Report by Birgit Meinhard of the green youth summer camp in Germany. She was there as ENGS- and green seniors for discussion and workshop.
From 8 to 12 August the green youth summer camp took place in Kastell Windsor near Regensburg.
Segregated – power, freedom and constraint between individual and society
Approx. 150 young persons participated in discussions and workshops, played and worked regarding the subject of freedom and limits.
In a panel discussion “Ways towards freedom” with Manfred Dahlmann (critic), Sina Doughan (spokesperson of the German Green Youth) and Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel (spokesperson of the Green Seniors of Vienna), a lively discourse presented leftwing criticism of society and capitalism, focuses on feminist and gender politics as well as freedom and limits in specific political practices.
Chairing the workshop “Beyond the clouds, freedom must be limitless …” led to enthralling results for me.
Each generation has its own definition of freedom and limits. It depends on the relevant culture, the social environment and the political circumstances of each generation.
Individual freedom always also implies responsibility for one’s own life, entering or terminating relationships, defining and formulating one’s own concept of freedom.
When do I consider myself free or dependent? When imbedded or segregated? What if freedom varies in different stages of one’s life? What if we divest people of their freedom or vice versa? Discussions about freedom have always been standard topics of the left.Personal experience is an important basis to “experience what forms, influences, enriches, unsettles, constitutes us”.In a workshop experiment the aim was to experience freedom and limits very closely and to integrate it into political work.
Further workshops were
Where, for god’s sake is utopia?
Supervise and punish
What is social criticism? Is there right thinking in a wrong life?
Intersectionality in political work
Laws, equality, violence – basic criticism of state fetishism
One of these days I’m gonna get organized
and various other workshops and activities were the challenges and important topics of this summer camp
