Care and Resistance
A few years ago, I was invited to join a meeting to think through the polycrisis. It happened a few weeks after the assassination of Lindokuhle Mnguni, one of the most startlingly wise and visionary leaders I’d ever met – he was 28 years old. The polycrisis – understood as climate emergency, democratic decline, pandemic disease, the sixth extinction, authoritarianism and the emboldening of supremacists everywhere – felt very close to home. The discussions were, however, centred mainly on Europe and North America – the donors who convened the meeting had little experience of networks elsewhere.
Despite never having funded outside Europe and North America, they agreed to bankroll a project anchored by Focus on the Global South, in which Lilak – Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights, Southern Peasant Federation of Thailand, Abahlali baseMjondolo South Africa, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, and West Street Recovery exchanged ideas about how they were navigating this polycrisis. The result, just published by A Growing Culture, is brilliant.
Here’s some of the art, the zine, and the movement conversations.