We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Firenze 10+10 attempts to wake-up Europe’s activists: how much longer can we abandon Greece?

Click here to access article by Nick Dearden from Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt.
Florence [Firenze] was planned as a wake-up call to activist organisations across Europe. They will need many more shots of espresso if we are to have a hope of breathing life into something we can genuinely call a European movement. Progress was made, but with the disintegration of Greece before our eyes, it is a race against time.