Meeting with the COEMM regional group in Udine

I am glad to pass on the most important events from the last meeting with the members of COEMM group 5 in Udine.

After a long and eventful day, and at 30 degrees, it is hard for me to understand everything, especially when people speak in the Friulian dialect.

The point of contact may seem small when 12 people from an association of around 110,000 members meet one person from an association with just over 2,400 members. But through this tiny point of contact flow mutual information and the energy of working together for a better world.

CLEMM* Udine 5 and the GAIA group Lungau met again on 21 July in Colugna near Udine. As always, the atmosphere was friendly and warm. What was new was that the GAIA representative was allowed to give his report right at the start of the meeting and so enjoyed everyone’s full attention. He reported on the course of the last GAIA evening, explained that the GAIA leadership is pleased about the contact with COEMM, and reaffirmed the will to work together. He also described his experiences with a children’s project run by the Lungau cultural association, in which he took part.

Then, during the COEMM 5 work programme, the new group leader presented his ideas for the group’s future work under his leadership. There was also discussion of COEMM’s central project, the fight against poverty in Italy, which is now facing considerable headwinds from established power structures. As everywhere, harmful forces (people greedy for power and money) are resisting any disruption of their schemes.

Here too, as at the GAIA evenings, the evening ended peacefully with pizza and beer.

* CLEMM stands for “Cooperativa Locale per un Mondo Migliore” (local cooperative for a better world)