Building Collective Power to Shape Our Futures: Highlights from our 2024 Global Strategy Meeting

Reaffirming the core principle of social movements’ centrality in ESCR-Net’s analysis and strategies, the meeting kicked off on September 15 with a pre-day session designed for social movements to deepen their connections and strengthen the foundation of the Network’s collective action.

“Those at the top are building relationships to secure their power and position,” said Charon Hribar from Kairos Center (USA). “The way they maintain control is by keeping us isolated and divided. So, the more we come together, break our isolation, and strengthen our connections, the more essential it is for our survival and for building a world where people can thrive.”

Movements highlighted building solidarity, strengthening political education, crafting narratives from community-led knowledge, and applying intersectional analysis as key strategies for addressing today’s global challenges.

On day one of the gathering, a core component of the Network’s mission was front and center: a feminist encuentro, which reinforced the need to integrate feminist and intersectional analysis into all future actions. Activists and defenders from various regions, advocating on issues ranging from domestic workers’ rights to climate justice, corporate accountability, and debt cancellation, praised the Network for embedding intersectional analysis into its work over the years.

“The feminist movement does not work in isolation. It’s very important to have this space at a global level, so we can politically challenge systems of oppression while also imagining feminist futures,” said Misum Woo from APWLD (Thailand,) one of the GSM co-hosts.

The meeting’s official opening ceremony was led by the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP, Thailand), also co-host, setting the tone for days of deep political reflection and strategy-building. Gam Shimray, of AIPP, captured the mood in his opening remarks: “All countries are in a dire situation. When democratic space shrinks, the whole society is affected, including Indigenous Peoples. We cannot fight this battle alone, so that’s why, today, we feel strong. Our strength lies in our shared vision of justice.”

Shaping the future starts with recognizing our shared history of resisting capitalism, colonialism/imperialism, and patriarchy. To facilitate this, the strategic discussions began with a panel focused on the Common Charter for Collective Struggle, the 2016 ESCR-Net core document that movements have updated over the past two years. It offers a sharp analysis of global conditions, from entrenched corporate capture and rising debt crises to climate destruction, dispossession, and attacks and killings of defenders.

“Looking back at the challenges we identified in 2016 and the strategies we developed, there has been some progress,” said Legborsi Saro Pyagbara from the African Indigenous Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development (AIFES, Nigeria). “But we also see the challenges have grown, particularly with the increasing power of businesses and the violations against communities on the frontlines. We must rethink our strategies and methodologies.”

Panelists from different regions emphasized unity across struggles, underscoring that reclaiming the right to self-determination is central to shaping our futures.

Building on this foundation, several members shared how their movements had taken up the right to self-determination in distinct yet often complementary ways. Claribed Palacios García from Unión afrocolombiana de trabajadoras domésticas (UTRASD, Colombia) framed self-determination as a collective organizing strategy, while Christina Guevara from Karapatan (Philippines) highlighted its role in decolonizing and reclaiming women’s bodily autonomy from systems that commodify their bodies. Christine Kandie from Endorois Indigenous Women Empowerment Network (EIWEN, Kenya,) emphasized it as the right of Indigenous Peoples to access and control their ancestral lands and resources, while Shahd Hammouri of Al-Haq (Palestine) invoked self-determination as an act of resistance, citing the Palestinian struggle for liberation against Israel’s occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid.

With the horizon of self-determination gleaming ahead of our collective gaze, the strategic sessions moved forward, centered on how to achieve this collective goal. Four key issues were the focus of the work ahead: climate, care, debt, and corporate capture.

Small group discussions sparked critical conversations on the path forward, with participants working together to develop the guiding stars or collective goals that will guide ESCR-Net´s advocacy and campaigning during the next five years.

Solidarity across struggles and regions was the backbone of the gathering, woven into every discussion. From a memorial honoring defenders killed in the fight for dignity and human rights to acts of solidarity with Palestine and the Network’s Palestinian organizations, the spirit of unity was palpable. The solidarity marketplace showcased social movements sharing materials, art, and products from their communities while also providing spaces to support various struggles, including the movement to cancel unjust and illegitimate debt and the opposition to mass atrocities against the Rohingya People perpetrated by Myanmar’s military junta.

The remaining discussions centered on the strategies necessary to achieve the guiding stars, including the articulation of a global campaign. Participants explored various strategic approaches, such as promoting access to justice, developing narratives based on community knowledge, and advancing popular political education.

On the final day, participants moved into Working Groups discussions, exploring how they could contribute to achieving the “guiding stars” via renewed strategies. This involved identifying and prioritizing concrete wins or ‘stepping stones’ for the next few years.

“It was a truly enriching experience where I got to hear the stories of other comrades from around the world, also human rights and social justice defenders, as well as being able to engage in an exercise of sharing ideas to discuss what the objectives of the Network will be in the next five years,” said Sofía Vázquez Laureano of Colectiva Feminista en Construcción (Puerto Rico).

The GSM 2024 concluded with the affirmation that unity and solidarity, along with a clear vision and strategies, open the path to building just futures for people and the planet. As Gam Shimray said at the gathering: ‘The future is ours to shape.”