[artinfo] The Global Tapestry of Alternatives

[Örsan S¸enalp]

Dear all,

The below text, an initiative launched by Ashish Kothari:

The Global Tapestry of Alternatives

The world is going through an unprecedented crisis engendered by a
dominant regime that has resulted in deepening inequalities,
increasing and new forms of deprivation, the destruction of
ecosystems, climate change, the tearing off of the social fabric and
the dispossession of all living beings with immense violence. However,
the past two decades have witnessed the emergence of an immense
variety of radical alternatives to this dominant regime and to its
roots in the capitalist, patriarchal, racist, statist, and
anthropocentric forces. These range from initiatives in specific
sectors such as sustainable and holistic agriculture, community-led
water/energy/food sovereignty, solidarity and sharing economy, worker
control of production facilities, resource/knowledge commons, and
inter-ethnic peace and harmony, to more holistic or rounded
transformations such as those being attempted by the Zapatista and the
Kurds in Rojava, to the revival of ancient traditions or the emergence
of new worldviews that re-establish humanity's place within nature and
the values of human dignity, equality and the respect of history.

The Global Tapestry of Alternatives is an initiative seeking to create
solidarity networks and strategic alliance amongst all these
alternatives on local, regional and global levels. It starts in the
local interaction among alternatives, to gradually organize forms of
agreement at the regional, national and global scale, through diverse
and light structures, defined in each space, horizontal, democratic,
inclusive and non-centralized, using diverse local languages and other
ways of communicating. The initiative has no central structure or
control mechanisms. It spreads step by step as an ever-expanding,
complex set of tapestries, constructed by already existing communal or
collective webs, organized as alternatives to the dominant regimes,
each of them autonomously weaving itself with other such webs.

It organizes mechanisms of interaction between those regional and
national structures and with the societies, in which they exist, in
diverse languages and different means, promoting periodically
regional, national and global encounters, when the conditions allow
for them, as well as close and synergistic linkages with existing
organizations, like the World Social Forum. The Global Tapestry of
Alternatives is about creating spaces of collaboration and exchange,
in order to learn about and from each other, critically challenge each
other, offer active solidarity to each other whenever needed,
interweave the initiatives in common actions, give them visibility to
inspire other people to create their own initiatives and to go further
along existing paths or forge new ones that strengthen alternatives
wherever they are, until the point in which a critical mass of
alternative ways can create the conditions for the radical systemic
changes we need.

A small group of activists from several regions of the world started
the initiative, which community-led its structure as it takes shape in
different parts of the world. The initial group will continue
supporting the initiative as long as necessary. It has some sponsors,
who subscribe to this document and will try to weave itself with
similar initiatives around the world.
Anyone interested in following the evolution of the initiative or 
participate in it may write a mail to:
globaltapestryofalternatives at riseup.net