In France for municipal elections, citizens are trying to thwart the old party system, which they no longer recognize as legitimate and too far removed from the social and ecological emergencies that concern them.

On the initiative of a few at the outset, they are creating alternative lists that no longer bring together the usual nomination candidates but citizens who come together on a project developed through consultations and meetings. In the end, the democratic exercise leads to the accession of a sufficient number of people to validate a list.

The website of the collective Action commune thus lists 157 participatory lists, “one third in villages of less than 2,000 inhabitants, one third in municipalities of 2,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, and one third in cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants”, says Thomas Simon, coordinator of the group, whose mission is to “accompany those who want to engage in citizen participation” (Reporterre 8 January 2020). An interactive map of these lists can be found on the Action commune website.

If these lists are not guaranteed to win the elections, they are an electric shock to the parties. They question the undemocratic methods of governing, by challenging the habits of verticality where the leader decides and surrounds himself with people who are committed to his cause. They highlight themes that the parties feel obliged to include in their programmes.

In addition, several associations have drafted proposals that they circulate in their networks for their members to take up and transmit to their elected officials.

Thus, the Collectif de la Transition citoyenne (Citizen Transition Collective) has drawn up a Pact for Transition inviting local networks to ask candidates to commit to at least 10 of the 32 proposals and to accompany / verify their implementation in the territories. The central objective of these proposals is to respond to the climate emergency and to repair social injustice.

The RTES (Réseau des Territoires pour l’Economie Solidaire) has published a municipal kit’ess containing about twenty sheets to support the initiative of municipalities towards more SSE in their local policy.

The UFISC (Union Fédérale d’Intervention des Structures Culturelles) proposes to the candidates and all those committed to their territories, arts and culture, 3 commitments declined through 20 concrete proposals (…) for a policy of cultural diversity based on cultural rights and a democratic and solidarity organisation.

The MES published : Elections Municipales. 12 questions.

Reporterre has also published its illustrated list of recommendations, this list is not exhaustive.

We are really witnessing an awakening of citizens to the negligence of governments blinded by their subservience to economic powers. The Spanish example and “municipalismo” infuse much of Europe and RIPESS , for whom the co-construction of public policies is a major axis of social transformation, is very happy about it.

Article written by Josette Combes

18th Regional Forum of Social and Solidarity Economy

in Occitanie

23 and 24 November 2018

SSE” symposium: You said you were changing scale ” crossed views of actors/entrepreneurs/researchers/researchers

The 18th Regional Forum of the Social and Solidarity Economy will put SSE actors at the centre of reflection and research and will join researchers to talk about a change of scale in SSE! Built with the Université Jean Jaurès and the Master Nouvelle Economie sociale, created by Jacques Prades, the Forum will honour the work of scientists who have contributed to a theoretical reflection on SSE in France and around the world: Jean-Louis Laville, Jean-François Draperi, Geneviève Azam will be present. Conferences, workshops, citizen debates….. as many spaces during two days to define together what we want in terms of social utility? What size of company? What financing? What governance? With which territorial roots?

Ripess Europe will be invited for a round table discussion on “scaling up in SSE, a European issue”

Crédit Coopératif, in the person of Jean-Louis Bancel, will chair the final conferences before an audience of elected representatives, citizens and SSE companies!

On March 22 and 23, 2018, the Solidarity Economy Movement organized its Printemps Solidaire, around the issue: What socio-economic models for the Solidarity Economy?

Fifty people came together at the Maison des réseaux artistiques et culturels in Paris, to reflect together on the development prospects of the Solidarity Economy and our movement.

On the occasion of the publication of the proceedings of the meeting find here a summary of our exchanges and download the proceedings of the meeting (in French).

In France, as the government prepares to complete the dismantling of public services, from rail to university, mobilisations and resistance are organized. This editorial calls to take into account, in addition to these mobilizations, the different forms of revolt but also initiatives carrying another “possible world”. The current social movement rekindles the sense of resistance to the laws of the market and financial speculation, reenact the revolts of the past and rediscovers the very essence of real democracy. The experience of the ZAD is eloquent in this respect, the state exercises the “monopoly of legitimate violence” against a collective management of commons, whose very idea is unacceptable by the current existing order. At the SNCF, in the hospital environment, in multiple companies, the idea is moving to reclaim production tools, to master its work, its skills and its efforts to act on their social utility. A variety of initiatives, rooted in the solidarity economy, contribute to the opening of new ways of social transformation.

Read the whole article – appeal here (in French – Liberation).

(Co-signed by: Michèle Riot-Sarcey, historian ; Francis Sitel, codirector of the magazine Contretemps ; Jean-Louis Laville, socio-économist of the Critique collective and member of the RIPESS Europe advisory council ; Lionel Maurel, author of the blog S.I.Lex ; Jean Claude Boual, Collectif des associations citoyennes ; Patricia Coler, Mouvement pour l’économie solidaire ; Claude Sicard, activist ; Laura Aufrère, member of the RIPESS Europe Coordination Committee).

Since 2002, in all of France, a “Cooperation in education week” takes place: debates on the cooperative practices, cooperative games, contests… the goal is to show the cooperative practices school and outside schools, to introduce students to the cooperation within the learning of the democratic debate and familiarize parents, students and teachers about school cooperation issues. Tools are available on the website of Coop FR: support courses, game, tools, etc. This year, it took place from 14 to 19 March 2016.

Starting from 2017, this week will turn into “The Social Solidarity Economy school week” at the initiative of the ESPER (Economy social partner of the School of the Republic), an association which brings together nearly fifty organizations from the world of education and the ESS.
Read more

A new space “federating the actors of the Social Solidarity Economy” has been put online by the Secretariat of State to the Social Solidarity Economy in France: www.esspace.fr.