Our event fell on the night of the US presidential election. Suffice it to say, the mood was sombre (see photo above). We had only one one person actually attend (the rest being board members/volunteers). The discussion opened with Makoko’s floating house and then we listened to a radio talk with Chris Williams. Williams’ spoke for about 30 minutes about the generally terrible state of affairs in the world, particularly in the world of capitalism, and by the end of it, we all felt depressed as f—. That’s when we turned to the polls and found out Trump was ahead and we all wanted to call it a night and curl up with a puppy.

I mention all of this because the event, while perhaps a less publicly successful one than others in the past, was an important one for me to witness. As I stood jotting down notes from the meeting on the large papers we had posted on one side of the room, I realized that what I was feeling at that moment was also being felt by this collection of people, and I was part of it in a way that I rarely feel a part of anything “adult”. That may sound obvious or strange, but I often have trouble realizing that I’m no less valid than those I work with. (Most of the time, I don’t feel quite grown up, partly because I’m still a student, partly because I like velcro shoes and can’t handle my finances very well.) I felt a brief equalizing as we all candidly discussed our view of what was happening, and it was important for me to see that these adults were as lost and uncertain about the world as I was.

Otherwise, some keywords of the week were:

• eco-socialism
• Williams’ revolution (tear down capitalism entirely)
• unsustainable system
• bare life
• human rights