Daily Spoke nr 11

Call for international suport

Police attacks jail solidarity

cops shooting rubber bullets at peaceful protesters

A strong statement from journalists about police harassment (of journalists and demonstrators)

Free Market at G20

phony script

Tace to the bottom

May This G20 be the last

Follow news at http://2010.mediacoop.ca/
and http://www.g20breakdown.com/

http://twitter.com/mediacoop

The MDC’s Summit Legal Support Project is appealing to the movements it
supports to mobilize a show of political strength and solidarity for the
nearly 500 people arrested in the last four days. The Toronto Police and
the ISU appear to have lost control of their ‘prisoner processing center’,
denying arrestees meaningful and timely access to counsel while beating
and arresting those peacefully protesting their detention outside.

Despite assurances to the contrary, only a handful of people have been
released, including those held for many hours without charge. Arrestees
are given incorrect information about the bail process they will be
subjected to, and friends and family members gather hours early at the
courthouse, located far from the city center and inaccessible via transit.
Our lawyers call in and are told that there is no one available to make
decisions or wait for hours at the detention centre, only to be denied
access to their clients. Almost 500 people are in custody and we know from
experience that the vast majority of those charges will disappear and yet
the cell doors remain shut.

We need to step it up and build a political response. We need many more
voices – especially prominent ones – to say that the abuse and
incompetence at 629 Eastern Avenue must stop. We must demand that all
levels of government take control of the police forces under their
command. We need to ensure that courts and crown attorneys act to enforce
constitutional rights rather than collude in their violation.

Free the Toronto 500!

The Movement Defence Committee

Berlin
Freitag, 25.7 Juni | 20.00h | Buchhandlung Schwarze Risse, Gneisenaustraße 2a | Im Rahmen der Linken Buchtage

Magdeburg
Samstag, 26.7 Juni, 18 Uhr | L!Z – Libertäres Zentrum Magdeburg, Alt Salbke 144 | |

Hannover
Frühstücksdiskussion zu den Perspektiven und der Realisierung | gewaltfreier anarchistischer Praxis | Sonntag, 27. Juni, 12 Uhr | Bauhütte/Bürgerbüro Stadtentwicklung, Braunstraße 28

Hannover
Diskussionsveranstaltung zum Thema »Anarchism and the Politics of Technology« | Montag, 28. Juni, 20 Uhr | UJZ Korn, Kornstraße 28/30 | www.ak-anna.org/anarchie_politik_technologie.html | |

Wuppertal
Mittwoch, 30. Juni, 19.30 Uhr | AZ Wuppertal, Markommannenstr. 3, Elberfeld

Bonn
Donnerstag, 1. Juli, 20 Uhr | Buchladen Le Sabot, Breite Straße 76 | Eintritt frei | Eine Veranstaltung vom Buchladen Le Sabot und dem Verein zur Förderung politischer Bildung & Kultur e.V.

Winterthur
Dienstag 6.7. | 19.00h | GGS31, General Guisan-Strasse 31
Libertäre Aktion Winterthur

Biel/Bienne
Mittwoch 7.7. | Vortrag 18.30h | VoKü 20.00h | Fabrik 9, Neuengasse 9 | Buchhandlung Schwarzmarkt

Bern
Donnerstag 8.7. | 20.00h | Infoladen in der Reitschule, Neubrückstrasse 9
Infoladen Bern

Wetzikon
Freitag 9.7. | VoKü 18.30h | Vortrag 19.30h | Kultibeiz in der Kulturfabrik, Zürcherstr. 42 | Antikapitalistisches Kolletiv Zürcher Oberland

Basel
Samstag 10.7. | 19.00h | Infoladen Magazin, Inselstrasse 79

Zürich
Sonntag 11.7. | 16.00h Apéro | 16:30h Vortrag | Autonome Schule Zürich, Hohlstrasse 170 Z kre – kleinste revolutionäre einheit

Luzern
Montag 12.7. | 20.00h | ROMP, Steinenstrasse 17
Systembruch | www.systembruch.net

Bregenz
Mittwoch 14.7. | 19.00h Vortrag & VoKü | Juz Between, Bahnhofstr. 49
Infoladen Zündschnur

Graz
Montag, 19. Juli, 19 Uhr | Sub, Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai 66

Wien
Dienstag, 20. Juli, 19 Uhr | Druckraum, Redtenbachergasse 3

JUNE 2010 G8/G20 CONVERGENCE
http://g20.torontomobilize.org

Join our announcements list
email community.mobilize@resist.ca

and the facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=236150947036

Twitter: http://twitter.com/g20mobilize

ANNOUNCEMENTS and EVENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Things are getting exciting!
2. Art all the time at the People’s Summit
3. You coming to Toronto in an Affinity Group?
4. Important news from the Legal Team
5. Please donate to the Convergence Centre
6. Dancing interlude! Listen to the new G8 remix

EVENTS

7. Workshop on Independent Media and Alternative Media
8. Convergence Centre Opening Part-ay!
9. Halladay Yes! G20 No!
10. Direct Action Training
11. Know Your Rights Training

*** 12. People’s Summit Final Plenary: the G20 and G8 – All of Your
Questions Answered!***

13. Week of Action!

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EXCITEMENT!
Just a shout out to all the folks in Toronto and beyond who have been working so hard to make this convergence an exciting one. We have our convergence centre up and running (1266 Queen Street West, at Noble) and people are slowing filtering into town and the buzz is in the town! We all look forward to building stronger relationships and showcasing the strength and creativity in our communities!

Just a reminder for folks that we still need housing for out of town activists. If you can adopt an activist, please go the below links to fill out a form.

• If you need housing, please go here:
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/visitorhousing

• If you can provide housing, please go here:
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/housingform

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ART ALL THE TIME AT PEOPLE’S SUMMIT

Art is a vital form of expression we have against the G20. The arts committee has been hard at work making banners and posters. If you want to get involved, you’ll have a chance to help out at the People’s Summit.

We’ll be meeting for the whole weekend at the Community Commons in the HUB Cafeteria to make beautiful art! And learn now!

Here is the breakdown of what is happening (but times are not set):

Saturday June 19:
Morning: hands on screen printing shirts and button making
Afternoon: Silk Screening

Sunday June 20
Morning: Placards
Afternoon: Puppets, Environmental Justice banner making and making hot pink capes and arm bands

If you can donate to the art committee, please bring the following supplies:

— paint brushes
— pink fabric
— green fabric
— staples for staple gun
— paint
— drop cloth
— screen printing inks, squeegees
— stencil/placard material
— markers, chalk, cutters

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CALL FOR AFFINITY GROUPS

Many of the actions during the G8/G20 are being organized around or welcome an affinity group structure. We encourage people to form affinity groups with trusted friends, lovers, comrades, etc.

An affinity group is a small group of people, about 3-10 or so, who are interested in similar tactics and have similar levels of comfort. They can be thought of as the basic building block of the larger, decentralized group that we will form during many of the actions. In a demonstration, affinity groups are able to communicate and make decisions quickly and autonomously, and can act with greater efficiency and safety.

We’ve got a month and a half to get ready for this! Let’s gather in the secret, quiet places, and discuss with our trusted buddies what would excite and inspire us. Then, once we share a vision, let us scheme how to create it. Here are some things to think about when preparing as an affinity group:

-Comfort level – what sort of things are you willing or not willing to do?

-Legal preparations – How will you deal with arrests?

-Getting used to working as a group – In the coming weeks, make some time to go adventuring together.

-Have a plan – What sort of roles will your affinity group take on during the events? What are you good at? How will you apply those skills?

-Material preparations – What will you need to bring to do what you need to do? Don’t forget water!

Once you have an affinity group, SOAR wants you to get involved with the planning of autonomous actions, particularly for Sunday, June 27th. In the coming weeks, SOAR will be organizing spokes councils, where representatives from affinity groups can come help plan the details of actions, and to plug in by committing to taking on certain roles as a group. If you are interested in attending such a meeting, drop a line to torontospokes @ ecologyfund.net. And of course, the internet is not a safe place to discuss any specifics of these actions.

All SOAR events celebrate a diversity of tactics, meaning that we support all the many different ways that people choose to resist our common enemies. We will not condemn or attempt to prevent or control actions being taken by others, and will vigorously resist state repression against anyone. That said, respect for diversity of tactics also means not smashing things while part of a child-friendly march.

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network statement on Respect and Solidarity can be found at:
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/SolidarityRespect

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE LEGAL TEAM!

The Legal Team has issued an important communiqué to help activists stay safe while in Toronto. To read the full statement, please go to
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/256

Important Legal numbers:
Up to June 18th if you are arrested or approached by police: 416 833 6137 June 18th and afterwards:
If you are arrested or see someone arrested: 416 273 6761
If you want to know about someone who was arrested: 416-273-6781
If you are deaf or hard of hearing: 416 531 0060

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CONVERGENCE CENTRE NEEDS DONATIONS

If you can donate any items to make the Convergence Centre as useful as possible, please drop them off at 1266 Queen Street West. We need shelves, toilet paper, tables, chairs, cleaning supplies and more.

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Amazing new G8 dance song by Maynooth DJ B#!

“Dance Dance Dance – The CLAC vs Lykkie Li

(we recommend you dance while listening)

http://soundcloud.com/b-shrp/dance-dance-dance-the-clac-vs-lykkie-li-buraka-som-sistema-rmx-g20-rmx

EVENTS

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Workshop: Independent Media and International Solidarity
A workshop with Stefan Christoff
Thursday June 17
6:30
Room 2212
OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
A workshop for independent and alternative journalists!
To read the full description, go here:
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/267

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Convergence Space Party!!!
COME KICK OFF THE JUNE 2010 RESISTANCE
8pm – 11pm
1266 QUEEN STREET WEST
(just west off Noble)

We’re going to warm up the convergence space! Let’s make the space ours!
We’ve got DJ’s food and a whole lot of fire in our hearts! Think of this
as a housewarming for the movement’s house! Let’s spend time together socializing and dancing before we take to the streets!
When: Thursday, June 17, 2010 8pm
What: MOVEMENT’s HOUSEWARMING PARTY
Where: OUR NEW CONVERGENCE SPACE! 1266 Queen Street West (just off of noble)

Things to consider bringing:
- friends, family and loved ones
- a “gift” for the convergence space (shelves, zine’s, office supplies, anything you have, that we might need, that you don’t need)
- a monetary donation to keep us going!

This is a sober space free of drugs and alcohol.
This space is accessible, however the washrooms are not.

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HALLIDAY YES! G20 NO!
Friday June 18
5:30 – 7:30
Front Street and Blue Jays Way (meet on the bridge south of Front)

Do you still love baseball? Do you still hate the G20?

Then join us Friday June 18th, at 5:45pm as we go into ‘extra innings’ to flyer the Rogers Center again!

On June 6th sports fans, upset with the cancellation of the Jays games on the weekend of June 25th talked to thousands of Jays fans about the G20. Now we want to do it again.

We know you’d love to go to the ball game, hear the sounds, see the sights, grab a few hot dogs and watch The Blue Jays host the return of Roy Halladay (currently basking in the glow of a ‘perfect game’).

But the G20 doesn’t want you to. They don’t want anyone in Toronto to have that pleasure. They’d prefer to give bank bailouts, stop taxes on the wealthy, cut women’s access to abortion, spend $1 billion on fences, close day-cares AND, just to add insult to injury, prevent Halladay from coming back to the pitch.

So we know you’re angry. We know you’re upset. And we think a lot of baseball fans are too. As protesters, we rarely get a chance to talk to the folks at the ball game about the issues. This time, we’ve got a good reason to head down and talk about these issues.

But we need your help. If you’re a baseball fan, or you hate the G20 and all they stand for (or both!) then meet us:

Friday, June 18th at 5:45pm
Main Entrance to the Rogers Center (on the bridge!)
1 Blue Jays Way

We bring: Flyers and a dislike of the G20
You bring: A love of baseball

Sincerely,

Sports fans against the G20

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DIRECT ACTION TRAININGS
At the People’s Summit

Saturday June 19 1pm SCC Room G (Ryerson University)
Sunday June 20 10am VIC 202 (Ryerson University)

Facilitators: Andrea Hatala and Terry Douglas

These sessions are intended to prepare and empower folks who are expecting to participate in some or all of the events planned for June 21 – 27, 2010. Topics covered may include preparing for a demo/action, common police tactics, basic legal briefing, working in affinity groups, etc. The sessions will consist of interactive discussions, role-play, and possibly other approaches.

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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS WORKSHOPS
At the People’s Summit peoplessummit2010.ca

Saturday June 19 3pm SCC room G (Ryerson University)
Sunday June 20 10am VIC 104 (Ryerson University)

Members of the Summit Legal Support Project will prepare people for participation in the protests during the summits of the G8 and G20 in Huntsville and Toronto later in June. People will be informed of what their legal rights are, what preparations have been made for legal support during the demonstrations and what happens if one is arrested at a protest.

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The G8/G20 Week of Action – All of Your Questions Answered!
At the People’s Summit peoplessummit2010.ca

Sunday June 20 3pm Lib 72 – Auditorium (Ryerson University)

The G20 is convening in a week in their closed meetings!!

Come out and find out what is planned for the week ahead from a panel of organizers. Also find out from medics how to protect yourself and from the legal team on yourl egal right to organize and demonstrate.

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For more events, please go to g20.torontomobilize.org/schedule

J21, 1pm, Harper’s Attacks on Reproductive Rights at home and abroad, 25
Cecil Street, OCAC

J21, 2pm, Allan Gardens, March: “All Out In Defense of the Rights of All”

J22, Various Times/Locations, creative civic transformations and street
theatre for Gender Justice

J22, Creative Queer Resistance to the G20, 4:30pm Yonge and Queen, Tuesday

J23, 11am, Alexandra Park (Dundas and Bathurst St.) March: “Toxic Tour of
Toronto”

J23, 7pm, Ryerson Student Campus Centre (SCC115), 55 Gould St: People’s
Assembly on Climate Justice: Moving Forward from Cochabamba (Poster)
(Facebook)

J24, 11am, Queen’s Park, March: “Canada Can’t Hide Genocide: Indigenous
Day of Action”

J24, 5pm, Toronto Underground Cinema 186 Spadina Ave, “Six Miles Deep”
Documentary

J24, 8pm, 25 Cecil Street Steelworkers Hall, Forum: “Confront the Invasion!”

25-27 June 2010: DAYS OF ACTION

J25, 2:30pm, Allan Gardens (Carlton Street between Jarvis and Sherbourne
Street) Free the Streets! March. Block Party. Tent City: “Justice for Our
Communities”

J25, 6:00pm, Forum, Massey Hall: “Shout Out For Global Justice”

J26, 1:00pm, March, Queen’s Park: “People’s First. We Deserve Better”

J26, 1:00pm, March, Queen’s Park: “Get Off the Fence”

J26, Time/Location TBA, Radical Street Party: “Saturday Night Fever.”

J27, Time/Location TBA, Autonomous Direct Actions: “Getting Down to Business”

J27, 1pm, Location TBA, Bike Block action

J27, 2pm, St James Park (on King St. between Jarvis and Church), March:
“Funeral March”

J27, 3:33 PM, Anywhere, Make Believe Tea Party, (Flyer) (Handout)

J27, 5pm, Bruce Mackey Park (Dundas and Wardell), March:
Fire.Works.For.Prisons

_______________________________________________
community.mobilize mailing list
community.mobilize@masses.tao.ca
https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/community.mobilize

The most pronounced element of my heritage as a descendant of Holocaust survivors is the intergenerational transmission of trauma.The trauma of the Shoah today looms whether one has any relatives who perished in the war, and thanks to the pop-culturfication of the Shoah, whether you’re even Jewish or not.

For better or worse, the Holocaust has been canonized in such a way so as to make it the legacy of the entire Jewish nation and the world as a whole, as opposed to being the sole legacies of the actual victims and perpetrators themselves. Certainly many nations bear responsibility for their culpability and non-intervention in the Nazi genocide, and that merits repetition as the world stands idly by, time and again, as brutal genocides unfold all about our tiny planet, as the victims, perpetrators and bystanders of the last genocide, and the last one before that, assert in memorials and remembrances, “Never again.”

However, it is also worth noting that, as a result of this canonization of the Shoah, that as a Jew today, regardless of my own family history, I am more likely to feel as though the Holocaust happened to me, than I would that I had been a slave in Egypt, as the Torah instructs me. I am inclined to reflect upon the implications of that perception.

I find it telling that the defining act for which Avraham earned the inheritance of Israel, that act for which he was promised a nation, was that of traumatizing his son Isaac by binding him to a sacrificial altar and nearly striking him dead. Or that our national symbol, the Menorah, recalls surviving our near-total destruction as a people. And that our entire culture has been summed up in the aphorism: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.”

Our historical and religious narratives — that which we tell ourselves — perpetuate a legacy and expectation of persecution: Each day one should view himself as though he had been a slave in Egypt; the Amalekites shall rise up in every generation to destroy us; pogroms, Crusades, expulsions, Inquisitions; 6 million innocents perished in the fires of Europe; we must defend Israel, no matter how morally deficient we may find its actions, lest another Holocaust befalls us.

As Shalom Auslander wrote recently in Tablet magazine, “I was raised on a steady diet of Holocaust films, books, newsreels, and stories. By ‘never again,’ it was clear that my teachers meant ‘again.’ They meant, ‘Bet on it.’ They meant, ‘Hide some cigarettes in your underpants, you can trade them for bread.’”

The primary characteristic of Jewishness itself has become the affectation and expectation of trauma. Jewish identity is no longer about loving Hashem, or loving your fellow — dvekus, limmud, chesed, tzedakah. It is living in fear and suspicion of the other. It is knowing that the whole world has your number and is waiting for the right moment to put the knife in your back.

This undercurrent of suspicion and distrust, this paranoia and in some cases blatant racism, has come to pervade Jewish thinking. While not historically unfounded, it has spiraled well beyond the realm of excusable and understandable defensive posturing. We have come to ignore our power and privilege in the 21st century, and our responsibility as survivors, and — like the Reichstag fire — use the Holocaust to justify any and all actions that can be frenetically cast as necessary for the preservation of the Jewish people, no matter the cost to humanity.The true causes of the Shoah — ethnic and religious hatred, unchecked government power, endless warfare against an amorphous enemy, the eradication of civil liberties — have become instruments in the prevention of the next Shoah.

The result is a cheapening of the memory of the victims and an evincing that we have learned little if anything. The Holocaust and antisemitism are now meaningless political slurs invoked against the enemy of the moment.

Never again, we say. Never again to us. But to the next guy? To hell with ‘em.Case in point: Rabbi Jack Wertheimer’s recent editorial in Commentary magazine impugning the American Jewish World Service for operating in Darfur while there are still Jews in this world who suffer.

I hate to break it to you, but if assimilation, intermarriage, and Israeli emigration rates are any indication, this is not an effective sales pitch for Jewish identity, peoplehood or statehood. In an age of heretofore unknown Jewish acceptance and affluence marked by unparalleled choice and opportunity, why should one willingly choose a trauma-based identity? Is it for this that my grandparents survived? What is the merit of our survival if we sacrifice our truest essence in the pursuit of that survival?

Because they hate us and want to kill us?If that’s all you’re selling, thanks, but no thanks.

If the Jewish people are to not just survive, but to thrive, we must move beyond our trauma and work not only to secure a better world for ourselves, but to ensure better world for everyone. We must offer a Jewish narrative not rooted in mere survival, but in our and the world’s redemption.

Through providing this discussion paper as both incomplete and unending, we hope it will be useful as a tool in linking the diverse struggles throughout Europe and elsewhere, and strengthen the collective movement towards our visions of the future.

In choosing Europe as the terrain of this discussion, we are not separating ourselves from those struggling elsewhere in the world. On the contrary, through asking what the basis of climate justice is in on our own doorstep, and discovering how we go about implementing it, we are fighting for a better world for all.

The abject failure of governments to provide a political solution to the climate crisis in Copenhagen was unsurprising to those who, from the outset, understood the UN as an institution whose interests lie in extending the legitimacy of global capitalism and the nation-state. Those who placed their hope in the COP15, due either to naivety or necessity, left with a sense of disbelief. More and more are now coming to the realisation that it is social movements, not governments, that have the power to make the necessary changes to solve the climate crisis.

Linking with social struggle

The solutions to systematic repression, exploitation, and the climate crisis are the same. Climate Justice means linking all struggles together that reject neoliberal markets and working towards a world that puts autonomous decision making power in the hands of the communities. We look towards a society which recognises our historical responsibilities and seeks to protect the global commons, both in terms of the climate and life itself.

Solidarity

From the shanty towns of the Americas to the precariats of Europe, the global south is all of those, whether resisting or not, who suffer the impacts of the relationships of capital and domination. It is important to recognise that the marginalised in the geographic south are also the front line of the struggle for climate justice. Solidarity is the realisation of the common struggle. It is realising that the geography which divides us is insignificant compared to the strength of the values that hold us together – our shared affirmation of life and liberty in the face of exploitation and oppression. Solidarity means fighting for our own autonomy at the same time as we struggle against corporations and the relationships of capital that exploit people everywhere.

The EU

Europe, including the EU, is historically responsible for climate change and social and environmental exploitation world wide. The EU as a political institution serves only to extend the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. Its Lisbon Agenda, and the more recent 2020 Agenda, looks to increase the dominance of European based corporations and extend the rule of capital into every sphere of our lives. Its pursuit of the Emissions Trading Scheme has pioneered a system that serves only to profit from our ecological crises, its Bologna process turns our universities into ‘sausage factories’, whilst the EU trade strategy looks to control access to natural resources and cheap labour for European corporations, continuing its historical legacy of colonialism through different methods. Overcoming institutions that override the autonomy of communities through tying us to capitalist growth is essential if we are to move towards an ecologically and socially just world.

Food and Agriculture

Climate Justice is closely linked to breaking the circle of industrialised agricultural production perpetuated through WTO and European policies. Speculation on food as an industrial commodity and the domination of long unsustainable production chains by international capital threatens the biosphere and the lives of billions of people. This attack on food sovereignty and the planet must be met with a social struggle for food production defined by the needs and rights of local communities. This means redefining, re-localising and re-appropriating the control of our food and agricultural systems through engaging and acting in solidarity with existing struggles.

Military

In Europe, as elsewhere, the military-industrial complex is one of the key actors in maintaining business as usual in the current dominant economic political system. Under the false promise of ensuring ‘security’ and in the ‘war against terror’, huge and ever increasing budgets are being spent on military and policing infrastructure. Often military ventures are thinly veiled attempts at securing access to foreign resources and ensuring vast profits for the arms industry. The real security threat we face cannot be addressed by armed force and social control. Social exclusion, poverty, loss of biodiversity, ecosystem collapse, and increasingly scarce resources leading to an escalation in conflicts and resource wars, are posing a far bigger threat than the ghost of terror, or any other imaginary foe created to mask the social conflicts that exists within and between our societies. The struggle for climate justice is about highlighting another concept of sustainable ‘human security’, which a military and policing force will never be able to guarantee. In practice by resisting changes in our global systems, the military and police apparatus is endangering security, not increasing it.

Migration

Climate change is exacerbating factors which force people to migrate; lack of access to land or livelihood, failing agriculture, conflict and lack of access to water. The tiny proportion of those displaced who attempt the expensive and dangerous journey, are met with militarised border controls if they reach ‘Fortress Europe.’ Labelled ‘illegals,’ they are denied basic human rights and struggle to live in dignity, whilst providing a neat scapegoat for a range of social problems. The historical development of capital accumulation, colonialism and carbon emissions, means that Europe has a unique responsibility to act in solidarity with those who are displaced. In our free market system only those with certain papers such as an EU passport and capital and commodities are free to move around the world. Those seeking a better life or moving to survive are increasingly denied this option. As well as fighting for the conditions for people to be able to stay in their homes and communities, we must also defend the principle of freedom of movement for all as one key aspect of climate justice.

Energy

The need for constant economic growth also means an ever increasing thirst for energy. While there is sufficient energy in Europe we see that despite producing more and more energy, due to inefficiency and inequality, millions of people in Europe do not have access to affordable energy and are unable to heat their homes. Moreover our energy policy within Europe directly results in huge amounts of dangerous waste (nuclear and other), and vast levels of emissions which are rapidly destabilising the global climate. We must ensure that everyone in Europe has access to sufficient levels of energy which is produced in a way that does not damage or endanger people or the environment. We need to radically transform our ways of producing, distributing and consuming energy. This means leaving fossil fuels in the ground, democratising means of production and changing our attitudes to energy consumption. Energy resources should be in the control of communities that use them, and this means challenging the power and ownership of energy companies.

Production and consumption

Europe has some of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world and consumes enormous amounts of resources, yet there are stark inequalities. Production and consumption should be based on values other than profit; this means changing the way we structure our social, economic and political relationships, and ensuring democratic control of the means of production. This will require expropriation and conversion not only of climate damaging companies and industries, but all spheres of life that operate according to the logic of capital. We need to challenge individualism in society and stop allowing ourselves to be defined as consumers, a de-humanising and restrictive identity. Social values must be based on human needs and not on ever increasing consumption, economic growth and competition.

Climate Justice in Europe

Climate justice means recognising that the capitalist growth paradigm, which leads to over extraction, overproduction and overconsumption stands in deep contrast to the biophysical limits of the planet and the struggle for social justice. The historical legacy of European expansion/colonialism is a root cause of the current geopolitical inequalities, in which the global North is consuming the global South. Climate justice means addressing the inequalities that exist between and within countries, and replacing the economic and political systems that uphold them. The status quo is maintained through unequal exchange via unjust trade policies and unequal access to technological capacity. On a global level Europe is a centre of capital accumulation and thus socio-ecological exploitation of the South, however, internally in Europe there are huge inequalities in terms of race, gender and class. These are crucial issues that need to be addressed in the struggle for climate justice on a European level.

We hope that this discussion paper has helped to explore the concept of climate justice in the context of Europe, and we invite your comments to further this discussion. Fundamentally, we believe that we cannot prevent further global warming without addressing the way our societies are organised – the fight for climate justice and the fight for social justice are one and the same.

email: info@climate-justice-action.org (please put ‘CJ in Europe discussion paper’ in the subject line), this discussion paper will also be posted on the CJA website: http://www.climate-justice-action.org. We welcome offers of translation