Fossil Free activists from across Europe plan ahead for 2015
Blog written by Louise Fitzgerald, from Fossil Free Berlin group.
Last weekend over 70 Divestment activists from across Europe met in Eindhoven, The Netherlands to share experiences, learn new skills and brainstorm ideas. It was a Fossil Free Skillshare, but to its participants it came to mean much more. Strangers greeted each other with hugs, latecomers were greeted with clapping and there was of course the DIVERSITY WELCOME.
The openness of the movement was felt throughout the weekend. In it is a role for everyone; with veteran protestors and those new to activism welcomed equally.
To many the fossil fuel divestment campaign has offered a chance to give their unique talents and strengths, to make a difference and to be part of a movement greater than the sum of all its parts. To be united in diversity.
Naomi Klein captured well what the campaign offers, when discussing the deep sense of cognitive dissonance we experience between what we feel knowing the terrifying facts of climate change, but living in a culture that is taking us in so many ways in the wrong direction.
“One of the things that happens when you join a movement is that it closes that gap between those emotions and our actions, and there’s a real relief in that.. it’s a kind of therapy.” Naomi Klein
Fossil Free Sweden activists help the team celebrate Midsummer’s Eve, Swedish-style!
I’ve returned to my group, Fossil Free Berlin, feeling inspired and strengthened from meeting people from across the world, with shared experiences, shared visions, standing in solidarity with each other; people I consider to be not just new allies but also new friends.
Together we welcomed in Midsummer and a dawn of new things to come.
That, was the Eindhoven Energy, and what the Divestment campaign means to me.
It’s inclusive, it’s diverse, it’s hope.