Movement Generation

Movement Generation

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).

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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