As floods & fires rise, oceans boil & ice melts, and "safe" temperatures are breached, something momentous just happened in the heart of the EU. No one has heard about it: journalists were present, but their editors refused to publish 🤯.
🧵, please RT. #BeyondGrowth2023 1/
For 3 full days the EU parliament hosted thousands of scientists, activists and policy-makers charting a future beyond growth. The talks & discussions were recorded and are now available to all. Thousands attended, thousands more followed online. 2/ beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
Topics covered planetary boundaries, trade, finance, fiscal policy, global South, decolonisation, gender, justice, well-being, social policies. Every panel included major advances in understanding. Together, the conference represents a monumental coming of age of post-growth. 3/
Being part of this event was a privilege and an honour. I wish I could share with you what being in such a space opens up in terms of determination to collaborate for a liveable world. The sheer electric energy of being in a room with so many young, critical, dedicated humans. 4/
I was a hobbit. Possibly Pippin?
But my main point is please, for the love of god, choose a talk from this amazing list, watch it and share some insights using the #BeyondGrowth2023 hashtag. Because despite its magnitude, NO media covered the event. beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
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Because here is the thing. Every. Single. Journalist. who was there (and there were many, from major outlets all over Europe and the world) that I spoke to, said "my editor refuses to print any story critical of economic growth."
This is insane verging on criminal and shows the dangerous ideology of economic growth as our secular religion, completely blinding us to the possible economic alternatives that could preserve a liveable planet. But it is the current reality.
So please. I am not good at this.
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But some of you are. Some of you are very, very good at making noise and news. Please RT and amplify #BeyondGrowth2023 content, the speakers, the audience, the topics, the debates. Be part of cracking the foundations of our secular religion of growth, our modern Moloch.
🙏🙏
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While I was writing this thread, @TheEconomist was writing a straight out disinformation hit piece mocking the event and the desire of younger generations to have a liveable planet. Although better to have some coverage than none, so ... kudos to them? 🤷♀️
The author of @TheEconomist disinformation piece finds degrowth ideas "whacky". Not half as much as your straight out science denial, mate. Beyond parody.
Hard to find words, but here is an attempt.
It is(*) obvious that European, Israeli and American citizens are not able to control our own brutal monsters, either economic or geopolitical, despite our "democracies" and "rule of law."
Their escalating destruction endangers all.
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(*) has been since at least colonialism and 1492, and in the modern era with attacks on Latin America, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc, Afghanistan, Iraq and on & on.
In every case, local protest movements, despite being massive and growing (Iraq > Vietnam ...) have been ineffective.
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This means our democracies are cosmetic, not real.
This means our rule of law is selective & superficial, not real.
This means we "Westerners" are living in a superficial, dangerous illusion.
We think we are safe & reasonable: in fact we are dangerous & irrational.
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Should be written in long(er) form, but who has time? Several points to decode our horrific time: 1. The destruction of Iran, Lebanon etc serves specific geopolitical interests: this is Netanyahu's great move to realise Greater Israel, or at the very least Israel as ...
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the only non-flattened part of the region. 2. This is about landgrabs (Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Gaza), ethnic cleansing (ditto) and genocide (Gaza). But it's also about destroying any non-Israel form of political or economic strength in the region.
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3. This means this is not about the Ayatollahs, domestic repression of women, nukes in Iran or any other nonsense propaganda story. This is about the complete destruction of a regional rival, pure and simple. 4. And not the destruction of simply its political elites ...
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💚💚"Bear with me, cause this is a lot!"💚💚
For those abroad, quick recap: @TheGreenParty won a Mamdani moment in Manchester, with plumber @GreenPartyHan sweeping 41% of the vote.
Meanwhile, @UKLabour 's campaign was one of the worst I've ever seen. 1/
UK Labour: 1. straight up lied about the polls, pitting themselves as the only party that could keep out fascist Reform (by cleverly cutting out the Green Party from the poll results 🙄). If the fascists had won, it would be their fault. 2. Made up a voting advice group.
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3. Painted the Greens as variously : migrant-loving, Muslim-loving, sectarian, antisemitic (our leader @ZackPolanski is Jewish, as are lots of members, including myself, but don't let that stop anyone), whose main policy would be to push date rape drugs on children.
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The fact that the most thorough and technologically advanced genocide of our time, the rise of fascism & destruction of US academia, are all being justified under the umbrella of opposing antisemitism is not just a heinous trick of history. It means something quite profound.
And that something is that performative justice of a certain acceptable variety, under a certain label, means absolutely nothing and can (and will be) used to justify massive crimes.
Justice doesn't come in flavours. It comes in the hard work siding with the most vulnerable.
Also, Hollywood can sink into the sea. All those movies glorifying the WWII fight against Nazism and USians still voted for a fecking Nazi - because there was no actionable information in that cultural glorification. None. Zilch.
The neoliberal dream of fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch was always the destruction of US democracy and the elimination of government (except for its repressive organs police, courts, prisons, military ofc), and now he has won.
What now? A short 🧵. 1/ theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f…
Charles Koch built the neoliberal economic propaganda and climate denial machine, including the Heritage foundation, Project 25 and the Atlas Network. This is very much his victory, intellectual and strategic. Musk and Trump are simply doing his grunt work.
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First of all, don't indulge in false comfort if you are lucky enough to not be in the US. Odds are, the neoliberals/fascists in your country are, at this very moment, looking at Trump&Musk, learning, and planning the ways they can take down your own democracy and government.
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So ... this is just one more egregious example of Trump evil, in a whole timeline of them. I cannot imagine what this is doing to Americans facing this tsunami.But awareness and sharing are not enough.
🚨You need to organise.
The only way to resist is by building counterpower ...
and counterpower consists of people coming together in joint organisations and campaigns. 1. You should join existing organisations, actively designing and participating in campaigns, not just signing up for a newsletter and donations. 2. You should build your own groups as well.
The biggest threat to Trump are autonomous and organised citizens. Autonomy means that you decide for yourselves. Reliance on state (or state-affiliated) organisations is dangerous right now: what autonomous alternatives could you be part of working towards?