First European Newsletter-May'24

Italy, Friday April 19th, 2024

• The European Circle of IDN sent a collaboration proposal for future actions together with Fridays for Future (FFF) Europe. Different meetings with local and national groups (e.g. FFF Netherlands) are being planned.
• More than 500 demos across the whole World went to the streets with the slogans “#ClimateJusticeNow” and “Fight with us for a world worth living in”.
• The Italian Degrowth Movement(s) and FFF collaborated officially for the march of the 19th of may in Rome, and a lot of FFF activists joined the conference, showing the beginning of a Degrowth contamination in the youth movement. Here are some pictures from the protest!

Italy, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th of April 

On April 19th and 20th, the Beyond Growth Conference Italy 2024 took place in Rome, organized by the Movement per La Decrescita Felice (MDF), Associazione per la Decrescita, WellBeing Economy Alliance, Friends of the Earth Europe, Partners for a New Economy, and European Environmental Bureau. Its aim was to bring the themes and issues discussed at the event held at the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2023 to our national parliament. It provided a space for activists, politicians, associations, NGOs, and citizens to gather and reflect on the necessity and methods of transitioning to a socio-economic model oriented towards the well-being of people rather than economic growth. Although inspired by the Brussels event, the two-day conference in Rome on April 19-20 differed in many aspects from its European version. The first day began with a demonstration organized by Fridays for Future (FFF) on the occasion of the global climate strike on April 19th. The presence of a degrowth segment in the protest aimed to show solidarity with FFF and share the demands of the movement, such as “Lavori Climatici” (Green Job Guarantee). A priority for the organizers was to give the event a participatory and, as far as possible, informal character that went beyond involvement from the academic and political worlds to include active participation from citizens. The desire not to remain confined within the walls of Parliament also emerged from the name given to the second day, "Beyond Growth and Beyond the Palace: Degrowth, Transformation, and Social Movements," which saw representatives of social movements active in climate, environmental, and social justice gather along with activist-academics and citizens.

In the next newsletter, the organizers of the conference will write a more elaborate reflection on how the conference went, what went well and less well, and about the next steps. We think that a new format of conferences that look less like conferences and more like activist gatherings and assemblies is needed to take degrowth outside of the few hands of us degrowthers. In the meanwhile support us by following our social media pages, spreading the reels and the pictures from the conference and stay tuned for some exciting new events!

https://www.instagram.com/associazionedecrescita/ - external link 

https://twitter.com/ass_decrescita - external link 

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/ - external link 

Wanna join the movement?

● Join this Telegram channel with news about next Beyond Growth Italia events:

https://t.me/+qCxB7lBhPx4zNzZk - external link 

● Join the Telegram channel for Italian International (and not) Degrowthers:

https://web.telegram.org/a/#-948599375 - external link 

● A form to fill to get more actively involved: https://forms.gle/ZisCvsreaExRWGow6

• What are the main objectives of the group? Red Decrecer para Vivir is a socio-political network composed of groups, individuals and organizations with the aim of creating spaces for transmission, support, debate and imagination for the implementation and articulation of degrowth in a democratic and transformative way in the Spanish state for a good life for all people globally in harmony with the biosphere as a whole.

• Where are you active geographically? (country/cities): Located in Spain, this is a nationwide group with participants from academia, social movements, civil society organizations and political parties.

• Since when have you been active? The "Decrecer para vivir" group was created on May 14, 2022, in Madrid. It was initiated by the political party Izquierda Unida and is open to other parties and civil society.

• How many members are you? 107 in the main Telegram group.

• How are you organized? We are organized in an assembly format. Due to our geographical dispersion, we are using Telegram to communicate with a main group and 6 sub-working groups: consumption and food, communication, economy and labor, energy and raw materials, territorial and urban model, democracy and international affairs.

• Main events/actions carried out: Presentations and film forums.

• November 4th -> Presentation of the book "Decrecer del qué al cómo," with Adrián Almazán and Luis González Reyes, authors.

• April 7th -> Cineforum on André Gorz: Lettre à G

• April 11th -> Online event: Imagining and communicating utopias, with Carmen Madorrán and Francisco Liñeira.

• Plans for the future:

• June -> Participation in Pontevedra 2024: International Conference for Degrowth.

• Creating networks, a website.

• Online events every 2 months.

• May -> Book "Pedagogía del decrecimiento" by author Enrique Javier Díez Gutiérrez.

• July/September -> Workshop on Sociocracy

• Links to social media/website: Under construction.

• Connections with IDN: Hugo Abad Frías and Juan José de Blas

• Group photo: from founding conference in 2022

• What are the main objectives of the group? We want to spread knowledge on degrowth. This can be amongst our own members (for example, exploring recent publications together), but also amongst the broader public, by organising all kinds of events with a low entry level.

• Where are you active geographically? (country/cities): Located in Malmö, Sweden and mostly active there and in the closeby Lund.

• Since when have you been active? The group stems from the 2015-16 multidisciplinary research theme on degrowth at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies (Lund University), and took shape during the organisation of the 6th International Degrowth Conference for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity in Malmö

• How many members are you? The number of active members fluctuates between about 5 and 10

• How are you organized? Since we are a registered volunteer-driven organisation, we have a board with a chair, a treasurer and an additional board member. In practice, these roles are purely administrative. As a group, we decide together what we want to organise in the upcoming months at the beginning of each semester.

• Main events/actions carried out: We organize activities such as movie screenings, book/study circles and social gatherings for those who are actively involved in the group. You can find our past and upcoming events here: https://degrowth.se/events. Last semester, we organised a series of three events, each with their own topic (Introduction to degrowth, Planned obsolescence and the energy and material footprint of the digital world and Cooperative forms of organising. 

• Plans for the future: This semester, we are hosting a study circle, where we prepare study materials and participants get to know degrowth from different perspectives. During the sessions in May and June, we will take the angles of ‘labour and organising’ and ‘wellbeing and welfare’. Usually, one or more of our members take part in the International Degrowth Conferences, which will be the case for the Pontevedra conference as well.

• Links to social media/website: 

• Website: https://degrowth.se/ 

• Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFikIQ7VuOf7YlNfFsjTSmA/videos

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/institutefordegrowthstudies/ 

• Instagram: @degrowthsweden

• Connections with IDN: Chaïm De Mulder 

• Group photo: 6th Int. Degrowth Conference, Malmö, Sweden 21-25 August 2018