http://socialistaction.org/boston-climate-march-built-solidarity/
Boston climate march built solidarity
Published January 12, 2016. | By Socialist Action.
Jan. 2016 Boston ad
By CHRISTINE MARIE
A Dec. 12 rally and march for Jobs, Justice, Climate in Boston
constituted the first coordinated effort by New England 350.org chapters
to build concrete relationships with economic justice and social justice
organizations.
New England 350 developed a partnership with several key Boston-based
unions and immigrant rights organizations, gathered the endorsements of
more than 140 organizations, and put more than 2000 people in the street
to say “no” to the COPS 21 agreement.
In this effort, the activists were inspired by the Sept. 26 televised
“launch” of the 350.org strategic framework called the “Road Through
Paris,” in which Naomi Klein and others motivated seeing the climate
crisis as the opportunity to join with everyone to build a new
sustainable economy that was also equitable and just.
The union endorsements included those of the Massachusetts Nurses
Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Service Employees
Union Locals 508 and 1199, and the Vermont AFL-CIO, along with other
important multi-union economic justice coalitions.
While the mobilization size was relatively modest in light of the
significant endorsements, it was the largest climate demonstration that
the network has organized so far. Perhaps more importantly, the speeches
were dramatic in what they suggested about the kind of movement and
alliances that can and must be built.
The first of two rallies opened with a talk by Derek Pelotte, a young
350 activist and teacher from the working-class and highly immigrant
town of Lowell, Mass. Pelotte moved the crowd by explaining that to win
on the climate, we must “build the future across movement lines. We will
do this together, or not at all.”
Alluding to Cornell West, who said that movement building is really
“loving publicly,” Pelotte listed the political tasks facing those who
want to create inclusive and powerful coalitions to save the planet.
“Loving publicly,” he said, “means acting as witnesses in testimony
against police brutality, of which poor and minority communities are
disproportionately subject…
“Loving publicly means standing with our disgracefully underpaid service
workers, adjunct professors, construction workers, home-care workers,
machinists, truck drivers, delivery personnel, and airport and dock
workers, and walking arm in arm to fight for their right to $15 an hour
and the right to unionize. Loving publicly looks like standing with our
DREAMer allies and declaring that there are no illegal people; there is
only racist exploitation of the most vulnerable among us.
Solidarity, Pelotte concluded, is a revolution in its own right.
The material basis of this solidarity was brought dramatically home by
Black Lives Matter activist Jean Charle, who spoke when the march
reached the State Street bank: “It’s not a secret that State Street
financially supports pipeline projects. It’s not a secret that State
Street supports private prisons.”
This theme of solidarity as the key to victory was brought home over and
over again as the crowd responded throughout the day to the
presentations of Karen Higgins, the national co-president of National
Nurses United; John Robbins, executive director of the Massachusetts
Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations; Sherri Mitchell of
the Penobscot Nation; Adrian Ventura, director of a New Bedford, Mass.,
workers’ center: John Harrity of the Connecticut State Council of
Machinists; and many others.
Harrity concluded the day by explaining why climate change is a labor
issue. “Workers are on the front lines of the consequences of climate
change—not just here but around the world,” he said. “We are also on the
front of the solutions—ready to manufacture new technologies, build
energy efficient infrastructure, and maintain a decentralized power grid.”
We must take the road, Harrity said, to a new world that is “cleaner,
more democratic, and economically equitable.”
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Posted in Actions & Protest, Environment. | Tagged 350.org, Boston,
climate, global warming.
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