[Cja] The Future of CJA ; dissolve or find a new course

[Chris Kitchen]

hi all,

writing this in a bit of a hurry , so cant go into much detail (and
considering the other replies to this some of you may be greateful of a
short response!)

I think there is certainly a value in having a European wide network
focussing on climate justice and promoting direct action as a tactic.  The
term climate justice may or may not be useful in different areas. but
whatever term is used, conecting climate change and social justice struggles
and viewing climate change from an anticapitalist/anti-authoritarian
prespective is in my opinion an essential way to build the movement for
radical social change that is needed.  Sure - we may not be 'winning' just
yet, but for me it remains a vital terrain for struggle.

A network can be really useful in connecting groups and struggles and giving
greater visibility. however for a network to operate effectively it needs
active participation from those who make it up. at the moment we have pretty
low participation , and we really need to get more people invovled.  i dont
think we should disband cja, but we should consider what resources we have
at present, and how best ot use and build them.

anyway, im off to netherlands for the meeting, hopefully see some of you
there where we can continue discussions.

ciao cioa,
chris
:)




On 24 August 2010 11:21, Tadzio Mueller <tadziom at yahoo.com> wrote:

> hey all,
>
> first of all, thanks to peter for basically clarifying something that had
> sort of been lurking at the back of my mind, and, i suspect, other people's
> too. my email yesterday kind of hinted at something like that, too.
>
> i think the point about the 'standard recipe' of the 'day of action' is
> especially well-taken: as someone who was involved in pushing that idea at
> the february meeting in amsterdam i'll be honest, it was very much an idea
> that emerged simply in order to keep the network alive. and that's not
> enough to energise people, as we've seen from the absolutely crap work we as
> a network have done around the day of action: we've done practically no
> outreach to groups and people who don't come to CJA-meetings, something we
> were great at in the copenhagen mobilisation; the storytelling/media-work
> aspect has been pretty dead, and that was one of the things where we shone
> in and before copenhagen.
>
> as i think i mentioned in my last email, our local group in berlin has now
> started to do active outreach to groups in eastern germany, so far very,
> very 'empty' ground from the perspective of networked climate (justice)
> struggles. in a way, that's a very boring task - nowhere near as fun as
> hanging out with y'all lovely lot :-) but it's probably what needs to get
> done. the global events, we know after 10 years of experience in organising
> them, have their role to play. but that role is limited.
>
> anyway, i'm starting to repeat myself, so i'll stop here. like peter, it
> would be great to hear loud and practical and concrete disagreement with
> these thoughts. but whatever we do, let's be honest to ourselves.
>
> solidarische gruesse
>
> tadzio
>
>
> --- On *Tue, 8/24/10, Peter / GroenFront! <peter at groenfront.nl>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Peter / GroenFront! <peter at groenfront.nl>
> Subject: [Cja] The Future of CJA ; dissolve or find a new course
> To: "climate09-int" <climate09-int at lists.riseup.net>,
> cja at lists.aktivix.org
> Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2010, 5:49 AM
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> The next meeting op Climate Justice Action should, in my view , have just
> one agenda point. Dissolve the network of not.
>
> Climate Justice Action was formed to mobilise for Copenhagen. In 2009 it
> was a lively, planet wide network that was powerfull enough to make a stand
> in the streets of Copenhagen. In all the stress and rush to prepare for that
> event, we forgot to think about the future of the network itself. As a
> result many people dropped out after the Copenhagen summit. Discussions at
> the last two meetings have focused on finding a cause to keep the network
> alive. The standard recipe of global day of actions was brought up.  But
> that's not enough to keep people motivated and keep the network alive.
> The meeting in bonn only had 30 people, the next meeting in Holland looks
> to be even smaller. Tasks taken up  in Bonn haven't been done.
>
> Apperently the time and energy to keep the network alive isn't there any
> more. Most likely because the network is missing a concrete common goal. A
> battle to prepare for.
> I think it is time to face facts, and dissolve CJA as it is at this
> moment.
>
> I would be good to keep the mailing list up, to make contacts easier, or
> maybey organize a conference on Climate justice in Europe. But to keep
> dragging the burden of an international network would be a mistake. It will
> drain the time and energy needed elsewhere, and give people the false hope
> that we are able to mobilise large amounts of activist for future actions.
>
> I ofcourse hope to be mistaken, and see lot's of angry people at the next
> meeting to oppose my proposal. If not come over to have a drink at the
> campfire. I hope anyway to see you all on the barricades , somewhere,
> sometime.
>
> Peter Polder
>
>
> --
> skype:peterpolder
> www.groenfront.nl
>
>
>
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