Power to the People 

The Power to the People group holds assemblies on key topical events relevant to ordinary citizens. Our first two assemblies on the cost of living crisis and climate fatigue respectively gathered hundreds of participants from across the continent. This experiment pioneers a new type of democratic engagement, providing one possible (very simple) exemplar for how transnational citizen’s assemblies could be developed into a permanent feature of the European Union’s democratic structure. While there is much that can be improved – care must be taken to think about how groups with insecure residency status, poor access to internet, electricity and digital hardware (smartphones, laptops, computers) can be engaged, and as Alvaro Oleart argued in the last edition of the EA journal, how existing representative institutions such as trade unions can be embedded in the process –  the possibilities for a grassroots, bottom-up reformation of the EU’s political structure based on online transnational people’s assemblies, building on this and other models, are tantalising.

The Cost of Living Crisis

For the first of the series of online assemblies, hundreds of people from sixteen countries across and outside the European continent joined the Power to the People call to discuss rising costs of living. The assembly discussed the ongoing economic pressures in Europe from a bottom-up citizen-centred perspective. The assembly had simultaneous translation in English, Italian and German throughout and was moderated by Sarah (Mehr Demokratie) and myself. You can watch a recording of the event here.

The assembly began with an opening plenary featuring contributions from residents across Europe. I began by reading a poem touching on the general crisis of low pay across all sectors, poor healthcare provision, the high cost of food and housing, and the particular impact the crisis has had on racialised and minoritised communities. The poem highlighted the growing level of organisation to push back against low pay and high bills, including strikes in all sectors and the ‘Don’t Pay’ movement.

Immediately emphasising the common cross-border experience, a writer from Palermo started her contribution with a reference to the growing ‘Don’t Pay’ movement in her region. She highlighted the dire state of the economy where average wages have not been adjusted for over thirty years whilst inflation is now in double digits. She criticised the fossil fuel companies who have used this moment of crisis as a profiteering opportunity, and referenced Naomi Klein’s theory of ‘disaster capitalism’ as a model to explain their behaviour. She advocated an intersectional response to the crisis, joining the climate, labour, migrant, feminist and LGBTQI+ movements to resist systemic exploitation.

From Cluj, a clip of a video capturing the key moments of a local protest and march against the rising costs of living was shared. The protest ‘Everything is too expensive! Utilities, food & housing!’ was organized by Social Housing NOW! in collaboration with the Socialist Action Group, Gastivists Romania, Fridays for Future Romania and the Syndicate of the Militant Students. You can watch the full video here.

Finally an Erlangen resident shared tweets from the founder of the NGO “sanktionsfrei”, which helps people who have had their social benefits cut. The tweets showed the extreme hardship now faced by many individuals who were already struggling as a result of high inflation and the failure of the state to ensure everyone in society’s basic needs are met.

After the opening plenary, participants were split into 38 breakout rooms limited to 5 people in each room, allowing for participants to speak, share and listen to each other’s lived experience of the cost of living crisis. Many participants found commonalities across borders in each person’s experience of the cost of living crisis. 

In the closing plenary participants had a chance to feedback on their experience. There was a strong appreciation for the opportunity to reflect and share across borders, creating a transnational dialogue. People also shared their sense of empowerment about political solutions to the crisis, with some sharing their experience organising for higher pay acting collectively within trade unions, and others emphasising the complimentary power of the ‘Don’t Pay’ protests. 

Climate Fatigue: turning powerlessness into change 

Anxiety, desperation, denial, action … people react differently to the ever-growing odds of climate catastrophe. Our second transnational assembly, which was divided into two parts,  focused on dealing with and transforming emotions of despair and helplessness. How can we turn powerlessness into change? 

For decades, movements have debated strategies mobilizing those emotions politically: turning fatigue into activism and direct actions. Groups like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Letzte Generation have shown both the potential and limitations within the current climate activism toolkit. Indeed, the path to a just, forceful and inclusive climate action is full of obstacles for the many who feel powerless. Repression is fierce and growing, often fuelled by governments and defenders of the fossil fuel era alike. 

The Power to the People group organized two multilingual virtual events on the 22nd and 29th of June 2023, inviting citizens, activists and decision-makers all over Europe to discuss how to respond productively to climate fatigue. The first event aimed at setting the stage and constituted a panel of perspectives of influential speakers from movements, science, politics and civil society across Europe, invited to share, listen and learn about different perspectives to create a common basis for the second event, which would be more participant-led. It was co-moderated by Maximilian Fries (Europe Calling) and myself. 

The panel included Caroline Hickman, psychologist at the University of Bath (UK), who pecialises in climate psychology and eco-anxiety; Sven Hillenkamp, sociologist, author and analyst of the climate protest movement with a history in direct action movements; Terry Reintke, Member of the European Parliament for the German Green Party & co-leader of the Greens/EFA group; plus spotlights from Matteo Innocenti, psychiatrist and President of the Italian Climate Change Anxiety Association; Louis Fidel, founding member of HEC (École des hautes études commerciales Paris) transition and former president of HEC’s ecologist society; and Kira Hoffmann, representative of the group “Letzte Generation” in Germany.

The variety of contributors allowed for a rich discussion. Caroline emphasised the importance of accepting emotions of despair and anxiety as completely understandable, human reactions. Part of the exhaustion many activists and onlookers feel often stems from the unnecessary pressure to always seem optimistic and motivated; pretending can also drain our energy. Sven highlighted an important reminder that we must also pay attention to the large group within society for whom direct action and ‘activist-speak’ can be alienating and counterproductive. Thinking about ways to engage and win over this ‘middle’ chunk of society is essential to the climate struggle. Terry Reintke highlighted the importance of building broad political alliances and continuing to struggle within institutions and electoral systems for a better, greener politics, shifting away from a defensive strategy towards a more positive mobilisation campaigning for the changes we want to see.

The spotlighted speakers added a variety of perspectives drawing from different regions, strategies and tactics. Like Caroline, Matteo emphasised that it is important to acknowledge and accept feelings of despair and anxiety, but also to help people feel self-efficacy. Not doing so increases the danger of eco-paralysis. Kira recalled how the feeling of heartbreak at the fact that many people around the world have already lost their lives and homes, particularly in the global south, and that IPCC reports and scientists all now warn that we have only three years to stop a tipping point being reached, motivated her to go from individualist actions (going vegan) towards more collective direct action and civil disobedience. Louis gave a unique insight into how activism is flourishing in a scene that most people wouldn’t think to find it: in business schools. Louis’ fellow students took direct action to push the business school to start putting climate change on the curriculum; in fact the students believed there needed to be a revolution in now obsolete business training – eco-transition needed to be central to all teaching and greenwashing needed to be stopped. Louis stated that he felt anger, not anxiety, and that is what motivated him to continue to be an activist despite being a business school student. 

The panel session was recorded and the video can be watched here. After listening to such brilliant insights, participants had a chance to discuss what they had heard and share their own experiences in a horizontal, transnational space the following week.

The second part of the transnational assembly was moderated by Sarah Handel (Mehr Demokratie). Some of the speakers from the first session joined, and some inspirational videos were played, but the key element was the space given to participants to listen and share their emotions about the climate catastrophe in small breakout rooms, ensuring everyone had the time and space to speak, followed by feedback in the plenary session. You can watch the recording of the plenary elements here. 

All the participants stressed how much they appreciated the opportunity to listen to others. Some people identified as being more ‘ordinary’ than ‘activist’ and enjoyed being able to talk about how they feel as well as the importance of talking and thinking about solutions. Some were politically involved, e.g. from the Green party, but highlighted that a space to interact with other people on a personal level where people share and talk from the heart was something that rarely existed in more explicitly ‘political spaces’, and that this space was welcome as a way to replenish energy. One participant was from XR and was familiar with the method used as a type of non-violent communication; they liked it because it fosters connection and creates a safe space for the difficult emotions that arise in activism to be given a voice. 

Everyone emphasised the importance of the opportunity to connect between generations and with people from much further afield that they wouldn’t normally meet, e.g. Turkey. For instance, one participant stated that he was 64 years old, but loved meeting a young activist from Hamburg who was encouraging people to go to demonstrations. For him this was deeply inspiring and he felt it was really important to use such spaces to bring the generations together. There was a strong desire to go further, to stay in touch with other participants and share resources. 

To sum up Charles Torron (European University Institute) reiterated that across three different generations of people in his breakout group, everyone had the same feelings: it was very hard to have hope in the current context, with so many ways to get trapped in anxiety. He reminded us that technology plays a big part in the climate debate, as the idea is often circulated that technology can solve the climate crisis, but this idea has now been shown to be sterile. That said, while it is easy to get alienated using technology, technology is still meaningful when people from different countries can speak and connect. The transnational Power to the People webinars allowed just such connection in a way that wouldn’t be possible without technology. Technology therefore has great political potential and allows us to interact and identify with each other across borders. 

This is exactly the meaningful, transborder connection that the Power to the People assemblies hope to foster. There are more Power to the People webinars to come. Subscribe to the EA newsletter and stay tuned to take part in the next one!

Seema Syeda works in Communications and Campaigns at European Alternatives and Another Europe Is Possible. She is an intersectional antiracist activist, has participated in direct action for climate with the campaign group Momentum and continues to organise against borders for social justice.