Joining a major social justice gathering in Paris this summer

Date: 16 June 2014

On 12 July, WDM will be part of a day of action against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This proposed agreement, between the US and the EU, is more accurately described as a corporate power grab by big business on both sides of the Atlantic. The day of action in the UK is an important step in raising the level of opposition from ordinary people across Europe to this damaging deal.

Luckily groups in the US, Germany and France are already organising against TTIP. In fact, opposition in Europe has already forced to European Commission to halt the negotiations on a particularly controversial part of the treaty while it ‘consults’ civil society – or more likely hopes to convince us it’s not worth worrying about. It was the campaigning that was already taking place, and the fact that the EU’s unelected commissioners have been rattled by it, that convinced us that WDM should throw itself into trying to stop the agreement.

As on so many issues, when the opposition is international, our resistance has to be too. That’s one of the reasons that a group of WDM activists is planning on attending the ‘European Summer University for Social Movements’ in Paris this August. Organised by the Attac network, a stalwart of the anti-globalisation movement which originated in France, the Summer University is a great opportunity for European activists to get together and work out joint initiatives on issues such as TTIP, European austerity, the climate crisis and the worrying rise of the far right.

The programme for the week, which runs from 19 to 23 August, features a mixture of speaker-led plenary sessions, workshops for sharing experiences and even excursions to activist spaces around the city and organic smallholder farms outside of it. There’ll also be concerts, exhibitions and performances. And those who left their French behind at school needn’t be put off, as most sessions will be translated into English, or in many cases happen in English with translation into French, German and Spanish.

With a few exceptions, the recent European parliamentary elections cast the future of the continent as a depressing match between a political elite in the pockets of corporations and racist nationalisms of various stripes. But across Europe there are also millions of people looking in a different direction – towards equality, social justice and grassroots democracy. Attac’s Summer University is about bringing them together in a convivial atmosphere to further understanding and collaboration.