Embarking on a journey that started 100 years ago: Working for Freedom and the Common Good
Reflections on the collective event between the Youth Section and World Goetheanum Association: “Working for Freedom and the Common Good” held from 19. - 21. September 2024 in Dornach, Switzerland.
It’s January 16, 2024, the beginning of the year. My friends at Youth Society Parzival in the Republic of Georgia and I receive an email from Nathaniel Williams. The subject says: “Invite for you all!”
The body text says: “…There will be a call on January 24, at 20:00 concerning a special event that aims to facilitate a conference in September dedicated to intergenerational exchange on the power of cooperation and associative economics. Please consider joining! ... An event dedicated to associative economics and peace in honor of 100 years after Dunlop's initiation of the World Power Conferences… One central hope of the conference involves exploring formats wherein younger people can come into a supportive exchange with founders and managers in companies so that each can get to know each other on a deeper level.”
Wow... doesn’t this sound amazing? Well, maybe not for everyone, but for me it certainly did.
For context, after finishing school, I decided to study economics and oh boy, let me tell you this: It was not what I expected. I realized right away that economics is much bigger than I ever thought… It’s not a field that can be contained. It affects absolutely everything and everyone, all the time, literally. This was already too overwhelming for me, such a huge responsibility… So then imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it’s guided by so many questionable beliefs, morals, and rules that no one cares to think twice about. How can this be possible? A field that concerns on the one hand – people, their dignity, their sense of self, their relation with one another, and on the other - nature, the earth, and our relation to it, could be so shallow, so pragmatic. Believing people always act out of their personal interest and then having systems to support this, thinking competition is the way to go, or acting like we can “own” the planet… none of these felt right.
Well, years passed and to be short, now being part of a working youth group that has already entered the economy, we actively search for ways to operate and organize ourselves based on the fraternity principle in economics. We try to navigate in this world breaking common patterns and attempting to create healthy systems that support associative economics. We are just beginners.
So, an event on the topic that affects me every day, exploring these themes, and getting to know some experienced people in the field? Yes, please! Even though I’ve never heard Daniel N. Dunlop’s name before, I was intrigued. And I’m so happy I was.
This was a journey, and it still is. On the 24th of January, around 15 young people - students of economics, international relations, public and non-profit management, computer systems, and intercultural management, as well as entrepreneurs and youth workers from different countries were part of a Zoom call, just like me. I think everyone felt that this was already a very cooperative atmosphere that these three initiators and carriers of the event - Nathaniel Williams, Salvatore Lavecchia, and Andrea Valdinoci created from the very beginning. They shared the origin of the event, presented Daniel N. Dunlop’s intentions, and wanted to hear if this resonated with us, how we would imagine the World Economic Conference nowadays, and what were topics in the economy that we cared the most about. People shared their thoughts.
Well, that’s how we started an intergenerational collaborative work. We had these calls every month to come together and move forward with the process. As time went on main themes emerged that we wanted to examine and work with. These were different takes on some of the elements existing in the economy, such as capital, commodities, ownership, price, money, and more.
“Working for Freedom and the Common Good” which turned into the title of the event, requires continuous effort and connection. Would meeting in Dornach for a 3-day long event be enough? Questionable. We decided to start with some open preparatory work. We created working groups and pre-program online calls throughout May, June, July, and August. We had 4 different topics:
- Decommodifying Land
- Liberating gift money
- Rethinking Ownership, Power and Capital
- True Price
We would have one study session on each topic with reading/watching materials and then one online plenum to go into a dialogue with an expert in the field.
In each group, young people worked together with an expert or business leader with relevant experience and insights. All groups had a series of goals that they carried throughout the work: The first goal was to share wisdom and examples to bring the questions to life. From this living, non-abstract example we would ask: What could this look like within a World Economic Conference dedicated to Associative Economics? This was the second goal. What tools or developments are needed to move from our concrete and practical knowledge toward a globally oriented economic conference? Or, what do we need to move from the first to the second goal? This was the third goal.
While intellectual work and study were going on, the Youth Section Team at the Goetheanum embarked on an artistic and unique journey of its own. Even though I became part of this process at the very end I’m still going to share about it.
People can understand social movements through lectures and theories - e.i. Social Threefolding - but sometimes it can be even more effective to do so through art, pictures, and music. That is exactly what this group of young people did. Ángela Millan, Manuela Smolovich, Keivan Azimi, Tom Vassao, Gabriele Nys, Santiago Mampaey, and Jacinta Gorchs sought out old folk songs in different languages that touched on social issues/injustices. And then what they tried to do was to create a new verse, in most cases transforming old ones, so that the ideals presented by Rudolf Steiner as Social Threefolding would shine through. They also created illustrations and manually bound a small booklet that includes these songs, translations, and illustrations, together with articles written about the event’s theme.
Now, these articles were also a very important aspect. Something we wanted to achieve was to get to know Daniel N. Dunlop’s incredible persona closer, to delve deep into his original ideas, findings, and visions about global economics as well as his intentions for the World Power Conference. After all, he was the great inspiration for this event. A warm invitation to read the booklet, where you can experience the forward-thinking ideas that inspired us. Click HERE for the online version.
Furthermore, Rosario Gabrielli, co-organizer, worked on an exhibition about Dunlop’s life and inspirations. HERE you can see the online version of the exhibited pieces.
Imagine all this work, and the event hasn’t even started yet... All I can say for now about the event itself is that it felt like it was a lively station on a long journey—a place where paths crossed and connections were made. Some people arrived together, sharing the road and stories along the way; others came alone, while some just happened to stumble upon this station. Here, at this stop, everyone knew it was time to refresh, breathe, and get to know their fellow travelers. It felt like this moment was a shared feast that fueled our spirits and provided a space where invitations to join each other on the journey ahead were made. With renewed energy and new connections, the travelers boarded their trains, carrying with them the warmth of that shared time. The journey continues, with hopes of meeting again at the next station, each person a little more aware, a little more connected, for the road ahead.