Gathering Visions

A long overdue get together for people fighting for a decent planet! It was all a bit worthy & rather earnest and no drumming late into the night - but then it was a university. There were activists who've been doing things for literally decades and that's a real lesson to us in Earth First!, when half of us seemed to be burnt out after 2 or 3 years or on one big campaign. Maybe we're living on the pace of the destruction more than previously - but then we can learn a lot from the time, energy, support and commitment a lot of peace activists give each other - and how that means they have the ability to keep going. Where is our support network? Where are our affinity groups to give real help when we need it? Meeting up for occasional actions or meetings just isn't enough. Big issues that emerged were how to deal with the media, the value of covert or very accountable actions, and the extent to which nonviolence is a tactic or a principle to live. Not many conclusions were reached - we only had a weekend - but it was brilliant to get those discussions under way across movements and across generations.