Greetings from a working-from-home, hand-santized, hunkering-down UNITED!
Like us, we hope you are taking all the necessary precautions as well in these strange, scary, and difficult times. We are hoping and praying for all of it to be over soon, and for everyone around the world to recover safely, and stay healthy.
This doesn’t currently change plans at UNITED, however. Our European/Prague Spring conference, held in conjunction with supporting organizations, is still on for the 25th to 26th April, until further notice. This is the only preparatory conference in the Central and Eastern Europe aiming to bring its results to the World Social Forum, which takes place in Mexico City in January 2021.
The aim of the European/Prague Spring conference is pretty clear: to emphasize, and build on, the important connections between social and environmental movements. The experts of the conference will seek for social and environmental (ecological) alternatives and look for answers to the multidimensional crisis looming large above all our heads. It’s clear that our blind race for profit and growth is anything but sustainable. A failing economic system, global warming, wildlife extinction and pollution beg the urgent need to address that. Meanwhile, world leaders are not so keen to change this course, but are comfortable with drawing in more money for military spending at a time of increased global instability. This conference aims to stand up to this global trend: to mobilize human and financial resources for better involvement of Central and Eastern European (CEE) activists in the World Social Forum. If you are one of these activists, JOIN US, fill out our expression of interest form, nominate whoever you would like to attend (this can include us), and mobilize.
For now, we are optimistic that the global health scare will be over soon, and we will be able to continue our activities (such as this conference) as normal. Until then we are taking all the recommended precautions: staying at home, avoiding crowded places, not touching our faces, and washing our hands till they’re sparkling. This is a trying time not only for those of us at risk, but also for certain communities – conditions are ripe to bring out the worst in people, and for discrimination to skyrocket. We must remind everyone to stand up to any signs of scapegoating and racism, and to show solidarity and strength to those being targeted, because this is an issue that affects us all unilaterally.
Our usual e-news would have announced news from the network, but in these uncertain times we are temporarily suspending this section. Instead, we are using this time to express our concern and solidarity to all of you, to pray for the common humanity, to wish everyone safety and health, and to remind everyone to take care.
Stay safe, #StayUNITED.
