Who we are
The EMN is a project conceived and developed by individual, collective and institutional actors interested in the promotion of municipalist initiatives, as a way of strengthening local democracy and promoting social and environmental justice. We understand that municipalism aims to build political power from the ground up, challenge the current model of institutional top-down governance and implement radical forms of democratisation and feministisation of the way institutional politics works, as a contrast to the conservative and nationalist drift of Nation States.Our goal is to create supporting structures and generate political spaces that strengthen this political hypothesis in Europe.
What we expect
This Open Call has a total budget of 20.000 EUR to grant an amount between 1.000 and 3.000 EUR each to locally grounded activities. The objective of the call is to support municipalist actors and social and institutional organisations interested in the promotion of municipalist values in their work towards:
- Development of narratives of municipalism as a bottom-up alternative to neoliberalism and authoritarian practices.
- Implementation of non-state based policies that incorporate the principles of self-management, direct democracy and mutual aid in the institutions (e.g. commons, cooperatives, etc.)
- Strengthening of local and translocal networks working within municipalist principles.
What do we understand by Municipalism
As outlined in the rationale of our European Municipalist Ecosystem [see the map we produced here], the definition of ‘municipalism’ is tricky and disputed. To remain as open as possible while providing a scope for action, in the mapping we have identified a set of characteristics of these projects:
- Linked to the territory at the local scale
- Based on the collaboration and aggregation of different actors
- Aims to transform existing institutional structures
- Interested in an international network
Assuming the organisations work along the following principles:
- Promotion of self-government and the autonomy of the local scale
- Defence of social justice
- Generation of Establish radical democracy and participatory procedures
- Work towards de-commodification of life
- Ascribe to feminist, ecological and decolonial values
The process
If your organisation is working along these lines and would like to carry on activities that cover one or more of the mentioned aspects, you will be able to present a proposal to the Open Call. A voting among the EMN community will select the projects to be implemented in the following five months.
Who can participate
We open this Call to individuals and organisations that have participated in the organisation and implementation of previous EMN activities. Anybody in the EMN mailing list will be able to present a proposal in the name of their organisation, and to participate in the voting. As this is a very modest call, we would like to address it to local grass-roots organisations, with whom we will sign a Memorandum of Understanding . After the proposals presentation, the EMN coordination team will make sure that they fulfil the required criteria before opening them to the voting.
Timeline
This Call will be open for proposals on Monday 7th of November, with the following timeline:
