Closing speech – Ecosocialism Conference 2026

Closing remarks by Paris Wilder at the Ecosocialism Conference 2026.

We hope that you’ve all enjoyed the sessions today and taken away some knowledge, contacts and ideas of how to organise in your own ways.

The Ecosocialist Action Network was born out of our 2024 conference and has since undertaken multiple climate assemblies in London and Birmingham, to bring new people into the ecosocialist movement and start thinking about linking our struggles. This is the key takeaway that we want to leave you with. The climate is not, and should not, be a separate struggle to organise around.  The ecosocialist movement aims to link the ecological struggle to the social crisis facing us as humans. 

Struggling for money at the end of the month and fighting to stop the end of the world are the same struggle directed against the same people. 

We have to make the case for people to see the climate as pivotal to socialist organising and make the links. We can’t have a conversation about migration without the climate, we can’t have a conversation about trans liberation without the climate, we can’t have a conversation about housing justice with the climate. 

The climate crisis will, and already does, disproportionately affect marginalised groups – this is referred to as Intersectional Climate Vulnerability. 

Capitalism alienates us from our labour, our communities and our planet. It makes us think that we are different from the rest of the living things we share the planet with.

So, we’d like to make some proposals going forward. 

We would love if the speakers would be happy send us their speeches and participants to send in their ideas and contributions for publishing on the website. 

EAN has received some funding to set up local climate assemblies to bring together  people – not just around ecological issues but linking the climate with the social crisis we all face especially around the cost of living and fighting the growth of reactionary ideas. 

So we want to help organise  Climate Assemblies within your communities and areas – Jessica has done a great pack to assist with this – to start building your own networks and sustained campaigns. Taking into account linking our struggles, look at your communities, identify the challenges – is it around health care? Is it around housing?

 Whatever it is, take it and link it to the climate struggle. Use already established unions of people – housing unions, LGBTQ+ groups, workplace unions, mutual aid networks, transport campaigns etc. Start to bring the people around you into the climate struggle using what they already know and are fighting for. We can come together as an assembly and establish demands specific to our areas to start making change. 

It’s not enough to scare people into caring about the climate. It’s not carry our direct action against paintings in museums. People are sick of the gimmicks especially when they are struggling to survive day to day. We need to meet people where they are so they can start seeing the climate fight as a serious one. As ecosocialists, we have to make the link between the climate and the lives we lead day to day – the lithium in your Lost Mary vape, the cobalt in your iPhone, the water wasted every time you use copilot at work. The lives wasted in Gaza and Iran when we fund AI systems that are used to obliterate civilians. The Amazon workers dying on the floor of their fulfillment centre as we continue to feed our over consumption. Enough is enough.

Finally, we have to harness hope and turn it into something tangible – organisation. Hope isn’t the abstract concept of seeing what happens, it’s a driving force but only if there is somewhere to drive to. If we do not have a concept of a future, we will be sucked into the nihalist politics of Tony Blair and Reform UK, who tell us to say ‘fuck it’ until it’s too late. And if we’re fighting for a future, why not make it the best version, one where everyone is living a happy and fulfilling life in collaboration with the planet, not dominating it and sucking it dry for profit. Thank you.