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What is the Earth Social Conference that will take place in Casanare, Colombia on December 5-10, 2023, where Polen Ecology is among the organizers and participants?
Since 1995, every year at the end of November, the COP gathers with the participation of states party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is the response of different capitalist interests to the climate crisis, which has become an emergency and is devastating life on earth. From Kyoto to Paris, at no stage has the interest of the peoples of the world been prioritized. Now, at COP28, once again, under the chairmanship of the UAE oil company executives the needs of imperialist capitalist competition will be decisive.
For years, climate and ecology organizations have tried to get involved in the COP through mass pressure. This has failed. It is becoming increasingly clear that the solution lies in organizing the independent power of the oppressed, and ultimately in the overthrow of capitalism. How is this to be done? A rupture. The boycott of the COP is a critical step in placing climate justice in a coherent anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist framework.
Growing around the mass climate strikes in 2019, diversifying tactics, learning from and drawing closer to each other, climate justice organizations strengthened their international ties in various joint campaigns. At the same time as the boycott of COP26 in Glasgow, there was a concerted effort in the Glasgow Peoples’ Climate Commitment to reduce greenhouse gas sources in every country. This course of action which focused on the sources of greenhouse emissions was an experience where inadequacies came to the fore. However, the process was instructive, and efforts intensified. Recently, as these climate organizations have started to pay attention to other political agendas, ensuring the continuity of action has become an important threshold. #TheirTimeToPay In September, actions were organized in different European countries around the slogan of “Climate Justice”. With the World Climate Justice Congress in Milan in October 2023, the climate movement crystallized its orientation towards a permanent coordination.
The alternative summit to concretize the boycott of the COP was meant to be organized this year in disaster-stricken Pakistan. However, due to state pressure and security risks, the summit was moved to Casanare, Colombia, which is also subjected to massive destruction of nonhuman nature. Polen Ecology has been among the organizers of the Earth Social Conference, working with great dedication since April. The conference will bring together organizing delegates and representative activists from all continents. There will be workshops, debates, and panels around 4 themes: theory of transformation, strategy, organization, and vision/programme. The short and medium-term plans of the movement will be determined at the international level. One third of the workshops will be hybrid and two thirds face-to-face. A closed meeting of delegates will determine the outcome of the conference. The conference aims to establish a permanent international climate coordination, and plan the first actions in the immediate aftermath.
As Polen Ecology, we will lead two sessions around the theme of strategy at the conference. We will discuss the climate crisis in the context of wars in the Middle East in a session with live contributions from the region, particularly focusing on the anti-colonialist struggles in Kurdistan and Palestine. (12/15)
In another session on proletarian climate internationalism, we will discuss the convergence of the labor and ecology movements with current examples and the limits encountered, and introduce the concept of laborology. We will emphasize how it differs from conventional “just transformation/transition” programs.
For Polen Ecology, the conference will be an opportunity to get closer to organizations with similar ideological and political views, to propagandize our Marxist understanding of ecology, and to discuss the climate movement in relation to important political developments in the world. In contrast to the sense of panic and urgency that drives the climate movement as well as the positivist approach that frames the ecological breakdown only with scientific data, our emphasis will be on revolutionary political struggle, and the role of revolutionary organizations and strategies.During and after the conference, we will try to reflect the current outlook, level and internal debates of the climate movement.
Polen Ecology calls on everyone who wants to defend the earth to join the movement and get organized.
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Join the digital day of Earth Social Conference, Thursday, December 7th. Register from here.