called ‘developed’
systems of the world.
The Global
Tapestry of Alternatives is a network that was seeded through experiences
of networks of alternatives in India, Mexico, and Colombia.
After several conversations and endorsements of movements across the world, GTA
was officially launched in 2019 as a horizontal process of weaving with
non-hierarchical ways of functioning.
With a strong
commitment to highlighting the emergence and visibility of an immense variety
of radical alternatives to this dominant regime rooted in capitalist,
patriarchal, racist, statist, and anthropocentric forces, GTA seeks to create
solidarity networks and strategic alliances amongst all networks of alternatives
on local, regional, and global levels.
Over the last
two years, GTA
has organized over 22 sessions ranging from the responses to Covid by
indigenous communities in Peru, Mexico, India, and Bolivia, to the responses of
women in Rojava to Black Lives Matter and eco-socialist organizing for radical
transformations.
Sessions have
also included dialogues on techology and alternatives, economies of wellbeing,
a commons future, the degrowth movement, alternative models by women farmers,
feminist realities and alternatives, artistic resistance in Palestine, the
Karen community’s alternatives to state authoritarianism in Myanmar, mining and
alternatives by women in Africa, among many others.
Through these
dialogues and conversations, the attempt has been to show how communities
across the world have responded to contemporary crises with resilience, care,
innovation, and adaptability — however desperate the last two years have been.
The resurgence of life that we see in innumerable actions of solidarity,
cooperation, love, and care in these times are rooted in the aeons-old
articulations of indigenous peoples and local communities, both rural and
urban.
This spirit
circulates among many grassroots expressions of collectives and networks, as
dignified rage against systems of oppression as well as the affirmation of
their resolve to defend their dignity by articulating a pluriverse of
alternatives.
In furtherance
to this effort, GTA has also recently launched its first volume of
various narratives from around the world weaving solidarity and hope in
the times of crises. Together, they provide multifaceted expressions of
resistance to dominant forms of oppression — to defend local ways of life,
strengthen local autonomy, and reconstruct societies.
The first
volume has contributions from Africa, Latin America, South and South-east Asia
and Central America. Our two inspiring contributions from Latin America speak
to the need of keeping care of Mother Earth at the center of building
resilience. The Nasa people of the north of Cauca, Colombia are working towards
recovering their territories to grow toxic-free food and in the process heal
the earth and themselves.
Another example
is from Cauca valley, Colombia, where communities are building water and food
sovereignty to supply those in need during the pandemic. From Costa Rica, we
learn how the local fishing communities re-launched small-scale fisheries to
ensure dignified livelihoods for themselves in times of crises.
From Tharakans
in Kenya, we learn how the revival of rituals, ceremonies, and traditional
governance helped cope with the crises that the pandemic posed — in turn
revealing how traditional knowledge systems act as a counterweight to the
hegemonic paradigm of modernity.
From another
corner of the world, in Indonesia, the Confederation of Indonesia Peoples
Movement (consisting of federations of women, workers, peasants, fisherfolk,
indigenous people, and the urban poor) have been building a solidarity economy
through various alternative community projects and practises. Their processes
helped them respond to the crises by readily organizing community kitchens,
engaging with fundraising, and distributing essential amenities within the
community.
Not too far
from Indonesia, in Bangladesh, the farmers have been leading a New Agriculture
Movement that is building innovative farming practises based around ‘seed’,
providing an inspiring example of resistance to a globalized food chain by
using minimal external inputs, building on local knowledge, facilitating local
markets, and practising biodiverse agricultural techniques.
From central
India, we learn how communities who were in control of their local means of
production could not only counter market forces but also guard themselves
against the insecurities of the mainstream economic system. While cities, with
their heavily- guarded top-down governance, have been at the epicentre of the
pandemic and the economic fallout, empowered grassroots communities fared much
better.
These examples
show that communities, initiatives, and civil society already have approaches
that effectively counter the systemic problems highlighted by the pandemic.
They give important insights and pathways for just, equitable, and ecologically
resilient futures, and provide hope at a moment when it’s easy to feel
hopeless, by showing concrete pathways towards a better future where “many
worlds fit,” as the Zapatistas of Mexico put it. It is crucial to tell these
stories, to hear them and re-hear them, as they have important lessons for all
of us.
The question
is: are we truly ready to hear them? Are we ready to constructively challenge
each other, offer active solidarity to each other whenever needed, interweave
the initiatives in common actions, and support the conditions for the radical
systemic changes we need? More than ever, we need to work together and stand in
solidarity with each other’s resistances and re-constructions.
As we walk this
path, it’s always useful to revisit the famous words of Argentinian film
director and theorist, Fernando Birri: “Utopia is on the horizon. I
move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten
steps, and utopia runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I never
reach it. So what’s the point of utopia? The point is this: it makes us
continually advance.”
Three things
you can do right now
- Take a look at GTA’s webinar series, resilience documents, and recent periodical on Climate Change and Alternatives, and
share them among your friends, family, and colleagues.
- Help promote this article by
sharing these posts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Sign up here for email alerts when articles like
this are shared on social media.
- Are you involved with a community
resilience project or interested in starting or joining one? Get
in touch with the GTA to collaborate.
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