We're launching a paid supplement to The Green Fix - our work should be sustainable🥳
And Belgian NGO workers are going on strike.
We’re launching a paid supplement newsletter to The Green Fix.
To be clear: The current newsletter will still exist and be free for everyone. When I launched The Green Fix, I resolved never to put climate opportunities behind a paywall. And I stand by that.
What we will do, is finally act on what you’ve been telling us in every survey we’ve done in the last 2 years. We receive two pieces of regular feedback:
“Your emails are great but so overwhelming! There are so many links!”, and
“What I like the most is the personal introductions when you talk about burnout, eco-anxiety and things like that.”
The personal essays like this one on finding motivation to keep going in a chaotic world, why we keep avoiding signs that we need to slow down, and resisting despair have always got the most direct engagement. Mainly people telling me, through private messages and at events, that they were just glad they weren’t the only one feeling this way in Times Like These.
There is so much to say - god knows I have filled piles of notebooks - about trying to simply exist as an adult in limbo - between a capitalist and colonial past and an attempt to build a better future, trying to be a perfectly ethical individual and rejecting individualism, trying to (un)learn and not getting trapped in the never-ending search for certainty. These experiences are universal but they are also personal. Inspired by fantastic newsletters like
and , we want the space to discuss how these nuances appear in our everyday lives.Here’s what you’ll get in a paid newsletter:
1-2 personal essays each month by
on trying to be a semi-successful adult and do some amount of good while living in capitalism and the climate crisis. We will later open for guest writers.Extended cuts of interviews, Focus pieces and resources we didn’t have space to share in the free digest.
The opportunity to request email topics, ask questions or share your own experience.
Isn’t asking for money a bit capitalist of you?
Video: Throwback to us (me) rambling about this a few months ago.
Yes and no. We live in capitalism. Things cost money. There is plenty of chat about whether monetising our freely-provided content is ever ethical. I know. I read it, obsessively.
put this perfectly: “There’s a peculiar expectation that if you critique capitalism, you should somehow transcend it personally.”But it’s also about valuing labour and rejecting the idea that idealistic work must always come at personal sacrifice.
When I started the newsletter, it was me, writing up short Q&As in my room after working hours to about 50 friends and family members.
Now we are a team of 6+ regular volunteers, we’ve provided over 100 packed editions, we have more than 5,000 regular readers, we’re more intentional in the resources we share as we try to embody our feminist, decolonial values. We host an event almost every month, organise partnerships, and run three social media channels. I’ve gone from solo writer to Editor and Coordinator of an ever-expanding project and team.
The financial, physical costs of this are accumulating: software subscriptions, catering for events, compensating the travel costs of volunteers, designing and printing promotional materials.
And we want to do more: we want to be able to compensate ourselves and others for their time. We want to be able to offer something to the underrepresented and marginalised voices that have contributed to this newsletter to say We think our time and your time and labour has value. Or at least try, right?
I want to subscribe to the paid supplement but I can’t afford it.
We don’t aim to extract from people who cannot afford it. The first email will be un-paywalled so you can see what to expect. After that, we can offer 1 or 2 month free trials at any time, to anyone who wants to know what they’re getting first.
And for those who don’t have the means to afford paid subscription - such as students, unemployed readers, underpaid interns and retired people. Just email us at wearethegreenfix@gmail.com with ‘Gift subscription’ in the headline (we won’t ask you to prove it).
Everyone else gets a discount for the first year when you upgrade your subscription via the button below. This offer is valid for the next 30 days. Existing paid subscribers don’t have to do anything, you are already on the list (and we can remove you if you don’t want the extra content).
Lastly, if you want to support us but don’t want the commitment of a paid subscription, we still accept one-off coffee donations via our Ko-fi account and we see and appreciate every single contribution.
You’re invited! Brussels Climate Drinks - 21st May
The next Climate Drinks are here! Join us on the 21st May from 18h CEST in Barcine. RSVP (free) through Eventbrite so we know how many people to expect.
What’s Going On?
Residents of Medellín in Colombia are leading on a renewable energy transition.
Nepali migrant workers face an infertility crises worsened by heat exposure.
I’ve been displaced again, but I will not let Gaza disappear quietly.
‘We are done waiting': Inside Poland's first abortion centre.
NGO workers in Belgium: open letter against Arizona!
Invitation to sign an open letter, to any NGO workers based in Belgium. Coordinated by EPSU ahead of a non-profit demo on the 22nd May in Brussels.
The new “Arizona” government is planning massive social cuts across Belgium. They want a society for the richest, where the most vulnerable have to pay the bill.
And as workers in the NGO sector based in Belgium, we will see the impact of these measures up close - on our public services, salaries and pensions, as well as on the communities we work to defend and represent.
More austerity means more poverty.
Essential services like healthcare and education are being cut to pay for militarisation, with a disproportionate impact on women and young people. These are the same policies that we see at the EU level, all at the expense of the working class and the planet.
Since December 2024, Belgium’s trade unions have responded with a strategy of sustained mobilisation every month. More and more civil society groups are now joining the unions’ calls to strike.
Over 100,000 people hit the streets in February. In March, the unions called what became the biggest general strike in a decade, with over 100 NGO workers joining the first ever international NGO picket in Brussels.
These cuts are not yet law. We can still put an end to these measures for good.
We have already seen some victories! The government is on the defensive, and they're rethinking some of their plans. We’re not giving up.
That’s why NGO workers are standing up with Belgian unions again to say: NO TO ARIZONA.
You can also share the open letter with the shortlink bit.ly/FairCSO and get involved via the Whatsapp group.
So Now What Do I Do?
LEARN SOMETHING
Read: The far-right got the most seats in the UK local elections. Here’s how.
Tune in: What next for trans liberation? 29 May at 18 BST, in London or livestreamed.
Applications are open for a Just Transition summer school in Ljubljana! Apply by 30 May.
DO SOMETHING
Submit your environmental short film to the Yale 360 contest by 25th May!
The Transnational Institute is calling for essays and art on the rise of fascism, by the 2nd June.
HELP A CAMPAIGN
You can still sign the EU initiative to ban LGBTQIA+ conversion therapy until 17th May!
London: Join the national day of action against Shell on the 20th May. (details incoming).
The Youth Climate Collaborative is looking for members! Anyone aged 18-35 eligible to join.
Stay in the loop
You can follow us on Instagram @thegreenfix_ . Bluesky @thegreenfix.blsky.social and LinkedIn. Connect with Cass on Instagram @cass.hebron, Bluesky @casshebron.bsky.social and LinkedIn.
Great work! Happy to see the positive response of readers! :) We want these stories, clearly!
So much love to you, your collaborators & all you do! <3