Anyone going to the Connecting European Struggles conference in Malmö, 18-20th Nov?

Europe as we know it has entered into a reactionary period. After the explosion of anti-austerity movements it appears that order reigns in Europe. Racist parties are on the rise, there are wars raging both in and outside of Europe, "left-wing" governments routinely impose austerity and borders close in country after country. Against this many of the radical social movements of Europe have fought defensive battles, organised solidarity campaigns and opposed racist proposals and austerity measures. We believe that we must discuss how we struggle in this period of reaction to find a way out of it. We're, after all, in it to win it - to not merely oppose but to create an entirely new world. We are above all inspired by the Nuit Debout struggle in France and the Macedonian "colorful revolution" which are the main mass struggles in Europe today.

However, it is not just the big, dramatic fights that interest us. Many smaller struggles across the continent have also proven fruitful: antifascist campaigns smashing Nazi groups, feminist struggles gaining hegemony, improvements made for migrants, solidarity work with the struggle in Rojava and mass actions shutting down coal mines are just a few examples of the sort of localized struggles that can be succesful in specific places and times. We must learn from all these examples in order to and overcome reaction and ultimately also capitalism itself. For this reason we want to invite you to Malmö, Sweden for a weekend conference.

This is the third installment of the annual Connecting European Struggles conference. Earlier years we have begun an international debate and created common framework. This year we hope to become even bigger and better with more attending groups, countries and regions and more events in the schedule. We hope to focus more on small-group discussions and networking rather than lectures this year as we believe this will better facilitate these connections we are aiming for.

Does your group want to hold a talk, workshop, discussion, screen a film, host a meeting or hold another event in the conference? Please email us! You don’t need a fully-fledged idea right away. We also ask individuals and groups to spread this call and, when possible, translate it. We who are organizing it are both members of various groups as well as independent activists. If you live in the Malmö-Lund-Copenhagen area and want to participate in setting up the conference then please contact us.

/The organizing committee of the Connecting European Struggles-conference.