It’s Getting Hot In Here

This weekend, I joined people of all ages, races, classes, religions and political affiliations as we chanted and marched through the streets of Miami. We were all brought together for the same cause, standing in solidarity with the Coalition of Imokalee workers. The CIW is an grassroots, horizontally based farmworkers organization from Imokalee, Fl, where most of the tomatoes that fast food chains use are grown. These mostly undocumented workers work in sweatshop conditions and are paid very little for their labor, if they are lucky making $50 a day. The CIW has successfully organized to pressure the corporations responsible for creating a demand for cheap tomatoes for fair wages and humane working conditions, winning victories against transnational corporations such as Taco Bell and McDonalds. I joined the CIW in their mobilization against their current target, Burger King.

As an activist working for climate justice, sometimes it is hard for me to see how the struggles of the farmworkers in Immokalee are connected with my work. However, as I realized on the nine mile march through the streets of Miami to Burger King headquarters, our struggles were inherently connected. The same corporate greed oppresses farmworkers and blows up mountains. It the same way of thinking that values economic growth over human life and well being. It is the same way of thinking that allows communities globally to be sacrificed for oil, coal and uranium. It is the same way of thinking that allows climate change to go unchecked and endanger the future of young people everywhere. It is not a just and sustainable way of thinking.

The next day at the CIW conference, attending workshops on neoliberalism and indigenous resistance, environmental justice and creative activism, I further saw the connections between our struggles. Indeed, the indigenous resistance to Peabody coal’s strip mining of Dine lands in the Southwest was brought up in a session I attended. I thought of the inspiring keynotes from folks such as Evon Peter and Judy Bonds which I saw at Power Shift. I realized that we really are struggling against the same forces.

Sometimes I worry about our movement. I fear that in our rush to find a solution to a crisis that should have been solved years ago, we loose sight of what we are really struggling for. I fear that we are willing to accept and endorse “solutions” which promise to be quick and easy but which maintain the same systems of inequity and exploitation which have brought us to the brink of this crisis. I think of nuclear energy, “clean coal”, carbon offsets and a over reliance on market based solutions.

It seems to me that we will never solve the climate crisis without confronting its root causes. A world where nuclear power, “clean coal” and biofuels derived from the Global South provide power does not seem like a world which has solved the climate crisis. To me, a world where we have solved the climate crisis is also a world where power is no longer concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals, where people and the land are no longer exploited in the name of profit, and where we have a sane and sustainable relationship with the earth.

This sort of thinking may seem radical, to far out there, alienating. Unobtainable, like something which we don’t have time to pursue because we need to win this fight now, and that means compromise. The CIW however, operating on truly visionary principles, have a level of popular support that the climate movement currently lacks. They are backed by the kind of truly diverse movement that can catalyze real change. They can reach out to many many different communities and mobilize them around one goal.

This is the sort of movement that we need to solve the climate crisis. A bilingual, multiracial movement that spans class divides and religious differences. A movement that offers a powerful vision of the future. A movement that is not afraid to stand up and demand that fundamental change must occur. I didn’t know if such a movement was possible, though Power Shift 2007 was a step in the right direction. But now I know that we can do it.

I love the youth climate movement. I believe that we have a compelling, inspiring voice and have and will continue to create the change that is so badly needed. But will we take the time to evaluate our movement and see how far we need to go before we will have the kind of movement that can create real change? To step of our campuses and stand in solidarity with communities everywhere in saying NO to an system of exploitation, oppression and greed? I believe that we will but it will not happen overnight, without a struggle, without a real and concerted effort on our part.

Let use our vision and passion to create a grassroots movement capable of creating real and lasting change.