Eco-swaraj: Radical Ecological Democracy Alternatives to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Eco-swaraj: Radical Ecological Democracy

Alternatives to Unsustainability & Inequity

Ashish Kothari Kalpavriksh

Today’s menu …

• Unappetiser: violence of development / growth
• Appetiser: alternatives at the grassroots
• Main dish: frameworks of transformation
• Coffee: some key questions to ponder over
• Dessert: confluences

India ...

• Human settlement 70,000 years old
• Urban ‘civilisations’ 5000 years old
• Population: 1.2 billion people
• Livelihoods: 65-70% agriculture dependent
• Culture: 800 living languages
• Complex social dynamics: caste, religion,

ethnicities

• Biodiversity: 7-8% of world biodiversity on

2% of its landmass

• 150+ years of colonisation by Britain;

independence 1947

Economic globalisation

• 1947-1991: Socialist economy
• 1991-onwards: Integration into global economy:

– Privatisation / foreign investments – Liberalisation – Export-import priority – Consumption boom

India’s Impressive Growth

• World’s 2nd highest growth rate; 7th largest economy
• 800 million mobile phones
• Indian corporations now multinational
• Better services/opportunities for middle class

Dominant vision of ‘development’

Violence against nature, communities, and cultures … growth as cancer

Self-devouring growth

World Bank (2013): Costs of environmental damage = 5.7% points econ. Growth

(impacts taken into account)

• urban & indoor air pollution
• inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene
• agricultural damage by soil salinity, water-logging and soil erosion
• pasture degradation
• deforestation

Jobless growth; continuing and new poverty

• Myth of growing employment: ‘jobless

growth’ in organised sector:

– 26.7 million in 1991 – 30 million in 2012

• 20% unemployment among youth
• % below poverty line: 38 to 70%
• World’s largest number of malnourished

and undernourished women/children

• 60 million people displaced by

‘development’ projects

‘Green revolution’ model

• High cost of inputs, low purchase prices = farmer indebtness
• Destruction of soil productivity, dependence on market & govt

Destruction of India’s agriculture

>300,000 suicides (many in heartland of green revolution!)

Clash of civilisations …

From livelihoods as ways of life …

… to livelihoods as jobs, divorced from rest of life:

Violence against each of us: our identity, our health, our well-being!

Livelihoods to Deadlihoods

Illustrator unknown

1% richest own 50% wealth!!!!

Growing inequities, deprivation

Are there alternatives?

Alternatives to what? Structural roots of unsustainability & inequity

Concentration of power Capitalism State-dominated regimes Patriarchy Caste / race / ethnicity ….

Resistance …

… is part of the alternative

“Civil society responsible for 2-3% GDP loss” Ministry

• f Home Affairs

satyagraha

Assertion of self- determination & ancient ways of life, recognition of the unrecognised

Dongria Kondh indigenous people vs. Vedanta corporation & Indian state

India: alternative initiatives for well-being

Water Crafts Shelter Food Energy Governance Livelihoods Conservation

Village revitalisation Urban sustainability

Learning Health

Producer companies

Inclusion Sexuality Gende r

Alternatives across the world

Commons Solidarity economy Degrowth Buen vivir / sumaq kawsay Ubuntu / ukama / unhu Ecofeminism Agroecology / permaculture Biocivilisation Ecosocialism Zapatista Kurdish Rojava Kyosei Country

Food sovereignty: sustainable agriculture

• Reviving traditional agr diversity, community grain banks
• Empowering women/dalit farmers, securing land rights
• Creating consumer-producer links (Zaheerabad org. food restaurant)
• Linking to Public Distribution System
• Community media (films, radio)

Deccan Development Society (Andhra Pradesh)

Water security: do we need big dams and canals?

Arvari Sansad (Parliament), Rajasthan: water and food sovereignty through ecoregional governance

Natural resources: conservation & livelihoods

Self-rule & decentralised governance: Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)

Informed decisions through monitoring, and regular study circles (abhyas gat)

All decisions by consensus in gram sabha (village assembly)

Conservation of 1800 ha forests, now with full rights under Forest Rights Act

Vivek Gour-Broome

Earnings from sustainable forest use (over Rs. 20 million in last few years), and use of govt schemes towards:

• Full employment, energy security, new

livelihoods (barefoot engineers, GIS mapping)

2013: all agricultural land donated to village, collective ownership

“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi, we are the government in our village”

Elsewhere in the world ….

• Indigenous peoples’ assemblies
• Zapatista self-governed region: people’s assemblies,
• versight councils, rotating ‘leadership’
• Kurdish Rojava autonomous region
• Latin American experiments: direct and delegated

democracy (e.g. Venezuela’s consejos comunales,

neighbourhood assemblies “we don’t want to be government, we want to govern”)

• Australia east coast corridor, landscape-level

governance

• and many more …

Indigenous peoples’ and community conserved areas (ICCAs)

Livelihood security

Jharcraft

(Jharkhand) Employment for >3 lakh families… reviving crafts, reducing outmigration

Dharani farmer producer company, Andhra Pradesh

(facilitated by Timbaktu Collective)

Rural revitalisation:

• utmigration is not inevitable

Ralegan Siddhi & Hivare Bazaar (Maharashtra), Kuthambakkam (TN) Kudumbashree (Kerala)

Right to a Sustainable City

• self-reliance in water (India’s lowest rainfall)
• solid waste management and sanitation
• re-commoning of spaces
• livelihoods for the poor
• self-built, dignified housing for poor

(Hunnarshala, Sahjeevan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, ACT, Setu)

Middle class actions …

Lake revival / conservation, water harvesting, garbage management (Bengaluru, Salem)

Participatory budgeting (Bengaluru/Pune)

‘Maptivism’ by Transparent Chennai reStore (non-profit store), Chennai

Elsewhere in the world ...

• Factory take-over and democratic running by workers,

Argentina, Greece …

• Land re-appropriation movement (MST), Brazil
• Commons / solidarity initiatives, cooperatives (e.g.

Barcelona’s Cooperativa Integral)

• Local /social currencies (Helsinki, Bristol, Barcelona?)
• Cuba’s urban agriculture
• Transition Towns, Europe
• and many more…

Knowledge, consciousness, attitudes, worldviews …

Learning / education: re-locating it in community, ecological roots, creativity, inquisitiveness …

• Adharshila, MP
• Jeevanshala, Narmada
• SECMOL, Ladakh
• Imli-Mahua, Chhattisgarh
• Marudam, Tamil Nadu
• Adivasi Academy, Guj
• Swaraj University, Rajasthan
• Beeja Vidyapeeth, Uttarakhand
• Bhoomi College, Karnataka

         Skhole = leisure!

Intergenerational transmission of knowledge

• Surshala (music)
• Karigarshala (construction)
• Sagarshala (coastal communities)
• Kala Vidyapeeth (crafts)
• Parageohydrologists

Traditional & new skills for livelihoods

Technology by/for/with/of people

Technological innovations to reduce ecological impact, reach & be governed by the marginalised (malkha cotton weaving, AP; Hunnarshala housing, Kachchh; Solar passive architecture, Ladakh)

Alternative Media, Communications, Arts

Freedom from govt & corporate control:

• Community radio (>150); FM?
• Mobile-based (CGNetSwara, Chhattisgarh)
• Movement newsletters, folk theatre
• Film/video (Video Volunteers)
• Internet (Scroll, Wire, Infochange, India Together …)
• ‘Social’ networks … virtual communities

Pic: Puroshottam Thakur

The government responds…

• New laws:

– Right to Information Act – National Employment Guarantee Act – Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006

• New programmes:

– Organic farming policies / programmes in 16 states: Sikkim 100% by 2015, Kerala by 2020? – Activity-based learning, Tamil Nadu

Can we discern elements of a holistic framework from these initiatives?

Ecological resilience & wisdom Radical democracy Economic democracy Social justice & wellbeing Culture & knowledge diversity

Towards a sustainable and equitable society

5 interconnected, integrated circles

Eco-swaraj: Radical ecological democracy

(Radical = going to the roots, challenging the conventional)

• achieving human well-being, through:

– empowering all citizens & communities to participate in decision-making – ensuring socio-economic equity & justice – respecting the limits of the earth Community (at various levels) as basic unit of organisation, not state or private corporation

A NEW POLITICS

Direct democracy (local): decentralised and nested decision- making Direct democracy (state/national): referendums & deliberative processes Delegated/representative democracy, with mechanisms of accountability (right to recall, public audit, reporting back…) Ecoregional planning across states and countries … political units aligned with ecological and cultural ones? Borderless world? Conditions: Rights, Capacity, Forums, and Maturity

A NEW ECONOMICS

Mindful of ecological / planetary limits Open localisation: self-sufficiency/sovereignty in basic needs, larger trade built on this Production, consumption (prosumption) locally controlled; & sustainable consumption line? Re-integrating work & leisure: livelihoods Re-commoning private & state property Demonetisation & decentralisation of currencies: Relations of caring/sharing, local exchange systems, restructuring the market (haat)

Biekerech (Luxembourg): Energy Autonomy, Sustainability, Decarbonisation

Towards 100% self-sufficiency in energy (heating, power)

Local currencies, or demonetising exchange!

Beki local currency, Biekerech, Luxembourg

A JUST SOCIETY

Towards equity amongst classes castes (eradication of) genders ethnic groups species ‘able’ities Towards universal rights-based approaches (including for children!), infused with responsibilities … sarvodaya

CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE

Respecting non-divisive diversity of languages, cuisines, knowledges Democratic R&D / S&T / knowledge / innovation: in public domain, participatory, transparent Media and arts commons Opportunities for spiritual / ethical growth (without falling into trap of communal religious institutions)

Alternative globalisation

• Global flow of ideas, cultures, materials

(millennia old) NOT

• Globalisation dominated by:

–unrestricted financial and economic flows –imposition of one model of ‘development’ across the world

RENEWED RELATIONSHIP WITH/IN NATURE

• Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies,

ideologies, polities, cultures…)

• Self-reliance for basic needs (swavalamban)
• Self-governance / autonomy (swashasan / swaraj)
• Cooperation, collectivity, solidarity, commons
• Rights with responsibilities of meaningful participation
• Dignity & creativity of labour (shram)
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity / justice / inclusion (sarvodaya)
• Simplicity / sufficiency / enoughness (aparigraha)
• Rights of nature / respect for all life forms
• Non-violence, peace, harmony (ahimsa)
• Subsidiarity & ecoregionalism

Values & principles of transformative alternatives ….

Worldviews from elsewhere …

• Indigenous peoples’ territorial struggles and notions of

well-being

– buen vivir: sumak kawsay (Andes), suma qamana (Bolivia), kume mongen (Chile) – ubuntu (S. Africa), umuntu (Uganda), ukama (Zimbabwe), eti uwem (W. Africa)

• Degrowth, Commons, Solidarity economy,

Biocivilisation, Ecosocialism …

Issues for dialogue….

Would there be a state? Its form and role? What would be the nature of global governance? (Not the UN!) Would there be a private business sector? Profits, or revenues channelised back into social purposes?

Issues for dialogue….

How do scattered, often small initiatives face larger forces? Who will catalyse the transformation: Mass movements? NGOs? Worker unions? Political parties? What is nature of individual freedoms within community living?

Vikalp Sangams (Alternatives Confluences):

practical collaborations, democratic visioning of futures

Vikalp Sangams (regional)

Andhra Pradesh, Oct 2014 Tamil Nadu, Feb 2015 Ladakh: July 2015 Maharashtra, October 2015 Kachchh, July 2016

• W. Himalaya, Aug 2016

(thematic)

Energy democracy: March 2016 Food sovereignty : 2016 & 2017 Youth: early 2017 Learning and education: 2017 Arts: 2017?

Visioning the future, grassroots-up

(www.alternativesindia.org)

www.vikalpsangam.org

transformap.co

wiki.p2pfoundation.net

A wild idea: how about a big GAFf?

Global Alternatives Forum

• chikikothari@gmail.com

For continuing the dialogue …