Watch it here.
Historical agency for system change at a time of exacerbating social, political and climate crises
As globalized capitalism is pushing us off the cliff to civilizational collapse through climate crisis, wars, increased cost of living and austerity, ever-increasing precarious and deregulated working conditions for wage and non-wage labor, the crisis of care, neocolonial extractive projects and the rise of authoritarian regimes, social movements around the world are looking for ways to organize and mobilize the grave-diggers of capitalism.
This task requires that we have a relatively clear understanding of who those grave-diggers would be: who is the historical subject for system change?
This webinar is about class struggle. It is about how the antagonism between capital and labor play out in today’s world.
13 March - 20:00 UTC - Online
Speakers
Sergio was born in Romania and migrated to Germany in 2012. In the past he was a social worker with houseless people and social consultant for eastern european migrants for different organisations. Trained as a filmmaker, he spent 2 years trying to make a documentary about the “civic reawakening” in Romania and the protest waves it brought with it. This put him on a path to co-steer the development of an online open-source participative knowledge production platform on activism in Romania which will be launched later this year. Nonetheless, his biggest focus since 2020 has been his work as an organizer with the anarcho syndicalist Free Workers Union, where he focuses mostly on organising Romanian migrant workers on construction sites, factories and in the agricultural field.
Irina Velicu is a researcher at the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her work has been focused on environmental movements in Eastern Europe, commons and political aesthetics.
Leonor Canadas is a climate justice activist in Climáximo, based in Lisbon. She took part in the coordination of the portuguese Climate Jobs Campaign, and in the Global Climate Jobs Network. She participated in the writing of two of the campaign’s reports. She has a masters in Organic Farming and Food Systems, and is specially interested in Agroecology and Agroforestry.
Moderator: Sinan Eden is the co-author of the book All In. He is an organizer and trainer, lately mostly active in the climate justice movement.
Brief summary
In this webinar we discussed the challenges and opportunities of organizing the working class for system change.
The speakers highlighted the need for a radical transformation in the framework in which unions operate, as many have suffered de-radicalization and a shift to the center. They also discussed the importance of internationalism and international solidarity, and the need for unions to be more agile and flexible in their organizing strategies.
The speakers also touched on the issue of material conditions brought about by the climate crisis and the need for a more intersectional approach to organizing. They concluded by emphasizing the importance of creating a culture of solidarity among workers and the need for more care work in organizing efforts.
You can watch the previous webinars HERE
This webinar is part of a serie of webinars to dive deeper into the main statements in the book All In. They were designed to get inputs from activists, organizers and researchers who are actively working on each subject.
You can watch all of them here: https://www.youtube.com/@book-all-in-now/playlists