“The dangerous 21st century” – that was the theme of the Actionmeeting, which took place from April 25 to 29 in Linz. More than 30 volunteers and full-time youngcaritas staff from South Tyrol, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and Austria took part.
Many interesting guests and exciting discussions…
…awaited us during these four days. We received a lot of professional input, for example, from the Austrian journalist and former foreign correspondent Raimund Löw. For practical examples and exciting discussions, activists from Fridays for Future, the Last Generation and Catcalls of Linz visited us. The main topics were the effects of the climate crisis on people and verbal and sexual violence.
Many colorful and important actions for more attention
After the stimulating discussions of the previous days, our Action Day was then on the agenda on April 28. On this day, different groups carried out various actions in downtown Linz to draw public attention to the issues and encourage people to take action themselves.
Femicides and Catcalling…
Did you know that 137 women worldwide are murdered every day by their (ex-)partner or family?
In the action “chattalk”, a group took on the task of drawing attention to femicides. To do this, they first wrote down so-called catcalls – sayings that men call out to women without being asked – with sidewalk chalk on the Danube promenade. The action was intended to draw attention to the catcalls to which many women are subjected every day.
In addition, participants painted outlines of lying women on the street to remind them of the scene of a femicide. On 100 meters of street, the group educated about femicides, how often they happen worldwide and in Austria, and spread the hashtag #stopfemicide.
Wall of Memory
At the Ars Electronica Center, a group’s “Wall of Memory” drew attention to the effects of the climate crisis and also to those people who have already been severely affected by its consequences. They focused on fires and forest fires, floods and tsunamis, droughts and earthquakes.
The posters were displayed in the lobby of the AEC for several days to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
Eat, Spray Love
Another group set itself the goal of painting over homophobic slogans on the wall of a busy street in Linz. To do this, the team developed a symbolism for same-sex love and immortalized it on the wall. The group didn’t let exclamations from passing men get them down, setting a wonderful example of solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.
Take what you need!
Giving away positive messages can also be a way to get people excited about issues: that’s why, in keeping with the “Take what you need” exhibition at the Stadtmuseum Nordico, an action group drew attention to the issue of women and feminism with self-designed buttons that they distributed there and left hanging for people to take freely.
Questions about questions
Most recently, an action group equipped with sidewalk chalk launched six actions on the church square:
fridays for future – fact check
Check your own CO2 footprint
Food waste in your own household
Gender pay gap in Austria
colorful crosswalks – what is it all about?!
… and last but not least, our video on the “Square for Tolerance” was a must for the topic of diversity.
Despite the rain, all stations were linked to a quiz time on Instagram, so that everyone could take part in the quiz regardless of the weather and location.
Movie Night
We concluded our Action Day with the film “My Emptiness and I”. Totally engaging, this tells the story of young Raphi and her personal journey with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Afterwards we had the opportunity to talk with the director Adrian Silvestre, which was really exciting!
Thank you Linz!
The event served as an inspiration and drive to try new things and continue to be socially and activistically active. The diversity of opinions and the enormous commitment that could be felt from the individual participants also motivates us again for future projects. Many thanks to all who were with us in Linz – it was wonderful!
