Like many of you, I’ve had a lot of conversations recently about ‘the movement’. It takes on a certain inflection when you say it. Talking to so many people who work deeply on this thing makes us forget that some people don’t quite understand the special inflection.
Jeremy Doochin is an amazing leader. Growing up in Tennessee with parents in the Sierra Club, Jeremy started a student group in high school that grew to 80 members. As a teenager he was elected to the state Sierra Club board of directors and by all means is a well respected and accomplished activist. When we first started talking Jeremy didn’t quite see this as a movement.
We talked about the divide between youth and adults in the types of campaigns they take on and how they approach their work. He talked about how there was so much room for collaboration, saying youth should be throwing events every year that adults can go to, and vice versa to establish an ongoing relationship. While I am all for working with and involving adults, I asked why we should run the same events every year. Why aren’t we looking for an broad escalation of tactics? Why are we still thinking in terms of ‘throwing events’ for environmental issues? He didn’t quite know.
A movement escalates until it wins. It may do a lot of other things, but it will not accept half-way measures, it will not accept stagnation and it will expand at an ever-increasing rate. The climate movement is very young. We’re growing really fast, but we’re also still figuring a lot of stuff out.
Here’s a book recommendation: Tools for Radical Democracy: How to Organize for POWER in your Community by Joan Minieri and Paul Getsos. It says engaging in movement-building “provides a space for intensive political education.” Investing in the political education of all our members not only spurs activists to greater levels of commitment, it also empowers them to guide and change the direction of the movement. We’ve already challenged established leaders of environmentalism, and this bottom up ground-swell is going to challenge every leader out there to listen harder to what the people are saying will get the job done.
Americans are generally pretty poorly informed about social movements. High school history class tends to teach the ‘great leaders’ version of events, and imply that only extraordinary citizens have an impact. More from the book:
“Your work is rooted in the history of social change. Your day-to-day organizing may give you some opportunities to educate members, leaders, and staff about this history, but in movement activities, this political education can occur at a deeper level. Members learn about the history of struggle in a place they are visiting and about other people they need to work with but may not understand.”
But there are a lot of youth like Jeremy out there who don’t see it yet. So far we haven’t reached a critical mass of youth. Why do you think we’re bringing 4,000 people to DC for Power Shift? Is it going to shift the balance of power? Is every one of us going to come away with a crystal clear vision of where we need to go? Or is this a huge drumbeat in the increasingly rapid rhythm of a movement which might falter or stall, but which will be so democratic, so well planned, so inspired that we will not only win without compromise, but we will win before its too late. I’m in it for the Long Haul, and I want to be smart. I want to win more than anything in the world, but I know we’re not going to win until we’re ready.
We must internalize the need to escalate tactics until we win. We must lose the notion that we’ll only work on climate change for a few years until we get a real job, or until we pass the legislation we need. If you think that the next president is going to fix this, you’ve been dreaming. They’ll pass some legislation, and it won’t be nearly as good as we need it to be. Old style environmentalists, and the American public, will call that a success. Hey, compromise is always better than nothing, right? That’s the mentality the climate cannot afford.
Our work right now is to invest in the political awareness of ourselves and other youth. With political awareness comes more strategic campaigns, and with really good strategic campaigns, we’re going to win. Do you think this is a movement? Do the people you work with?
This essay is the third of a six part series this fall looking at organizing for power in the youth movement. All comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.
Morgan,
Thank you! I think it’s absolutely important for us to realize, that the president, the next Congress, the “leaders” of the climate movement are not going to fix this. It is going to require all sorts of action across the country, specific to each region/state/city from all walks of life (including youth, the old environmentalists, previously nontraditional allies, politicians). One of the problems I think we (the youth climate movement) have been suffering from is trying too hard to have nationally coordinated action. Yes, we need to be working together towards our common goal, but I think that we’ve focused too much on having unified actions, when indeed we need diverse, dispersed and creative action across the country. We need to support and encourage action on all levels without the misconception that if we all do the same thing it will be more powerful. National events have their value, certainly. A strong national message allows us to communicate clearly throughout the country. We need to publicize the local success on the national level. But we need to put more support in the local actions, the local solutions, local communities because in order to “fix this” we need to change the way we consume, and ultimately that will require commitment and investment from everyone. We are indeed a movement, but we can’t delude ourselves that everyone else sees us as one. We may stumble, we may stall, but we need to acknowledge that youth are just one part of a broader movement and in order to win, be need to reach out beyond our comfort zone and engage everyone we can. We need to not be afraid to bring in other voices. That is what will allow our movement to reach every facet of society.
The “move” in The Movement isn’t for “move to the sidewalk, or you’ll be arrested” it’s for “Your Honor, we move to have these charges dismissed.” Props to everyone who got arrested in DC last week taking it to the streets with No War No Warming.
Bringing in other voices is exactly what we need. That means voices from other causes, voices from non-activists, and the voices of activists practicing a diversity of tactics. Focus the Nation (www.focusthenation.org) is shaking up the campuses. Powershift (powershift2007.org) is taking it to the offices of Congress. Step it Up (www.stepitup2007.org) is getting creative back in the districts.
The next step is really engaging ordinary people. The People’s demands for progressive policy action on climate change will never be met without the real weight of the People, and that means not just academically-inclined greens and political rabble-rousers, but John Q. Factory Worker and hio wife the Suburban-driving Soccer Moms.
Well said, Morgan! I’m in this for the long-haul too, and it’s certainly going to take a lifetime to build the kind of sustainable, just, and prosperous future that we’re striving for.
The President and Congress and our other elected “leaders” can begin the institutional chance that we as individuals and as a movement have already begun to put into practice in our lives, or homes, or communities and our campuses. But it’ll take continued leadership, continued movement, and a hell of a lot of innovation, commitment and hope to do what’s truly required: nothing less than changing the way we make and consume energy and relate to the natural world of which we are an interdependent part.
This is our generation’s challenge and opportunity. It is our task.
The “old farts” in Congress and the White House and even at the reins of the big national environmental groups won’t be around to deal with the mess they can leave us if they compromise or settle for half-measures. But we will! This is our future we’re talking about, and it’s time we speak in an ever-louder voice, as youth to send a clear message: “This is OUR FUTURE at stake and we will accept NO COMPROMISE, NO HALF-MEASURES, NOTHING SHORT of a SUSTAINABLE, JUST, and PROSPEROUS FUTURE for ourselves and our children.”
Here in the Northwest we’re organizing to spread that message as part of the Cascade Climate Network, a growing activism network of student leaders and climate activists at more than a dozen colleges and universities in Oregon and Washington. We just finished our Cascade Climate Declaration and are building support behind it to make our voices heard.
At Power Shift, and at Step it Up events across the country next weekend, we’ll be able to send this message loud and clear as well. And on Monday, November 5th, thousands of us will take that message into the halls of Congress to tell our elected representatives.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
Yesterday evening, I was sitting at a table in a conference room at the Discovery Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, waiting for a presentation to start on the Cool Climate Challenge. I turned to the woman next to me and said, “I don’t know why, but I am so excited.” Well I’ve had a day to think about it and I am excited about the MOVEMENT. Where the movement is right now:
* We are past the point of arguing the scientific vailidity of climate change. The general public gets it. Now we are planning how to act. Our fledgling actions are getting stronger and we are drawing in massive amounts of people. Step It Up II is going to be awesome.
* We have greater access to media than ever before on the climate change issue. The media is jumping now to cover our events when just six months ago they could care less.
* Our cause is celebrated by people and groups with integrity, and our own have recently won a Nobel Peace Prize.
* People are making the climate change issue part of how they do business. The local government I work for just went “green.” Discovery is launching a channel called “Green Planet.” It’s rapidly integrating into the mainstream.
* The tone and calibre of the movement is emerging. Our climate change groups are coordinating with each other. The tone is positive, affirmative, active. There is a new wave of environmentalism emerging out of it. It is miraculous to see.
It’s exciting to see this movement building! I think it’s a movement for sure. I live in a collective house and we are very aware of the importance of community to see us into whatever’s next for the world. I’ve written about it some at http://www.lizseymour.wordpress.com