By Movement Generation
A diverse group of amazing, lovely, smiling people of many cultural backgrounds, ages, and sizes, posing together outside at Movement Generation’s Justice & Ecology Retreat. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
“What time is it on the clock of the world?” asked our movement ancestor Grace Lee Boggs.
This is a question we posed on day one of this year’s Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Retreat.
It’s time for land liberation and rematriation. It’s a time of multiple genocides and disaster capitalism. It’s time to assert our own solutions. It’s a time of catastrophic wildfires and creative wildfires. It’s a queer time. It’s time to break from binaries. It’s a time of repression and incarceration and time to rise up. It’s election time. It’s time to build governance beyond electoral systems. It’s a time of mass mobilizations. It’s time for trans liberation and disability justice. It’s a time of grief and time to heal.
“The Justice + Ecology Retreat was my first Movement Generation event and I’m so grateful to have been welcomed to such an intentional, healing, learning space. It affirmed my commitment to centering my relationship with Land and defending the sacredness of Lyfe. I am returning to my community feeling connected to spirit and trusting my inherent wisdom to self govern and develop cultural organizing strategies that move us closer to our collective liberation. When I move with purpose and am in deep relationship with others + the land, a new world is being born!” –Crisantema Gallardo, Youth Organize California
The Justice & Ecology Retreat has long been a sacred space for the Movement Generation collective. Not only do we facilitate political education, movement building, and culture shifting with our allies across diverse social movements, but we also get to refine our analysis and be in practice of collective governance with some of our broader community.
MG co-founder Gopal Dayaneni (an Indian man) and Shelterwood Collective member Yomi Young (a Black woman in a wheelchair) clink coffee mugs. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
Partly because of Covid-19, MG hadn’t held an in-person retreat since 2017. As we attempt to adapt to a world in which this pandemic is still very real and present, we began to design this retreat earlier this year with the intention to move slowly and deliberately to create a space that is as accessible as possible for all the folks we dreamed of convening. Disability justice has become a central element of MG’s politic, and folks in our movements continue to be in transition and active healing from the cataclysmic times we’ve all endured the last several years. We would leave no one behind.
¡MG Justice and Ecology Retreat 2024 fue un espacio inspirador, cuidado, visionario y al mismo tiempo liberador! Me ayudó a profundizar sobre la Transición Justa y la Organización con Base en la Resiliencia. Reconocí y reafirmé la forma en que los uso en el trabajo organizativo de Justicia de la Tierra con NBOP: conectado con los elementos y lo ceremonial, poniendo en el centro la vida y siendo visionaries. Esto me inspiró a seguir haciendo y seguir soñando el mundo que busco vivir. La apuesta por la Gobernanza Biorregional hizo latir fuerte mi espíritu porque es retadora y reclama los propios flujos de los ecosistemas. Al poner la Justicia de la Discapacidad como prioridad, MG Justice and Ecology Retreat 2024 me dejó aprendizajes positivos: ¡la modalidad híbrida de forma cálida y cuidada es posible! –Gina Garibo, North Bay Organizing Project
MG collective member Angela Aguilar (an Indigenous Xicana woman) holds a phone camera up to Bernadette Zambrano (a Chicana woman with white hair) of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust as she motions giving a hug to the camera. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
In our dreaming of what form this retreat should take in this time on the clock of the world, bioregional governance emerged for us as more than a concept, but an essential strategy. In the face of multiple genocides, a tumultuous election year, and climate catastrophes, we must cultivate ecological resilience, social equity, and movement strategy by remaking governance to directly involve people in the decisions that affect their daily lives in the places where they live. Instead of oppressive colonial and political borders, we must actively practice collective governance across interdependent ecological boundaries that encompass, for example, diverse and overlapping watersheds, trade-sheds, and energy-sheds. If we’re not prepared to govern, we’re not prepared to win.
“Being in retreat with our MG comrades to reflect on and study key frameworks of climate justice couldn’t have come at a better time. The question of scale has been a challenging one for the left—particularly when thinking about the urgency of climate catastrophe and the poly-crises of capital. For CPE, deepening our understanding of bioregionalism and just transition with this special cohort of organizers has given us a toehold on how to materially transform our conditions locally, regionally, and globally, and—just as importantly—a loving and committed community with whom we can struggle together for the living world.” –Thomas Mariadson, Center for Political Education
A diverse group of people gathered together around a table outdoors, some sitting, and some standing. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
At this year’s Justice & Ecology Retreat, against the backdrop of the Pacific coast and Santa Cruz Mountains of Awaswas and Amah Mutsun land, integrated with the virtual space known as Zoom land, we convened an abundantly loving and brilliant cohort of organizers, artists, activists, educators, healers, land workers, storytellers, and more. Here’s who was in the house:
Bay Rising · Center for Cultural Power · Center for Political Education · Climate Justice Alliance · Communities for a Better Environment · Crip Survival Network · Disability Justice Culture Club · Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities · Energy Democracy Project · Feed Black Futures · Front and Centered · Frontline Catalysts · Health Justice Commons · Lavender Phoenix · Malcolm X Grassroots Movement · Narrative Initiative · Native Movement · New Economy Coalition · North Bay Organizing Project · Reclaim Our Power · Sama Sama · Shelterwood Collective · Sins Invalid · Sogorea Te’ Land Trust · Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project · The Callegory · Washington State Coalition of African Community Leaders · We Rise Production · Youth Organize CA · Youth Vs. Apocalypse
Cat Petru (a white Sephardic Jewish woman) and nicky gervacio (a Filipinx woman) of We Rise Production sit on the floor with their fists up, with other MG retreat participants in the background, including J’Anna-Mare Rue, Emi Yoko Young, Bernadette Zambrano, Adele Watts, Inés Ixierda, Orion Camero. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
Together we explored how resilience-based organizing and ecological justice manifest on the ground in different sectors and across communities. There are many rich examples of groups articulating bold visions, restoring their labor to build life-affirming systems, and asserting their rights to self govern—from the Brazil Landless Workers Movement (MST), to Casa Pueblo and the broader community in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, to Poder Emma in Asheville, NC. Inspired by all this work, the principles of ecology, our diverse cosmologies, and the wisdom of our ancestries, we began to explore what it takes to develop bold, innovative, holistic solutions to the ecological crisis across our different sectors of social movement and across our shared bioregion: Salmon Nation, from the Central Valley of California to Alaska.
“The Movement Generation retreat was more than just an ecological gathering—it was a profound reconnection with land, people, and the living systems that sustain us. It created a space to transcend our daily perspectives on the economy and societal structures, centering disability justice and bioregional governance. This experience deeply impacts the work we do at Frontline Catalysts, reinforcing our commitment to building a just future where our communities lead transformative climate action. It brought together diverse fields and experiences, allowing us to collectively reimagine our relationship with the land while building the powerful change needed for future generations.” –Xochitl Cortez, Frontline Catalysts
Orion Camero (a Filipinx person) sings into a microphone while a circle of people pass around a long scroll that shows a vehicle with exhaust pumping into the air as it faces a row of corn in a field. Photo by Brooke Anderson @movementphotographer
The Justice & Ecology Retreat ended up being an emergent space composed of a soulful mix of the magic of Movement Generation: ecoliteracy workshops and lectures, and discussions around how to play with strategy. As the MG collective and our retreat cohort grow into the real possibilities of bioregional governance, including studying the ways it has and is already taking place through different political lenses (e.g., municipalism, solidarity economies, intercommunalism, etc.), we are excited to continue to build this movement and shift the popular worldview from consumerism and colonialism to caring and sacredness. We’ll continue to share more about how this work takes shape.
Movement Generation is so grateful to this year’s retreat cohort for riding with us! In between our collective study, we also had many moments of healing, cultural offerings, full moons, poetry, music, and big joy! We are so excited for more future-building with these amazing humans!
See more sweet snapshots here and follow @movementgeneration on Instagram.