Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet, Peace over Profit

The Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet, Peace over Profit that I reported on in the January eNews, has released a video showing leaders from across the spectrum of grassroots justice movements before a packed auditorium at the January 18 launch in Chicago. Each speaker spoke from the heart that it is essential to come together  to build a more unified movement for justice that is deeper and stronger than the interconnected crisis of the economy, ecology, peace and democracy, which all have their roots in a system driven by profit.

The convergence is based on new understanding that the climate crisis is on track to dismantle civilization as soon as 2050. This intensifies all our struggles for justice, and creates urgency for collaboration and unified action. The Convergence will help to multiply, amplify and build synergy across grassroots justice movements.

The first groundbreaking action campaign of the Convergence called "Earth Day to May Day, 10 Days to Change!"  was also launched on January 18. The Earth Day to May Day campaign will include actions rallies, marches, festivals, arts and culture, civil liberties and organizer trainings, People’s Movement Assemblies, a global solidarity fast, and much more in communities across the country and beyond.

Soon “support” materials with FAQ sheets on “why the convergence, “reclaiming Earth Day from the corporations and promoting Mother Earth Day,” “lifting up the Chicago origin of May Day and the deepening struggle for worker and immigrant rights,” and a “map” so you can log-in information about your actions will be posted on the Convergence website at www.globalclimateconvergence.org.

The Earth Democracy team invites you to join the Earth Day to May Day call to action and start planning local activities and actions. Already, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans have committed to being one of the 10 hub cities for major events. 
Share ideas with your WILPF friends on the discussion board. And please “like” the "Global Climate Covergence" on Facebook.

During the ten days of Earth Day to May Day actions, communities across the US and beyond will rally to support local fronts of struggle while building a united front for People, Planet and Peace over Profit.  Education and actions will bring the issues of people, peace and democracy—which are inseparable from ecological survival—into the Earth Day events.

It will promote international Mother Earth Day and the rights of all creatures and ecosystems to survive and self-perpetuate. These rights fundamentally conflict with principles of profit maximization and infinite growth that are devastating human and natural resources. For these reasons, the campaign will counter the current use of Earth Day for corporate green-washing, obscuring corporate responsibility for the accelerating destruction of climate and the environment.
The campaign will highlight the origins and recent history of May Day in the deepening global struggle for worker and immigrant rights. It will bring environmental and climate justice in to the May Day mix, pointing out that working people and immigrants pay a steep price for the economic and health impacts of environmental degradation and fossil fuels. Likewise, climate change hurts working people and the poor, who are most vulnerable to the storms, drought, floods, rising seas and greater food prices that climate change brings.

Convergent activists are calling specifically for urgent ecological and economic transformation through an Emergency Green New Deal that’s essential for solving the converging crises we face. This includes universal jobs, healthcare, education, food and housing security, economic and political democracy, demilitarization and an end to fossil fuel use by 2030.

This campaign links traditionally independent grassroots justice movements and includes anti-poverty, labor, peace, economic, racial, Indigenous, immigrant, environmental justice and democracy groups as well as Medicare for All, sustainable food and natural health advocates and Occupy Wall Street networks among others.

Top Image: The WILPF Earth Democracy logo was designed and donated by www.ciafront.org.