The UN and world leaders have debated climate change for two decades and gotten nowhere. Their solutions get fuzzier while the science and impact of climate change becomes clearer. This weekend we rise with with those on the front-lines of climate chaos against the capitalistic exploitation of our planet and people.
We forge new networks of resistance and take direct action against those who are mortgaging Earth's future in the interest of profit.
Here is our guide to changing everything. Please forward this email to the far reaches of the universe:
Join us for a special fundraiser this Thursday for the NYC Climate Convergence and the People's Climate March, hosted by Activista NYC. This is our last chance to have a drink and boogie down before a revolutionary ruckus weekend. RSVP on Facebook here. Happy Hour begins at 7 pm at MayDay; 214 Starr Street, Brooklyn, New York 11237.
Hundreds are gathering in Manhattan starting Friday to forge new connects and build a radical, bottom-up alternative to climate chaos and those who profit from it. We hope you are one of them. Check out EcoWatch's pre-Convergence coverage.
Here are some important logistical details and updates to keep in mind.
Pre-register for the NYC Climate Convergence here. We are using Eventbrite to collect suggested donations. If you do not have a credit or debit card or absolutely cannot pay the modest fee Eventbrite charges for its services follow this link. Pre-registratiom will ensure you swift access to the more than a hundred movement building teach-ins and skill-shares taking place from Friday to Saturday. We ask that you arrive early for our Friday and Saturday evening plenaries at St. Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Avenue. Admittance begins at 6 pm on Friday. If you arrive after 6:45 we cannot guarantee you a seat. Both plenaries will start promptly at 7 pm.
Oscar Olivera – Bolivian water rights activist
Josua Mata – Philippine trade unionist leader
Erica Violet Lee – Idle No More
Immortal Technique – Revolutionary hip-hop legend
Anne Petermann – Global Justice Ecology Project
Nastaran Mohit – New York City labor and environmental activist
Performance by the Overpass Light Brigade
Naomi Klein – Author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, No Logo, The Shock Doctrine
Jacqui Patterson – NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Program
Desmond D'Sa – 2014 Goldman Prize recipient from South Africa
Olga Bautista – Southeast Side Coalition Against Petcoke
Performance by the People's Climate Chorus
For a schedule of Saturday workshops, click here. For a map of locations click here.
If you are hosting, facilitating, or participating in a workshop don't forget to promote it.
Note: Registration is not required for programming taking place in gardens, at MoRUS or at 16 Beaver Street. A government or student I.D. is required to enter Empire State College and St. John’s University.
Discover programming hosted by our partners, including the Stop Shopping Choir and Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens, here.
Yes Lab's Andy Bichlbaum will be taking part in “The Action Switchboard, An Online Tool for Organizing Creative Resistance” workshop taking place at 16 Beaver Street starting at 10:45 am Saturday. Also at 16 Beaver on Saturday, author Francis Fox Piven, Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara and Kali Akuno with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement will be joining Christian Parenti and others for “The US Left and The Problem of the State” teach-in starting at 4 pm.
Thirteen-year-old indigenous rights leader Ta'kaiya Blaney will be joining the “Resisting the Canadian Petro-state” panel at St. Johns University at 12:30 in Room 113. Follow this link to watch her addressing the UN last May.
For more program and logistical updates text “Follow @ConvergeAlerts” to 40404. For immediate assistance during the Convergence dial: (929) 242-9259.
The System Change not Climate Change will be marching with the “We Know Who Is Responsible” contingent at People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21. We will be assembling at 79th Street and Central Park West starting at 10 a.m, Enter from 77th Street or 81st Street. For more march logistics visit the PeoplesClimate.org.
A note on our anti-capitalist presence:
System Change Not Climate Change (SCNCC) is a relatively new, nonsectarian, anti-capitalist coalition, advocating eco-socialism, and committed to maintaining a flexible and open approach to organizing in order to build as strong an environmental movement as possible.
As thousands of activists arrive in NYC for the People’s Climate March, SCNCC wants to contribute to conversations among existing anti-capitalist networks active in climate justice struggles. We’re interested in building for a strong turnout of unapologetic anti-capitalist politics during the march, and building for lasting contact among anti-capitalist climate justice activists beyond the march.
For those already in NYC: A few anti-capitalist groups - Unity and Struggle, the Florence Johnson Collective, and Black Rose - have organized a lunch and discussion for "anticapitalist, anti-state participants in the People's Climate March to meet, greet, and strategize for the People's Climate March weekend and beyond." Free meal provided, with time for facilitated group discussion as well as socializing. 16 Beaver St, Thursday September 18, 3-6 pm.
Everyone who will be in NYC that weekend: SCNCC has helped organize the NYC Climate Convergence meant to build and strengthen an environmental movement that addresses the root causes of the climate crises; a social-economic system that values profits above people, planet and peace.
For More information write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
#FloodWallStreet
Join the flood of bodies disrupting the flow of fossil fuel dollars at Wall Street on Monday, Sept. 22. Details at FloodWallStreet.net.
Hadas, Peter and Natalie for the NYC Climate Convergence Team