October 11, 2021

Newsletter - October 11th, 2021

Atlas is a member-powered movement - join us!

On October 1st, the National Day of Communist China, Atlas took to the streets and co-organized a huge protest 🪧 in Piccadilly Circus in London. As the Equitist movement, freedom & democracy are paramount values we shall always fight for.

Why❓Because there cannot be equity, well-being, and fair opportunities if members of society do not have the power to choose their future, decide who should represent them, and express their opinions. This is the biggest flaw of communist regimes: they try to sell the vision of an "equal world," but one ruler defines and decides what equality means for all. ⛓️ Equality is imposed and coerced upon some citizens, while others are simply disregarded (consider the Uygurs). This leads to massive human rights violations, including genocide. We need to support freedom struggles facing authoritarianism in order to create a truly equitable, united, and democratic world. Let's start with the Chinese Communist Party.

Read this newsletter to learn more about our work on our new Equitist ideology, teams, and campaigns. And if you like what you read, please join us to support us:

👉 BECOME A MEMBER 👈

SO YOU ARE REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS NEW THING, EQUITISM?

Yes, we are ✊

Our societies need a revolution. The ideologies and the politics that have governed most of the 20th century are under strains: when social media connects us across the planet in a blink of an eye, how can we witness appalling inequalities such as vaccine apartheid 💉, where advanced economies speak about boosters when only 4% of people in Africa have been vaccinated? After what we experienced in the last few months, how can we accept an economic system in which 🏥 nurses earn a fraction of what speculators make? After the disastrous climate events crisscrossing the globe, how can we go to bed knowing that many of our governments still pay more money in fossil fuel subsidies 🛢️ than in green policies?

While many politicians and groups are trying to fix part of this gloomy picture, we are thinking bigger. We are committed to proposing a new vision of society where social justice, economic opportunities, freedom, and democracy are bound by the value that should guide us in this century: Equity ⭕. In fact, Equitism promotes the idea that to maximize peoples’ well-being, society must ensure equitable rights and opportunities for all.

📜 READ OUR DRAFT MANIFESTO HERE

Are you interested in applying all of this to real life? Robin, our Policy Lead, is launching an effort to identify the political priorities of our movement. Please feel free to volunteer to join the team!

… AND HOW WILL YOU MAKE ALL OF THIS HAPPEN⁉️

Well, big projects require solid teams. This is exactly why we stepped up our internal work to strengthen the resilience and effectiveness of Atlas, by drafting a new organizational structure, recruiting new members, and appointing “super-volunteers” (members ready to dedicate extra time to our mission) to lead very important branches. A big cheer to Jamal (Community Team) and Simon (Incubator Team) for leading the way on this one!

👉 So, as you can see we have lots to do. Are you interested in dedicating a couple of hours a week to any of these activities? If yes, please sign up as a volunteer and our Community Team will get you up to speed. In case you want to actually lead a team, check out our vacancies here!

OKOK, YOU SEEM TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING: WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?

We are recapping below the main projects Atlas is working on, but actually much more than this is happening! Volunteers are working on independent projects, groups are preparing campaigns across the planet, and 🎙️ even a podcast is in the making… The sky's the limit (or is it the edge of the universe?💫)!

⛽ “Stop The Subsidies” campaign

As part of our climate work, we have decided to leverage at best our upcoming participation at COP 26. This is why we are working incredibly hard to launch a global campaign to push governments to drop the billions of dollars poured in supporting fossil fuels each year (e.g., France spent €11bln in 2018 alone on this!). If you are interested in supporting the work, please reach out to my co-founder, [email protected]

📲 “Digital State” project

Atlas intends to create the first Digital State in the history of humankind. Borderless in nature, people from all over the world will be able to “apply for citizenship” and partake in the democratic governance of this state. The goal is to showcase to the world that a transnational governance is needed to solve global issues & make the world equitable, through the creation of a digital state. If you are interested in supporting the work, please reach out to [email protected]

🕊️ Freedom work

As mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, we really care about freedom and democracy. This is why we are exploring with our members a massive, new push to support the Hong Kong struggle. While doing so, we keep raising awareness on many other struggles, as we did last week on the remembrance day of the 🇹🇭 Thailand Thammasat Massacre (see our explainer here). If you like the topic, Colombe [email protected] is your person! And in case you are worried about your own safety, Colombe will work with you to find ways to protect your anonymity.

🌏 Local activities

Obviously, much much more is going on in our local network. Let us share a couple of very cool things happening at national levels.

🇮🇹 Italian general elections: yes, our Italian group is planning their first participation in national-level elections! Meetings are happening on the ground, things are moving fast, and if you think that Italy needs an equitist force, reach out to me: [email protected]

🇮🇳 Campaign against Marital Rape in India: not only is our local team incorporating Atlas in India, but they are also starting with an incredibly needed campaign to tackle the tragedy of marital rapes in India. To get things started, they recently hosted a community chat on the topic. Check it out here.