Movement Generation helped to convene an exciting meeting of 33 organizations – from the Bay to Detroit, from Black Mesa to the Appalachian Mountains, and from LA to Boston – September 24-27 in Detroit, MI. At the meeting, hosted by East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC), groups made key decisions on the rollout of a translocal Just Transition Campaign.
As the decisionmakers in DC are not persuaded by our calls for root cause solutions to the climate crisis, we are taking the campaigns to our cities and regions. Grassroots forces have more leverage in these arenas and we are working to transform our energy, waste, food, water, and transportation systems to cut greenhouse gases and build community resilience. Retooling our infrastructure will put our communities to work in the public sector and in community-based or worker collective entities.
In Detroit, we solidified our campaign – which will include 3 pilot hot spots where these strategies will be put on the ground and built into models that can be replicated in other places in future phases: Richmond, CA; Detroit, MI; and Black Mesa, Arizona. We will also host Our Power gatherings that will bring together groups to jointly strategize around resisting extreme energy and implementing new sources of jobs and livelihoods in their localities. A meeting of coal-impacted communities is being planned now, to be hosted in Arizona in 2013.
CJA’s steering committee currently includes Movement Generation, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Institute for Policy Studies,Jobs with Justice, Communities for a Better Environment,Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network, Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy and Movement Strategy Center.
The CJA was launched and anchored by Movement Generation and the Indigenous Environmental Network to align grassroots forces around a unified vision, shared strategies, and common frames to advance climate justice in advance of the Detroit US Social Forum in 2010.
Click here to learn more about the CJA process and the Just Transition Campaign.
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