Connecting the Struggles

This collection of reports and interviews analyzes contemporary European resistance movements, focusing on struggles against extractive industries, infrastructure mega-projects, and economic austerity. It highlights specific cases in Romania, Greece, Scotland, France, and Turkey, while discussing the systemic role of the educated middle class in mobilization. The text argues that Green parties must reconnect with their radical roots and form transversal alliances with social movements to challenge the dominant neoliberal economic model and the 'sacredness of growth'.

• In Romania, the 'Save Roşia Montană' campaign evolved from a local fight against a cyanide-based gold mining project into a broader national movement that expressed general dissatisfaction with government corruption and corporate practices, eventually leading to the rejection of a special law by Parliament.
• The anti-fracking movement in Scotland achieved a significant policy shift, resulting in a moratorium on all unconventional oil and gas extraction, driven by community groups like the Concerned Communities of Falkirk and the political climate surrounding the independence referendum.
• In Greece, the struggle against Eldorado Gold's mining projects in the Skouries forest is characterized by allegations of inadequate environmental impact assessments and the criminalization of local protesters, with over 300 residents facing criminal charges.
• The Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project in France sparked a landmark resistance movement involving 'zadists' who established 'Zones to Defend' (ZAD), blending the efforts of farmers and urban youth to oppose 'useless mega projects'.
• The Northern Forests Defence (NFD) in Istanbul emerged from the 'spirit of Gezi' to oppose 'pharaonic mega-projects', specifically a third airport and a third bridge, which have led to the destruction of an estimated 30,000 hectares of forest since the 1970s.
• In Greece, the economic crisis fostered 'transition and recovery movements', such as urban agriculture and guerrilla gardening, which serve as alternative structures to reclaim public space and promote social solidarity.
• The European network against 'Useless and Imposed Mega-Projects' (UIMP) works to transcend local struggles by building transnational bridges, documenting the systemic criminalization of activists and the failure of mega-projects due to cost overruns and lack of profitability.
• Sociological analysis suggests that modern movements are often led by the educated middle class who, feeling as 'losers' of post-socialist transformation in Eastern Europe, use their social and cultural assets to shape public discourse.
• Green parties in Europe are criticized for becoming too institutionalized and 'parties of the system', losing their radical roots and failing to provide a concrete alternative to the neoliberal economic model.
• In Portugal, a surge of anti-austerity activism between 2011 and 2013, including the 'Geração à Rasca' and 'Que se Lixe a Troika!' movements, eventually declined as the society returned to traditional mobilization via trade unions.

APA

Green European Journal (2015). Connecting the Struggles. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_11.pdf

Chicago

Green European Journal. Connecting the Struggles. 2015. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_11.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green European Journal |title=Connecting the Struggles |date=June 2015 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_11.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneuropeanjournal2015connecting, author = {{Green European Journal}}, title = {{Connecting the Struggles}}, institution = {Green European Journal}, year = {2015}, month = jun, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GEJ_11.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }