Butroi Bizirik-en Transición

23/5/2013

Our first steps

Butroi Bizirik -en Transición (BBT) was not born in a precise moment; it arose from the social capital that already existed in the area of Mungia (Uribe-Butroi, Bizkaia, Basque Country). Little after a conference about the Transition Movement (20/11/2012), we started to meet to discuss about the future that we want and the abilities that we have to achieve it. By the end of May 2013, over 100 different people have attended to the six general meetings or the innumerable ones held by the different working groups created: three operational (food, energy, jobs), one for communication and one for coordination.

Not only we are many, but also:

–       our capacities are diverse and mutually enriching: ecological agriculture, purchasing groups, bioconstruction, a cooperative for energy distribution and generation, eco-gardening, health products retailing, free software, hardware recycling, teachers, yoga/reiki/meditation, communication, economists, engineers, gerontologists, lawyers, doctors, biologfists and others;

–       organizations oriented to the commons participate in the movement: GoiEner (energy cooperative), Bizilore (autochthonous eco-gardening) and  Reciclanet (recovery of hardware and promotion of free software); with other organizations showing their support (such as Alimentaccion—promotion of healthy local food at schools);

–       several town councilors and the town major participate in our meetings;

–       we have been granted two pieces of cultivable land (2 Ha) and we have found a suitable office to serve as our HQ; and, most importantly,

–       every new activity that BBT organizes shows a growing cohesion, illusion and compromise to it.

The list of activities grows every week. They always aim to respond to the shared illusion about a future rooted in our community, in our relations, in our compromise with our future. But we are conscious that it is a must to make these socially and environmentally desirable proposals also economically viable.

The process to define the topics that will guide our evolution gave the following results:

Visão

“BBT is a communitary process of personal and social transformation linked to the area of Uribe-Butroi and oriented to the common good, sustainability- and resilience-building. It is a permanent process open to those local people and organizations that share our values. Although our components and orientation are local, we want to serve as a reference for other communities that might want to follow a similar approach”.

Missão

“BBT promotes, though a non-for-profit organization and according to its values, the activation of personal and territorial abilities; fosters awareness and individual and collective learning, as well as relations with other communities that are similar or in need; and manages the production, use and exchange of the resources that are available to reach our vision.”

Valores

– In contents: Recovery of local economy and living. Food-, energy- and telecom-sovereignty. Resilience[i]. Access prior to ownership. Personal integrity, health and balance. Harmony with nature. Equity and social cohesion. Intergenerational responsibility. Justice and solidarity with those in need. Prosperity without growth. Economic viability.

– In methods: Political autonomy and freedom for decision. Self-management. Transparency. Responsibility and personal compromise. Enjoyment in our actions. Free software. Positive attitude. Creativity. Tolerance.

Organization

1) Association

Butroi Bizirik (BB) has assumed and integrated the values of BBT. BB has modified its articles to assimilate the activities of BBT, and changed its name to BBT.

2) Cooperative

To make our mission economically viable, we plan the creation of a Combinated (Integral) Cooperative that incorporates consumers as the main group plus workers and producers as additional collectives. All members of BBT will be invited to be cooperativists. The Cooperative is planned as a social business – non-loss, non-dividend business aimed at social objectives (resilience-building, in our case).

We do believe that the economic viability of the Cooperative is achievable through the appropriation of the economic value entailed in the fact of being a community, able to supply and demand product and services that meet our values.

[i] We understand resilience as the capacity of individuals and groups to discover the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that define their well-being; and to gain them with the resources that they have available, in a way that meets their own cultural values., so that it increases their capacity of reaction before environmental, social or economic impacts.