Dette års internationale Transform-konference i København finder sted nu på lørdag fra klokken 9:30 til 17:30 hos HK Hovedstaden, Svend Aukens Plads 11.

Den engelsksprogede konference har overskriften: "Building Red-Green Alternatives: Can Commons challenge Neo-liberalism from below?"

Omdrejningspunktet for konferencen er nødvendigheden af at udvikle alternativer til privatisering af vores fælles ressourcer og alternativer til nyliberalismen. Temaet privatisering fik fornyet aktualitet, da det sidst år kom frem, at regeringen havde bedt McKinsey udarbejde rapporten ”Forsyningssektorens effektiviseringspotentiale”.

Denne rapports konklusion står i skarp modsætning til den rapport, som Transnational Institute (TNI) har udarbejdet, en rapport som dokumenterer 235 eksempler på afprivatisering af vandforsyninger, netop eksempler hvor det offentlige har valgt at tage administrationen og vandforsyning tilbage på offentlige hænder.

TNI’s rapport dækker eksempler fra 37 lande og vandforsyning til 100 millioner Mennesker i blandt andet USA, Tyskland og Frankrig. Dette er anledningen til, at konferencen har inviteret Satoko Kishimoto, medforfatter på TNI’s rapport, som oplægsholder på konferencen.

Konferencen har sammensat et international panel af specialister, eksperter og praktikere på forskellige felter, og talerne bidrager med både praktiske erfaringer og videnskabelig dokumentation om temaerne: Privatisering, råstofudvinding samt opbygning af fællesskaber og kooperativer.

I Danmark har vi erfaringer med andelsbevægelser og vindmøllelaug, men i mange andre lande er der erfaring med fælles eje, allemandsret ”commons”, forbrugereje og koorperativer samt andre ejerformer. Dette er grunden til, at konferencen har inviteret Tom Kucharz fra Spanien og Fred Freudlich fra USA/Spanien og professor i "cooperative enterprise”, Mondragon University in Baskerlandet, som oplægsholdere.

Konferencens mål er at give inspiration, trække på og udbrede de internationale erfaringerne fra andre lande og verdensdele for at kunne kvalificere og nuancere debatten i Danmark. Talerne er: Tom Kucharz, Llorens Planagumá fra Spanien og Fred Freundlich fra USA/Spanien, Satoko Kishimoto Japan/Holland, Chantal Delmas Frankrig, Aaja Chemnitz Larsen Grønland, Julieta Paredes Bolivia og Sukhgerel Dugersuren Mongoliet.

Se program på: www.transformdanmark.dk

Tilmelding: kontakt@transformdanmark.dk – deltagerprisen er 100 kroner. 

Programme

International Transform Conference in Copenhagen, Saturday, 18 March 2017

Building Red-Green Alternatives:  

Can Commons challenge Neo-liberalism from below?

Venue: HK København, Svend Aukens Plads 11, 2300 Copenhagen S

9:30     Registration and coffee/tea croissants

10:00     Welcome

10:15-11:00 Tom Kucharz, Spain, Ecologistas en Acción.

“How to use “Commons” in defending public goods and transforming society”

The threat of privatisation of public goods and services in Europe and globally. Experiences from concrete struggles against TTIP, CETA, etc. and other so-called “free trade” agreements in Europe and elsewhere.

11:00-11:45 Satoko Kishimoto, Japan, Transnational Institute (TNI), Amsterdam. A Coordinator of the Public Alternative project in TNI and Reclaiming Public Water Network since 2005. Her latest edited book is Our Public Water Future: The global experience with remunicipalisation (2015). 

 “Reclaiming public services as Commons: strategies for Remunicipalisation and Democratisation”

In the past 15 years, there have been at least 235 cases of water remunicipalisation in 37 countries, affecting more than 100 million people. Despite growing evidence failure, promotion of privatisation and PPPs has remained strong as a solution for financing public services and infrastructure. Local authorities are facing a major challenge in how to finance public services and infrastructure without entering into PPPs and other neoliberal options.

11:45-12:00 Break

12:00-13:00 Questions and debate

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-16:30 Parallel seminars on 1) The dangers of extraction - keeping raw materials in the ground; 2) Commons and Cooperatives - and the struggle against privatisation.

Seminar 1: The dangers of extraction – keeping raw materials in the ground 

Sukhgerel Dugersuren, Mongolia, Executive Director of Oyu Tolgoi Watch, human rights and environmental defender

“Extraction in Mongolia”

Since early 2000s there have been heavy extraction in South Gobi Desert to the detriment of environment, human communities and animals in this ecologically sensitive region. Traditionally local communities are nomadic herders roaming with their animals through thin pastures of the Gobi. Large mining corporations have taken away not only pastures but most importantly the life sustaining water resources in this desert environment. The corporation do not recognize traditional rights of indigenous population extracting underground water at 870 m₃ per second rate for their mega mines.

Llorens Planagumá, Catalonia, Spain, geologist, promoting laws against fracking

“Fracking in Europe”

The environmental impacts in rural landscapes: Danger of contamination of groundwater supplies due to the use of chemical products; overexploitation of the aquifers given that fracking requires large amounts of water; traffic and noise associated with heavy industry.

Hydraulic fracturing is not compatible with other economic activities such as agriculture and tourism. Europe needs to promote policies that will defend the right of people to live in a healthy environment and the protection of the environment in which people live should be declared as of public interest.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, Greenland, MP of Inuit Ataqatigiit.

“Global Warming and Extraction in Greenland”

Greenland is rich in raw materials and some Greenland politicians wish to make the most of this to the benefit of the economy. Plans for extraction include extraction of uranium and fossil oil. What are the consequences of this for the environment, for the climate and for the population?

Seminar 2: Commons and Cooperatives – and the struggle against privatisation?

Chantal Delmas, France, co-coordinator of the project of "Commons" in Transform!Europe network, and on social re-appropriation in Espaces Marx (France) 

“What can bring the concept of Commons into the Labour Movement?”

How can the labour movement fight against “There Is No Alternative”?

The question of ownership in the private and public sector.

May we rethink institutions and the question of state through the concept of Commons?

Julieta Paredes, Bolivia, poet and author, part of Women Creating Community, co-founder of Mujeres Creando, a Bolivian anarcha-feminist collective.

“Women creating Commuinty”

How to create Community from the perspective of indigenous women. How does the Community relate to society as a whole? How can communities improve the role of indigenous women?

Fred Freundlich, Basque Country, USA and Spain, a professor of cooperative enterprise and cofounder of a masters’ program on the social economy at the Faculty of Business, Mondragon University in the Basque Country of Spain. 

 "The Commons in the Core Economy? Potential Clues from the Mondragon Cooperative Experience" 

Mondragon is a large, integrated network of over 100 worker cooperatives in many sectors.  Over 50 years of experience, Mondragon has developed a perspective on the Commons and the enterprise that many people think is important to social change movements. This perspective is based on broad worker ownership in the core economy within a framework of solidarity and intercooperation among enterprises.

16:30-16:45 Coffee break

16:45-17:30 Panel conclusion and short round-up

Organisers:  Transform!Danmark in cooperation with transform!europe, Enhedslisten/the Red-Green Alliance, Afrika Kontakt, Solidaritet, Det Ny Clarté, Kritisk Debat, Grobund,  and others.