For those living in Alternatiben Herria, the climate disaster is no more than a symptom, and we have to fight against it, but the important thing is what that situation has brought: the capitalist system. It is already clear to the citizens of this country that it is not enough to fight capitalism, they are becoming more and more entrenched that alternatives must be built. That is the People's Day of Alternatives: everyone who wants and thinks about alternatives shows their experiences and ideas and exchanges. Learn, reflect, train, weave and enjoy. Here are the main keys of the day.

Transitional noise

The journey from feudalism to capitalism was almost two centuries. For some authors, like the British journalist Paul Mason, we're already in post-capitalism, and the pillars of the current system are full of cracks. In his words, the transition has already begun. Who knows, but those who will meet on 2 June in Pamplona will not expect the results of that transition, the transition is being worked on today in all areas of society.

The protests launched in 1999 against the capitalist globalization of the Seatl in the United States flourished in Brazil in 2001: Porto Alegre shouted at neoliberalism “Another world is possible”. The wick of the beginning of the twenty-first century is still on the brink of the increasingly diverse, deepening and transformative Basque popular movement.

British neoliberal president Margaret Thatcher spread “There is not alternative” (there is no alternative). “Yes, another world is possible and we have alternatives,” 50 popular movements, associations, companies and unions from the Region of Pamplona have responded. Session of Baiona 2013 Bizi!, linked to the Manu Robles-Arangiz Institute of ELA. The movement ordered it. The Bilbao and the People of Alternatives of Pamplona/Iruña, have been in charge of channeling the Social Rights Letters of the Basque Country.
Six neighborhoods for a new town.

Although the day is celebrated in the Casco Viejo de Pamplona, the scope of the alternatives wants to show all of Navarre. But it is not easy, in the region of Pamplona it lives more than half of the territory, and this is also evident in the popular movements. Six thematic neighborhoods share their activity in the People of Alternatives: Crucible (culture, language…); Neighborhood Economy; Diverse and dignified lives; Sovereignty; Children’s Republic; and Peoples and Earth.

In this last neighborhood is, for example, the subject that has been the first municipal electric retailer in the Basque Country: Isaba City Hall. In the Pyrenees you only have to take a small tour to see how many hydroelectric plants there are, but most are in the hands of large companies. In Navarre, three of these plants are in the hands of the municipalities, one of which is from Isaba. This country has been controlling the production of electric power since the 1960s, then it assumed distribution and has recently intervened in the commercialization through the public company Ezka Ibaia Energia, S.L. An exemplary step in the light of the fact that in recent decades municipalities have privatized many basic services. Now, despite being one of the major obstacles, a few municipalities have begun to make public some of these services.

Ongoing

Energia Gara and Goiener are the most powerful cooperative spaces that have been created in recent years in the field of electricity. The alternative has also emerged in the field of telephony that the transformative social economy had not perforated: Izarkom. Also, in 2014, the Lasnato social initiative cooperative was established, with the objective of creating a laboratory of coexistence in the world of education. The local currency Euskoa is also marking its way in Ipar Euskal Herria, and there are already 3,000 people or entities that use it as a currency: they manage that wealth within that group to pay for their operations, and the Euskos do not go to anyone's pocket or to the European Central Bank, for example, to give the banks 0% and these to us 8%. Nobody intends to speculate with the Basque Country, to enrich it. Another example? The hucha, the young platform for Basque crowfunding, is also on its way.

There are also consumption groups, local producers – close and ecological – (as in EHKOlektiboa), popular orchards such as Piparrika, El Gallinero, Bilgune feminist, Kattalingorri, the Antzara neighbourhood association of Mendillorri, the Hemen Konpon initiative of the Traperos de Ema57, Olatugran Koop.

With the appearance of blows, the iceberg of sexual assaults becomes increasingly evident on the part of organized women; on 8 March there was a special emotion in the back of the citizenship of Alternatiben Herria. A similar feeling is anchored within us when tens of thousands of pensioners take the seats and avenues of this people. The large majorities believed to be on the periphery of society come to the center to receive it. Thanks to the work of the Chrysallis association, Basque citizenship is better acquainted with the situation of transgender boys and girls in the Basque Country. The LGTBI movement has achieved unprecedented visibility in Navarre and cares to show good... Richter are earthquakes of different strength on a social scale, but the pillars of the current status quo are shaking again and again.

These and many other areas will also be worked on in the village of the Alternatives of Pamplona/Iruña. They want to reverse the current situation. A revolution? It could be, but this has nothing to do with the Soviets' revolt a century ago. Each era has its own and the current one is not based on the working class, but on hundreds of struggles and alliances. But that has its problems. How on earth is a general and concrete alternative built if each one looks at his own thing and the most important thing is his struggle for each one? There may be many answers, but one is the one that has just left us in the title of LARRUN in April the Catalan philosopher Marina Garcés: “In every concrete struggle everything is at stake.”

The greatness of humanity

The library that Katakrak opened at the end of 2013 in the Gran Vía de Pamplona is beautiful. And much more than that, among other things, the epicenter of this earthquake in Pamplona. From there, the young Maitane Unzu works in coordination over the last nine months, coordinating the meeting of the six neighborhoods and weaving this complex web. They have a budget of between 30,000 and 40,000 euros to build the People of Alternatives and tickle capitalism. For this purpose they have the loan from the financial cooperative of Koop57, the collection of Itsulapiko and all kinds of contributions and sales.

And yet, in the face of the relentless and firm steps of neoliberalism, there will be those who think, quite rightly, what will all these tickles serve. There is no doubt that in the conferences, round tables and debates of the People of Alternatives there will be many answers to this question. One of them may be the one left by Hannah Arentd, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century who dreamed of the alternative: “With dignity, perseverance and a little courage, the greatness of humanity has been built over the centuries.”

In this connection, the representative of the Charter of Social Rights of the Basque Country, Amaia Zufia, has also made an assessment of the People of Alternatives.

(In the following images you can see what will be on June 2 in the Casco Viejo de Pamplona)