๐๐๐๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ข๐๐, ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐ญ๐ ๐ฉ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ, ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก
As I head north to Ireland, I have a lot to process (and a lot of train time to do that processing!).
In Spain, I met some of the scientists who participated in the beetroot juice "painting" of the Spanish Congress in 2022, featured in my book's cover. Even though the building was clean just hours after, their judicial process continues more than 3 years later: a tactic of prolongation used to generate uncertainty and fear among activists.
In Barcelona, I was in a panel with a member of the campaign #BoycottICL. The multinational ICL is commercializing white phosphorous mined from Catalonia, shipped to #Israel for the bombs burning #Palestinian children alive. The company is also contaminating Catalonia's water supplies and contributing to climate breakdown. Boycott ICL is helping ICL's workers transition away from this industry, which keeps them chained in the service of genocide: https://boicoticl.org
Li talked to me about research work servicing social movements. One example is "adversarial research": the people dismantling democracies and blocking climate action have names and addresses, as well as effective ways of influencing public opinion, and academics need to do better at finding out how they build power. Li also pointed out that academics can help by legitimizing the knowledge and experiences of local communities being hurt by them, thus amplifying popular struggles from below.