Wednesday 18 May, 18-20 CET
Disarmament for a social and ecological just transition
Young speakers active in large international organisations
18:00 – 19:00
Disarmament for a social and ecological just transition, hybrid meeting. Young leaders in international democratic movements speak
19:00 – 20:00
After short break continuation in Swedish: Nedrustning för socialt och ekologisk rättvis omställning
Presentation av rapporten Gemensam säkerhet framtagen av Palmecentret, Internationella fredsbyrån IPB och internationella facket ITUC samt nytt nätverk för rättvis omställning och andra freds-, miljö- och omställningsinitiativ följt av diskussion.
Sean Conner, International Peace Bureau, Germany
Sean Conner is the Deputy Executive Director at International Peace Bureau (IPB) in Berlin. He holds a Bachelors in Intercultural and Critical Communication Studies from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a Masters in Intercultural Conflict Management from the Alice Salomon Hochschule. Prior to joining the IPB team in Berlin he worked for the Centre for Cross-Cultural Study (CC-CS) in the USA and in community development with the non-profit Enlace Project in Nicaragua. Sean Conner has a range of experiences to his peace work and activism, where he highlights the importance of intersectional coalition building, intercultural and international exchange, and a strengthening of civil society. IPB – International Peace Bureau
Vasna Ramasar, Global Tapestry of Alternatives
Vasna Ramasar was born and raised in South Africa. She has 10 years research, activism, consulting and teaching experience across southern and eastern Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. She supports a resistance to the unsustainable hegemonic system and the creation of radical alternatives. Vasna Ramasar is a core group member of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives and the Post-Development Academic-Activist Group, PEDAGOG. She is also facilitating Adelante: a dialogue of 8 global processes for systemic change and is on the steering group for Women Against Destructive Extractivism in Africa (WoMin). She is also a founding member of the Collective Against Environmental Racism and a coordinator of the Anticolonial Academy, a network at Lund University, research fellow of the Earth System Governance project and a member of the conceptual taskforces on Planetary Justice and ESG Teaching. She is the chair of the South Africa-Sweden University Forum theme on social transformations. She is currently an Associate Senior Lecturer in the Division of Human Ecology, Department of Human Geography and a Research affiliate at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) in Sweden.
Zeno Bernhard, Attac France
Zeno Bernhard is a young climate activist and one of the facilitators of the economic justice day at World Social Forum (WSF) in 2021. Together with other activists in Attac France he contributed to the organizational efforts to make WSF a tool for movements to converge, resist and build alternatives. Attac France have played a central role in making the climate issue into a social justice issue and have reached out to the Yellow west movement building alliances for a just transition rather then top down solutions. Zeno Bernhard have a special interest in the militarization not only of conflicts between countries but also in domestic affairs. Attac France – L’action citoyenne.
Maximiliam Isendahl, NOrdBruk/Via Campesina Sweden
Maximiliam Isendahl is a student in agronomy and active in the youth movement Jord åt folket/Land to the People and NorBruk, the Via Campesina affiliation in Sweden. He is active in the food sovereignty movement and working for making land accessible to young farmers. Recently been addressing the EU forest strategy ehich is an attempt at making forest policy supranational. He has also been addressing land grabbing issues including critisizing the wedish company IKEA, the biggest land owner in Lithuania and Swedish attempts at influencing Lithuanian parties and the government to not impose laws restricting foreign large ownership of forests. He also is critical toward the EU Green Deal which has a part linked to geopolitical security interests contributing to use Western political and military strength in projecting dominance wherever Western interests are threatened, something clearly expressed in the EU strategy for Africa which Isendahl claims is a ecofascist program in the interest of corporations. NOrdBruk – Medlemsorganisation i La Via Campesina.
Bror Eskil Heiret, Nature and Youth member of Young Friends of the Earth Europe, Norway
Bror Eskil Heiret works bilaterally between Norway and Russia to strengthen the environmental protection movement in Russia. He coordinates the project with special focus on nuclear power and decommissioning with partner organizations in northwestern Russia. At the same time he is an elected local politician in Kongsberg. In the municipal council he is a representative for Socialist Left party and committee member in Committee for Environment and Development. Heieret has worked as a Feelance journalist at Laagendalsposten. He has studied at the Norwegian-Russian School in Murmansk and political science at the Oslo university. Natur og ungdom – Den største miljøorganisasjonen for unge i Norge (nu.no) , Russland – Natur og ungdom (nu.no) , Home – Young Friends of the Earth Europe (youngfoee.eu)
