judging from the numbers of people attending the talk, not many people would know about this talk by Tony Andersen, Klimaforum co-founder. <br><br>In this presentation Tony talks about the need for activists to start to work with grassroots activists such as permaculture, transition, economic justice and others<br>
<br>its the reason I actually went to Copenhagen in the first place, this talk and also the workshop entitled 10 000 Trees: A Practical Strategy for Grassroots<br><br>I remmeber at the time, saying to Tony, hurry-up lets bring people to this message, but he wisely suggested folks where not ready to hear the message, and that they needed to have their demo's, political theatre, trials by fire and then they might come to understand and need to settle into different levels of climate justice<br clear="all">
<br><a href="http://permaculture.tv/activist-to-grassroots-tony-andersen-klimaforum-co-founder/">http://permaculture.tv/activist-to-grassroots-tony-andersen-klimaforum-co-founder/</a><br><br>-- <br>Nicholas Roberts<br>US <span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">310 402 3513</span></span><br>
<a href="http://Permaculture.TV" target="_blank">http://Permaculture.TV</a><br><a href="http://permaculture.coop" target="_blank">http://permaculture.coop</a><br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 1:57 PM, Dietrich Muylaert <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dietrichmuylaert@yahoo.co.uk">dietrichmuylaert@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">Hi,</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">I don’t like nostalgia, nostalgia is good for when you’re
retired and want to tell stories to your grand children. Nostalgia is worthless
as a base to organize necessary action to avoid a grim future. So let’s
not approach the CJA concept out of that perspective.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">CJA is getting defined, based upon what I read, as an ad hoc
network towards COP15. It worked well for the Reclaim Power action, since all
organizations and activists were <i><span style="font-style: italic;">there</span></i>
in Copenhagen and
there was a clear, common goal. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">Since then the birds have flown home, with the aspiration of
continuing that ability to create a joint <i><span style="font-style: italic;">action</span></i>
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">agenda</span></i> and being able to mobilize
for it on a broader scale. To export those dynamics at work in Copenhagen to the world.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">The experience was so great that local groups are organizing
actions referring to CJA, clinging on to that feeling of unity, solidarity and having
a common goal. In that context everybody wants CJA to be something else then
these comments I’ve read about it on the net: “<i><span style="font-style: italic;">… is a loosely connected grassroots network</span></i>”,
“<i><span style="font-style: italic;">… was described to
SolveClimate by one activist […] as ‘people printing pamphlets in
their bedrooms.’</span></i>”</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">But we’re faced with the fact that CJA is becoming a
mailing list exchanging info and viewpoints (what is not bad on itself), and with
the unavoidable reality check about the broader perspective and its future as an
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">action network</span></i>.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">On the transnational level, now, there’s the call for solidarity
actions for the accused COP15 activists and the idea of a global day of action
in October to revive the network.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">I remember the solidarity action we held at the Danish embassy in
March. On a very short notice I collected signatures from 18 organizations and
a dozen more from parties and individual politicians for the letter to hand
over. The call out for action, as CJA in Belgium, then managed only to mobilize
12 people for the action itself. There were as much cops as activists. We just
lacked a ball for a soccer game. </span></font><font color="maroon" face="Wingdings" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Wingdings; color: maroon;">J</span></font><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;"> Funny was that somebody from the <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Belgian Social Forum</span></i> thought of CJA as those
people who had something to do with <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Climate
Action Camp 2009</span></i> in Antwerp, not Copenhagen. Since then we
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">did</span></i> organize a <i><span style="font-style: italic;">CAC 2010</span></i> which we explicitly affiliated with
CJA, and with the last action at the embassy, last week, we managed to mobilize
35 people in a week’s time as CJA.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">This tells me in a way that the idea of a CJA network, and the
necessity thereof, over here at least, exists and is growing. People do want to
take (direct) action for a system change on a broader than just local scale,
with global, common goals. And to be honest, to accomplish a system change, I
think, that’s necessary.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">But, although a CJA network is a great concept it’s hardly
fair to put the burden of organizational tasks of a network with global (or
continental) ambitions upon the shoulders of the few who can travel across Europe to attend it’s meetings. Or to push them to keep
doing so. So we’ll have to come up with a way to cope with that, if we
want CJA to be something else than a reference to <i><span style="font-style: italic;">the awareness of the necessity for global action</span></i>.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">The planned global day of action, 7 weeks from now, might reenergize
and result into CJA to become less unnoted - maybe even more so if it could be
aimed at one specific target - add weight to the network and invite people to become
involved. But then afterwards, how avoiding the evolution of CJA as it did after
COP15?</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">Maybe if we could overcome the barrier of distance to debate all
necessary issues concerning CJA, we might get closer to a solution. Also, maybe
then it could become more then a European network, as it is right now, and
easier to get people into it. But that’s all easier said than done. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">Also, I have the impression that organizations, except a few, involved
with CJA at COP15, now have their agenda’s trump a possible joint action
agenda in the context of CJA. But that’s just my impression, which can be
totally wrong.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">As for now, my means don’t allow me anything more than
getting involved in things, CJA related and other, in Belgium. But it
give’s me a nice excuse to rant about capitalist pigs from time to time. </span></font><font color="maroon" face="Wingdings" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Wingdings; color: maroon;">J</span></font><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;">Greetings,<br>
Dietrich</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="maroon" face="Trebuchet MS" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; color: maroon;"> </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font color="black" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: windowtext; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: windowtext;"> Bert [mailto:<a href="mailto:antistrata@riseup.net" target="_blank">antistrata@riseup.net</a>] <br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> woensdag 25 augustus 2010
11:30<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:cja@lists.aktivix.org" target="_blank">cja@lists.aktivix.org</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Cja] [climate09-int]
CJA: the great fix-it-or-nix-it-debate</span></font><font color="black"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hey,<br>
<br>
To point out to those who have a fear of 'disbanding CJA' – it means
little more than not having a meeting every 3 months! There has been very very
little work done specifically by CJA over the past six months or so, even by
those who have attended the meetings (and I include myself as a slacker). It's
hardly like we will be winding down huge projects after months of work.<br>
<br>
The simple question is - can people can think of a European-wide project that
requires a network form to implement it? And just saying 'stopping climate
change!' doesn't cut the mustard I'm afraid. Unless there is an answer to that
question, in the form of a concrete project or a broad political trajectory
(ie. inciting communism), then there is no purpose in our traveling across Europe to sit in wet fields or cold squats.<br>
<br>
Bert<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On 25/08/2010 09:38, n i c o l a s wrote: </div></div></span></font></p><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hi all,<br>
<br>
as someone involved in the attempt to set up a specific local climate justice
campaign in London (through climate camp east London, when it still
existed), Tadzio's suggestion makes perfect sense to me. We need to ground
climate justice as a concept and to find out what it means in practice where we
live. In Europe, this is not necessarily that clear - in our group, we decided
to try to focus on the issue of fuel poverty and were trying to think of ways
to build a grassroots 'campaign' around fuel poverty as a climate justice
issue.<br>
<br>
But until we have a series of projects and campaigns such as this, climate
justice will remain ephemeral - a theory that we put on banners and make into
slogans, but without substance. I think that while the email list should
remain, dissolving CJA for now so as to focus on finding out what climate
justice looks like from 'below' is possibly the most useful thing we can do. It
may be that through the CJA list we can have an ongoing discussion on what
climate justice looks like, and how we go about achieving it. And at some point
perhaps we can use the old network to establish connections between these local
projects. But as Tadzio says, unless there are those specific moments of resistance,
we risk turning into little more than a band of activists who come together at
other peoples meetings to cause a little trouble and not much else besides.<br>
<br>
ciao<br>
nic</span></font></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 7:43 AM, Tadzio Mueller <<a href="mailto:tadziom@yahoo.com" target="_blank">tadziom@yahoo.com</a>>
wrote:</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">dear friends (and dare i say
comrades ;-)), </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">it's great, and somewhat ironic,
to see that there's finally some discussion regarding anything CJA-related at
all. maybe it's like when my mum wanted to throw away that dusty teddybear in
the corner that i never, ever played with anymore. realising that it was
going to go the way of all things, i put up a big fight, and won. it stayed.
unfortunately, it also stayed in its corner, gathering dust, until at some
point, she threw it out in a nightly commando-raid... wow. very
religious: speaking in parables - apologies for that, it's early, and coffee
isn't ready yet...</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">my point, though, should be
obvious: it's inspiring that people obviously feel so strongly about CJA. it
is even more inspiring that there are regional/national networks that
somewhat draw on a CJA(-like) identity in their work, and that are growing
and getting stronger. but: the work done at regional/national levels has
in principle almost nothing to do with what happens with CJA at the largely
European level (ref. back to long debates whether CJA is global or european -
de facto, it is european). at that level, the network has been largely
disfunctional since before (!) copenhagen.
in copenhagen
itself, the only functioning CJA structures were the media group, and the
reclaim power action group (though in both cases, they were also strongly
constituted by our amazing danish friends, organised in the climate
collective). neither of these structures exist anymore. meetings have been
getting smaller and smaller, and more and more like gatherings of friends.
for those who haven't been to these meetings: there's a very strong sense of
drift, of a lack of purpose. we're not playing with the teddybear, as it
were. it's gathering dust. it doesn't have a purpose right now.</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">to be sure: this lack of purpose
is not because the problem has gone away - but because, i suggest, right now
is not really the time for global network building around climate justice.
really, we need to engage in sub-global/continental capacity/power-building.
global networks are only as good as their social base. in fact, strengthening
global networks <i><span style="font-style: italic;"> the expense of</span></i> local
bases leads to the latter becoming subject to the whims of the former.</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">anyway: if people want to make
the de facto european CJA network come alive again, by all means, get
involved. make the structures work. create structures. do stuff. put in
management-speak: CJA can only function if there's a significant 'buy-in'
from people all around the continent. if not, all the inspiring words written
on email lists won't change the fact that CJA is pretty much non-existent.
and if that is the case, then the few of us who actually have been investing
time and resources and affect into trying to make things work, traveling to
distant meetings, can maybe spend that energy elsewhere.</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">solidarische gruesse</span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;">tadzio</span></font></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="inherit" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: inherit;"> </span></font></p>
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<pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre><pre><fieldset></fieldset><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre>
</div></div><pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">_______________________________________________</span></font></pre><div class="im"><pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Cja mailing list</span></font></pre>
<pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="mailto:Cja@lists.aktivix.org" target="_blank">Cja@lists.aktivix.org</a></span></font></pre><pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/cja" target="_blank">https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/cja</a></span></font></pre>
<pre><font color="black" face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></font></pre>
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