atalc: sustainability school supports resistance, fosters mobilization

As an environmental federation, Friends of the Earth International has a key political role to play in supporting community resistance and fostering popular mobilization. In the quest to build vital leadership and capacities towards these ends, the idea of the Sustainability School emerged.

what happened: Organized by Friends of the Earth Colombia/ Censat Agua Viva, the first session of the school got underway in Santardecillo, Colombia, from November 19-22, 2007. The aim was to take the first steps toward an educational space by offering regional Friends of the Earth groups an opportunity to exchange experiences, debate, reflect, and plan strategically to strengthen the social and political processes in the region.

Delegates from most Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC ) groups participated, including experienced and young activists. People from other national and regional organizations were invited enhance the interaction and ensure the school reaches a wide range of social movements and organizations. As a pre-requisite, all participants were asked to agree to start a the school in their own countries, in the hope that this model will be widely replicated.

ATALC member organizations put together the program and created the bibliography to feed the session’s debates. This in itself was an important capacity building experience. All participants were asked to prepare by reading this material, and by thinking about how issues to be analysed at the school operated in their own contexts.

The educational program centred on social-political ecology and the meaning of nature within the neoliberal paradigm. Peoples' struggles were a major focus. Two types of sessions were held: plenary sessions with keynote speakers highly experienced in the area addressed, to provoke the debate; and working groups, which allowed in-depth debate in smaller groups, to permit interaction and knowledge sharing. Participants were offered both theoretical and practical foundations to nourish their activism and campaign work.

One important aspect was the intergenerational exchange amongst the 60 activists who worked and national and local levels. Together they committed to spreading lessons learned in the areas of ecology and culture; environmental justice; trade agreements; social movements and current politics.

lessons learned: Creating these educational spaces provided many positive outcomes. The first sesion strengthened the leadership-building process for the region’s social-political environmental movement. It also offered theoretical and practical tools for operating in complex national/local contexts. At the same time it allowed the wide range of participants to interact and gain better understanding of each others’ contexts, struggles, strategies and actions. Last but not least, it allowed regional FoE members, especially younger ones, to gain deeper knowledge of the federation’s and ATALC's vision and mission, structures and political positions and stances on key programmatic issues.

Creating this educational space was also an important experience for the organizers at FoE Colombia. The team learned how to organize an international event, and implement a movement-strengthening educational methodology. The school  also strengthened the profile and intellectual capital of the host group, as well as its relationship with those participating.

what next: The Sustainability School aims to become a permanent capacity-building process. New experiences to build environmental leadership are expected, nationally (in ATALC countries), regionally (ATALC groups plus other host-country social movements and organizations), and even internationally. Methods will be assessed and revised along the way, to improve the process and ensure all participants gain as much as possible.

with thanks to our funders: the dutch ministry of foreign affairs