Patrick Reinsborough (born 1972) is an American writer, activist, social change theorist and practitioner. He is the co-author of Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements and Change the World (PM Press, 2010/2017) and contributor to social movement anthologies including Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World (City Lights, 2004) and Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (OR Books, 2012).
Reinsborough's writing and political work deals with building transformative movements, shifting cultural narratives [3] and political imagination [4] with a focus on the ecological crisis. [5] [6] He authored the widely circulated essay/zine "Decolonizing the Revolutionary Imagination". [7] [8] [1] He was a founding member of the smartMeme Strategy & Training Project, [9] which began in 2002 training grassroots activists to apply meme theory [10] [11] as a way to shift political debates, amplify social change efforts and "change the story". [12] Reinsborough is one of the creators of story-based strategy methodology [13] [14] and associated with widely used social change frameworks such as "narrative power analysis", [15] [16] "points of intervention" [17] [18] and the "battle of the story". [19] [20] He co-founded and was the executive director of the Center for Story-based Strategy. [21] [22]
Reinsborough was a prominent organizer, trainer and media spokesperson for the U.S. wing of the anti-corporate globalization movement often known as the global justice movement [23] and was involved in mass actions such as the shutdown of the World Trade Organization in 1999 actions against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, [24] [25] the World Economic Forum [26] and the protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas Meeting in Miami in 2003. [27]
He has been a public voice against U.S. militarism and called for the American public to engage in mass nonviolent disruption to stop wars. [28] He was an anti-war organizer and media strategist working with the San Francisco-based mobilization Direct Action to Stop the War, [29] which led mass protests against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. [30] [31] He has publicly supported Iraq Veterans Against the War [32] and also advocated for making connections between opposing war and other issues such as racial and economic justice, corporate power and the climate crisis. [33] [34]
Reinsborough has been associated with a number of campaigns challenging the human rights and ecological impacts of fossil fuels as well as demanding stronger action to address climate change. He helped organize an international solidarity campaign supporting Colombia’s indigenous U’wa people, who threatened to commit collective suicide to protest oil drilling on their ancestral territories. [35] [36] [37] [38] Reinsborough has repeatedly cited Mexico’s indigenous Zapatista movement as an inspiration for his thinking and political work. [39] [40] [41]
He has supported protests inside the United Nations COP Climate Talks that criticize the failure of the process to address the climate crisis [42] [43] as well as worked to amplify the voices of North American indigenous leaders participating in the UN forum. [44] Reinsborough is a proponent of climate justice specifically advocating for the broader climate movement taking stronger leadership from fossil-fuel impacted communities as a way to accelerate a just transition to a renewable energy future. [45] [46] He has been a strong critic of the Trump administration, calling them "neo-fascist" and pawns of “global petrocapitalism”. [47]
Reinsborough’s work has often addressed apocalyptic narratives, including coining the phrase “slow-motion apocalypse” to describe public response to the global ecological crisis. [48] [49] [41] During the COVID pandemic in 2020 he did a series of broadcasts [50] sponsored by California Institute of Integral Studies about the role of apocalyptic narratives in shaping political discourse around various structural crises revealed by the pandemic.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.
Derrick Jensen is an American ecophilosopher, writer, author, teacher and environmentalist in the anarcho-primitivist tradition, though he rejects the label "anarchist". Utne Reader named Jensen among "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World" in 2008, and Democracy Now! says that he "has been called the poet-philosopher of the ecology movement".
Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24. Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of “Alter-Activism” resulting in an emphasis on lived experiences and connectivity amongst young activists. The young activists have taken lead roles in public protest and advocacy around many issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence. Different from past protest or advocacy, technology has become the backbone to many of these modern youth movements. It has been shown in multiple studies that internet use along with seeking information online is shown to have positive impacts on political engagement. Popular applications like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have become the newest tools for young activists in the 21st century. Technology and the use of digital media has changed the way youth participate in activism globally, and youth are more active in media than older generations.
Arthur Ocean Waskow is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.
Wretched of the Earth is a coalition of climate justice groups led by Indigenous people and people of colour based in the United Kingdom, representing the interests of the Global South and people of color in response to climate change. The organisation's name is based on Frantz Fanon's book on anti-colonial theory, The Wretched of the Earth. The group seeks to challenge environmental organizations by asking groups like Extinction Rebellion to think critically about class, capitalism, and use of activist tactics that draw risk to people of color.
Charles Derber is an American Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Derber's work focuses on the crises of capitalism, globalization, corporate power, American militarism, the culture of hegemony, the climate crisis, and the new peace and global justice movements. Derber is persuaded that the overwhelming economic and cultural power of global corporations, increasingly melded with the political and military hegemonic power of the American government and the crises of global capitalism and global climate change, are together an integrated crisis that is now the pre-eminent social issue of the 21st century, and that a new vision and political movement is needed. Derber’s research is oriented toward 1) the systemic analysis of the intertwined crises we face and 2) analysis of the transformative potential of social movements arising to create a more democratic and egalitarian order.
Aimee Allison is the Founder of She the People, a national network elevating the political power of women of color.
Power Shift Network is a North American non-profit organization made up of a network of youth-led social and environmental justice organizations working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement. It runs campaigns in the United States and Canada to build grassroots power and advocate for tangible changes on climate change and social justice at local, state, national and international levels in North America. The organization changed its name from Energy Action Coalition in July 2016 in order to reflect its new leadership and it shift from a coalition to a network structure. The Power Shift Network's members, which include other non-profit organizations and student groups focused on environmental justice, social justice, and climate change, focus their organizing and campaigns on campuses, communities, corporate practices, and politics. The Power Shift Network is part of the Global Youth Climate Movement.
Gabriel Kuhn is a political writer and translator based in Sweden.
Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on the individual, organizational or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the environment and humans. Environmentalism is a social and environmental movement that addresses environmental issues through advocacy, legislation education, and activism.
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization.
The global justice movement is a network of globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.
Hashtag activism refers to the use of Twitter's hashtags for Internet activism. The hashtag, has become one of the many ways that social media contributes to civic engagement and social movements. The use of the hashtag on social media provides users with an opportunity to share information and opinions about social issues in a way that others (followers) can interact and engage as part of a larger conversation with the potential to create change. The hashtag itself consists of a word or phrase that is connected to a social or political issue, and fosters a place where discourse can occur. Social media, provides an important platform for historically marginalized populations. Through the use of hashtags these groups are able to communicate, mobilize, and advocate for issues less visible to the mainstream.
The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. Environmental non-profit organizations have engaged in significant climate activism since the late 1980s and early 1990s, as they sought to influence the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Climate activism has become increasingly prominent over time, gaining significant momentum during the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and particularly following the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016.
Jeremy Brecher is a historian, documentary filmmaker, activist, and author of books on labor and social movements.
Carl Levy is professor of politics at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is a specialist in the history of modern Italy and the theory and history of anarchism.
Ende Gelände (EG) is a civil disobedience movement occupying coal mines in Germany to raise awareness for climate justice. Ende Gelände has been organizing mass civil disobedience actions against coal mines in Rhineland, Lusatia and Leipzig since 2015. Since 2017, it has participated in civil disobedience protests against coal mining and fracking in Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. It supports Venice's movement against big cruising ships. Annual protests in Germany have been attended by between 3000 and 7000 participants. It regularly supports anti-racist rallies in Germany and has hosted a range of smaller local protests since 2018.
Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. Extinction Rebellion was established in the United Kingdom in May 2018 by Gail Bradbrook, Simon Bramwell, and Roger Hallam, along with eight other co-founders from the campaign group Rising Up!
Summer Brenner is a writer and an activist. Brenner's works include short stories, novellas, noir crime, youth social justice novels and poetry.
May Boeve is an American environmental activist. She is a founder and executive director of 350.org, a climate NGO. The Guardian called her "the new face of the climate change movement."
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