Program

The central insight behind our collapse camp is that collapse, and the many disasters that are coming (and in some cases are already here) are not the end of all hope, of organisation and social movement, but the beginning of a new phase of justice struggles.

Now is the time to develop the skills needed to be able to act in solidarity, to help oneself and others, to live and organise solidarity despite and against the fascisation of society, so that others can learn from it.

How do let ourselves feel these powerful emotions, how do we deal with them and – very importantly – how do we turn them into resources for taking “the next step”?

After all, grief, anger and powerlessness are real and important feelings, but they should ideally not be permanent emotional states. In dealing with emotions, we want to explore ways and possibilities of acting together, questioning ourselves together, building structures of solidarity and preparing ourselves for experiencing strong feelings of fear, sadness, anger, and perhaps also total emotional overload that are sure to arise again and again in the face of ongoing collapse.

There will be sessions on topics such as self-care in a crisis, collective grieving, dealing with activist burnout, connecting with one’s own body, anger as a source of strength, and also: How can I be there for others without losing myself?

We also want to explore how the same worldviews and emotional structures that led us to collapse also work within us, and explore how we can free ourselves emotionally from them to some extent.

We consider this collective labour much more than a temporary wellness oasis. It is part of our resistance. Because a movement that represses feelings will eventually break apart internally. A movement that can hold feelings collectively becomes resilient – in a deeper, sustainable way.

Agency within catastrophe

From a two-day ‘Crisis Emergency Response Technician’ course offered by our friends from CADUS, to ‘Stop the Bleed’ by Pär Plüschke and Preppa Tillsammans from Stockholm, to ‘What to do in a flood?’ by Solidarischen Klimahilfe (and many more), we will learn what to do when disaster strikes.

Agency within confrontation

We will learn initial insights into self-defence and the organisation of protection for demonstrations and buildings. Because, as unpleasant as the confrontation with this topic is for many of us: there is an increasing threat of violence from fascists and their allies, more and more migrants, trans, women are being attacked, more and more Pride Marches are being threatened by Nazis.

That’s why we offer an extensive two-day action training, ‘How to defend a Pride March?’, as well as a range of self-defence courses (some of them reserved for queers and FLINTA). But because we know that punching someone is often the worst reaction to the threat of violence, there are also formats for non-violent conflict resolution and for collective action to prevent violence.

Agency in the long run

What can we build in the future, what can we grow? How do we organise our power supply so that we can help others in the event of a power outage? Which spaces, which buildings does a ‘collapse movement’ need? How do we produce vital medicines or hormones for gender affirming care in collapse? We don’t pretend to have the definitive answers to these questions, but we will begin to address them practically at the camp.

With a view to acting in solidarity in the long run, there will also be workshops addressing questions around the supply of food and energy in a catastrophe.

All of this will be rounded off with plenty of ‘practical knowledge’ and panel discussions where our guests will delve deep into controversies surrounding the philosophy of collapse and transformation.

You can learn about indigenous and anarchist perspectives and discuss exciting texts in reading circles about science fiction and the end of dystopia, or about nihilistic and radical hope.

Topics such as deep-sea mining or extinction processes convey how ecosystems are becoming disposable assets in the midst of the polycrisis.

We will also learn more about crisis communication and risk competence, for example when it comes to what can be done in the event of a specific ‘flood’ disaster, who is responsible for what, and where you can get relevant information quickly.