A message to Chilean constituents: don't give up on political innovation

Women understand well the desire for freedom, they understand the battle for rights, for space, for the word;

They understand the issue of the search for their own identity, they have a multiple and attentive look.

Luckily, every day more women abandon the bonds of submission and show the paradigmatic beauty of their struggle for equality, so transcendent that it contains, in itself, the evolution of humanity towards levels of civilization that truly mark a better world.

There are moments in this trajectory that are so remarkable that they give a new impetus, not only to the societies and populations directly involved, but to all the global time with which they interact and impact.

In our time, one of those moments comes from Chile, the first Constituent Assembly guided by gender parity, presided over by a woman of Mapuche origin, guided by the rights of nature, as well as the rights of the human being.

This is a historical fact of enormous significance, to which the world must pay attention, must support it to advance against all difficulties and pressures, consecrating a new turn in the wheel of human presence on the planet.

More information

• The future is here: the Chilean Constituent Assembly analyzed by women

• The Chilean Constituent Assembly innovates, but must guard against reactionism

There is no doubt that it will be difficult - change is always complex and attracts fierce and powerful opponents - yet there is so much energy derived from the unprecedented egalitarian presence of women and the tight focus on the environmental emergency expressed in climate change, that Chile has a unique opportunity to demarcate the territory of urgent and necessary transformations in politics, in the concept of power, in the revalidation of the key notion of democracy and in innovative collective decision-making processes, especially due to the prevalence, in practice, of gender equality in the composition of the Constituent Assembly.

This inspires me particularly, seeing idealistic young women together with so many companions who have advanced the strategic struggles for the common good, at the cost of swimming against the current of a brutal, structurally racist, exclusive and destructive system in its mistaken centrality and unlimited, which has done so much damage to the planet, to people in general, to the most vulnerable and persecuted groups, of which indigenous and traditional populations are examples.

So, while hope shines in this historical event, I am also concerned to see that it will be a close battle and one of enormous difficulties. It is comforting to know that there is already a feminine capacity learned from resilience in the midst of turbulence and violence of all kinds. There is a social, cultural and political technology that is acquired in the differentiated way of acting and reacting to make rights, freedoms and wills prevail. This is a global achievement and, in Latin America, it is particularly strong. It is not only in the cities, but in the way of life of the peoples of the Amazon, with their traditional knowledge associated with natural resources and the complex dimensions of human existence, in the way of interacting with nature, experiencing time , be in community.From all this arises the ability to generate horizontal collective processes, not particularized in a name, in a single leadership.

I experience the effect of these experiences, processes and learnings in my life. A particular case showed the quality of this way of making feminine singular: when I was Minister of the Environment of Brazil, one of the main decisions of me and my team was to approach deforestation in the Amazon from a new approach, that is, creating a great decision-making process based on the inclusion of all the groups involved, from traditional communities to governors, federal officials from various areas, from indigenous peoples to NGOs, military, scientists, non-illegal landowners, unions, associations, cooperatives . Given this,a highly qualified ministry official was surprised and said that the most difficult thing about working with me was the intense and constant search for democracy and collective decisions In fact, the concept was to seek consistency and effective adherence to decisions through openness to that everyone could express their points of view, contribute their knowledge and from there a result was born with which they felt committed. Without the toxic anxiety of individual authorship, with the necessary plasticity that favors the encounter in the midst of differences, without the fixity of the "owners" of public policies, seeking total transparency and attachment to the social and cultural process of the region .The concept was to seek consistency and effective adherence to decisions through openness so that everyone could express their points of view, contribute their knowledge and from there a result with which they felt committed was born. Without the toxic anxiety of individual authorship, with the necessary plasticity that favors the encounter in the midst of differences, without the fixity of the "owners" of public policies, seeking total transparency and attachment to the social and cultural process of the region .The concept was to seek consistency and effective adherence to decisions through openness so that everyone could express their points of view, contribute their knowledge and from there a result with which they felt committed was born. Without the toxic anxiety of individual authorship, with the necessary plasticity that favors the encounter in the midst of differences, without the fixity of the "owners" of public policies, seeking total transparency and attachment to the social and cultural process of the region .seeking total transparency and attachment to the social and cultural process of the region.seeking total transparency and attachment to the social and cultural process of the region.

When I left the Ministry, the plan to prevent and control deforestation in the Amazon continued because it had an intrinsic force, a life of its own, was operated by many hands and supported by adequate, transparent and easily accessible legal frameworks and institutional processes. With this, deforestation decreased by 83% for almost a decade, the plan was one of the main reasons that in Brazil were 80% of the protected areas created in the world, during that period. Also, it avoided releasing 5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere between 2005 and 2008, when I left.

From my experience in the public sphere, whether in the Acre rubber movement, in the state parliament, in the Senate, in the parties and in the Brazilian and international socio-environmental movement, the main lessons I learned and I would like to share with the conventional ones. Chilean women and their allies are linked to the sense of resilience, of not giving up political innovation, of not giving up the differentiated look that our individual and collective female experience gives us, of deeply understanding that this experience is only legitimized with the inclusion of ethics, truth, transparency, links with society in open, inclusive processes, with "excess democracy." And that they are multifaceted, in the sense of aiming at practical, objective results,but also to the construction of comprehensive methodologies that help to rescue the transforming power of politics. That they give more flexibility and adherence to democratic structures, unfold them and not allow them to be intercepted or buried under the rubble of the old orders that left us a world collapsed, unjust and now threatened, in its undeniable stagnation, by the irresponsible damage to the natural environment, heritage of all, abused and appropriated by a few to the detriment of many. Let them be an arc that drives progress. Let them be arrows launched from deep-rooted and living desires for justice, peace and freedom, towards the objectives of new destinations. Waters that dig, in front of them, rivers of many passages.That they give more flexibility and adherence to democratic structures, unfold them and not allow them to be intercepted or buried under the rubble of the old orders that left us a world collapsed, unjust and now threatened, in its undeniable stagnation, by the irresponsible damage to the natural environment, heritage of all, abused and appropriated by a few to the detriment of many. Let them be an arc that drives progress. Let them be arrows launched from deep-rooted and living desires for justice, peace and freedom, towards the objectives of new destinations. Waters that dig, in front of them, rivers of many passages.That they give more flexibility and adherence to democratic structures, unfold them and not allow them to be intercepted or buried under the rubble of the old orders that left us a world collapsed, unjust and now threatened, in its undeniable stagnation, by the irresponsible damage to the natural environment, heritage of all, abused and appropriated by a few to the detriment of many. Let them be an arc that drives progress. Let them be arrows launched from deep-rooted and living desires for justice, peace and freedom, towards the objectives of new destinations. Waters that dig, in front of them, rivers of many passages.for the irresponsible damage to the natural environment, patrimony of all, abused and appropriated by a few to the detriment of many. Let them be an arc that drives progress. Let them be arrows launched from deep-rooted and living desires for justice, peace and freedom, towards the objectives of new destinations. Waters that dig, in front of them, rivers of many passages.for the irresponsible damage to the natural environment, patrimony of all, abused and appropriated by a few to the detriment of many. Let them be an arc that drives progress. Let them be arrows launched from deep-rooted and living desires for justice, peace and freedom, towards the objectives of new destinations. Waters that dig, in front of them, rivers of many passages.

Marina Silva

is a former Senator and Minister of the Environment of Brazil.

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