Manifesto

Our Mission and Vision

We envision a world where all people’s needs are met within planetary boundaries. To achieve this vision, we need a profound and systemic transformation of our society. We believe that such a transformation must combine internal and external change.

By internal change, we mean a fundamental shift in our relationships with ourselves, others, and nature. By external change, we mean transforming relations of power and social institutions so that they embody the values of community, cooperation and care instead of individualism, competition and dominance.

Systems thinking teaches us that effective transformation requires a simultaneous change to deeply rooted mental models and institutional structures. At NaZemi, our focus is on supporting education, organisational change and economic transformation:

Through transformative and global education, we empower young people, teachers and schools to critically examine the current status quo, develop a vision for a better world and play an active role in bringing this vision to life.
By facilitating and supporting self-managing organisations, we help to create a democratic and collaborative environment in which everyone’s voice and needs are heard.
By promoting degrowth and economic alternatives, we contribute to building an economic system organised around the principle of meeting human needs within planetary boundaries, rather than focusing on growth and profit. We also specifically do work towards a just transition of the garment industry.

Responding to the Current State of the World

We are responding to the current state of our world, in which we are confronted with deepening social inequalities, climate change, the threat of ecosystem collapse, deteriorating mental health and a concentration of political and economic power that undermines democracy and trust between people.

One of the root causes of these crises is the separation of humans from nature and from each other. This fundamental disconnection forms the basis of an economic system that is obsessed with growth. This system creates wealth for a select few at the expense of the majority while destroying the environment. These crises cannot be solved with superficial changes, by treating the symptoms or through tweaking the current system.

At NaZemi, we believe that we must help create a new system that serves both people and nature (midwifing). At the same time, however, we need to allow the existing system to fade away with respect and care (hospicing), and reduce the damage it causes to vulnerable communities. We consider the birth pains of creating a new world, as well as the denial, anger and fear accompanying difficult partings, to be a natural part of this journey. We are learning how to work with these emotions and provide the necessary space for them.

Our belief that another world is possible is based not only on imaginative ideas, but also on existing examples of practices such as community democratic schools, self-managed non-profit companies and indigenous communities that live by these values every day. While we do not claim to know the exact path to achieving our vision, we are moving towards it step by step, continuing to ask questions and seek answers.

As a society, we might never achieve a world in which the needs of all people are met within planetary boundaries. Nevertheless, we believe that we should strive towards that world. We must empower communities and groups to create organisations, schools and collectives that will embody this vision and these values, even if they do so in small ways.

Why Are We a Self-Managing Organisation?

We believe that social change is a fractal process – our patterns of behaviour manifest themselves at various levels. Big changes influence small changes, and small changes influence big changes. Everything is interconnected.

That is why we make every effort to live by our values and vision at every level of our organisation. For several years now, we have been operating as a democratic, self-managing, or Teal organisation. We decide on our principles and operating rules together so that we can respond to everyone’s needs and fulfil our mission as best we can.

We know that creating new forms of cooperation involves trial and error and learning from mistakes, but we believe that the path we are forging and sharing with others can inspire people everywhere.

Where Do We Find the Roots and Solutions to Today’s Crises?

If we dig deeper into the origins of these crises, we find that a widespread notion of human nature lies at their very core.

Homo Economicus and Homo Solidaris – Two Images

Homo Economicus	Homo Solidaris
Humans are self-centred and motivated by their own interests.	Humans are supportive and like to contribute to others.
Humans are competitive.	Humans are social and cooperative.
Humans are lazy and motivated by reward or fear.	Humans are active and like to do things that make sense to them.
Humans need to be controlled and want to control others.	Humans are trustworthy and responsible.
Humans are disconnected and independent from others and from nature.	Humans are interconnected and dependent on other people and nature.

We are both, but what we nurture and what the institutions we have created encourage us to do becomes more apparent. We pay more attention to the things we expect. We create institutions and social mechanisms based on our perception of humanity, and these then reinforce the expected behaviour.

Today, the Homo economicus narrative (the idea that humans are self-centred) dominates our society, and the rules and structures of our institutions are based on this premise. If we grow up within these institutions and continue to function within them, we internalise their logic through socialisation – profit and self-interest become our only motivations. This then shapes our behaviour, which in turn reinforces the ingrained belief that people always act in their own interest.

Let’s examine how our system is maintained, taking educational and work institutions as examples.

If we believe that people are lazy and will not learn unless forced to do so, we design a school system based on control and rewards.	If we believe that people are active learners who enjoy discovering things that make sense to them, we build a school that supports intrinsic motivation and trust.
Teachers will give out stamps or grades for assignments that children do mostly by themselves, competing with each other to see who performs better according to some external criteria. Children who were once curious are now only learning because of the promise of rewards or the fear of failure. In an effort to meet the teacher's criteria, they lose touch with what is important to them. Unless they are lucky enough to have a family background that can balance these pressures, thirteen years of schooling will result in individualism, passivity, dependence on authority or unproductive defiance.	The school's structure allows children to explore their interests, make mistakes and evaluate their own progress. It fosters cooperation among children, enabling everyone to contribute their unique skills and opinions while receiving regular feedback. Children learn to be sensitive to their own needs and those of others. They discover things that interest them and areas in which they can improve. At the same time, the school's decision-making processes empower children to make decisions about matters that concern them.
Young adults enter the world of work, where grades are replaced by money and teachers by bosses. They often find themselves in a hierarchical work environment where the needs of those at the top are prioritised. Ordinary people then do meaningless jobs over which they have no control. In the "best" case, they strive for promotion so that they can control others.	They can then apply these experiences and skills in the workplace. In a self-managing work environment, they are guided by their inner motivation and their drive to contribute the best they can to the collective good. They can participate in shaping their teams' goals and deciding how to distribute the company's profits.

Individualism, competition, dominance and control – patterns that are often present in education and work – manifest themselves not only in interpersonal relationships and institutions, but also in global economic relations based on the exploitation of people and nature.

Through our activities in schools and organisations, NaZemi promotes change on a small scale. By spreading ideas about degrowth and working to transform the clothing industry, we also play our part in redressing unequal global power relations.