From climate change to political corruption and authoritarianism, leaders of protest movements share a common dilemma: how to achieve impact when existing parties and institutions cannot be trusted?
Overcoming fragmentation between each other and within parliamentary forces is paramount for protest movements whose ultimate goal is policy change, as Helena Marschall from Fridays for Future underlines. There is a strong European call for change: international attention helps make corrupt leaders accountable, says Romanian activist Radu Vancu.
But the question remains: how can political forces be trusted given the radical disappointment characterizing most protest movements? ‘Hope lies within thinking about society as a community’, says Hungarian civic campaigner Dóra Papp.
Political scientist Claus Leggewie moderated a fishbowl panel about the future of protest movements with activists Dóra Papp (civic campaigner, Hungary), Radu Vancu (‘We See You’ Movement, Romania) and Helena Marschall (Fridays For Future, Germany) at the 30th European Meeting of Cultural Journals ‘Europe ‘89: The promise recalled’, 2 November 2019 in Berlin.
French journal ‘Revue Projet’ warns against the old assumption that representation must be democratic and argues that the electoral system must be de-privatized. Also: revisiting Bruno Latour’s ‘parliament of things’ – can natural objects be given legal and political representation?
Australia’s recent bushfires are the country’s ‘most serious environmental disaster since colonization’. John Keane considers this megadisaster the product of democracy failure, rather than natural forces, which raises questions about political culpability, economic impacts, deep environmental damage and cultural accountability.