In this degrowth-in-action special session we will discuss both theoretically and practically the relations between degrowth, climate justice, resource extraction and resource struggles. At the same time we will look at and try to link the ongoing efforts in the anti-coal fights in different regions of the world. This session thus aims at deepening our understanding of the relationships between degrowth and those world-views arising out of resource struggles, mainly postextractivism. Based on these understandings, it also aims at strategically bringing forward degrowth as a social movement: at networking among activists, the sharing of experiences, tactics and narratives, the building of strong alliances between struggles for environmental justice and the degrowth debate.

The people in this session will come from different backgrounds. After a theoretical introduction into the common ground and differences between degrowth, climate justice, and postextractivism, we will focus on practical experiences: We will look at resource struggles in eastern european countries, with Poland for example not just heavily dependent on coal, but also planning a huge new open-cast lignite mine. In the global south there is a rich history of social movements resisting resource extraction – and currently coal is often promoted as a cheap resource, apparently necessary for an affordable „development“. Last but not least we will discuss how the degrowth summer school 2015 in Germany was linked to the mass action of civil disobedience “Ende Gelände”, where 1000 people blocked lignite mining diggers in one of the largest ever actions of this kind in Europe.

This media entry was a contribution to the special session „Leave it in the ground! Degrowth, resource struggles and direct actions against coal“ at the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest in 2016.