Building a Solidarity Economy based on Ethics and Ecology

7-9 July 2011, Caracas, Venezuela

Economy, ecology, community health, indigenous rights, cooperatives, women’s rights, and spiritual wisdom were presented by nationally and internationally recognized authorities at the “Building a Solidarity Economy based on Ethics and Ecology” conference in downtown Caracas. Approximately 400 people attended the three-day conference on July 7-9, 2011 organized by the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela.

Twenty-nine speakers presented, representing 15 progressive non-government organizations, a government-owned bank, two large cooperatives, and four university professors. All the speakers expressed that they were very inspired by the conference.

The speakers spoke in panels on the following topics.
Panel 1: “Solidarity Economy in Latin America: Lessons and Possibilities from Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba”.
Panel 2: “Consciousness, leadership and will: preserving our environment”.
Panel 3: “Cooperatives: Diagnosis and Solutions in Building Economic Democracy”.
Panel 4: “Ethics for Personal and Social Transformation”.
Panel 5: “The Creative Force of Community: Women, Identity, Health and Consciousness”.

The proceedings of the conference, the video report, and all the audio recordings and transcripts for each of the speakers can be found at: http://priven.org/global-conference-2011

 

Before the conference a total of 1,400 large, full color Prout posters were hung in the cities of Caracas, Guarenas, Guatire, Merida, Maracay and Barquisimeto, and viewed by thousands of people.

Over a thousand people stopped to see the Prout “thought exhibition” in front of the auditorium which had 10 banners with clear text and beautiful images that illustrated the following subjects: Introduction to Prout, Prout’s Economic Democracy, Prout Cooperatives, Prout and Ecology, Neohumanism, Spiritual Practices of Prout, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Prout Research Institute, Centro Madre Master Unit, and the Neohumanist Kindergarten.

One of the most popular speakers was Claudio Nascimento, activist and popular educator, cabinet member of President Lula da Silva, member of the National Secretariat for Solidarity Economy of President Dilma Rousseff. He is now writing a book for activists throughout Brazil and has requested us to contribute one chapter about Prout.

The media campaign for the conference resulted in articles published in ten different newspapers. Two television interviews were done, on TELESUR for 30 minutes which is broadcast in all the countries of Latin America, and on Venezuelan National Television VTV for 15 minutes. Five radio stations interviewed the Venezuelan Prout Institute: Radio Nacional de Venezuela (twice for one hour each), Radio Fe y Alegria (1 hour), Radio de Ateneo (10 min.) and Barquisimeto community radio (20 min.) An electronic newsletter for all of Latin America, Prensa Cooperativa, wrote about the conference, and five progressive webpages wrote about it.

www.economiasolidaria.org,www.gestionparticipativa.coopwww.cecosesola.blogspot.com, www.fundacionlatortuga.org, www.animanaturalis.org/home/ve.

The Spanish version of the morning presentations was broadcast live on www.seres.com.uy and www.somosseres.com.

At the end of the closing ceremony and final concert, all the participants and speakers danced to a very inspiring kiirtan.