Stop climate disaster Mass protests critical to victory!

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The People’s Climate March, sched­ uled for Sept. 21 in New York City, is poised to live up to its promise of mo­ bilizing the largest number of people that the U.S. has ever seen against the mass production of greenhouse gases. With more than 1000 endorsing or­ ganizations, buses scheduled to leave from more than 200 locations, along­ side chartered trains (including three leaving from Connecticut and one from San Francisco), over 200,000 Facebook invites, and countless meetings and events around the country, the march will create major advances for the cli­ mate movement.

By marching, participants will af­ firm for all to see that, at root, climate change is not a matter of isolated indi­ vidual consumer decisions but of insti­ tutional forces that refuse to respond to the will of the majority. They will show that climate activists can go beyond lo­ cal organizing on dispersed projects and can come together to articulate their vision.

The absence of mass demonstrations for many years kept the movement from forging a visible political expres­ sion—until the marches against the Keystone XL pipeline in 2012 and 2013. This had allowed climate change to ap­ pear like a fringe issue of the relatively well-to-do, or simply something be­ yond the scope of human intervention. September will mark an advance from the fringes to the mainstream, and from paralysis to action.

In particular, the participation of more than 30 unions presents a groundbreaking opening for labor and the cli­ mate movement. Endorsers include the Communication Workers of America, the Amalgamated Transit Union, 32BJ, the United Federation of Teachers, Transport Workers Union 100, US La­ bor Against the War, and other forma­ tions including machinists, electrical workers, farm workers, and a variety of food and service workers.

The participation of unions is a crucial question, given their members’ social position and ability to shift social pro­ duction from a greenhouse-dependent one to a renewable, even waste-free, one. Such potential was raised at one presentation for a union meeting orga­ nized by the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs, where participants showed impatience to go beyond dis­ cussing the evidence of climate change to working out the steps needed to end it. “We can build anything; what do you want us to build?” one worker asked.

To be sure, the union movement is still largely divided over climate questions. For instance, Pennsylvania mineworker unions have recently organized against milquetoast attempts to reduce coalplant emissions, in an attempt to pre­ serve their jobs. This strategy of align­ ing with the bosses to protect job secu­ rity will only be successfully challenged Greg Wood / AAP (Above) Australians march in 2011. World-coordinated action is essential.

as the movement grows powerful enough to realistically demand a secure livelihood and employment for workers affected by the transition to renewables and as the movement becomes capable of struggling independently of the boss class.

Still, September’s march will mean a considerable step forward for efforts inside the labor movement to bring climate change to the fore. It will also make considerable progress in awaken­ ing climate activists outside the labor movement to the importance of allying with organized workers.

A glaring limitation of Sept. 21 is the absence of any united demand what­ soever, or even a rally with speakers. The absence of any specific political message springs from the march orga­ nizers’ continued political dependence (continued on page 5, in “We need a plan to forestall climate disaster”)

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Ukraine pamphlet — 2 Ban fracking! — 3 Oceans & climate — 4 / 5

Israeli massacre — 6 NY labor — 8 Canada news — 9

Population control? — 10 Theatre: The Maids — 11 Michael Brown killing — 12