Copenhagen, Cochabamba, Detroit: Building a Climate Justice Movement

What do these 3 cities have in common?  Objectively, maybe not much but each may play a pivotal role in the construction of the most significant movement to challenge to global capital that I’ll see in my lifetime.

This past December Copenhagen was the site of the United Nations’ COP15 Conference on Climate Change, a continuation of the negotiations that brought us the Kyoto Protocol.  In true imperialist form the US played an obstructive role, blocking any chance of reaching a legally-binding agreement to curb carbon emissions and avert climate catastrophe.  Expecting as much, environmental activists planned Klimaforum09, a parallel participatory space for the international grassroots movements and leaders from the Global South whose interests were not represented at COP15.1

A few weeks from now, April 20-22, Cochabamba, Bolivia stands poised to host the next round of this parallel process at the World People’s Referendum on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights.  Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, called for the conference on the heels of the failure in Copenhagen, after he successfully lobbied for the UN to consider a resolution on Mother Earth’s Rights.  This forum was planned in recognition that the world situation is such that we cannot wait for global leaders to come to an agreement.  The plan to save the planet has to come from the bottom up and the agenda must be set by those most affected:  indigenous peoples, oppressed nationalities, women and children , poor and working class folks.

This summer presents a real opportunity become a part of the upsurge in this global movement at the 2010 US Social Forum, June 22-26, in Detroit, Michigan—“ground zero” of the US economic crisis.  Movement Generation, and a number of other environmental justice (EJ) groups are working hard to make the most of that opportunity by making Climate Justice central at USSF2010.

Climate Justice vs. Green Capital   

Unfortunately, but also understandably, many folks engaged in fights for racial and economic justice in the US are wary of the oncoming “green wave.” This is in large part because it’s driven by a green capitalist vision.  Green capital sees the creation of adaptation and mitigation jobs, technologies, and finance, as their way out of the current economic crisis.  Profit and a desire to maintain capitalism drive their vision, not concern for the inevitable epidemic loss of life facing oppressed nationality and working class communities.

The technological quick fixes and false solutions green capital is advancing are simply meant to delay the inevitable for most, while protecting the wealthy few from the worst effects, and further consolidating the ruling class, albeit with some degree of realignment within their ranks.  Working class and oppressed nationality communities are used to being on dumped on, and understand that vision is not for our benefit.

There is one tiny glimmer of hope however.  Even within the green capitalist ranks there’s an admission that we must transition to a new economy.  At least on the level of abstraction we’re in agreement with capital that capitalism, as it exists, cannot be sustained.

Our job now is to differentiate our vision from theirs, demonstrate how their vision won’t truly transform the system that’s ultimately causing these crises, and articulate our vision of an ecological socialism driven by a desire to meet human needs and an understanding of our place within the interrelated “web of life” that constitutes the global ecosystem.2

Like any other species we transform the world around us to meet our basic needs.  Unlike our fellow species however, within capitalism we don’t play an active role in propelling local and global ecosystems forward.  Until we can articulate such a role our species is on a collision course with the planet.3

Charting a Path for Climate Justice

In order to divert this collision course we need a mass movement capable of articulating our left analysis and vision.  Many leftists have ignored environmental concerns for far too long, confusing the mostly white middle class mainstream environmental movement with environmentalism as a whole.  Luckily for us the EJ movement has been doing this work for decades.

One such group, Movement Generation, took a delegation of US-based environmental justice groups, including groups from the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Right to the City, and the Indigenous Environmental Network.4  MG’s analysis states that “in reality the climate crisis is only one part of the intersecting ecological crises we now face.  We also face crises in food, water, toxics, loss of cultural and biological diversity, among others.  These are all manifestations of the failure of globalized industrial capitalism to meet basic needs AND to ensure our ability to survive on this planet.”5  This analysis was echoed by leaders across the global South this past December in Copenhagen, from Hugo Chávez6 to Evo Morales7 to Lumuba Di-Aping.8

The delegation they organized went with the intention of connecting “U.S. grassroots campaigns to global movements that are also working on the intersections of ecological sustainability and social justice” by collaborating “with organizers from the Global South to address climate change and help break open the view of the U.S. as a monolithic “rich country.””9  Kalilla Barnett, executive director of ACE, described her experiences with the MG delegation, at Klimaforum, and engaging in actions at the US Embassy as transformative.  She told me upon her return that the priority now is to build a US-based movement around climate justice that can challenge our government’s role in impeding progress in these international negotiations.10

Some Steps Forward

What concrete tasks can we be doing in the near future towards that end?  First we’ve got some serious catching up to do.  The Eco Justice Track at USSF 2010 in Detroit June 22-26 is the perfect opportunity to get a heavy dose of schooling from environmental justice leaders who have developed successful models that we can learn from and potentially take home to translate to meet local conditions.11  Our primary task is to push the left to get up to speed.  Once we’ve developed this baseline understanding we can work to push our mass organizations to enter the debate by taking a clear stance on climate.12  This political moment presents enormous opportunities for the left to cohere a movement across sectors.  According to Jason Negron-Gonzales and Mateo Nube of MG it’s “the Left’s biggest political opportunity in a generation.”13  Are we ready to rise to the challenge?

Additional Resources:

Principles of Environmental Justice – http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html

Aiden Graham is a member of Freedom Road and a member-volunteer with ACE’s Dudley Square Organizing Project, in Roxbury, MA.  He’s also helping organize fellow library students to support Boston’s Save the Libraries Coalition recently formed to fight public sector budget cuts.