Youth

Youth movements have shaken up the political landscape across Europe. But countries in eastern and southern Europe saw smaller protests in 2019. We hear why from activists in Croatia.

The Green European Journal turned to young activists to ask how they envisage political change in this time of climate crisis.

The eruption of a global youth climate movement has given the fight against climate warming a fresh face. In response to adults’ irresponsibility, children become guardians of humanity’s future.

Brexit has been a shock. It wasn’t the European Union that smashed the trade unions, depleted Britain’s social housing stock and then went on an orgy of privatisation, but Brexit has handed complete, unregulated control over to those who did, and the potential consequences reach far beyond Britain’s borders.

The serious challenges confronting the European Union have placed the future course of its integration in doubt. Against this backdrop, young people have a central role to play.

Bashir Ahmad Fatehi has been busy with cultural and educational projects since completing post-graduate work in political science. Here he gives his impressions of the political scene in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the challenges which lie ahead and the important role of young politicians in the prospects for a stable and vibrant future.

Something exciting is bubbling under the surface of British politics. The party system is breaking apart – ironically with the help of the enemy of the left, UKIP. People are becoming active in party politics again – particularly the Greens. 2014 was a good year for the party in the UK. So what will 2015 bring?

The two things that will shape Africa’s progress in the coming years and decades are its population demographics and climate change.

‘Neither left nor right, but forward’ has been a semi-official motto of many Green Parties across Europe since their inception in the 1960s and ‘70s. But as the Green Party of England & Wales’ (GPEW) Autumn Conference drew to a close this weekend, the party appears to be maintaining or indeed continuing its leftward drive. The implications could be interesting both for Britain and for Green Parties elsewhere.

Given the current political climate, it behoves ecologists to thrust imagination, innovation and experimentation to the forefront of political action and thought. This requires a “benevolent distance” between the Green foundations and the Green parties.