German-US-American Youth Exchanges – USA-Special 2022
One of the German government's current initiatives aims to intensify and develop youth exchanges with the US. Do you think there is an opportunity here for Fridays for Future as a youth initiative? This would be very useful for Fridays for Future. Compa- red to other grassroots organizations, we already have a broad international base, which enables us to learn from each other. How do others do things? What else should we focus on? How can we tackle subjects in a different way? Those kinds of things. It’s important that young people meet people from other countries who are dea- ling with the same issues. Can international youth exchanges be sustainable? This question is discussed a great deal in youth orga- nizations in Germany. What do you think? It’s true that we experience more of the world and are better connected globally thanks to technology and the internet, so we could reduce the amount we travel. But a Zoom call, even if it’s planned to be fun, is not the same as an actual in-person meeting. What’s important is that we plan trips more consciously. For instance, it shouldn’t be considered normal to jet off somewhere for a long weekend. If we travel, we should stay for longer and spend our time more meaningfully. I do believe that we have to explore the world because it supports our personal development, and you can't get that kind of experience through social media.
heard. This is why I try to place the subject in a broader social context. There’s no wrong or right in activism. We want to give young people safe spaces where they can try things out. We’re activists who are doing this for the first time. We are learning and doing things simultaneously. How are you organized nationally? How do you com- municate? Do you use digital tools or do you have a platform where you meet? We call ourselves a network. Everyone can be part of this network, or they can set up a local group. But there are lots of groups in the US that just set themselves up and do their own thing without connecting to us. Within our network, we use Slack and try to connect with peo- ple from the local groups. If someone tells us they want to join in, we say, fine, here’s a local group, you can join them. Or we tell them there isn’t a local group but that we can help them set one up. So, everyone who’s active at the national level is also involved in a local group and can
participate in the working groups at that level. For example, a local group’s social media rep can join the national working group for social media and can connect there with social media reps from other local groups. Within the network, there are currently 22 local groups and 81 people are sig- ned up to Slack. So, we’re still relatively small. Some local groups, like the one in New York, are big, others are very small and consist of only two or three members. But we still managed to mo- bilize 45,000 people to attend a major demo.
Katharina Maier is a Fridays for Future activist and assistant to the President and Vice-President of the Center for Interna- tional Environmental Law (CIEL) in Washington D.C.
Web: fridaysforfutureusa.org
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