Greetings to our UNITED friends, and a welcome to a new year!
We begin this year by continuing where we left off last.
We had long discussions in 2020, where we (virtually) brought together people from across Europe to debate the future of civic organizing, peace and environmental movements, and how we can organize a campaign in all parts of Europe for climate justice and an eco-social transformation.
We heard you, we gathered your learnings, and we are now taking them to:
...the World Social Forum, which is the annual event bringing together global civil society to build a movement of international solidarity around a particular theme.
This year, the World Social Forum will take place entirely online, from the 23rd to the 31st of January. Each day will consist of specific themes, ranging from issues such as economic justice; feminism, society, and justice; original and ancestral people; and finally, climate justice.
We would like to announce that this Friday, on the 29th of January from 1pm to 6pm CET, UNITED will be co-hosting a series of discussions on the thematic space of Climate, Ecology, and the Environment.
This thematic space will bring together experiences from different parts of the world to see how environmental struggles can be part of a system change.
The day will begin with an intercontinental dialogue in which the two current issues of climate emergency and species extinction are discussed together. This will be followed by parallel sessions, which end with an assembly where the results of the sessions will lead to proposals for a joint action plan aimed at changing the system and stopping environmental destruction.
The programme, which can be seen on the forum website, will include speakers from Global Tapestry of Alternatives, South Asian People's Action on Climate Crisis, Friends of the Earth International, Extinction Rebellion, Young Friends of the Earth Europe, Fridays for Future, African Climate Alliance, and Habitat International.
Speakers will join us from around the world - Argentina, China, Australia, India, Nigeria, Belgium, USA, Philippines, Mexico, South Africa, Canada, Lithuania, and more.
UNITED will be wrapping up the final session on this day with System Change Not Climate Change Mexico, Prague Spring 2, and SiemenpuU. We sincerely invite you all to join!
Register here: https://forms.gle/q4tmUSVebqbmznuN8 (Zoom links will be provided soon)
To see all the other events of the WSF 2021, do visit and sign in the at https://join.wsf2021.net/
Attend and share the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/162911531970159
Over 6,000 people have registered for the World Social Forum. Are you one of them?
In other news…
- UNITED is continuing to recruit members for its Youth Advisory Board. If you are passionate about UNITED’s mission and values, and have a solid foundation of work on youth, anti-discrimination, human rights, and minorities rights, then we would love your input in the future of UNITED. More information here. We look forward to your applications.
- We are hard at work at updating our website. With a new interface, and a well-organized layout, you will be better able to access our resources, stay on track about our events, and have clear knowledge about our conferences.
- On the 27th of January, UNITED will be speaking at the conference “MEMORY: a righteous among the nations.” This Zoom event, which targets 14-19 year olds in Slovakian schools, is meant to open young minds to a discussion around anti-Semitism. The date chosen is a symbolic one: it is on the commemoration day of when, on January 27th 1457, the Auschwitz extermination camp was liberated. We hope for an invigorating conversation, and some fresh perspectives from young minds. More information here..
On a final note…
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our fellow activist Ronald Essiens, general director of one of our key allies International Network Against Cyber Hate. His contributions will not be forgotten, and his fight will live on. May his soul rest in peace.
Stay UNITED!
