Pre-June Sessions

Food has been an issue addressed strongly by peoples movement both in terms of the need to protect the right and possibility of each nation to sustain their own population with their basic needs called food sovereignty and as essential for civil contingency in case of crisis or war. Internationally the food sovereignty movement was born at a meeting in Mali 2007. It has been followed by many regional and national networks promoting cooperation for strengthening agroecology and ways of raising the level of more resilient food self-sufficiency. It has been promoted by the international peasant organization Via Campesina and other peoples movement like Friends of the Earth. When the corona crisis hit the world food sovereignty became an important issue for very many international movements.

In the lead-up, join us for a vibrant session where we reflect on civil society successes and challenges across decades – and what it takes to mobilize the necessary force for change. 

Asad Rehman currently heads War on Want and before that Friends of the Earth International’s climate work. He has more than a quarter-century experience of activism spanning anti-war mobilisation, human rights, anti-racism and climate justice. He’s working towards a world that sees all issues—climate change, economic and social injustice as interconnected and is stretching the ideas around a Green New Deal to embody a truly global equity and justice approach.

Lidy Nacpil fought the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, pioneered struggles against corporate-led globalisation and debt and is a key leader in the struggle for fair shares, climate justice and reparations of climate debt. She currently leads the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development and plays an instrumental role in the Campaign to Demand Climate Justice and several other peoples movements and networks.

Alde Nilsson is a climate justice activist based in Söderhamn, Sweden, who has been school striking for the climate as part of the Fridays For Future movement since 2018. Together with Fridays For Future Sweden, they work to mobilise Swedish society against the climate crisis and the social crises it’s interconnected with – putting pressure on leaders and calling out injustice and inaction. They also organise concerts for climate justice with Climate Live Sweden.

Ina Maria Shikongo is a frontline defender from Namibia fighting against the extraction of fossil fuels and calling for systemic change in politics, economics and everything in between. She is currently involved in the on the ground fight to stop ReconAfrica, a Canadian oil company, from attempting to frack the Okavango Delta. Her life has been much shaped by the experiences of conflict and Cold War geopolitics – she was born and grew up in exile as an apartheid refugee, partly in East Germany. She has a background in art and fashion design, and has in recent years been relating closely with FFF as an adult supporter.