During the first semester of 2026, Polífona Coop. had the opportunity to strengthen its relationship with COATI (Colectivo para la Autogestión de Tecnologías para la Interpretación), a Barcelona-based initiative with several years' experience of providing technical services and interpretation equipment to social and political movements and organisations. COATI has portable booths and consoles that have been adapted for broadcasting in multiple languages and for use in various collective spaces. In their own words, COATI “works to build and maintain collective tools based on the principles of self-management and open source”.
We first met a COATI member in Cali in 2024, but it wasn’t until 2025 that we were able to reach out and begin building a deeper partnership. In September 2025, two Polífona coop interpreters travelled to Kandy in Sri Lanka with a delegation of over 700 people from more than 100 countries, along with a total of 73 interpreters, to attend the 3rd Nyéléni World Forum on Food Sovereignty.
We provided our interpretation services on a voluntary basis, while COATI coordinated the technical support and interpretation for the forum amid chants of “no interpretation, no revolution”. This slogan emerged within La Vía Campesina, a member of the Nyéléni movement, and is part of COATI's ongoing efforts to promote linguistic justice in all the spaces it supports. Thanks to the careful coordination of the COATI team, we were able to interpret in an environment that recognised the importance of our work and the conditions necessary for facilitating effective communication. We learned the importance of encouraging organisations and movements to view interpretation as a fundamental component when planning their meetings and gatherings. Furthermore, we delved into the fascinating and complex world of interpretation techniques when working with 18 languages.
Following the first exchange in Sri Lanka, we met again in Cartagena for the Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20). There, we were part of the team of interpreters and the technical team for the Forum of Peoples and Social Movements for Land, Water, Territories, and Food Sovereignty, which took place prior to ICARRD+20, and together with COATI, we facilitated communication among communities to build a joint position in preparation for the conference.
After collaborating further with COATI, we wanted to create opportunities to continue learning from their approaches and expertise in the field of interpretation. To this end, we initiated a knowledge-sharing exchange in which, as Polífona coop., we shared our experiences in developing an economic model of redistribution and the internal structure of our work. Thus, we met with COATI in Bogota to hold a series of workshops and discussions that included: an intensive workshop on the use of interpretation equipment, a presentation on internal organizational dynamics and financial administration, and a roundtable discussion on linguistic justice that included other invited organizations.
In addition to these reflections, COATI has significantly contributed to strengthening our technical capacities for interpreting and has helped us complete our equipment inventory—essential steps toward achieving autonomy when offering technical interpreting services.
The path toward linguistic justice and inclusive communication is long and still underway, but our partnership with COATI has reminded us of the importance of being part of a community that approaches interpretation, technical work, and translation critically and reflectively, as these are fundamental professions for building positions and agendas among organizations, peoples, and movements that face linguistic barriers. Our professions are links that strengthen a chain of internationalist struggles and initiatives.
We recommend visiting the COATI website to learn more about their work.