The Common Wallet 

ongoing

On 1 January 2018, ten Brussels-based arts professionals opened a shared bank account to which all members would have equal access and rights. Since then, all income generated by any of the members is credited to this account, while all of their individual expenses are made from the shared account. Each person is free to make expenses from the common account, regardless of the income contributed to it.

The CW came out of both a practical and an ideological wish of its members to address the precarity characterizing their socio-professional context. Aiming at challenging the culture of individualism, competition and antagonism that prevails in our neoliberal societies, the CW practices and reflects on alternative modalities to relate to each other, to work and to money. What happens when one replaces control and accountancy with radical trust and transparency? Can a practice of mutual dependency and solidarity provide us with greater individual empowerment, stability and happiness? When the type of kinship usually associated with family bonds is applied to other types of social and professional relationships, how does it effect the notion of care? Can money be handled as commons?

Fearless cities

14 workshops to reinvent your city

22-23 September 2018, Kaaitheater

After Barcelona, Warsaw and New York, Brussels joins the family of cities hosting thge municipalist summit Fearless Cities.

Municipalist programs tend to be focussed on the specific needs of city’s residents in order to dream and co-create programs that take care for them. Policy making can happen bottom up and feminist. This will be the chance to dare to imagine a new city system by unlocking the transformative city- making power we all have. Participate in practical workshops to learn fresh ways to live the city, powered by local and international leaders of movements that are transforming society from below.

 What does this meeting aims at?

– Inspire participants to reflect on democracy: encourage them to become fearless about getting involved in public life. Take responsibility for building what they need for a healthy public space and quality public services.

– Discover activist initiatives operating in multiple languages that are bridging communities: across Brussels’ communes, in Belgium across 3 regions and in the adjacent countries.
– Learn about what is happening around the world when it comes to municipalism, democratic alternatives, feminist politics etc.
– Connect people and organisations from the different communities of Brussels, Belgium and beyond to share their visions and strengthen their activism for a different kind of politics for the city – based on hope, solidarity, justice, equality, inclusion, love and ultimately care for people and planet
– Make responsive and responsible change and adaptation the way politics happen in Brussels. Brussels politics must become responsibly rooted in the everyday reality of its inhabitants.

check the FEARLESS CITIES network