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/
6/
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.
8/
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.
🙏🙏
End/
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.
I am completely shaken. The combination of reading Quinn Slobodian on neoliberalism's anti-democratic rampage around the world, and the Chevron decision of the US Supreme Court destroying the ability of the state to regulate industry AT ALL, basically, is so very clarifying.
Predatory monsters live among us, mega-profitable industries and their ideologues-enforcers. They have been actively destroying the foundations of democracy to enable their domination of land, water, resources, labour, everything, since the 1950s. Our societies are their prey.
We are their prey.
And despite being a leftist for all of my existence, this is the first time I am learning about their mode of operation? That's a shocking indictment of leftist thinking, writing, education, communication.
This is NOT just "capitalism", folks.
So yesterday we had quite the victory at Uni Lausanne for both the Palestinian rights student movement, and for the university as a whole against political violence & silencing pressure. No time to detail the whole thing, will just add links. 1/ Image: Keystone/Valentin Flauraud
The students won concessions on all 4 of their demands: 1. public university statement of solidarity with Palestinian academics and scholars 2. active support of Palestinian scholars and rebuilding Palestinian academia 3. transparency on collaborations with Israel 2/
The fourth and most contentious was the calling into question and possible boycott of collaborations with Israel. The partial concession here is the creation of an urgent working group (students were not thrilled, but still) setting out criteria for ethical collaboration.
3/
Should have seen this coming, but apparently my building is the first student-occupied pro-Palestinian Uni building in Switzerland. Super proud and going to prepare my courses in a slightly noisier environment than anticipated. 😍😍😍
not sharing pictures because, but right now everything very peaceful, people becoming friends, just sitting, working, talking. Some lucky folks moved a couch in, sitting pretty.
Ah was for colleague with crutches.
communique from students, translated into English:
"A peaceful occupation of Geopolis has just begun to demand:
- Immediate cessation of academic collaborations with Israeli institutions as long as Israel does not respect the immediate ceasefire, international law ....
Some recent pro-Palestinian tweets went viral, so I got to be exposed to pro-Israeli accounts, some real people, some trolls. And they exhibit behaviour I remember from the good (not good) days of Holocaust denial in Europe in the 1980s. A short 🧵 which will please no one.
1/
The "argument" has four phases.
1⃣ Denial. The bad stuff didn't happen, isn't credible, isn't plausible, wasn't that bad really.
2⃣ Justice. But, if it did happen, the victims had it coming to them. They were the bad guys, they did bad things, they deserved it for sure.
2/
3⃣ Outrage & glee. In fact, the bad guys are SO bad, they deserve WAY more than they got. We have been too restrained. We should be congratulated for the harm we did so far!
4⃣ Escalation. We need to be way more violent and attack more of them, kill more of them.
3/
The Columbia student activists are NOT targeting Jewish students FFS. THEY ARE ALSO JEWISH STUDENTS. The White House lies and lies and lies, here putting non-violent students futures, health and lives at risk. The biggest megaphone in the USA just called them violent antisemites.
They lied about Palestinians lives, diminishing them and calling them all violent terrorists, enabling their elimination. As predicted, they are now using the same rhetorical tactics to justify the elimination of undesirables at home. And all for their own violent Islamophobia.
I am not claiming that no antisemitic incidents are happening on US campuses, btw, that would be preposterous. Just that the Columbia protest camp has been widely reported to be non-violent and welcoming of Jewish students and Jewish expressions of faith.
In contrast ...
I managed to catch up on two talks/panels given/organised by @ER_Roberts_ and her organisation Working Class Climate Alliance @_WCCA over past days and I have lots of (mostly extremely positive) thoughts to share with you all. A 🧵. 1/
First, links to the talks.
1⃣ By Emma herself, hosted by @ProfJohnBarry in Belfast, link here
2⃣ And a panel hosted by Emma, featuring my old friend @payalclimate as well as @assad_shoaib @Matthuber78 and Michael Albert.
2/
Please watch both, they are well worth it. What follows are just my additional thoughts and notes.
To start with, I am a middle class twit and very clueless about class in exactly the ways that Emma explains are so harmful, so I learned a lot, and found lots to think about.
3/