This weekend, we held our Annual Summit to officially kickstart our electoral work. In short, we will work to enter national and local parliaments to ensure humanity quells survival threats, as soon as possible.
Our Global Summit, a 48-hour marathon, brought together members from all corners of the planet. It gave us all the elements to become a truly global, political movement. We now have a political programme for our UN campaign, a strategy for the next years, a clear direction, an organizational structure to enable us to succeed, and national groups preparing to run for elections in Australia, Kenya, India, Italy, Germany, and beyond!
Our mission to fight to ensure humanity’s survival against threats such as Climate Change, Poverty or Dictatorship can finally be achieved. And we are ready to start. From now on, we are venturing into the unknown with a rock-solid belief that, if we stay focused, committed, and steadfast, we can fulfil our dreams.
Onward Atlassians, to the next chapter!
OK, SO WHAT HAPPENED?
✊ First, we got inspired by people at the forefront of the fight against injustice and climate change…
On Friday, during our intro session, our co-founder Colombe Cahen-Salvador reminded us why we were here, the very real life-threatening and life-altering challenges we need to address for humanity to thrive, how her campaign to run for United Nations Secretary-General play a role in it, and the direction the movement is taking. Then, we had the opportunity to hear reflections from Ken Roth, who has led for three decades Human Rights Watch, under his leadership even won a Nobel Peace Prize, and Clover Hogan, an environmental activist who Elon Musk recently attacked for calling out corporate greed. But not only that: our members got to connect in an hour-long meet and greet - bridging gaps between oceans and cultures!
Here you can find the recordings of Colombe, Kenneth, and Clover speeches!
📚 Then, the real work started: we approved our first Political Programme!
Saturday the Summit kicked off with an introductory speech from Andrea Venzon. Shortly after, the participants deep-dived for four hours into policy discussions and debates to finalize the Survival Bill, the political programme we intend to champion at the United Nations. Our Policy Team Leaders Sonia and Didier, with the support of several team members, presented more than 20 different policy proposals and a few counter-proposals crowdsourced among the membership. Ideas spaced from creating an alliance of democracies at the United Nations to counter dictatorships to create a global safety net to eradicate poverty. The Outcome? Via an online vote, the programme was approved: we are now ready to bring these ideas to the highest office of the United Nations and change the course of history. The first version of the Bill will be published online shortly.
Key takeaways:
- All policies for the Survival Bill have been approved
- Many new ideas shared will be explored by the Policy Team ahead of the next round of voting
- Global Policy Team will then help National Teams to develop national programmes
Here you can watch the recording of Andrea's speech!
🇻🇪 Onward we went, hearing from a Venezuela freedom activist and presenting our new organizational structure!
After the momentous policy debate, Alejandro Daly, a Venezuelan activist hailing from his exile in New York City, shared with us his incredible work in keeping xenophobic and racist politicians accountable and his playbook to resist dictatorships via civic organizing.
Right after, we went over the professionalisation of the organizational structure of Atlas Movement, to ensure that, as a global coordinating platform, it will effectively drive global campaigns (& projects!), develop movement-wide policies, and serve as the central hub and support system for Atlas’ national parties. To do so it will see the establishment of a Secretariat headed by Colombe Cahen-Salvador, the creation of a Global Council representing all members and a Nations’ Council to give a voice to national Atlas parties, and Andrea Venzon taking on the ceremonial role of President, among other things. This new structure All changes will be enacted in the coming weeks, as we gear up for serious campaigning and growth.
Key takeaways:
- Atlas Movement to be restructured to effectively act as a coordinating platform for national parties
- New formal bodies for individual members and national parties to participate in decision-making will be created
- Colombe Cahen-Salvador to take on the role of CEO, Andrea Venzon of President
🌐🔥 Day 2: Strategy, Strategy, and a burning globe!
On Sunday the participants had a clear priority: move from the Why & What to the How. How are we going to implement all our proposals to ensure humanity quells survival threats? This is where our new global strategy comes into play. Dividing the next 15 years into three 5-year cycles with clear targets and focusing our energies on bringing home some early electoral “wins” in all continents to show the world what a global political movement can do, we believe we can show a path forward. We can build a political front for survival and plant the seed for a global democratic governance. The participants got to vote on our strategy too, and we are glad to share that it passed with flying colours!
… and we unveil our new branding and website - a big thank you to our Tech Lead Andrea D. for leading the way on this front ;)
Key takeaways:
- Global Strategy approved by participants
- All global teams will finalize their sub-strategies by the end of August
- New logo and website to be officially launched in the coming weeks
🗳️ … and how to win power at the national level.
The 2nd half of the day has just one goal: powering up our national ambitions by preparing our members to build national parties and run for elections. First, we heard of the future plans and the ongoing activities of our first national groups, Atlas Australia, Kenya, India, Italy, Germany, and Brazil. Right after, our Community Team Lead Julian hosted a workshop to guide the next steps to bring these groups (and more!) to become fully fledged political parties in the next few months. On February 2nd, 2025, we will host coordinated National Summits across the planet to announce the birth of our Atlas parties!
Key takeaways:
- Atlas Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Germany, India, and Italy to work to become political parties by the end of the year
- More teams to be set up, according to global strategy priorities
- National Summits to be held on February 2, 2025
Bottom line, it was a pleasure and an honour to see so many people from across the world coming together and sacrificing their free time for the great dream of Atlas.
What’s next, you may ask? Well, all our global and national teams will now focus on building up their own strategies before hitting the ground running in the Fall. If you want to be part of this, please:
We will succeed, we will save the world!
Andrea
–
Andrea Venzon
Co-Founder
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