Movement Generation

Template:TOCnestleft Movement Generation is based in Oakland, California. it is a front for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Personnel

Movement Generation leaders as of December 2015.

• Brooke Anderson - MG Staff Collective Member
• Carla Maria Perez - MG Staff Collective Member & MG Planning Committee Member
• Cinthya Jeannette Munoz Ramos - MG Planning Committee Member
• Dave Henson - MG Planning Committee Member
• Doria Robinson - MG Planning Committee Member
• Ellen Choy - MG Staff Collective Member & MG Planning Committee Member
• Gopal Dayaneni - MG Staff Collective Member & MG Planning Committee Member
• Josh Healey - MG Staff Collective Member
• Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan - MG Staff Co-Director & MG Planning Committee Member
• Mateo Nube - MG Staff Co-Director & MG Planning Committee Member
• Quinton Sankofa - MG Staff Collective Member
• Sara Mersha - MG Planning Committee Member

History

Under the leadership of founding director Zak Sinclair, the Movement Generation concept was built out by a planning committee including grassroots organizers, movement builders, and popular educators. Housed by SOUL (the School of Unity and Liberation) and the Movement Strategy Center, in it’s first two years Movement Generation convened more than 70 young movement leaders from more than 30 organizations into two cycles of ten-month movement strategy discussions.

The Justice & Ecology Project developed out of Movement Generation’s strategy training work among Bay Area organizers of color. As Hurricane Katrina hit, organizers wanted support in better understanding environmental issues and the opportunities and challenges facing working class communities of color in relationship to ecology and sustainability. These organizers were working in community-based organizations in communities of color, but were not working on environmental issues.

In 2007, Movement Generation, in collaboration with the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, developed a set of two three-day training retreats and evening meetings to address this set of questions. The training and discussion sessions were designed to develop practical strategies to address the increasing economic and social impacts of global environmental problems on urban low-income communities and communities of color. We came together looking at issues of peak oil, peak water, losses in biological and cultural diversity, climate change, environmental toxins, food security, sustainable agriculture and food systems, as well as new opportunities for the development of local, sustainable, socially-just economies and participatory democracy.

Since the initial meetings, we have engaged over 150 organizations and thousands of change agents (community leaders, activists, and organizers) through intensive retreats, political education, hands-on skills workshops, peer exchange, campaign development, alliance building, strategic support and more. Our work has expanded to include the integration of an ecological lens onto existing work within organizations, as well as ongoing work to develop shared strategies that harness the collective power of participating organizations to advance a justice-based approach to ecology.

Klimaforum09

December 2009, 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.

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. 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.” This analysis was echoed by leaders across the global South this past December in Copenhagen, from Hugo Chavez to Evo Morales to Lumuba Di-Aping.

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.”” Kalila 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 Aiden Graham 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.

Movement Generation delegation to Klimateforum09

Thursday December 17, 2009, 12 noon, Copenhagen time Movement Generation delegation members to the Klimateforum09 in Copenhagen gathered at the American Embassy, Copenhagen.

North American indigenous Delegation, Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, and the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, along with other grassroots groups from the United States will deliver a letter to President Barack Obama demanding that the United States take real, rights-based approaches to climate change and ecological debt.

Speakers scheduled were:

• Diana Lopez- (Southwest Workers Union San Antonio, TX)
• Michele Roberts – (Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, LA/DC)
• Representatives from indigenous communities from the United States and Canada
• Moderator: Kalila Barnett (Alternatives for Communities and Environment, Boston, MA)

Other Resource people from many other organizations were also present, including: Gopal Dayaneni, Movement Generation; Alicia Garza, People Organized to Win Employment Rights (San Francisco, Right to the City, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance); Mari Rose Taruc, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (Movement Generation Bay Area network, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Richmond); Marisa Franco, Right to the City (NY); Roxana Aguilar, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (Right to the City, Los Angeles); Jill Johnston, Southwest Workers Union (Grassroots Global Justice Alliance); Diana Lopez, Southwest Workers Union (Grassroots Global Justice Alliance); Jose Bravo, Just Transition Alliance (Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, San Diego); Cecil Corbin-Mark, West Harlem Environmental Actiobn (Environmental Justice Leadership Forum, New York); Jacqui Patterson, Women of Color United (GA); and Diana Pei Wu, Movement Strategy Center (CA).

"Migrant Rights in a Hostile Climate: From Border Wars to Ecological Justice"

Fruitvale Senior Center Wednesday 27 January 2016, "Migrant Rights in a Hostile Climate: From Border Wars to Ecological Justice" organized by Movement Generation.

Featuring speakers:

• Kitzia Esteva from Causa Justa/Just Cause
• Devonte Jackson from Black Alliance for Just Immigration
• Lara Kiswani from Arab Resource and Organizing Center

Hosted by Ellen Choy and Gopal Dayaneni from Movement Generation

Cosponsored by: Arab Resource and Organizing Center , Asian Pacific Environmental Network , Black Alliance for Just Immigration, CultureStrike, Mujeras Unidas y Activas.

Those indicating attendance on Wherevent included Vivian Yi Huang, Ellen Choy, Carolina Prado, Paul Bubblehouse, Jessica Cook, Eli Isaacs, M. Solis Whelan, Megan Zapanta, Josh Cadji, Yosimar Reyes, Josh Healey, Mateo Nube, Lulu Palestina, Maria Alejandra Escalante, Espejo Ahumado, Erika Minkowsky, Layidua Salazar, Lara Kiswani, Nicolas Gonzalez Medina, Paul Bissember, Jacky Rivera, Alvina Wong, Zachariah Barghouti, Kelly Lou Densmore, Gerardo Omar Marin, Gerardo Omar Marin, Sharif Zakout, Micah Bazant, Terri Kay, Isaac Lev, Scott Parkin, Pulga Autonoma, Cayden Mak, Katina Castillo, Shiva Patel, Aimee Molina Cuellar, Luna Giulianna Reiley, Brooke Anderson.

Activists

According to Jason Negron-Gonzales and Mateo Nube of Movement Generation it’s “the Left’s biggest political opportunity in a generation.”

References

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