Alternative social movements express themselves not only through parties and unions, but in other ways too. There is nothing spectacular about the process,and it happens mostly at a local level, but everywhere, on a worldwide scale, a thousand and one new forces are emerging. They sprout from the bottom up and from inside outwards. Without any fuss, they put their shoulder to the wheel of rebuilding democracy, nourished by popular participation, and are reclaiming the battered traditions of tolerance, mutual help and communion with nature. One of their spokespeople, Manfred Max Neef, defines them as a cloud of mosquitos launched against a sytem which spurns embraces and forces us to jostle.
Some activists fall, riddled with bullets, on the way.
Just to mention one case, one of these popular organizations, born in recent years and unknown outside the borders of its own country, has set an example which the Latin American presidents ought to follow. El Barzon is the name of an organization of debtors who have joined together in Mexico to defend themselves against the usury of the banks. El Barzon sprang up spontaneously. Initially, they were few. Few, but contagious.