The Struggle Continues. A Personal Connection to Solarpunk

The mural above La Lucha Continua was created by the Artmakers Collective lead by my grandmother Eva Cockroft.

Solarpunk did not exist when La Lucha was painted. Or rather, the term did not exist. This murals themes: community, sustainability, resistance, and building utopia in the face of gentrification, oppression and destruction could not better encapsulate solarpunk. Even the choice of format, a public mural created through a collaboration of artists is reflective of solarpunk.

Eva died the week I was born. I never met her, but have always been inspired by her work as an activist and artist. A holocaust survivor, she took the lessons of history and applied them broadly to oppressed peoples around the globe. #NeverAgain

Today, my grandfather's birthday, a new mural is being revealed on the wall of his Montreal duplex. The mural "GUERILLERAS" by Dolores Navarro YUDA, a Mexican artist, highlights 100 years of Mexican murals, considered a social and political movement of resistance and identity and is a tribute to the global struggles for women's rights.

All this to say that names change, terminology changes, and even the people fighting leave us, but la Lucha continua. The fight for a better world does not start or end with any individual. Our problems are societal. Our solutions communal.

I do not care whether you call it communism, socialism, leftism, social Justice, anarcho-communism, solarpunk, mutual Aid, peer Support, community Building, community Empowerment or terms not yet known to me or to the world. I care that you value community, autonomy, humanRights, and a sustainable future for all. I care that you live your values and work to bring about a world where these things can exist for everyone. I care that you refuse to ignore the suffering of others, who fights for the rights of yourself, your community, and the marginalized.

The struggle continues. It does not belong to one of us but to all. The hope for a better future, the fight to envision and create it, will never end.

"The only lasting truth is change." -Octavia E Butler