In this special episode, which concludes Season 2 of the podcast, Kumi speaks with Indian activist Harsh Mander.

This episode was recorded in August 2022 at a time when Harsh was under intense scrutiny for his activities by the Indian government. At the time of recording, he was on the point of returning home to India despite great risks to his personal liberty and pressure from family and friends not to do so. Still, he returned, committed to standing with those in need and fighting hate, Islamophobia, homelessness and violence.

Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
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Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

Kate Raworth is a renegade economist focused on making economics fit for 21st century realities. She is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries, and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab.

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
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• Twitter
• Facebook

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Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

In a wide-ranging discussion on South Africa with veteran activist Vishwas Satgar, Kumi explores the country's political past, present and future.

With crucial elections taking place in 2024, what impact will they have for a country in crisis? What are the systemic issues that perpetuate these problems? And what can be learned from the historical victories and failures of South African political resistance?

Our Guest:

Vishwas Satgar is an associate professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series, and is the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene project and a democratic eco-socialist.

Follow Vishwas's work:
Emancipatory Futures website: https://emancipatoryfutures.co.za/
On X: https://x.com/VishwasSatgar

Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
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• Twitter
• Facebook

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Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

In the early 1980s there was a slogan: think globally, act locally. Behind the slogan was the idea that, irrespective of the issue we were trying to address at the local or national level, we needed to better understand how global discourse, global processes and global power had the ability to impact what you could or could not achieve at the local or national level.

In the 1990s, a feminist organisation from the global South called Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN) said that perhaps what we need to be doing is thinking locally and acting globally: to think in terms of what is needed at the local level and then advocate at the global level if that’s where real power resides. In reality, it’s not a question of choosing one or the other but about getting the right balance.

In this episode Kumi explores the different avenues of global engagement to understand the pitfalls and opportunities of such engagements.

Our Guests:

María Fernanda Espinosa is an Ecuadorian diplomat, politician, poet, linguist and academic with more than 30 years of experience in international organisations, the Ecuadorian government, NGOs and academia.

She served as President of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (2018-2019). She has held no less than three different senior ministerial positions in Ecuador’s government. She has also served as ambassador and permanent representative of Ecuador to the United Nations in New York (2008-2009) and Geneva (2014-2017). As of January 2023, she sits on the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group.

Follow María’s work:

• Twitter: @mfespinosaEC 
• LinkedIn

Meena Raman is the President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia), an environmental NGO based in Penang, Malaysia. She is the Legal Advisor to the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP), a Malaysian NGO that has been advancing the rights and well-being of consumers. Since 2007 she has also been head of programmes of Third World Network

An expert on climate change, especially on the global negotiations including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), she monitors and reports on the negotiations and provides analysis and support both to developing country governments as well as to civil society participants.

Follow Meena’s work:

• Sahabat Alam Malaysia website: https://foe-malaysia.org/

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

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Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

Unjust laws certainly should be broken. Mandela, Rosa Parks, and many other inspirational leaders had no hesitation in calling to break unjust laws. But laws that prevent the voices of ordinary people from being heard also need to be resisted, because right now, in more than 100 countries around the world, governments in the last decade have taken various actions to shrink the civic space by restricting freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression.

At a time when there is so much hate, violence, and aggravation, activism must be imbued by love, compassion, caring, and a sense of justice, peace, and dignity. How can we embolden creative, peaceful, civil disobedience on a significant scale to wake up our leaders before it is too late and dig in deep to have the stamina and perseverance to keep going until those injustices are removed?

Our guests:

Clare Farrell is an active citizen, devoting her creativity, her energy, and occasionally her personal liberty to fight against climate collapse and the wider environmental crisis. She is also a fashion designer and lecturer. She has been arrested numerous times for her climate activism and as one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion she helps coordinate a mass movement of people using non-violent civil disobedience.

Marta Benavides is a theologian, ordained minister, permaculturist, educator, and artist. A leader of an ecumenical revolution focused on bringing peace to her country El Salvador, she is an ordained pastor who chose “to live and not die for the revolution” and has been bringing people from all fields to defend human rights and develop a culture of peace. She worked closely with Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980, which would see her go into exile in Mexico and the US, she returned to El Salvador in ‘92 following the peace accords.

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

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Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

The contribution of the legal community through innovative, strategic litigation and other legal efforts is going to be one of the most critical undertakings in the fight for climate justice. Currently, there are more than 1,400 climate lawsuits underway. These legal battles address the destruction of our ecosystems and the attempts of indigenous people to uphold their rights through a range of different struggles.

Litigation and legal strategy has been a critical part of ensuring the strength of the activist community. Indeed, the legal community has a critical role in defending the shrinking democratic space in multiple countries throughout the world. However, the challenge remains in determining how legal strategies intersect with other mobilising strategies. Another challenge is determining the proportionality of effort that should be afforded to litigation battles, especially given that the wheels of justice turn very slowly in many countries: the climate crisis cannot wait for deliverance from protracted litigation in new areas of environmental law, corporate law and elsewhere.

Our guests:

Markus N. Beeko was appointed Secretary General of the German section of Amnesty International in 2016. He has been active in leadership positions for Amnesty in Germany and the International Secretariat in London since 2004. He is the Chair of Amnesty’s international steering group on "Human Rights in the Digital Age". He chairs the board of trustees of Stiftung Menschenrechte, and he is also Vice Chair of the board of the German Institute for Human Rights.

Follow Markus’s work:

• Twitter: @mnbeeko 
• LinkedIn

Nani Jansen Reventlow is an internationally recognised human rights lawyer specialised in strategic litigation at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and technology. She is the Founder of Systemic Justice, the first Black-led, majority BPOC organisation in Europe working to radically transform how the law works for communities fighting for racial, social, and economic justice.

Follow Nani’s work:

• Website: https://www.nanijansen.org/
• Twitter: @InterwebzNani 

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

-----------------------

Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

The challenge of activism today must include winning over those with whom we disagree, for example, those who have not yet embraced the agendas of climate and economic justice. In a country like the US where about 40% of people have been misled by the falsehoods of right-wing media, democracy is under great threat if activists for justice are not able to win over a significant number of those who support antidemocratic ideas. This episode explores the questions of why this is so difficult and what strategies we may employ to build much-needed bridges of dialogue, engagement, and possibly conversion. Can we build narratives and messages that help people break out of ideological silos? How do we win over people who occupy positions vastly different from those promoting economic, gender, and climate justice?

Our guests:

Sharan Burrow is the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and a former president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Sharan is a passionate advocate and campaigner for social justice, women’s rights, the environment, and labour law reforms, and has led union negotiations on major economic reforms and labour rights campaigns in her home country of Australia and globally. 

She has also served as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation and is represented on a number of international commissions concerning climate action, industrial transition, and economic reform.

Follow Sharan’s work:

• The International Trade Union Confederation website: https://www.ituc-csi.org
• Twitter: @SharanBurrow 

Alnoor Ladha is a political strategist, writer, and activist. Alnoor’s work focuses on the intersection of political organising, storytelling, and technology. He was the co-founder and Executive Director of The Rules, a global network of activists, coders, researchers, writers, and others focused on changing the rules that create inequality, poverty, and climate change. The Rules started in 2012 as a time-bound project and an experiment in anarchist organisational design, exploring new ways of how to work, play, and make trouble together.

He is a co-founder of Tierra Valiente, an alternative community and healing centre in the jungle of northern Costa Rica. He is a board member of Culture Hack Labs and The Emergence Network.

Follow Alnoor’s work:

• Culture Hack Labs website: https://www.culturehack.io
• Twitter: @alnoorladha 

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Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

-----------------------

Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

With the crises in front of us so complex, are their solutions to be found at the global or local level? Will our technologies emerge fast enough to avert the greatest threats and, if not, how do we prepare for that unknown future? And how can even the boldest of activist movements hope to have an impact against overwhelming economic and cultural power? In this episode Kumi discusses ways to reimagine and reinvent the ways we live with one of Britain’s leading figures in the fight for a better world.

Our guest:

George Monbiot is a trained zoologist and scientist but is most commonly noted for his journalism, writing and his political and environmental activism, in which he has been engaged for over 30 years. He is a columnist for the Guardian and was awarded the 2022 Orwell Prize for Journalism. His latest book Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet explores a new future for food production, one of the most climate-devastating industries humanity currently engages in. 

Follow George's work:

• George’s website: https://www.monbiot.com/
• Twitter: @GeorgeMonbiot 

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Click here to watch a full video version of this episode.

Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

-----------------------

Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

The right to participation is one of the most powerful and basic rights, and far too often people who are living in the frontlines of various struggles at the grassroots levels are spectators where they should be central players. In the climate movement we have seen how activists from the global south and the lives of everyday people are consistently sidelined in the climate summit negotiations.

These spaces often purport to be an opportunity for activists to engage with power but in reality these engagements and spaces only reify the current power dynamics while serving as tokenistic acts for both activists and those in power. Bringing the voices of those that do not make it out of the congested media environment, which is already stacked against them, is one of the many struggles that face grassroots activists in poor and marginalised communities around the world. So what do we need to strengthen the voices of grassroots activists? What are the barriers to the voices of grassroots activism being heard?

Our guests:

Luisa Neubauer was one of the lead organisers of Fridays For Future in Germany - a movement that brought 1.4 million people to the streets of German towns and cities in September 2019. A talented community organiser and rousing public speaker, she has since become a powerful voice among a generation of young Germans who are taking a stand against climate inaction.

Follow Luisa’s work:

• Twitter: @Luisamneubauer 
• Instagram: @luisaneubauer 

Sashi Kiran is the trailblazing founder and chief executive officer of a grassroots not-for-profit that provides economic opportunities for underserved communities in Fiji. She started FRIEND as it is better known, after Fiji’s 2000 political crisis to create income generating opportunities for women and men from rural and peri-urban settlements and villages, youth and people with special needs; and to strengthen relations between Fiji’s two main communities. She has worked with the Commonwealth Foundation, and networks such as CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education and serves on the Regional Advisory Group Member of the Global Network of CSOs on Disaster Risk Reduction (GNDR). 

Follow Sashi’s work:

• FRIEND Fiji website: http://friendfiji.com
• LinkedIn 

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Click here to watch a full video version of this episode.

Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel

Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

-----------------------

Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:
https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:
https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en

In this special live episode, Kumi discusses the connection between arts and activism with the renowned artist Olafur Eliasson and Molly Fannon, CEO at Museum for the United Nations - UN Live.

In the face of collective action problems such as the climate crisis, one of the biggest weaknesses in activism is the inability to communicate its narratives, messages, and vision beyond certain groups of people. How can the work of artists help create change? What can art and activism learn from each other?

This episode was recorded at an event hosted by the Robert Bosch Stiftung on the 20th April 2022.

Our guests:

Ólafur Elíasson is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for his large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. Regarded as a leading artist in bringing awareness of climate and environmental issues to the public, Ólafur’s work often focuses on the interaction  between spectator and environment, and the common ground between art and science. He currently lives and works in Berlin, where he was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. His studio now employs more than 40 people including  artists, architects, scientists, and technicians. 

Follow Ólafur’s work:

• Website: https://olafureliasson.net/
• Instagram: @studioolafureliasson 

Molly Fannon is the CEO of Museum of the United Nations - UN Live, a global institution based in Copenhagen with a mission to “unleash the power of culture to inspire local action and drive global change”. Before joining UN Live, Molly was Director of the Smithsonian’s Office of International Relations and Global Program, leading partnerships with major global organizations such as the World Economic Forum and governments worldwide. Molly’s early career centred around designing and managing largescale international development programs, funded by institutions such as USAID and the World Bank. Her professional experience spans more than 40 countries on 6 continents. 

Follow Molly’s work:

• UN Live website: https://www.museumfortheunitednations.com/
• LinkedIn

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Click here to watch a full video version of this episode.

Learn more about Power, People & Planet on the website:
https://powerpeopleplanet.org

To watch full episodes of the podcast follow Kumi's YouTube channel
Follow Kumi on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

-----------------------

Power, People and Planet is produced in association with the Green Economy Coalition, the world’s largest movement for a green and fair economy:

https://greeneconomycoalition.org

Additional support for the podcast was provided by the Robert Bosch Stiftung:

https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en