A new perspective and action on militarism and environmental justice
March 2, 2009, was a turning point in U.S. history. On that snowy Monday morning in Washington DC, more than 10,000 student and youth attendees of the Power Shift 09 (PS09) conference engaged in the largest and most effectively coordinated demonstration of power by youth the nation has seen in decades.
The day consisted of three simultaneous modes of strategic engagement for advancing climate justice. The first was the Lobby Day, during which more than 5,000 students and youth made some 400 appointments with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, pushing them to be champions for climate justice. There was no specific legislative ask, and there was no one bill. The objectives were to demonstrate our power by showing up and to ask Congresspersons where they stood, pushing them to be bolder in their climate commitments and preparing them for in-person town hall meetings with their constituencies during the spring recess in mid-April.
The second mode was outside pressure through the Capitol Climate Action (CCA). The dirty coal- and gas-fired power plant that supplies heat and water to the Capitol was effectively shut down by 3,000 students and youth. This was done peacefully, nonviolently, transformatively, and without incident. A march from the Spirit of Justice Park blocks away from the Capitol broke up into blockades of 100–500 people, each covering an entrance point. The power plant was held the entire afternoon, when the majority of lobby appointments were going on. No one was arrested. No monies for fines or citations were paid.
The third mode, perhaps most important for sustained movement-building, was the solidarity action organized by Focus the Nation (FTN), which has spearheaded fairly mainstream national teach-in days on global warming with a strong base-building component. For those students, youth, and concerned citizens not able to make it to Washington, FTN organized a call-in day for people to call their representatives. Everyone on Capitol Hill knew about PS09 because of it.
Students at The New School in New York City participated at varying levels in the Power Shift from start to finish and were able to use this key turning point to further our own campaign on campus. What we came back with were strengthened bonds from the shared experience of organizing and participating and an incredible model of a very successful day of coordinated action to evaluate and learn from.
We found that our university president long ago signed (but never did anything about) the University Presidents Climate Commitment and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, both aimed at reducing emissions. Like the thousands of students at PS09 taking the experience back to thousands of campuses, we are developing proposals for how the university can meet these commitments—in ways that incorporate decision-making power by students and faculty and all those affected—through such measures as green fees, sustainability revolving funds, materials and energy sourcing, green-building practices, and intentional space planning.
We believe the university should build green jobs programs that are democratically accountable to their communities and help put people back to work, while empowering them to take control of their own lives. We believe our university should source from and invest in renewable energy and green infrastructure to revitalize the economy. It should also invest in locally democratically accountable credit unions and affordable city housing, so people do not fall prey to predatory lenders and poverty. We believe in making our university into a true force for progressive values and social justice on a global scale, as it currently markets itself.
We need our country back, and we can take it back when we start reclaiming our institutions and rebuilding them through alternatives to the ways in which we have been made dependent on wasteful, polluting, war-making, hypocritical, unjust ways of living. It is this spirit that motivates us in the imperative: End the war and build the alternative!
