EYFA Newsletter — Summer 2014

Back by popular demand, here is a round up of activists events, gatherings, camps and meetings happening around Europe this summer.

Have an event planned this summer or autumn that should be included? Email eyfa [at] eyfa.org and we’ll add it to the website.

1. Ecotopia Biketour – tour still being defined
2. The Beat of Courage; the Shape of Hope: Berlin, Germany
3. Musta Pispala — Anarchist Counter-Culture festival: Tampere, Finland
4. Cycling alternatives — Neolution: around Europe
5. Autonomous Workers Union Summer Camp: Ukraine
6. Climate camp in the Rhineland: Borschemich, Germany
7. War Starts Here Camp:  near Magdeburg, Germany
8. Reboot Ecotopia Meeting: Berlin, Germany
9. Fantastic Convergence of Resistance: Frankfurt (Main), Germany
10. Pense Comme Une Foret, Belgium


1. ECOTOPIA BIKETOUR

Mid June — End of September // Exact route to be defined

“Ecotopia Biketour is an eco-mobile do-it-yourself community that has been practising aspects of activism, alternative ways of organising and sustainable living throughout different areas of Europe for over 20 years.

The Biketour is for anyone interested in DIY, environmentalism, activism, community life and learning experientially from cultures, from challenges, and from each other. Ultimately, it is whatever you make of it! You are the Biketour!

When on the road, we share skills, practice consensus and act communally to create an informal and non-hierarchical environment. We cook local vegan food using a self-built rocket stove, camp and move everything by sheer pedal power on bikes and trailers. We visit places of alternative living, environmental and social struggle, ecological farms etc. and we love to be part of Critical Mass rides.

Each year, we collectively organise a new route and highlight a different theme such as; food sovereignty; sustainable economics or global justice.”

We are still looking out for suggestions who could host the bike-people. The tour will start either in Sofia, Skopje, Nis or Prishtina and end in or around Athens. So if you got ideas for host-places, let us know, that would be awesome!!!

Find out more here.

2. THE BEAT OF COURAGE; THE SHAPE OF HOPE: CREATIVE RESISTANCE IN THE FACE OF CATASTROPHE

July 5-6 // Berlin, Germany

A 2 day workshop with The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination

Saturday 5 & Sunday 6 July 2014 — 10am to 6pm Berliner Festspiele –  Schaperstraße 24 – 10719 Berlin

Faced with the immensity and complexity of the catastrophic entwining of ecological, economic and social crises that threaten our entire way of life, in fact threatens life itself, we often feel paralysed. “/We/ could do more”, our intuition nags at us, and yet something holds us back from actions commensurate with the scale of the problem.

Participants will be encouraged to share and reflect upon personal and historical stories of courage and disobedience, learn to trust each other and engage in horizontal processes of organising, as well as explore tools for effective strategies that are required in order to organise appropriate responses to the injustices of the climate catastrophe.

The workshop is free, but places limited, bookings need to be made by June 15th (with a short letter to labofii@berlinerfestspiele.de explaining why you’d like to attend, this is to get a sense of who you are so that we can tailor the workshop to the participants). Confirmations will be sent by June 22nd. Participants will be expected to bring lunch to share with others on both days.

3. MUSTA (BLACK) PISPALA – ANARCHIST COUNTER-CULTURE FESTIVAL

July 8-11 // Tampere, Finland

Anarchist counter-culture festival Black Pispala will be held this year during the second weekend of July, 8.-11.7.2010. Events will take place around Pispala, Tampere (Finland), including Hirvitalo, Kurpitsatalo, Vastavirta-klubi, and Pub Kujakolli.

The festival program will focus in particular on the analysis of anarchist organization and planning as well as sharing practical skills through workshops relating to local plant use, first aid and other things. For people who don’t speak Finnish, there will be translators in most of the workshops.

More info about the logistics, program and how to participate:

Find out more here.

4. CYCLING ALTERNATIVES, NEOLUTION 2014

July-August // 3 different routes in Europe

3 Cycling Mobile Communities
3 Topics: Permaculture / Solidarity Economy / Self-Organisation
3 weeks in July/August 2014

Join us this summer to learn about different ways to meet existing social, environmental and economic issues and share your experiences. Far away from stuffy seminar rooms, but on your bike, in the open, and directly from the people who are putting other ways of living into practice and exchange with others that are trying to do the same.

Join in for 3 weeks of learning, sharing and experiencing a mobile seminar on bikes. We will cycle in 3 mobile communities from three different places in Germany and Poland and learn and exchange about the topics of Permaculture

https://www.cyclingalternatives.org

Registration deadline is June 14th! If you have any questions about the
project, contact us anytime : mail [at] cyclingalternatives.org

5. AUTONOMOUS WORKERS UNION SUMMER CAMP

August 22 — 26 // Ukraine

We, the anarchists of the Autonomous Workers Union, invite our comrades to the international libertarian summer camp, which will take place from 22nd to 26th of August. There will be lectures and workshops on the theory and practice of anarchism, engagement in sports and exercises, acquaintances and communication between the activists from different countries and, of course, the invaluable experience of self-organization. Every participant will have the opportunity to partake in the camp’s cultural, educational, and sports agenda — one only needs to get in touch with us and voice their ideas and wishes. A kitchen will be set up at the camp. A participant will be expected to make a contribution, which will be spent on food, fresh water and camping fees.

The exact amount of the contribution is still unknown (it depends on the food price fluctuation at the end of summer), but is assumed to be about 300 hryvnias — 18.5 Euro at the current exchange rate. We will organize a vegetarian diet only. A participant who’d like to have some non-vegetarian meal at the camp is expected to provide it for themself.

A camp participant should have:

1) sleeping mat and a sleeping bag.
2) #separate set of tableware (a bowl, a cup, a spoon and a fork)
3) Personal hygiene items
4) Mosquito repellent.

We would also ask everyone to bring tents if possible, in order to reduce the overall cost of accommodation.

The exact camp location and the directions will be sent personally to those who submitted the application form. You can find the form at the following link:

Find out more here.

Fascists, Stalinists, sexists, homophobes, authoritarians and other discrimination advocates are not welcome.

Ukraine, Kyiv, June 2014
mailto: inbox@avtonomia.net
www.avtonomia.net
No god, no master, no nations, no borders!


6 CLIMATE CAMP IN THE RHINELAND

July 26 — August 3 // Borschemich, Germany

All of Rhineland Coalfield is under RWE’s control. To exploit coal, the corporation destroys forests, villages, aquifers and agricultural land. Their power plants are heating up the atmosphere with 100 million tons of CO2 per year — with catastrophic consequences for ecosystems and livelihoods worldwide. All of Rhineland Coalfield?!

Yes or no…. That’s at stake right now. Some indomitable people still hold out to resist the destruction. Some stay in their houses which stand on the verge of demolition. Others occupy the trees which are bound to be clear-cut, and plant vegetables on the soil destined to be digged away. For decades, citizen initiatives have been fighting against forced eviction and pollution with particle matter. Environmental organizations are active against the devastating consequences of coal policy and go to court against it. With exhibitions and bike demonstrations, meadow occupations and coal train blockades, environmental activists resist the destruction of nature and climate.

And they are all spoiling RWE’s plans….

The Rhineland Climate Camp will be as manifold as this resistance. This year it will take place from July 27 to August 3, 2014 in Borschemich, close to the open-cast coal mine Garzweiler — only few metres away from the bucket-wheel excavators. Here we get together to exchange our skills and knowledge, to build up alternative structures and networks, and to plan different actions against the lignite mining complex. Together we bring back life to a village on the brink of demolition. If you look for the place where you can tackle the root of global climate change: it is here!

On the camp we want to create a living space for change where we bring together our perspectives, discuss our differences in critical solidarity and use our strengths together.

For a Good Life for everybody — in all of Rhineland Coalfield and worldwide!

Find out more here.

7. WAR STARTS HERE CAMP

August 17-25 // Near Magdeburg, Germany

War starts here. Nowadays politicians are clear and open about their position: there shall be no more restraint from German ground when it comes to military operations. No more war — a major lesson learned from German history — is outdated. Germany defends its claims to power and secures its wealth by all means.

Militarization of society proceeds on all levels. An openly-aggressive foreign policy comes along with increasing exports of armaments and offensive NATO missions.

The apparent normality of these prevailing conditions disgusts us and makes us angry. We will interfere resolutely and inappeasably. We call on you to join the third War-Starts-Here-Camp against militarization and neocolonialism in August 2014. War starts here — let’s stop it here!

In opposition to the ‘GÜZ’ (field exercise center of the army) we will built our campsite which will offer a framework for workshops, lectures, discussions, excursions and direct actions of all kinds. The War-Starts-Here-Camp seems to be the right place to come together with the goal to to leave the place with more skills and motivation for our daily struggles.

Find out more here.

In framework of the camp ‘War Starts Here’ is scheduled a non-violent action to trespass the military training area of Altmark and to settle down and create symbols of life against the war scenery. In the combat training center soldiers are prepared for combat missions abroad.

Find out more (in German).

Contact: kontakt [at] gewaltfreie-aktion-guez-abschaffen.de

8. REBOOT ECOTOPIA MEETING IN BERLIN

September 6th // Location to be decided

Dear fellow Ecotopians, too many years have passed since we’ve seen y’all!

We’d love to hear about your projects and see our kids play twixt teepees and circus tents as in the days of yore, so come intentioneer and materialize Spirit of Ecotopia 2015 with us!

Please rsvp before the end of June, so we can set up a mailing list and make sure we have a big enough place and time slot, as well as sleeping places if need be.

For those who have an extra day, there is the opportunity to visit our little “Permanent Ecotopia” region of Fläming County, just outside of Berlin, with 500 eco- and community minded people in one small town and many villages. C’mon over!

Much ecotopian love from Tobias and Meinhard

rsvp NOW to mangotobias@gmail.com

9. FANTASTIC CONVERGENCE OF RESISTANCE

Fall 2014 // Frankfurt (Main), Germany

The Troika, not content simply to oversee or even directly administer the budgetary functioning of entire States, seeks also to dictate the very conditions of our lives, reducing the latter to a simple question of “human resource management”. The impression of being dominated, overwhelmed, and finally altogether crushed by a self-appointed clique of “Core European” bureaucrats has become one of the more salient features of the present.

We are living through the intentional destruction of the social, a calculated pauperization of our daily lives, a massive acceleration in the concentration of wealth and power, a conscious instrumentalization of xenophobic resentments.

It´s time to get our lives back, to reinvent community, to organize practically.

It is necessary to transpose our experiences of local struggle to a higher offensive level, beyond the national frame of reference inherent to the movement, in order to sandwich the State on the European level as well. The opening of the new headquarters of the European Central Bank will be the occasion for us to reconverge, to unite our forces against a common enemy.

Find out more here.

10. PENSE COMME UNE FORET

October 3-12 // Belgium

“Pense comme une forêt” is an intensive residential training exploring the tactics of art-activism and the skills necessary to build social groups that are ecological and deeply democratic. The laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (UK/France), together with Agir pour la Paix and Cense équi’voc, organise for the first time in French, the training “Think like a Forest”: “Pense comme une forêt” is an intensive residential training exploring the tactics of art-activism and the skills necessary to build social groups that are ecological and deeply democratic. This will take place from the 3rd to the 12th of october 2014 in Belgian countryside.

Applications to be sent by July the 15th, answers will be given by July the 31st.

Find out more here.