How to confront the major future challenges people are facing as the climate emergency and extinction crisis begin to impact their live and to do this without violent bloodshed is the focus of the next Kyogle Politics in the Pub (PoP) event. It will take place on Sunday 28 July from 3 to 5 pm at the Bottom Pub (Exchange Hotel) in Kyogle.
Ruth Rosenhek will be speaking on Nurturing a Non-violent Revolution. Ms Rosenhek has been engaged in environmental and social justice activism since the early 1990s and is passionately engaged with Extinction Rebellion in the Northern Rivers.
Kyogle Politics in the Pub started in 2018 to provide an avenue for people to engage with topical issues.
‘It’s not about party politics,’ said PoP co-convenor Graeme Gibson. ‘It’s based on an ethos that engagement in public life is a virtue. That it’s good for individuals and good for the society.
‘Levels of public interest in and support for democracy and politics has been declining in Australia, and much of the western world, for many years.
‘Some of our political leaders, including those at the top in Australia, seem to think it’s best if people don’t bother too much with politics – with what goes on in the country – and just show up for an election every three years or so,’ Mr Gibson said.
‘This flies in the face of an Australian government report that notes our system of representative government relies on informed and active citizens; those who not only believe in a democratic society but are willing and able to translate that belief into action. Without active, knowledgeable and vigilant citizens, there is no check on potential tyranny.
There is an opportunity to learn about warding off tyranny through radical transformative social movements at the next Kyogle Politics in the Pub.’
Following Ms Rosenhek’s presentation she will be joined by a number of local people in a Q & A discussion.
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