After the COVID-19 crisis


Once the COVID-19 crisis eases, governments will focus on a narrow set of political and financial priorities for some time: Economic reconstruction and social resilience. There may be be a paradigm shift on the role of the state, and attitudes to multilateralism. The parameters of political debate have broadened, with policies such as universal basic income and renationalisation being crash-implemented in the space of a few weeks. We have all just been given one last chance to redesign the global economy before climate change becomes irreversible. How do we do it right this time? What should radical demands of the people of Europe and the world be?

The Quaker community will continue to advocate for social justice in difficult times, as they have always done. We will undertake political engagement and structural analysis of this crisis, as we already do on other matters such as peace and the climate crisis. As defenders of human rights for almost four centuries, Quakers may become more necessary in the 2020s. Quakers are a movement of a big-picture perspective on how the tides of history have ebbed and flowed, and what those changes mean in terms of social change. For the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA), we will accept that we are now living in such a moment and play our part.

QCEA brings a vision based on a Quaker commitment to peace, justice and equality to Europe and its institutions. We are an organisation with programmes of peacebuilding and human rights work, but as a Quaker organisation we are also committed to climate justice and care for the Earth. As with all our work, our contribution stems from the Quaker community and their other international work.

For more information about Quaker work to reform economic systems, click here.

To read the report of the QCEA Open Conversation on Covid-19 click here.

EVENT:

Living in Changing Times – An online conversation (1 December 2020)

Register here to join QCEA’s upcoming online conversation, which will take place on Tuesday 1 December, 14:30-16:00 Central European Time (13:30-15:00 Britain and Ireland).

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other events of 2020 have brought the big questions are back on the table. Join us for an online conversation about what Quakers might say and work for in this important time. Participants are asked to read a draft document in advance, which can be found at www.QCEA.org/ChangingTimes


COVID-19 analysis

Coronavirus: a call to EU leaders from Jude Kirton-Darling (MEP 2014-2020)

from the QCEA Blog

from our partners

Our latest COVID-19 interviews


 

What about today?

Click here for more on QCEA’s work to respond to the pandemic now.