WORLD WORLDWIDE SPAIN ARAGON - News Journal Update - (en) Spaine, Aragon, apoyomutuo: The Social Forum Collectivizes! bets on a new format in the third edition (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Activists from social organizations and Aragonese platforms met in La

Puebla de Híjar on September 23 and 24 to discuss a common agenda. ----
As in the first and second edition, Apoyo Mutuo Aragón has celebrated
the end of summer by organizing a Social Forum. This year, as a novelty,
the open format of the first two editions has been changed, based on
work tables, conferences and cultural events, opting for a space to
which specific activists, committed to an organization of the Aragonese
Social Movement, have been invited. . All participating in one of the
five tables, which corresponded to the lines of work of Apoyo Mutuo
Aragón: radical democracy, feminism and women's liberation, cultural
pluralism, ecosocial defense of the territory and economic democracy

The objective of this new format was for the Social Forum to serve to
build bridges, discuss strategies, debate the future to be built,... And
so it has been. A smaller forum, but made up of militants and activists,
has favored a higher quality debate. A debate in which Apoyo Mutuo
Aragón has shown the results of the work of building its political
position. Some ideas and positions that have been presented and debated
together with those of the activists of the Aragonese Social Movement
and that, at the Second Congress to be held in 2014, will become part of
the organization's Political Line. In this way, Mutual Support remains
committed to building itself through dialogue and action with the Social
Movement; because he does not conceive of any other way to build a
strong town, to develop Democratic Confederalism in Aragon supported by
the foundations of Libertarian Socialism.

This year 2023, the headquarters of Colectiviza! It was La Puebla de
Híjar (Bajo Martín region). As in previous editions, this municipality
was chosen because it was a place where communities were organized.
Collectivizations have inspired Apoyo Mutuo Aragón since its birth and
are part of its political and cultural references.

As is tradition, the organization welcomed people arriving from all over
Aragon with a breakfast. This space for socialization and exchange
remained active between the different activities, throughout the entire
weekend.

Next, the Mutual Support Organization Secretariat opened the day,
thanking the guests for their presence and explaining the new format of
the forum, which could be followed through the networks. Everything was
prepared to promote dialogue and with this horizontal layout of the
space, the first table began, on Radical Democracy, with speakers from
Muel con Rasmia, Acción Libertaria and Apoyo Mutuo Aragón. The dialogue
addressed, first of all, the limits and potential of electoral
participation at the municipal level. Secondly, the question was asked
about those same limits and potential outside the electoral sphere, in
order to have an impact on our environment. And, finally, the changes
necessary to overcome differences in strategies and advance common
strategies towards a realistic and emancipatory alternative for social
transformation were discussed.

The second table had as its axis cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and
religious diversity, which Apoyo Mutuo addresses from interculturalism
and internationalism, as tools to develop a new paradigm. With the
participation of Civil Rights activists and Feminists Aragón for
Nicaragua and a speaker from the organization, the table aimed, first of
all, to discuss the limitations and advantages of interculturalism,
understood as the political proposal that promotes positive
relationships between groups and people from different cultures,
languages, etc. This concept was nuanced and criticized, enriching its
possibilities by incorporating, on the one hand, the need not to
separate it from hierarchies such as patriarchy or colonialism and, on
the other hand, eradicating oppressive tools such as internal borders
(immigration laws, etc.) .

Secondly, there was discussion about the role of anti-racism as a common
point in the current fragmentation of groups that work in this area. And
the debate was closed, before opening the floor to interventions by
other participants, thinking together about the role of culture in the
necessary construction of references against liberalism, as a capitalist
ideology.

Toz Collectivizes you! They include a space to hold workshops and
promote positive links between militants from all the attending
organizations. After the socialization space, the feminism table began,
with speakers from AMAS Rurales and Lourdes García, an activist from 8M
Zaragoza. The dialogue began by analyzing the relationship between race,
class and sex, asking if the feminist movement was built assuming the
reality of all women. Secondly, the speakers reflected on the problems
that are central to feminism and on the responses that are being
articulated. The table closed with assessments about the current
situation of the feminist movement and the next steps that would have to
be taken.

To end the first day, the social forum offered a public conference, open
to the region, with the historian Román Sierra. It presented the history
of the labor movement in La Puebla de Híjar, closely linked to the sugar
beet industry. With anecdotes that surprised the public, such as the
first attempted riot, over food taxes, and the first strike in the
history of the municipality, both in 1912; or the presence of the
Lincoln Brigade in defense of the Second Republic, after the fascist
coup d'état.

After the conference, activists and neighbors participated in a walk
through La Puebla de Híjar, locating the places and buildings in which
the social revolution of 1936 had some significant moment. Thus we
learned that the first time there were women in the town's political
organizations was after the founding of the local union of the National
Confederation of Labor (CNT). Or that the CNT headquarters and the
Municipal Council were located in the main square, as the popular
government body. In that same square, in the socialist casino there were
three portraits, of Joaquín Costa, Pablo Iglesias and Francesc Ferrer i
Guardia.

With the common dinner we closed the first day, to resume the second
with the welcome breakfast and the first fourth table, on Economic
Democracy. In this space, Martín Lallana, from Anticapitalistas Aragón,
spoke with Chusé, a speaker from Apoyo Mutuo, around three axes. First,
what are our proposals for the economy in a democratic society. Should
it be planned? Centrally or decentralized? Among the common points, it
was understood that planning also implies the elimination of useless
jobs, reducing work time and resource consumption. Secondly, the paths
and steps to take to achieve this democratization of the economy, what
forms should they take? With what role for unions, the recovery of
companies, cooperatives,...? And, finally, how do we snatch from
capitalism and patriarchy the benefits they steal from us in unpaid
reproductive work, such as parenting or other care, all of which are
precarious and traditionally feminized jobs?

The last table, on ecosocial defense of the territory, featured
presentations by Noemí, from Bardenas Ya, and Teresa, from A Fueva No Se
Vende, who described the local scenarios of extractivism and internal
colonialism that the capitalist economy has imposed on the rural world.
. Pablo, from Apoyo Mutuo Aragón, also participated as a speaker,
proposing to use social ecology and ecofeminism as tools to redefine our
relationship with the territory, promoting the collective articulation
of new interdependent relationships, both between us and towards our
environment, under the paradigm of Democratic Confederalism.

The listening process moved on to a debate between the table and with
the attendees around three questions raised by the organization:
firstly, what alternatives exist in the current multi-crisis scenario
(social, ecological, climatic, economic, political, ...) and how can we
focus on them in the face of a degressive future? Secondly, the role
that the State and its institutions could play in channeling or
obstructing these democratic alternatives was discussed. From the table,
examples were given of how they want to deceive the population into
sacrificing rural territory and sending energy to the cities, placing
Aragon as a land of sacrifice, no matter who governs. And finally, we
discussed what structural foundations can guide us in the construction
of a new ecosocial paradigm in Aragon.

Like every edition, before closing the social forum we took stock of the
contributions collected for the resistance fund of the workers of the
Xiloca region in conflict with the FCC company, which were delivered to
the CNT union.

And, after the last table, the spokesperson for Apoyo Mutuo Aragón
expressed gratitude to the participating militants, to the City Council
of La Puebla de Híjar and to the organizational colleagues involved in
this third Colectiviza!, to which we put an end, enlivened with the
music of Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, with group photography, until the
fourth edition.

Presentations and contents.

In addition to part of the presentations, which you can read in
Collective bulletin number 11, a video summarizing the social forum will
soon be made public.

And you can listen to summaries of Colectiviza on social networks! On
the one hand, from Teruel, Radio Monotes has interviewed Laura,
co-spokesperson for Apoyo Mutuo Aragón, taking stock of this third edition.

On the other hand, on Pikaraza Radio, in the Cinco Villas, they have
presented interviews with participants at the tables.

https://apoyomutuoaragon.net/el-foro-social-colectiviza-apuesta-por-un-nuevo-formato-en-la-tercera-edicion
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