Workshops

• 1. War and Peace

Understanding and Resisting European Militarism and Imperialism

The main institutions of capitalist modernity in Europe (NATO, the EU, etc.) are among the main perpetrators of crises within as well as beyond the continent. Understanding and resisting contemporary militarism and imperialism in the context of Europe today is therefore an urgent task of internationalists and freedom-loving peoples around the world. This working group aims to be a space to discuss and organize around this task.

• 2. Anti-fascism

The Rise of Fascism & the Condition of Democratic Forces in Europe

The global trend of rising right-wing nationalism, from India to the USA, from Turkey to Argentina, demands an understanding of the forces at play. How can we frame the European situation within this broader context? What can we learn from the past, and how can we overcome the legacy of 20th century fascism that still lingers in the European mentality and remains at the heart of the capitalist system.

• 3. Ecological Resistance

Defending Life

There is still the illusion that states can be allied to limit the ecological destruction of capitalism, or that the development of new technologies will enable an ecological turnaround of the system. From these considerations emerges the need for ecological movements to develop their own alternative worldview to the capitalist one, capable of criticising its ideological, political and economic pillars.

• 4. Women's Democratic Confederalism

Women Weaving the Future

Women are striving to uncover their hidden history, recognise other struggles, enrich their methods of resistance, and grow stronger and more conscious by relying on each other rather than the system. Women are crafting their future, seeking the intersections of multiple struggles, and learning how to defend themselves. In short, women are searching for answers to the question: How should women live?

• 5. Youth Identity and Resistance

Deepening on the Need of Autonomous Youth Organisation

Whether it is the resurgence of European militarism and the growing threat of war, the ecological catastrophe or the growing danger of fascism, as young people we are the first and most affected. Therefore, we have to think about the role of organised and autonomous youth in the revolutionary struggle.

• 6. Building Autonomy

Self-governance, Self-sufficiency and Self-defense

In our workshop we will focus on the subject of construction of autonomous self-governing structures. How can we enable the self-sufficiency of society in the autonomous spaces we create? How can we effectively defend these autonomies against external attacks? How can we overcome the contradictions and challenges we face in our own movements? What forms of organization, initiatives and methods can we use to build a system from the bottom up?

• 7. Activism & Organization

For a Long-term Struggle Rooted in Society

It is time to put our strategies and tactics, our forms of organisation, and our everyday practice to the test. We need to examine together what the political developments of recent years mean for us and what possibilities for changing the world we can recognise. We are convinced that a process of collective discussion on the broadest possible platform of democratic and revolutionary organisations, movements and collectives is needed in order to find the right answers to the questions of our time.

• 8. Against genocidal politics

Opposing the Genocidal Politics of Capitalist Modernity

As the world watches in horror over the mounting death toll of oppressed people around the world especially civilians in Palestine, Kurdistan, Africa, Latin America and in Asia, the carnage in Gaza and Kurdistan gives us a ghastly window into the rapidly escalating crisis of global capitalism. Connecting the dots from the merciless Israeli destruction of Gaza and Turkish occupation in Kurdistan to this global crisis requires that we step back to bring into focus the big picture.

• 9. Democratic Media

The battle for hearts and minds

Beyond bullets and bombs, the battle for and hearts and minds is on the rise. Today’s wars are not only fought on physical battlefields, but also for human perception through the media. The so-called ‘cognitive warfare’ is in full swing as global wars escalate.

We must bring left, democratic socialist ideas back into the mainstream of society by organising democratic media from below. Political civil society - women, youth, workers and the oppressed - and their search for truth and discussions about a just and good life is our base for this. There are a large number of radical journalists, newspapers, free radio stations and new digital media technologies, and a long tradition of alternative media on which we can build for a much-needed renaissance of democratic media serving the self-organisation of society.

Technology beyond Capitalist Modernity

In order to develop paradigms of empowerment through decentralization beyond liberal individualism and to create a digital democratic society, we need to establish a common understanding. For this, we should come together from different fields of knowledge to discuss how to build self-sovereign technical capacities, how to create secure open hardware capacities, tools to defend security and anonymity against nation-state surveillance, and share knowledge on mesh networking.