Towards a Post-Extractive Culture is an experimental event that explores new approaches and alternatives that will help us to escape the extractivist ‘trap’ of the modern, colonial, heteropatriarchal, capitalist paradigm. A three-day gathering (two days held at the Stedelijk Museum and the third at OT301) featuring workshops, thinking-feeling storms, assemblies, and ritual performances.

This gathering is co-created by Disobedient Futures (formerly known as Fossil Free Culture NL), the Post-Extractive Futures collective, Global TapestryThe weaving of networks of Alternatives of AlternativesAre activities and initiatives, concepts, worldviews, or action proposals by collectives, groups, organizations, communities, or social movements challenging and replacing the dominant system that perpetuates inequality, exploitation, and unsustainabiity. In the GTA we focus primarily on what we call "radical or transformative alternatives", which we define as initiatives that are attempting to break with the dominant system and take paths towards direct and radical forms of political and economic democracy, localised self-reliance, social justice and equity, cultural and knowledge diversity, and ecological resilience. Their locus is neither the State nor the capitalist economy. They are advancing in the process of dismantling most forms of hierarchies, assuming the principles of sufficiency, autonomy, non-violence, justice and equality, solidarity, and the caring of life and the Earth. They do this in an integral way, not limited to a single aspect of life. Although such initiatives may have some kind of link with capitalist markets and the State, they prioritize their autonomy to avoid significant dependency on them and tend to reduce, as much as possible, any relationship with them., Weaving Realities, Gira Zapatista Holanda and entre-ríos.

Access to details

Lyla June (Diné/Tsétsêhéstâhese) will discuss native food systems in pre-Columbian times. Through her doctoral work she has seen that a common denominator in these systems is the strategy of habitat expansion. Whether it's burning grasslands to maintain habitat for deer, buffalo, antelope, etc, or building intertidal rock walls to catch sediment for clam habitat, native people have a knack for building a home for their food in reciprocal relationships. Through this maintenance of the home of edible plants and animals, whom we see as relatives, our food can come to us through consensual and respectful relationship.

Access to details

This interactive session will engage participants in a presentation, experiential activity and discussion about the social/economic/political organizing format often referred to as “time banking”. The purpose of this is to recognize that everyone has contributions to make and needs to fulfill. As opposed to the capitalist model of competition, extraction and exploitation, these projects draw on the strength of community to affirm the worth and value of each individual. In this session, students who have participated in “mini” time banks in classroom settings will share what they thought of this idea before and after experiencing it in practice. In small groups, attendees will have the opportunity to consider what they have to “offer” and what they “need”.

Access to details

GTAGlobal Tapestry of Alternatives is usually presented in many conferences and gatherings around the world. Here we present a resume and report of each participation.

Is it possible to imagine a world without money? Anitra Nelson, in her recent book, “Beyond Money: A Post Capitalist Strategy”, not only envisions that world but also gives it concrete shape, laying the ideological foundation of a post-money society based on real, non-monetary, social and ecological values that define a new order committed to fulfilling people’s basic needs. If money is the lynchpin of the contemporary capitalist order then it is imperative that an alternative to that world is imagined and crafted outside the constraints of money. In a two part series of webinars, Anitra Nelson is joined by David Barkin, a Mexican economist, and Meenakshi Gupta, an Indian social entrepreneur to discuss how money could be replaced as the organizing principle of society allowing the fabrication of a world without socio-economic inequality and crippling environmental stresses.

Access to details and recording

On Tuesday 26th April 2022 at 16:00 BST, Global Environments Network will host a discussion about what it means to build communities of care. The featured panelists are individuals who are working to revive, build or maintain their own communities, both virtually and in-person, in close and more dispersed contexts. We invite you to join us for a thoughtful discussion, moderated by Nessie Reid. Please come prepared with questions, ideas and reflections!

Access to details and recording

A cross-continental conversation between Prof Miriam Lang and environmentalist Ashish Kothari on alternative approaches to address the current multidimensional (not only environmental) crisis. These experts discuss some fundamental questions of our time, by comparing and collating the Latin American and South Asian experiences.

Access to details and recording

Dialogue between GTA weavers in India, Colombia and Mexico. A first dialogue to approach each other in diversity and to weave and inspire each other.

Access to details and recording

The Southern Peoples’ Action on COP26 is organizing a report-back session featuring its convening and allied organizations who have participated in the ground and online battlegrounds of COP26 at Glasgow and beyond.

As the dust has settled after the conclusion of the COP26 climate talks, the global public now has a clearer picture of the outcomes of the Glasgow Climate Pact, which has been universally acknowledged as a ‘compromise deal’ that tries to keep the hope of a 1.5C warming limit alive but is faced with enormous challenges.

Access to details and recording

The Environment and Climate Justice Commission of the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS XXIX) - an anti-imperialist and democratic formation of people’s movements, organizations, along with its partner organizations and formations - the Global Tapstery of Alternatives - an initiative seeking to create solidarity networks and strategic alliances amongst all these alternatives on local, regional and global levels - and Adelante - a grouing of eight global networks for collective and solidarity action in the future - propose this side event with the main aim of gathering and promoting visions and demands of peoples from the grassroots of the world we want to create - one that is socially just, equitable, and environmentally sustainable.

Access to details and recording

The BRICS have fallen one by one. They have all capitulated to capitalism and given up on the promises of social democracy. The People’s Republic China has always been a dictatorship. The others have known their democratic phases, but more recently they have elected strongmen by majoritarian vote who put the rule of law under serious strain. Brasil and India are extreme examples, but there others on all continents that have gone down they same slippery slopes of populism, authoritarianism, and full blown fascism. This seminar wants to discuss particular cases, exchange experiences and strenghten democratic resistance from the bottom up.

Access to details

Access to details

A conversation with the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, presented by EDGE Founders Alliance.

Access to details and recording

The GTA participated in the World Social Forum 2021, either as co-organizer or with the presence of some its core members in various sessions.

Access to details and recordings

Building upon the discussions at the Malmo degrowth conference, the session organized in the Decrecimiento-Degrowth Conference in Mexico City revolved around the eligibility criteria/principles of alternatives, the structure and mechanisms of the initiative and its values. The alternatives questioning patriarchy, capitalism, racism, the state, anthropocentrism and other inter-related structures of oppression would be eligible to be a part of the initiative. The structure should be open, democratic and flexible but have a logistical core team to help foster the process. The initiative should be based on mutual learning with respect for diversity, solidarity and mutual support and collective visioning. The session was also useful to gather the contact details of interested observers.

Read full report

Two sessions on the proposal for an Earth Vikalp Sangam (EVS) / Global Alternatives Confluence (GAC) were organised during the International Degrowth Conference in Malmo, Sweden. About 40 people attended each of these sessions, several of them representatives of various networks, diverse initiatives, groups, and social movements. The sessions had stimulating discussions on what is an alternative, need of the EVS/GAC process, underlying principles that could be/should be used, and a possible structure. The discussions very mostly open-ended and exploratory since it was just the beginning.

Read full report