# ADELANTE GENERAL MEETING 02 December 2021 PARTICIPANTS: Eva, Leonard, Franco, Rosy, Shrishtee, Ashish, Frederic, Leo Gabriel,Tord, Pierre # AGENDA: -Check-in: Round of check-ins and welcome to Leonard who recently joined both Adelante and the facilitation team from Alternative in Montreal, Canada (working with Pierre). -Upcoming events: Post COP26, World Social Forum, FOSPA, Dakar Forum on Water # World Social Forum Inputs from Rosy and Leo. Plans for SF2022 to take place 1-7 May 2022 in Mexico in-person but will also have an online component. Have set up commissions with working groups: https://es.padlet.com/rosaelvazuniga/26tlew340wn32vwq Leo is part of the mobilisation commission to get people to join in the process. Also to understand the different needs in different regions. Would be happy to have representation from South Asia in the whole discussion process as well as getting participation. Ashish, Marco and Vasna participated in the dialogue on Saturday. One comment Ashish has is that the intermingling of themes is weak and can we creatively think of ways to cut across our comfort zones so we can try to build collaborations across sectors/cultures, etc. This would be extremely valuable. Adelante could play an important role in this and perhaps can help the WSF commissions to create some kind of structure for this cross-cutting format. Leo: Agree that this is important for a renewed Social Forum process.Need to get to subjects where different kinds of movements can identify themselves with. So finding those subjects that cut across sectors.One example is the Eva - should we have a seperate meeting on WSF and how Adelante can contribute. Action: Ashish and Vasna will organise a session to discuss WSF - mid or early January. 2. Dhaka Water Forum: Ask Marcos Arruda to give us more information. 3. Stockholm +50 Feedback from Tord. It is developing well and close connections with FOE International. Excellent for Adelante as a way to continue the process with a multi-issue set-up in Stockholm. Need more intellectual work to support these discussions and need more young people. Suggesting Movement Dialogue to keep a conversation thread going between events so there is more in-depth intellectual work. Action: Tord will share materials on Stockholm with the group. Rio+30 happening in June in Brazil and may be one to look out for. *Discussion that we need to have a running thread between all these events that we participate in. One suggestion is the Movement Dialogue that Tord suggests but could be more from Adelante's side. Leo: How do we feel ourselves as part of a global process if we don't meet at all events - need a common vision that allows us to then work at regional level through the different initiatives. Action: Could the specific meeting on WSF be used to think through a more strategic approach to what this particular group in Adelante brings and how are we strategic in what we do in different events and other activities? This is also important for our fund raising that we have a clear plan of what we will do in the short and long term. In this meeting, could we have a visioning exercise and also start a document on the themes and issues we are working with and some positions. As part of Adelante’s collective visioning process, building threads through various events we take part in and presenting some kind of collective identity, one crucial issue is how we make macro-change happen (e.g. on climate, inequality, war, biodiversity etc), building on and firmly rooted in place-based, local grassroots movements of resistance and alternatives? # Update on past-events (BRICs - COP26) BRICS - Organised a meeting on populism and authoritarian states with representation on Brazil, China, Phillipines, South Africa and India. It was a very productive discussion. Very good sharing of experiences and allowed for important comparatives from different contexts. For example, the worker's movement in India shared some strategies that were helpful. This is an on-going line which Adelante could keep developing with one or two meetings per year. https://adelante.global/doku.php?id=events:brics2021 We had some of the intelectual development that we're looking for - there's opportunities for depth in specific learning and we need to create time to capture and build on this. COP26 - Organised a webinar with International League of People's Struggles and people of the south. There was an in person and online session. Ashish spoke on radical alternatives Max Adda spoke on , and community members spoke on their experience. Good to work with ILPS - want to do more of that with them and in collaboratoin with other similar groups. 78 people in the inperson meeting and about the same online. https://adelante.global/doku.php?id=events:cop26 A follow-up meeting will be held tomorrow: https://iboninternational.org/2021/12/02/cop26-report-back-ways-forward/ Eva shared on the Grassroots2Global Sunset Assembly which Frederic and Vasna also participated in. Frederic has also been following the Global Parliament at Glasgow but realise that these get invented and re-invented over again. At Multiconvergence, have realised that the Global Citizen's Parliament process they have been working on needs to be reformulated and redesigned. Thinking about how to have world citizens together as a pre-condition to thinking of a Global Assembly. # Organizing reflective session on COP26 asking: how does the failure of COP to meaningfully address climate change affect our strategies? Are we looking to lean more strongly on the existing system through stronger protest/disruption? Are we planning more proactive attempts to develop alternatives at the local, national and international levels? Are there other approaches we would like to explore? We envisage a 2 hour session with short presentations from members who have developed some thinking on this, followed by small group discussions and questions/feedback to the whole group. We would like to check who is interested in this and whether 2-4pm UTC on the 7th, 9th, 14th or 16th would be possible for people. https://doodle.com/poll/7n9zn2tcb47de8dm?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link Action: Connect to the larger strategy meeting.Could have a two step process where we start with reflecting on the COP26 but with the intent of thinking about what are we building towards. Consider also what are our theories of change and how we connect the micro and the macro. We could present a few questions and then coalesce a common vision and identity around these. Reflection from Pierre: Bit of a new atmosphere after Glasgow and this gives energy. Also WSF is on the go which is great. # Update on finances Pierre: Find a bit of financial resources (50k USD) to allow us technical and coordination support. A few progressive foundations in the US which are being looked at including Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. Andrea is writing a draft and Pierre and Leonard are helping her. Current finances end soon which means Andrea will not be able to support us in a paid way but she has still agreed to volunteer. However for continuity we do want to fund her. Looking to the different process to continue to give support. GTA has budgeted for Adelante already. Could we even consider a crowd-funding exercise? Concern that we don't have enough to show for Adelante to be able to crowd fund. Main Action Point from today's meeting: Establishing together an strategic/action plan for Adelante 2022. Ashish and Vasna will organise a special session for this.Notes above. # Date of next meeting: Jan 6th 2-3.30pm UTC