Hey y’all, Sharon here. This is my attempt at a blog post summarizing what Ruckus was up to in Copenhagen this month. There was A LOT happening in a short time. If you want stories, well you’ll just have to come to a Ruckus camp…

A few months ago, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) began a conversation with us about providing action support for their delegation to Copenhagen. The delegation included representatives from Indigenous Nations across North America. Myself, and Ruckus board member Heather Milton Lightening staffed the Indigenous support team.

Based on conversations with IEN, we arrived in Copenhagen with a few goals:

* to highlight and escalate negotiations in ways that support Indigenous vision and demands

* ensure Indigenous leadership in actions and mobilizations that could advance a climate and ecological justice agenda

* train IEN staff and allies to form their own action teams and execute their own direct actions in furthering their campaign work

We also came in with the goal of coordinating 4 actions in Copenhagen during the span of COP15 (we actually pulled off 5): a framing action to set the message “Respect Indigenous Rights”; an action calling out the US and its whacked out energy policy; an action around the Canadian Tar Sands; and an action around REDD’s (read IEN’s booklet on REDD if you want to know what it is and its impacts).  In addition we were looking to ensure Indigenous voice and leadership within other civil society actions.

A word about how we work: we took our direction from IEN and by extension, the Indigenous Caucus (recognized as stakeholders by the UN).  While direct action was being used as a tool to escalate IEN’s campaigns, the Indigenous People’s Power Project (IP3) was also brought along as an offering to the caucus to support actions the caucus wanted to engage in as a body. We briefed the caucus on an almost daily basis about IEN-initiated, and civil society actions that were taking place where Indigenous participation was strategic. We took our cues from the decisions made during those briefings. Its important to note that most of the members of the Indigenous Caucus are no strangers to direct action on their home turf, having to regularly intervene on threats to their homelands. That said, embracing direct action as a strategy within the UN was stepping into new territory for the caucus.

Indigenous Initiated Actions:

Framing Action: Respect Indigenous Peoples Rights

This action took place on the second day of COP 15.  A simple action was staged in the main hallway of the UN complex otherwise known as the Bella Center. We were there to elevate the voices of the Indigenous Peoples, who are recognized stakeholders in the UN process, and to make our presence known to the negotiators roaming the hallways, wheeling and dealing. We wanted to frame the action in such a way that was dignified, respectful of where we all come from, but that said we were here and we meant business.

You have to be permitted to do an action inside the UN and we were testing the waters with UN security to see where they were drawing their lines. Here’s how our permit read:

“This is a cleansing ceremony for conference party leaders to cleanse their minds & spirits; for clarity, compassion, strength & perseverance in coming out of the COP negotiations with a binding commitment to Save Mother Earth”

We whipped up 2 banners over night. It would be the first of many late night banner painting sessions:

We assembled with our banners, our prayers, and our message.

Check out this interview with Ben Powless, Mohawk from Six Nations Canada and one time Ruckus trainee: youtube

On December 10th, day 4 of COP 15, International Human Rights Day, and the day Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize, Indigenous Peoples stepped out with something to say. We were calling out the US and its energy policies which escalate ecological devastation and cultural genocide not only for Indigenous People in the United States but also globally.

More late night banner fun with good results:

A scroll with a letter to Obama was prepared and delivered to a representative from the US Embassy. Democracy Now told the story pretty well.

And check out Faith Gemmil and Wahleah Johns on the NBC nightly news:

As usual, our press team kicked out some jammin media of our own: IEN Pitch Engine and a video of our own

And if you’re curious, here’s how the scroll read:

Dear Ambassador:

As the United States President Barack Obama accepts his Nobel peace prize today, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and First Nations Peoples come to Copenhagen to speak out against the United States energy policy that is detrimentally affecting our lands, health and livelihoods. We represent the following Nations: Mathais, Colomb Cree Nation, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Cree, Nakoda, Blackfoot, Ojibwe, Pit River/ Wintu, Neets’aii, Gwich’in Athabascan, Navajo, Mikisew Cree, Dene, Inupiaq, Oneida, Mayan, and Yaqui.

We support a full and effective participation of Indigenous people within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

We support the free, prior and informed consent, including the right to oppose the extraction of fossil fuels by destructive industries.

We call for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and other international human rights instruments and agreements.

We strongly call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas, coal and uranium as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment.

We support vibrant green economies: the U.S. assisting Indigenous communities to help supporting a just transition into a green economy, freeing ourselves from dependence on a carbon-based fossil fuel economy

We support the most stringent and binding emission reduction targets: Carbon emissions for developed countries must be reduced by no less than 40%, preferably 49% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 95% by 2050. We call for national and global actions to stabilize CO2 concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm) and limiting temperature increases to below 1.5ºc.

We oppose false solutions: These include nuclear energy, large-scale dams, geo-engineering techniques, clean coal technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, bio-fuels, tree plantations, and international market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading and offsets, the Clean Development Mechanisms and Flexible Mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol and forest offsets.

Signed,

Indigenous Peoples of North America

International Human Rights Day: Implement Indigenous Peoples Rights

After the US Embassy we headed back to the Bella Center for another action.  The co-chairs of the caucus proposed a human chain in commemoration of International Human Rights Day. It just so happened that the youth caucus were doing a “rainstorm” action just before ours and a blending of youth and Indigenous people was quite a treat.

Unfortunately UN security wasn’t as excited by this swarm of people as we were. So off we went, around the bella center!

I got a “yellow card” for this action; meaning UN security flipped out on me because we moved our human chain around the Bella Center. It was quite the joke around the action team for the next few days…

Faith Gemmil vs Ken Salazar

The day wasn’t over yet for Faith Gemmil. She heard Ken Salazar, secretary US Department of the Interior, was giving a press briefing. With the help of her new friends over at NBC (see the nightly news link above) she managed to get in and address Ken Salazar. Check out the video that was captured as Faith asked her question.

Rolling out the welcome mat for Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper

This was our much anticipated action of the COP. We had first nations folks in the house from tar sands affected communities, and allies from the UK and Canada were also rolling deep. Together with our friends at Rainforest Action Network we decided to roll out the welcome mat for Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and pay the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen a visit, just to let them know we were there. We also thought we’d bring him a welcome basket, with some useful things, like treaties, literature on the tar sands, even one of our “Respect Indigenous Rights” placards (translated into Danish for his convenience):

Oh, did I mention more late night banner painting (Heather is a machine!)

Here’s the press release our action media team pulled together. On the way to this action I got a phone call from Danish police, informing me we were not allowed to assemble at the embassy. Unfortunately for them, there were already about 20 people gathered when we got there, dozens more on their way, and we had no intentions of stopping. After all, we were only there to welcome Harper, drop him a gift basket, and let him know there’s always the opportunity to do the right thing.

Smart Meme helped us pull a video together too (in addition to their incredible support during COP15)

Also, around Canada and the UK folks were marking Canada’s oily footprint in their home cities. Check out the UK solidarity action.

NO RIGHTS NO REDDS

This was the last day we knew most of us would have access to the UN. It was also the morning after President Evo Morales of Bolivia had arrived in Copenhagen. Bolivia came to the COP with the most aggressive targets of any government. They also came with a message: RIGHTS FOR MOTHER EARTH.

Delegates from Bolivia came to the Indigenous Caucus with a request for support for a welcoming ceremony and action they wanted to do. We thought it would be a good time to pull out our NO RIGHTS NO REDDS!!! Shirts.

This was also the day of the Reclaim Power action, so at this point, it was all about keeping the energy up until our friends marching outside reached the bella center.

Indigenous Participation in civil society actions:

Marching through the streets of Copenhagen

Watch Tom Goldtooth’s rap at the rally at the end of the march.

RECLAIM POWER

In solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Bolivia, we joined them in leading the Reclaim Power march out of the Bella Center to join our comrades on the outside. Here are some of the days highlights

And a  few from outside

EJ Groups at the US Embassy

Well, we didn’t think we’d go to the US Embassy twice in one trip, but we thought it’d be worth it to unite with our friends in the Environmental Justice movement in the US. Oh yeah, we had one more delivery for Obama:

And of course, there’s an awesome video

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS…
We’re already in conversations about COP 16. Help us get there! Donate to Ruckus today…

Check out this video of Sharon from Copenhagen explaining why our Indigenous Peoples’ Power Project is there, and a little about the action to welcome Canada’s PM Harper…!

Canada is one of many governments who have sent “delegates” to Copenhagen to derail the UN climate conference…but Prime Minister Harper and his delegation no longer have stealth on their side. They are leaving a trail of oily Tar Sands wherever they go.

This Monday (Dec. 14) young indigenous organizers from Tar Sands impacted First Nations will lead thousands of allies in an action that is sure to electrify Copenhagen and the world.

They are calling for people of conscience across the Earth to stand with them. Solidarity actions are already planned for: Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and London (with other cities to be added).

We’ve made it easy for anyone to take a unified stance against the Tar Sands. Click here to download your very own Oily Tar Sands Footprint stencils. Then get together with your friends this Monday and take ACTION.

There are SO many banks, oil companies, and elected officials conspiring to commit the world’s greatest climate crime. But here’s a quick list of the dirtiest:

Banks: Canada – RBC, CIBC, BMO.  USA – BoA, CitiBank  Eupore – HSBC, RBS, Barclays
Oil Companies: Shell, Exxon, BP, Total, Chevron, Esso, Conoco, Enbridge,  Syncrude, Suncor
Your local MP’s Office: If the government is your thing.

So pick your favorite bad guy and leave a trail of footprints around their building.

Take Action!!

Sponsored by – Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Council of Canadians, The Ruckus Society, and the Indigenous Peoples’ Power Project (IP3)

Day 4 at COP 15

Hey y’all, Sharon here. I’m not used to blogging, and we are moving a million miles a minute here, but I’ll do my best to give you all the play by play as things go down there

- Action at US Embassy this morning in Copenhagen: Obama recieved his peace prize today but there is no peace in our land while our people suffer at the hands of US Energy policy. This was a woman’s action- organized by Indigenous women across North America (and as far as Central America if you include me), women from Alaska, the Southwest, the Midwest, East Coast and Canada representing many indigenous nations calling out Obama and US Energy Policy. US Energy policy affects Indigenous Peoples not only in North America but globally. There was a delivery of a scroll on behalf of Indigenous Peoples to the Ambassador.   About 50 ppl attended,  We got great media coverage:

Democracy Now!

NBC Nightly News

We’re also using a pitch engine to blast our events- Feel free to check it out- grab video and repost

-Calling out Ken Salazar (Secretary of Interior)- Faith of Red OIL and Wahleah of Black Mesa Water Coalition snuck into his press briefing (with the help of our new friends at nbc!) and Faith hit Salazar with a hard question about new oil and coal development in Alaska and the Southwest. Apparently he got flustered and avoided the question. Go Faith!!! Check out the post about it: Indigenous people raise a voice against more dirty energy There’s also video of Faith’s question

-Respect Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Action in the Halls of the UN- this was a very spontaneous joint action between youth and indigenous peoples on behalf of International Human Rights day and the lack thereof for indigenous people. The Action followed a youth “rainstorm” action and Indigenous Peoples and youth formed a human chain that spontaneously snaked all the way around the Bella Center (UN security was not happy about this one!) People spontaneously joined the snake and I would dare say at one point we were a giant circle in the Bella Center!

-Indigenous Peoples speak out is happening right now at the Klima Forum (the “peoples” alternative forum to COP).  I spoke on an IP panel yesterday talking about IP3 and action.

Photos to come!

Sharon

So we’re day 3 into the climate talks, and the lay of the land is fascinating. Copenhagen is not just expensive when it comes to food and drink – there’s also a steep cost for folks who engage in actions. Fines and deportation are the two pendulums swinging, and we have to plan our actions in a way that makes an impact throughout the entire process. So what are we doing?

We’re bringing it.

Yesterday there was a framing action inside the UN, in the main hallway between the NGO display area, and the climate negotiation space. The message was: Respect Indigenous Rights. Ruckus/IP3 is in Copenhagen to support the Indigenous Environmental Network and thereby the Indigenous People’s caucus, which is a recognized body within the UN, and a powerful participant in the proceedings. Our goal is to highlight and escalate negotiations in ways that support indigenous vision and demands, as well as ensure indigenous leadership in the actions and mobilizations that advance a climate and ecological justice agenda.

In addition to the actions and mass mobilizations we came here to do and support, new action opportunities are arising every day. As shit hits the fan inside the UN halls, delegations from all over the world are in careful strategic processes, trying to determine when, how and if they will have to walk out, and action will raise their voices loud enough to be heard inside the halls of negotiation.

As usual, we’re not trying to be reactionary, or act for the sake of action – we want to act for the sake of movement building and shifting the balance of power and the direction of the planet when it comes to climate.

It’s exciting to be here with so many amazing organizers and organizations – our friends from Smartmeme are here supporting messaging as the situation changes. Our friends from IEN are shaping policy daily – check out this video of them on Democracy Now.

More to come!

Sharon!

Yesterday, December 7th, was the first day of U.N. Climate Talks in Copenhagen for COP-15.  While Sharon, our Program Director, was in Denmark helping pull off the first of what will be a string of indigenous rights actions with IEN and RAN (report coming soon!), I was in San Ramon, CA, with 100 other folks, helping shut down all three gates to Chevron’s headquarters.

The 12/7 Chevron action was another in a series of Mobilization for Climate Justice-West actions to escalate the pressure on corporations and governments who are standing in the way of real solutions to the climate crisis.  Ruckus has been a core member of the MCJ-West coalition, helping to pull off mass trainings and mobilizations here in the bay area over the last year, to engage climate activists in an escalating and strategic use of nonviolent direct action in the movement for climate justice.

Please read the MCJ-West report for more information about why Chevron is being targeted, and you can read the full text of the Open Letter to Chevron that was sent out last week requesting a meeting (which has received no response from officials).

The blockade started at 6:45am PST, while still dark (and extemely cold with rain-turning-to-snow).  Three groups took over each of the three road entrances to Chevron Headquarters’ campus – with activists sitting in the streets, using their bodies to block the morning traffic from entering Chevron property.  Some used lockboxes, and others linked arms and legs.  The cops were out in full force – riot gear on – and managed to confiscate some gear in the rush to take over the intersections. Early attempts to lock to barrels and set up a tripod were abandoned for various logistical reasons.  Nonetheless, we were still able to block all three gates successfully.

After six activists who were locked together with lockboxes were dragged out of the street by cops after they refused to unlock, the cops managed to clear part of the intersection at Gate #3 and direct traffic for a short spell, until another wave of activists reclaimed the intersection, to the cheering of the crowd who had gathered to chant and support the blockade.

One by one, activists from Gates 2 and 3 were removed from the roadways, arrested, and held in detention a few miles away; while at Gate #1, the main entrance, the blockaders demanded admittance through the gate onto Chevron property in order to deliver a letter to Chevron officials and hold a meeting.  Despite tense resistance, activists managed to get through the gate nonviolently, where they were immediately arrested.

31 people were arrested by the end.  Most were cited and detained on a police bus, until they were released around noon.  6-8 were then transported to the Martinez jail with various additional charges, but were released later that night.

MEDIA COVERAGE (as of 12/8/09) via MCJ’s website:

KCRA Sacramento: http://www.kcra.com/news/21888646/detail.html
San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13949158?nclick_check=1
SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=53032
SF Chronicle: Protests at Chevron
It’s Getting Hot In Here (blog): Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron; 31 Arrested
ABC 7 News: 2 dozen protesters arrested outside Chevron HQ
KCBS (Bay Area): Protestors Arrested at Chevron
Contra Costa Times: Chevron protest draws spirit crowd in San Ramon
CBS 5: Arrests In Chevron San Ramon Protest

This November 30th marked the 10-year anniversary of the WTO shut-down in Seattle in 1999.  It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the iconic Democracy –> / WTO <– banner drop that kicked off that amazing week of people coming together to take over the streets and show the bosses in suits that people come before profit.

Now, on the 10th anniversary, Ruckus is once again sending our folks to join thousands of others from around the world at another momentous convening of world governments:  the COP-15 climate talks in Copenhagen.

Throughout the past decade, much has changed and much remains the same – both movement-wide, and within our organization.  Since the WTO, Ruckus has grown and shifted in many ways.  Our work today may appear slightly different, but at the heart of it all we remain steadfast in our mission to provide activists with hands-on tools and skills to take strategic, effective, creative nonviolent direct action in order to improve their communities.

We know that our work isn’t finished – there are plenty more folks and communities who need these tools.  But in order for us to keep fulfilling all the requests we receive, we need YOUR support.

So check out this short video about our work and some of the amazing actions that have been made possible through Ruckus’s training program and action network over the years.

Then get out your wallet and take one of the quickest, simplest actions you can: donate today!

The Ruckus Society – Take Action: Donate Today!

Many thanks to Anita Sarkeesian for producing this video for us!!!

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

(be the R2D2 you want to see in the world)

by Gopal Dayaneni

The Mess We Are In

Most readers are probably familiar with the 1977 science fiction blockbuster movie, Star Wars. Remember the trash compactor scene? That scene provides a nice metaphor for the state of global economic and ecological crisis. We are all trapped in a global trash compactor. The walls are closing in. On one side, we have climate chaos with all its myriad consequences. On the other, we have the wall of racial, gender, economic and environmental injustice also closing in on us. In the middle, we have us – everyone. And as the walls begin closing in, what is the first thing you do? You try to push back. Many people concerned over the past 30-plus years with the rapidly increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have been pushing against the wall of climate chaos. Armed with the best science, they have been demanding, and sometimes taking real action to slow the release of carbon into the atmosphere and/or get carbon out of the atmosphere.

Up against the other wall are the communities attempting to push back against the advance of ever increasing inequity, poverty, violence and injustice. Those folks (for the sake of the metaphor, we’ll call them the rebels) are primarily peoples in the global South and indigenous peoples worldwide and poor communities and communities of colour in the North. These are the people who have been the victims of colonisation, environmental racism, destructive development and economic impoverishment in the name of progress. The North (and elites in the South), instead of pushing back, are running to the centre, staying as far away from the walls closing in as they can, buying themselves some time, but only time and not very much of it. As they crowd the centre space, more and more folks are forced up against the walls, allowing those in the centre to ignore both the walls closing in and the folks getting crushed. But we are now at a place in which the walls are so close they can no longer be ignored. So what do we do?

We grab some big piece of metal and try to jam it up there, thinking that a system designed specifically to crush that stuff might be thwarted by it. Let’s call these the false solutions. They are everything from the techno-fixes such as biofuels, ‘clean coal’ and geo-engineering, to the kinds of market-based climate policies that we know won’t work, but might, at best, slow the rate of collapse. Slowing down the collapse – that is the best we can hope for from these false solutions. And the best evidence we have right now says that those false solutions will make the situation worse – accelerating both the ecological collapse and the inequity, thereby making mitigation and adaptation that much harder for the most vulnerable and least responsible.

So what do we do? We need to do exactly what they do in Star Wars. Shut the system down. We need to go R2D2 on a systemic level and address the root causes of the problem. That is what climate justice is about. As David Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park of the University of Minnesota write:

People of color, indigenous communities, and global South nations bear the brunt of climate disruption in terms of ecological, economic, and health burdens. In addition, climate change infers a naturally occurring process rather than a disruption created by specific human activity. For these reasons, activists and scholars have developed the concept of climate justice, which recognizes that the struggle for racial and economic justice is inseparable from any effort to combat climate change. Climate justice begins with an acknowledgement of climate injustice and views this problem not as an unfortunate byproduct of climate disruption, but as one of its core elements, and one that must be confronted if climate disruption is to be reversed.ⁱ

But what is the R2D2 of climate justice? Here is where the metaphor breaks down. Our solutions will not come from folks on the outside of the crisis, but from coordination of forces within the climate justice movement – where we recognise that we have multiple strategic points of leverage and that we must align these approaches. Currently, the term ‘climate justice’ is used in many ways, but without some level of strategic alignment in interventions, we will not achieve the level of impact necessary to lead us towards the real solutions we need. While there is some alignment, and the different approaches to climate justice are in no way mutually exclusive, greater alignment is critical. Let’s explore these different takes on climate justice.

A Rights-Based Approach to Policy

As we approach Copenhagen, the question of what kind of global policy on the climate crisis can emerge has very much dominated the political imagination, and in this context climate justice refers to a rights-based/justice-based approach to climate policy. Organisations that take positions that are broadly in line with declarations and statements in the international context on climate justice such as the Bali Principles (2007), the Belem Declaration (2009) and others, are within the climate justice fold. Additionally, a key theme is the subordination of climate policy to UN rights declarations and conventions, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Policy initiatives emerging from this approach include broad opposition to a markets-based approach to carbon (carbon trading), and even more adamantly, opposition to exotic market instruments, namely, offsets; ramp-down to low-carbon economies; a phase-out of fossil fuels; and, probably most importantly, an ecological debt-based mechanism for financing and technology transfer from the North to the South. In this category we include a broad range of groups who share positions, who work domestically and/or internationally and who employ diverse strategies, including research, international solidarity, analysis, public education, advocacy and organising. This approach to climate justice is also present in US climate policy.

A Multi-Sectoral Movement Building Agenda

In the US, the environmental justice movement has given rise to a climate justice movement that has simultaneously fought to raise the voices of those communities least responsible for and most severely impacted by climate change, namely poor people of colour and indigenous peoples, and demanded that climate policy does not further exacerbate existing economic and environmental inequality, but redress it. According to Nia Robinson, director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, “[T]he successful creation of climate policy can not happen without the input of communities that have suffered as a result of the US fossil fuel addiction. Our government must begin to recognize these communities as experts or run the risk of creating policies that will do as much harm if not more than climate change itself.”ⁱⁱ Just as the environmental justice movement transformed the environmental movement by repositioning human communities and equity at the centre of environmentalism and brought a racial and economic justice lens to that work, the climate justice movement has pushed the climate movement in the US. Through the movement’s orientation embodied in this use of the term ‘climate justice’, we see emerging a ‘popular movement of movements’, led from the grassroots. A key issue for the climate justice/environmental justice movement in the US is articulating that even within the North, there is a South; that this ‘South in the North’ is owed the same ecological debt (to indigenous peoples, to African Americans for the legacy of slavery and others); and that there are communities disproportionately impacted due to race and class.

Grassroots Resistance to Root Causes of Climate Change

In recent years, also stemming from the environmental justice and environmental health movements, the use of climate justice has emerged as referring to the grassroots struggles of communities in the US and Canada who are fighting against the root causes of climate change in their own backyards/front yards. Put another way, Fence-line and Frontline communities fighting oil, coal, gas, tar sands, incineration, deforestation, etc. Only more recently have these folks emerged on the scene as part of the ‘climate’ issue. For example, communities fighting refineries and power plants across the country as environmental justice struggles against point-source pollution have focused on health, poverty and environmental racism as the core themes of their struggles. Now, confronting the root causes of climate change has emerged as a critical, unifying theme. This started in the late 1990s, and really took hold after the 2nd People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington DC in 2002 (10 years after the 1992 Environmental Justice Leadership Summit). Examples are the struggle against ‘mountain top removal’ in Appalachia (the practice of blowing off entire mountaintops to reach underlying mineral deposits), coal mining on indigenous lands and tar sands development in Canada. These struggles have long been fought locally and are now flashpoints of climate justice as local fights to address the root causes of climate change, while fighting for concrete improvements in the daily lives of communities. There is a strong focus here on accountability to communities and on communities speaking for themselves, while there has been less emphasis, until recently, on the questions of climate policy.

Climate Action for Climate Justice

Also developing more in recent years is the conflation of climate justice with climate action. Some of this is emerging from mainstream environmental organisations and some from the youth climate movement. While we see lots of young people holding posters that say ‘Climate Justice’, we do not always see a clear articulation of a justice/rights-based agenda on climate. In fact, many groups that are driving the youth climate movement support policies that run counter to the established principles of climate justice. We are seeing more and more of this use of the term by a broad range of groups who are now using direct action in some form or other to address climate change. There is, again, overlap. Many groups that are engaging in creative direct action or civil disobedience as part of their strategy are also advancing a rights-based framework, are supporting the leadership of those most directly impacted and are attacking the root causes of climate change. But many are not, and differentiating between the two becomes critical. One way to think of this is that climate action is not always action for climate justice. Depending on the theory of change and strategies you are employing, the action must either, and ideally in combination advance a rights-based agenda consistent with the frameworks established collectively by the international climate justice movement; take leadership from and be accountable to those most directly impacted and least responsible; or engage in community struggles at the root causes of climate change.

The strongest movement for climate justice coming out of the US will be one where we have strategic alignment between these groups, and there are many organisations and networks that represent this alignment, particularly the Mobilization for Climate Justice, and the Indigenous Environmental Network, among others. We need a rights-based approach to climate policy led by directly impacted communities and grassroots organising that takes direct action in support of and with leadership from communities on the frontlines of the chain of production of climate change. As Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network observes:

In the US and across the globe, the movement for Climate Justice has been steadily growing, not simply demanding action on climate, but demanding rights-based and justice-based action on climate that confronts false solutions, root causes of climate change and amplifies the voices of those least responsible and most directly impacted. Not only are we the front-line of impacts, we are the front line of survival. As Indigenous Peoples, all of humanity is dependent on our traditional, sacred, evolved knowledge of Mother Earth.ⁱⁱⁱ

If we can create a people-powered, inside-outside approach both in the US and internationally, we have a chance for a just transition to a sustainable future.

Cross posted from Grist

African negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona just refused to continue formal discussions about all other issues until wealthy countries live up to their legal and moral responsibility to commit to deep emissions reductions. Rich countries (also called “Annex 1 countries”) have ground negotiations to a halt by failing to agree their new targets under the Kyoto Protocol (KP), driving developing countries to put their feet down. This walkout is significant and opens up political space – it means many of the countries in Africa just stopped one half of the UN climate negotiation process until rich countries say how much they will reduce their carbon.

We’re down to the wire: just four negotiating days left before the big agreement in Copenhagen is supposed to go down. Its day one, and we saw just a taste of the breakdowns to come. While rich countries continue to undermine commitments for the Kyoto Protocol (one of two negotiating tracks for Copenhagen which is supposed to be renewed for a second commitment period of Annex 1 targets), the spin has already taken hold: they’re blaming Africa for their own delay-mongering. Oy vey.

In response, movement and civil society organizations held a demonstration at the U.N. building in support of African delegates’ insistence that developed countries commit to new, strong binding targets. Delegates and observers were invited to join a human shield against the killing of Kyoto targets (complete with an Annex 1 grim reaper) and instead urged to promote at least 40% emission reductions with no offsets by 2020.

Kamese Geoffrey of NAPE/ Friends of the Earth Uganda warned, “Rich countries are attempting to dodge their legal and moral responsibilities to reduce emissions. Developing countries and communities have historically had practically no fault in the creation of climate change, yet they will be the first to face the devastating impacts of climate change.”

Many of us have longstanding criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol, particularly its market mechanisms. But here’s why Kyoto is important:

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