Declaration of the International Network of Communal Democracy on the occasion of its fifth anniversary.

FIVE YEARS LATER: COMMUNALIZING LIFE, BUILDING
PEOPLE’S POWER, OPENING NEW EMANCIPATORY HORIZONS

Hernani, Euskal Herria, planet Earth. October 16, 2026.

1. Returning to Hernani: Reaffirming Our Path
   Today we return to Hernani, the place where, five years ago, at the First International Congress on Communal Democracy, we publicly announced the proposal to create an International Network for Communal Democracy. We return to celebrate the journey we have taken, but above all, to renew our commitments in the face of a world whose contradictions have worsened and in which the need to build emancipatory alternatives is more urgent than ever.
   In 2020, those of us driving this initiative shared the same assessment: the multidimensional crisis of capitalism would deepen over the coming decades, worsening material living conditions and fueling the rise of authoritarian, fascist, and warmongering agendas. Faced with this reality, we realized that merely denouncing its consequences was not enough. It was necessary to renew emancipatory proposals and mobilize diverse forces to challenge—materially, politically, and ideologically—the hegemony over the very meaning of democracy.
   We found ourselves—and continue to find ourselves—at a historic crossroads: either to sink deeper into a despotic, unequal world subject to domination, or to move toward the radical democratization of all spheres of life. The contradiction between Capital and Labor is intensifying and transforming into a broader contradiction between Capital and Life. In the face of the privatization of Life, we defend its communalization.
2. Communal Democracy: A Shared Horizon
   The founding manifesto established communal democracy as a central idea for renewing the
   emancipatory project. Not as a single, closed, and uniform model, but as an
   open horizon, a process of processes capable of bringing together multiple experiences and
   transformative proposals through unity in diversity. We advocate for a comprehensive democracy that is not limited to electing representatives, but rather encompasses all spheres of existence: the economy, the territory, care work, culture, and the material conditions that make a dignified life possible. In the face of society’s subordination to private profit, we assert popular sovereignty and the collective capacity to decide on our production, our resources, and our territories. Communal democracy aims both to break with capitalist, patriarchal, colonial, and racist logics and to build new logics of cooperation, self-governance, solidarity, and the sustenance of life. To this end, we need to connect existing experiences, overcome the fragmentation of emancipatory forces, and build a shared framework capable of challenging capital’s hegemony.
3. Five Years of Building the Network
   Since Hernani, the Network has expanded its connections and reach through the Second International Congress in Chile in 2022; the Third International Congress in the Catalan Countries in 2024; three regional meetings in Argentina, Venezuela, and Italy; international conferences, publications, exchanges, and visits to different territories.
   This journey has allowed us to build relationships, share lessons learned, and bring together experiences that, despite their differences, are part of the same emancipatory struggle. We know there is still much to be done, but these five years have laid the foundation from which to deepen our work. Building the Network is not merely about coming together: it means building trust, supporting struggles, generating shared knowledge, sustaining solidarity, and transforming the diversity of our practices into a collective capacity for organization and action.
4. In the Face of the Global Regime of War: The Resistance of the Peoples
   At the Third Congress of the Catalan Countries, we warned of the material and political radicalization of capitalism, which intensifies exploitation, precariousness, dispossession, the destruction of territories, and the extractivist and colonial appropriation of wealth. We also pointed to the rise of fascism and the establishment of a global regime of war, through which states, corporations, and military bodies seek to manage the crises they themselves generate.
   In October 2026, this analysis continues to challenge us. The genocide in Palestine, imperialist aggression against Venezuela, the war in Ukraine, attacks on Iran, and the escalation of geopolitical disputes all point to a scenario of growing confrontation and domination. Meanwhile, the living conditions of the vast majority of working people are deteriorating under the effects of precariousness, inequality, the commodification of housing, and the privatization of essential needs.
   But our times are also marked by resistance. The mobilizations in France, the housing struggles in Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, and other cities, the calls for a national strike in Colombia, and the general strike in Spain all express the people’s refusal to accept the deterioration of their lives as inevitable. These are different struggles, but we find in them a shared determination to defend rights, reclaim collective decision-making power, and open up alternatives. From within the Network, we defend these forms of resistance and recognize their emancipatory potential. We need protest to become lasting organization; we need struggles to connect with one another; and we need the defense of immediate needs to be linked to the building of popular power and new forms of self-governance.
5. Deepening Coordination, Expanding the Network
   Five years later, our work remains fully relevant. More than ever, we need to strengthen the material, human, and ideological coordination of emancipatory forces: sustaining our struggles, building relationships of trust, and developing common frameworks capable of challenging the logic of capital.
   Expanding the Network means reaching new territories and continents, but also equipping ourselves with tools to deepen this work. Part of this journey is the creation of the International Observatory on Communal Democracy (OIDC), a tool to promote study, research, communication, coordination, and strategic planning.
   We aim to generate knowledge linked to these struggles, systematize experiences, and disseminate the paradigm of communal democracy and the necessary logics for the communalization of life. We need to redouble our efforts, bring in new organizations, and strengthen our collective capacity to conceive and build concrete alternatives. In the face of the global coordination of the dominant powers, we must deepen our own international coordination.
6. From Barcelona to Caracas: Popular Sovereignty in Times of Siege
   This fifth anniversary is being celebrated between the 2024 Barcelona Congress and the upcoming International Congress on Communal Democracy, which will take place in Caracas in February 2027 under the slogan “Popular Sovereignty in Times of Siege.”
   Popular sovereignty cannot be reduced to a formal declaration: it requires that peoples have an effective capacity to decide on resources, territory, and the material conditions of their existence. And this capacity requires organization, self-governance, and popular power.
   Therefore, we call on collectives, organizations, popular movements, and community initiatives from all territories to participate in the Caracas Congress. Let us come together to share experiences, strengthen our bonds, and continue building our network; to transform our resistance into shared strategies and continue building popular power.
7. Final Call: For an International of Hope and Emancipation
   From Hernani, we call on the peoples of the world to organize, strengthen their struggles, and build alternatives to capitalism, fascism, racism, patriarchy, colonialism, and ecocide.
   We need to connect the struggles for housing and decent work with those defending the land, care work, the self-determination of peoples, and life in the face of war. We need thousands of experiences of self-management, cooperation, direct democracy, and collective self-governance to be recognized, to learn from one another, and to build a common emancipatory vision.
   In the face of those who proclaim that there is no alternative, we affirm that alternatives are built by collectively organizing life. In the face of domination and competition, we assert international solidarity. In the face of destruction, we defend the communalization of Life.
   Five years later, we renew our commitment to continue coordinating struggles, producing shared knowledge, and strengthening communal democracy as a path to transformation. May this anniversary be a new starting point for expanding our alliances and deepening our collective journey.

International Network for Communal Democracy

Original declaration: https://zuzeu.eus/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/5urte-Adierazpena_multilingual.pdf