{"id":5601,"date":"2023-09-04T09:51:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T07:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/femprocomuns.coop\/?p=5601"},"modified":"2023-09-04T09:51:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T07:51:05","slug":"visit-to-quebec-solidarity-economy-and-community-projects-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/femprocomuns.coop\/en\/visit-to-quebec-solidarity-economy-and-community-projects-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to Quebec, solidarity economy and community projects (II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last May part of the femProcomuns team visited Quebec (Canada) to give some talks and workshops on the Commons Sustainability Model<\/a>, to learn about Community and solidarity economy experiences and projects and also to participate in the The Great Transition<\/a>. With this new blog entry, we’re complementing a previous text<\/a> about this visit.<\/h4>\n

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The Great Transition<\/h2>\n

For three days and for the third time,the headquarters of Concordia University<\/a>, in the neighborhood of the same name in Montreal, hosted “The Great Transition<\/a>“, organised by a collective of academics and activists who are part of the international network Historical materialism. The aim of this biannual meeting is to move from resistance to the transformation of society in order to get out of capitalism and to bring together critical knowledge that is produced, both in the academic sphere and in social movements, inviting people from different backgrounds and trends who share these goals.<\/p>\n

With the subtitle “struggle in times of global crisis”, more than 900 participants and panelists from Quebec and all over the world met from 18 to 21 May to discuss the socio-ecological crises of the 21st century, whether they are the direct result of unbridled growth and capital accumulation, and what possible solutions might be, wheter the degrowth movement is enough, and wether other structural and systemic changes are needed. Struggles, initiatives, actions, tactics of resistance and transformation, socio-political organising, ecological stewardship, placemaking, conservation -some of which have worked better than others- were presented. And above all, strategies were discussed to strengthen existing struggles, create links and solidarity between them, and how to build alternative models of organising the economy.<\/p>\n

Some of the issues that stand out from the programme are global justice, extractivism, decolonialism, ecological imperialism, eco-apartheit, intersectional class struggle, degrowth, ecosocialist revolution, radical rurality, the feminist struggle, the risks of gig economy, the emerging struggles in the global south, grassroots democracy, post-capitalism, Eurocentrism, anarchism, animism, people’s self-determination, digital resistance, … and also the socio-economic model of the commons.<\/p>\n

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Each afternoon there was a plenary session. The first on Post-capitalism outside Eurocentrism<\/b>, with the Franco-Algerian activist Houria Bouteldja https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Houria.Bouteldja<\/a> and the Honduran-born anthropologist Jairo I. F\u00fanez-Flores. https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jairo.I.Funez<\/a>, who researches on decolonization. The second was The reconfiguration of the Left in the World<\/b>, with Mapuche linguist Elisa Lonc\u00f3n<\/a>, Amazon trade unionist, Chris Smalls<\/a>, and Palestinian physicist and activist, Mustafa Barghouti<\/a>. The third connecting struggles for collective emancipation with the philosopher and activist Silvia Federici<\/a>, Afro-American studies researcher and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor<\/a>and Julian Lattimore of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung<\/em>. The closing plenary was on how to Repoliticize the climate question<\/b> with the philosopher Mohamed Amer Meziane<\/a>, Brazilian ecosocialist activist Sabrina Fernandes<\/a>and geographer Matthew T. Huber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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M\u00f2nica Garriga (femProcomuns) presenting at the session on The Commons in The Great Transition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From femProcomuns we participated in the session “Transforming society for commons: international experiences and strategic perspectives”. M\u00f2nica Garriga explained the experience of the cooperative and the development and application of the Commons Sustainability Model. Jonathan Durand Folco<\/strong>, who facilitated the session, explained how municipalism can act as a springboard in the experience of Valpara\u00edso<\/strong>(Chile), comparing it also to other cities as, such as Barcelona.Marie-Soleil L’Allier<\/strong>explained her research on commons practices in Quebec; Marc D. Lachapelle<\/strong>spoke of organisational practices to mediate tensions in commons projects; and Jonathan Veillette<\/strong>on social empowerment policies in Puebla (Mexico).<\/p>\n

We attended some sessions and met different organisations, initiatives, struggles and projects. Below we explain some of them.<\/p>\n

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Presentation of the Seize incubation process<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seize<\/b><\/a> is a non-profit company -that operates according to the principles of cooperativism- which emerged from Concordia university itself, where the meeting was held, and which acts on three axes: organising, educating and incubating; as explained by Olivia Champagne<\/strong>, spokesperson for the project. Based on opportunities to take charge of the services linked to the university (such as canteens), it incubates projects to create cooperatives.<\/p>\n

Giulia Falcone<\/strong> spoke about the experience of silk cultivation in Nova Esperan\u00e7a, in the state of Paran\u00e1, Brazil. She explained that this crop employs 2,500 families, but the industry is collapsing due to several factors such as climate change and, especially, pollution caused by pesticides sprayed from aeroplanes for neighbouring monocultures of soy, sugarcane, and other products. In 2006, the Maring\u00e0 Technology Incubator<\/b>, developed the project “Artes\u00e3os Brasil” that promotes the manufacture of handicraft products with silk thread. In 2010 Copraseda<\/b> (Cooperativa dos Productores de Artesanato de Seda) was formally constituted with local farmers, producers of silk cocoons, who collaborate with “Artes\u00e3os Brasil”.<\/p>\n

Quebec, like the rest of Canada and North America, is the result of European colonisation and struggles between different empires. It is also the result of prolonged policies of oppression and marginalisation of the indigenous population and their descendants; of dispossession and extractism. Philippe Blouin moderated a session about “Sovereingty and Indigenous Territories”<\/b>. The Kanien’keh\u00e1:ka Kahnistensera<\/b> (Mamas mohawk) discussed the dispute with MCGill University over the presence of unmarked graves of children, victims of medical experiments, on the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital on Mount Royal Hill. For decades aboriginal children were separated from their families and re-educated in institutions where they lived in poor health conditions and were experimented on.<\/p>\n

Waba Moko<\/strong>, Anishnaabe of the wolf clan<\/b> in the Ottawa River Basin, spoke of the struggles of the Anishinaabe<\/b> to protect the original wolf in their territory and to implement a hunting moratorium. Micha\u00ebl Paul<\/strong>, protector of water and unceded sacred lands, an innu<\/b> and nutshimiulnu.<\/b> hereditary chief, spoke of opposition to the Treaty of Petapan<\/a>, which threatens to extinguish the ancestral rights of the Nitassinan. And Yvan Boivin<\/strong>, an atikamekw<\/b> activist from Mobilisation Matawinie Ekoni Aci<\/b>, spoke of the blockade against logging in the Nitaskinan and how they have called for a 5-year moratorium so that nature to be reborn and biodiversity restored. In the meantime, they have built a barricade to prevent the entry of foresters and deforestation companies.<\/p>\n

In one of the aforementioned plenary sessions Chris Smalls<\/strong>, president of the workers’ union of Amazon<\/b>, explained the campaign for the creation of the company’s union. Smalls had been working there since 2013, and in 2020 he was asked to hide the fact that workers who had tested positive for COVID were still coming to work because they were not entitled to sick leave. This confirmed that the traditional syndicate was not working for them and they began the campaign\u2014with two years of struggle\u2014to create a new union. Smalls said that all struggles aganist capitalims must be united, and that in order to stop the exploitation of Amazon, he said, it is necessary not to buy from them, because if people continue to buy from them, one person in four will end up working for Amazon.<\/p>\n

In the same session, Elisa Lonc\u00f3n from the Mapuche nation in Chile<\/strong>, warned about the loss of their own language, as a result of the minoritisation promoted by the school. She believes that both the left and the right, which emerged from the European continent, have used genocide to implement the philosophy of modernity, advocating that in order to achieve “progress” people must be sacrificed. She warned that improving human rights requires a new epistemology that takes into account indigenous cultures. The Constitution of 2021 (rejected in a referendum) marks a horizon for which to continue fighting: individual and also collective rights, parity and autonomy of the regions in a plurinational state.<\/p>\n

With other participants in The Great Transition, we visited the Milton Park<\/strong> neighborhood and the self-managed space B.timent 7<\/strong>.<\/p>\n