Strengthening Organizing

In January, I attended a retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico with a little under 20 other organizers across the movement ecosystem (immigration justice, labor, community organizing, etc.) We were all gathered to discuss the state of organizing & basebuilding.

In spirit of reflecting on my learnings, sharing a few takeaways from the retreat below, things I’m tossing over in this little mind of mind, post retreat.

Core Questions

• [Framing in context of social movements + left organizations] - What are we trying to win and what do all the pieces add up to? How are our movements and organizations aligning and working towards some unified vision of society? 

• Need for unifying campaign

• Skepticism around coalition work; how do powerful organizing collectively

• How are we organizing the unorganized? How are we meeting people where they are (e.g., online, on YouTube, on video game platforms) and organizing them  

• What does sustainable leadership within our movements and organizations look like? 

• We are not building power and winning; what are we doing wrong and what, as movements and organizations, must we do differently? 

Core Learnings & Takeaways

• Thinking about critical vulnerabilities of our opponents (where are they vulnerable, how can we build power to make them crumble) 

• We’re very reactionary, don’t have clear plan or offense game for our opponents 

• We need more creative funding models for our organizations that don’t just rely on philanthropy. Thinking about how someone can seed an ecosystem of businesses that directly send profits toward movement work. 

Core things I’m thinking about 

• We’re all running up against the limitations of our political system; that rules of the game are stacked against us. We’re in need of campaigns/work around democratic reform (e.g., getting rid of Senate, filibuster, partisan gerrymandering, electoral college, we need automatic voter registration + push for online voting, we need publicly funded elections)

• The role of labor; UAW has been talking about 2028, mass strike; thinking about the ways in which we build organizations that can organize up until that point. And about ways labor and social movement orgs need to be in deeper relationships with each other. 

Meaningful Quotes

“ The way we raise our children will matter in a hundred years.” 

“Keep hope as a North Star”

“Less ego more impact” 

“How do we use a crisis as an opportunity?” 

“We are in a street fight and we are getting fucked up.” 

Half-baked thoughts on where the Movement for a Green New Deal should go next.

On the Green New Deal.

I have committed the rest of my life to the project of stopping climate change and winning a version of the Green New Deal I saw in the AOC Video. Though deeply passionate and hungry for a world where a GND is made real, at present, I feel a deep lack of direction and strategy around what happens next for the movement for a Green New Deal.

In the gap, I wanted to make some meaning for myself, on what are the challenges in the way of winning a Green New Deal, and how might we overcome them to win? 

I’ll preface this by saying that, given the sub-header, these are half-baked thoughts. I don’t have the time to spend weeks researching, editing, and fact-checking all of these assessments and ideas. I’m not a journalist, I’m no policy wonk. I’m just an organizer trying to think, day in and day out, of how to create the people power & political conditions to win massive revolutionary policy at the federal level on climate. (Which, when I say climate, to me, also means massive investments in the public sector, in housing, in transportation, in education, in energy.) If you pull back the curtain on how I define climate, what I mean is fighting for a world where people and the planet thrive, not corporations and profit. A visionary climate future is also a future of economic and racial justice. 

So. This piece will include a simple assessment of some of the major barriers in the way of a Green New Deal, and then share some ideas, based on that assessment, on where the movement for a Green New Deal could go next. 

Assessment & Diagnosis

So what’s wrong? What’s standing in the way of the Green New Deal? 

• The Green New Deal as a floating signifier: First, the Green New Deal has become a floating signifier of sorts, both for the left, for the far right, and for centrist Democrats like Biden. 

• I don’t think this means we shift towards something different; I just think we need to get a little bit more specific; what are we trying to win by 2030? The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), was not, by any means, the Green New Deal. So what massive federal GND policy/legislation is? How will we know when we have won? What policy are the milestones to indicate success along the way? 

• Lack of adequate plan to weaken the power of the Fossil Fuel Industry: It is clear that the fossil fuel industry still holds an immense amount of power over our government. From the imprints of industry on IRA to the role they played on the global stage at COP, we have to reckon with the fact that, if we are to pass a Green New Deal, the power, the money, the lobbying of the fossil fuel industry, must be diminished.

• Inability to build a Multi-Racial, Cross-Class, Cross-Geography Mass Movement: We need a mass movement ready to protest, disrupt, take action, and turn out at the polls to win a GND… in strategic places, and everywhere. We must figure out how to organize the unorganized. Or organize people, where they are organized (e.g., artists, sports teams, video gaming) towards political action and mass disruption around the Green New Deal. And at least get more people doing something (whether it be giving money, giving time, speaking out, joining protests, etc.) on climate. 

• Weakening Democracy and government that is unable to pass policy & solve society's core problems: We don’t live in a democracy, we live in an oligarchy; the rules of the system in the U.S., have been built around white supremacy and around the wealthy/elite/ruling class. With that, our government doesn’t govern to solve problems. And I don't need to underscore the severity of the stakes. The total collapse of society as we know it sits on the other side if bold and big action on climate isn't taken. 

• Other things. Public opinion on the side of climate, yet nothing changes; don’t have a government apparatus accountable to the people and public. Must shift. How? 

• While organizations and movements fight to pressure, someone, somewhere, must also be pressuring to change the roles of the game. Abolish the Senate, the filibuster, and the Electoral College. Pack the court with liberal justices, so we can do things like overturn Citizens United, which gives unprecedented levels of power to corporations to lobby our government. End gerrymandering. 

• Move to offense; we have fossil fuel corporations passing policies in states across the country, preventing civil disobedience and classifying activists as terrorists. We must be pushing policy to define fossil fuel as terrorist; and play with the rules to our benefit and advantage, as they do. 

• We don’t have mass media telling the story & vision of a Green New Deal future: There is a vision and alternative to the nightmare and hellish reality we live in. We need to harness the power of art, media, and culture to inject the vision of a Green New Deal future into the hearts and minds of the public. People need to feel and want the Green New Deal so badly that they’d be willing to get it, by any means necessary. AOC video is one example; we need more artists jumping in to paint the vision Green New Deal future for the masses.

The one final thing I want to note, though I haven’t included, is the role of the military and war. Given two massive wars, one happening in Ukraine and one happening in Gaza, and oil sitting in the backdrop of both (geopolitical), have more questions than answers around the intersection of the Green New Deal and war/imperialism. 

So with that assessment. Here are 5 things I think the Movement for Green New Deal should be oriented around: 

• Clear GND policies that both push towards decarbonization, help to deliver a death blow to the fossil fuel industry, and deliver massive wins for the public: Clear visionary policy that is popular, weakens the power of the fossil fuel industry and delivers wins to the public. One example of this could be a Green New Deal Universal Basic Income Program, a policy that creates a carbon tax (tied with emission reductions that need to happen), and all funds raised are delivered in universal basic income checks to everyone in the country.  

• The vision of the Green New Deal, everywhere, all at once: Imagine, a leftist Green New Deal comms shop with its own news Podcast, a suite of artists, its own set of writers and filmmakers, TikTokers, Instagrammers, flooding the masses and public with a powerful vision of the Green New Deal. 

• Fossil fuel offender list: Pledge calling on institutions to refuse to do business with the fossil fuel industry, especially tech (given the role, relationship, and power Big Tech could have over Big Oil) and advertising. Also, push for legislation creating an offender list for fossil fuel leadership. They are committing crimes against humanity and should be treated as such.

• Seed a Democratic Organization within the movement ecosystem: We need someone working on changing the rules of society so that it's easier to win on our demands. This could include both pushing for legislation that does things like Abolish the Senate, creating publicly funded elections so working and poor people can afford to run fo office, end gerrymandering, end the filibuster, etc. This means pushing for automatic voter registration for all people. And hell, why not mandate online voting to decrease the barriers around voting. Folks in the military who are overseas and folks with disabilities already vote online. 

• Also, this means pushing for policies that enable people & the public to have more time to organize and participate in civic life. Imagine universal healthcare, universal childcare, universal paid time off (e.g., everyone is guaranteed a 1 - 2 month vacation in this country, time for leisure and play), etc.

• Experimentation around mass organizing of unorganized: The movement for a GND, right now, is a very tiny sliver of the population. For us to win the full vision of a Green New Deal, we need more political power and more people. We have to get sharper at organizing people where they are, whether it’s gamers on Twitch, fans at concerts (+ organizing celebrities to use their platforms to guide young people into our movements), sports leagues, etc. We are not growing our bases; to push the government to act on climate with the scale and urgency with which it demands is going to require massive organizing of hundreds of thousands of people in this country. 

So. I’m excited about winning a Green New Deal in this country; I want it badly, for myself, for my nephews, and for my future children. To live in a world beyond the climate apocalypse we are headed towards. My hopes in writing this are to open a convo with my peers on what’s in the way of winning a Green New Deal, and what it’s going to take to make it happen.

*P.S. Yet another disclaimer. These are half baked thoughts. Some of them are imperfect, some of these are out there ideas, and you may have plenty of counter arguments! Engage with me, and write thoughts and responses in the comments :)

For humanity to thrive, we must abolish the fossil fuel industry.

Open

Despite the glaringly obvious signs that we’re in a fucking climate crisis, several weeks ago, Joe Biden broke under the pressure of the fossil fuel industry, and approved ConocoPhillips with a permit for the Willow Project, the single largest oil and gas project proposed on US public lands. It’s an $8 billion fossil fuel infrastructure project in Alaska, funded by ConocoPhillips, that’s a disaster for many reasons. It would threaten Indigenous Alaska Native communities, destroy wild landscapes north of the Arctic Circle and erase nearly all of the climate benefits of Biden’s renewable energy projects on public lands. 

Why does this matter?

We’re living through an unprecedented climate crisis that will wreak havoc upon the lives of billions of people across the world, and for generations to come. Not only are we in a climate crisis, but we live in a society where profit and corporations rule over people and the planet. Whether you are on the Southeast or Southwest side of Chicago, battling toxic and polluting industry, in East Palestine, Ohio, dealing with the ramifications of a train derailment that has dumped tons of toxic waste into your backyard, or in Jackson, Mississippi, where managing a water crisis caused by government disinvestment and privatization, it is clear that the system is, in fact working exactly as it was designed. It works for the wealthy, the elite, and the corporations who get to profit off of the destruction and exploitation of people, our communities, and our planet.

The fossil fuel industry, specifically, (e.g., ExxonMobile, Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, etc.) has a death grip on our government. It is one of the main reasons why we’re not seeing solutions that meet the scale of scope of the crisis we’re in, all while the profits of the fossil fuel industry just get bigger and bigger and bigger. They’re on a joyride, profiting off of the destruction and exploitation of our people, our communities, and our planet. In the ultimate showdown, it’s us, vs. the fossil fuel industry… and right now they’re winning.

Following the decision of the Willow Project, as I scroll through my social media feeds, filled with people young and all, in despair, one thing is obviously clear; for humanity to thrive, we must abolish the fossil fuel industry. And we need a shit ton of power to do so. 

So, what must be done?

So where do we go from here? While many young people are being incredibly politicized over the Willow Project at this moment through social media platforms like TikTok, what’s popular online does not always translate into power. Power to stop the Willow Project. Power to stop the climate crisis. Power to pass the Green New Deal. 

We need to build enough people power to defeat the fossil fuel industry and win transformative climate legislation in this country. We deserve a Green New Deal. A world without fossil fuels and pollution, a world where all communities have access to clean air and water, and where all people have access to good, union-paying jobs, playing a key role in decarbonizing our society and transforming every industry, from transportation to housing to schools.

Sunrise is organizing to make that happen. We’re building a movement of young people across race and class to stop the climate crisis and win a Green New Deal. We will force the government to end the reign of fossil fuel elites, invest in Black, brown and working class communities, and create millions of good union jobs. We’re on a mission to put everyday people back in charge and build a world that works for all of us, now and for generations to come.

We build people power by organizing thousands of people to campaign for Green New Deal policies, by taking direct action that disrupts the status quo in ways that build public support and/or force those in power to meet our demands, by building mass public enthusiasm across race and class for the Green New Deal by connecting it to peoples’ lives. We build political power by shifting what the public thinks is politically possible, by electing Green New Deal champions at all levels of government who will not be bought out by the fossil fuel industry, and by passing policies that advance the Green New Deal and improve peoples’ lives.  

We need real power and leverage that our movements do not have right now. Many are throwing their hands up, proclaiming that the government does not work, that Biden’s choice to move forward with the Willow Project is proof of the inadequacies of our government. Biden’s choice is proof that the fossil industry is winning. The fossil fuel corporations have spent decades building the type of power to control our government; we must get serious about doing the same. It’s a tug of war, and for us to win, we need as many hands on the rope pulling towards a livable future. 

So… what can you do? Join Sunrise. Join other movements and organizations that are working to put an end to the era of fossil fuels. I believe in pluralism and that what’s needed is a diversity of strategies; it is a war on all fronts. It is going to take as many tactics, of organizing to elect climate champions to office, of labor using it’s disruptive power to demand action on climate, of running campaigns in cities that decarbonize and address issues connected to housing, transit, energy, of running fossil fuel divestment campaigns , and of engaging in direct action work to prevent and show down fossil fuel projects. All of it matters for us to win a shot at a livable future. 

Close 

My anger and desire to see the fall of the fossil fuel industry is fueled by my desire for life, something they obviously don’t value. I deserve a right to a life where I’m not dodging heat waves, excessive storms and flooding and other climate disasters. A life where I can swim in oceans that are teeming with life. A life with children of my own, who can run around breathing in fresh air, and play with dirt that does not harm or poison them. 

At the rate we’re headed, I won’t be able to have that and neither will you. Their actions are a blatant fuck you, to our hopes and dreams and desires… of life. I’m quite shocked that these people aren’t being dragged out of their homes, out of their fancy office buildings, and being forced to witness the level of destruction and disaster they are wrecking upon the world. 

And so, we must reckon with the need to completely phase out our dependence on fossil fuels and abolish the fossil fuel industry. We must build the power necessary so that we have the people, the leverage, and the power to say no more, to lay to rest the fossil fuel industry. Or the fossil fuel industry will lay rest to humanity. 

Building a Multi-Racial, Cross-Class Youth Movement

Read the full report, Sunrise Reflections, Lessons & Learnings on Multi-Racial, Cross-Class Movement Building, here (Google Doc) or here (PDF). The report was supported through a Microgrant from the Climate Advocacy Labs.

Sunrise Movement is a youth-led movement to stop the climate crisis and create millions of good jobs in the process. Through my organizing work at Sunrise, I’ve been most drawn to the question, “How do we build a multi-racial, cross-class movement to win a Green New Deal?” 

I started organizing with Sunrise in January of 2019 and found Sunrise in a moment where I both craved a movement and community of people taking action, but struggled to find a place that wasn’t mostly white people, and/or demanding climate policy that didn’t resonate or excite me. 

Sunrise was both the place with bold young people calling out those responsible for this disaster we’re in (fossil fuel executives) and putting forward ambitious visions (Green New Deal) that went beyond carbon taxes and cap and trade policy. 

But soon enough, I realized the same flaw that pushed me away from other groups began to show up in Sunrise; it was mostly white kids engaging in the organizing work. As a 20-something-year-old Black woman from Chicago, who saw how powerful a Green New Deal could be for my community, family, and home, I couldn’t figure out why the number of Black volunteers engaged in the hub, or Chicago natives for that matter, was so low. Why hadn’t we built a hub across race and class? What could we do to bring other Black and brown youth into the hub? (I wrestled with some of these questions in a piece, A Letter to White Climate Organizers, written in The Trouble.) 

While this personal reckoning was happening within myself, staff and those orbiting closely to the National Organization were also noticing and asking similar questions.

These reflections came to a head in December of 2019, when a Justice, Equality, and Anti-Oppression (JEAO) retreat took place at a retreat center, Earthseed Land Collective, in Durham, North Carolina. A mix of volunteers (including myself) and staff leadership came together to discuss our own relationship with race and class, to discuss and reflect on Sunrise’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to JEAO, and chart a path forward. There, the National organization made a commitment (and intervention in our organizing), to multi-racial cross-class movement building. It was not enough to organize young white, and middle to upper-class folks around the climate crisis and Green New Deal; we wanted to take responsibility for building a movement that would recruit, retain, and deeply invest in Black and brown youth membership and leadership as well. 

And so, the real question became… how to get there. 

Much time has passed since that commitment was made, and much has been learned about our attempts at multi-racial cross-class organizing; where we’ve made strides, where we’ve failed, and where we must go. 

The focus of the Climate Advocacy Lab Microgrant will be a deeper dive into those attempts, including the strides, failures, and lessons for moving forward.

First, I open this reflection with a timeline & definitive history of Sunrise, specifically tracking events that have had implications on our organizing across race, class, justice, equity, and anti-oppression. 

After, I take each of these core moments and distill the lessons into a list of the core challenges Sunrise has faced around multi-racial, cross-class movement building.

Since Sunrise has also run exciting programs, projects, and created resources to get us closer to multi-racial, cross-class movement, I lay out the things that have worked around building across race and class. 

From there, I close with core lessons, learnings, and recommendations, both for Sunrise  and for other organizations looking to incorporate multi-racial, cross-class movement building into their strategy, structure, culture, etc. 

One final note; though I was a volunteer in Sunrise from January of 2019 - February of 2020,  much of my perspective in this report comes from the vantage point of Sunrise’s National Organization. While this means I’ve been able to capture, from the National perspective, much of the learnings around race & class, it also means I’m not fully capturing all the incredible work and learning hubs within our movement have around how they have done the work to build multi-racial, cross-class movements and hubs locally. 

Read more on the report Sunrise Reflections, Lessons & Learnings on Multi-Racial, Cross-Class Movement Building here.

Thoughts on strategy: it’s time to get serious on what must be done to win a Green New Deal.

BEFORE YOU READ: Just a disclaimer. This piece is a stream of thoughts that came together during a period of time when Sunrise was assessing its overall strategy and path forward. Looking back, there are definitely some gaps in my analysis, or things missing. (I’m growing as a strategist :) But sharing as a way to bring you into the thinking behind Sunrise, and where we go as a movement to win on the Green New Deal. Also, for context, the audience of this piece, at the time, was the Strategy Team, a team of folks helping chart out the broader strategy in Sunrise.

Audience: Sunrise frontloading strategy team (in case folks aren't on that team but reading!) 

I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible. But as my mind has wandered towards strategy, and winning a Green New Deal and how we do it, I thought I’d lay out some thoughts and things coming up for me. Also, the second thing I wanna say is, I wasn’t in strategy convos. So this is more of a way of me trying to do the exercise of thinking about strategy. It may be duplicative, y'all may have already thought about this, but my brain needs a way to see pieces together, so this is that! 

In the following mini-piece (looking back, it’s not looking so much like a mini-piece), I'm going to lay out reflections on what we’ve done really well in Sunrise, why we’ve failed, how we can get sharper on the solution to the climate crisis (the Green New Deal) we’re championing, and a road ahead for how we win (theory of change) and how we do so within the fabric of the movement ecology.  It’s also helpful to note, this is my assessment and reflections, building already off of where we’ve landed with the Sunrise 2.0 strategy & DNA. 

One final note. I know big questions around the rise of fascism and the threat of democracy have come up as key barriers to winning climate legislation. I don’t feel equipped to respond to that question, so I will leave it aside. (Actually, because it’s hard for me to leave things aside, I put a section in the appendix on thoughts.) 

What we’ve done well 

We’ve mapped this out already! One of the core strengths around getting closer to passing federal climate legislation in Sunrise is that we have played a major role, nationally, in shifting the common sense around climate change, and positing the Green New Deal as the solution to meet the scale and urgency of the crisis.

To throw in another strength, we’ve also developed a political savvy that has allowed us to build relationships within the halls of Congress, to get core parts of our agenda into major legislation. (Say, with climate being one of the major components of BBB that didn’t shrink, but actually expand.) I do want to caution that this tactic is a shortcut. And I don’t want us to see this as a steady foundation with which we seek major, long-term, transformation in this country on climate. 

Why we’ve failed at winning federal climate legislation 

Some of our failures as a movement on passing federal climate legislation (there are a lot of barriers! Lol so don’t wanna put it all on us. Rather wanna get clear on how we can organize smarter)  is connected to our 1.0 theory of change. First, we set out on building political power, and didn’t build enough to carry us towards a Green New Deal. We elected some Green New Deal champions, but the House and Senate support behind the Green New Deal wasn’t enough to get it passed. We backed Bernie Sanders, and then scrambled or struggled to have a clear plan of action when he lost. A great analysis on this comes here. 

Despite our learnings and failure, we must win governing power to enact and maintain the Decade of the Green New Deal. We must have politicians in office who would both push and implement our political agenda. Also, we must orient to elections as a tactic, in a broader campaign to win Green New Deal legislation. The election is not the end, but the means, to getting what we what. Elections are key opportunities to both grow our membership and base (moments to absorb into our structures!), develop the skills of our membership and leadership (e.g., canvassing, phone banking, etc.), and make specific narrative interventions/push to make our ideas, vision, and platforms popular by pushing candidates to adopt them (e.g., popularizing Green New Deal through folks like AOC and Bernie Sanders talking about it to their supporters and in debates.)

Secondly, we’ve failed to have a power map that lays out the clear enemies and blocks on climate legislation. (And the fossil fuel industry is not specific enough.) Because while Democrats and Republicans fail to act on climate legislation, there are bigger forces moving behind them; the elite and ruling class. And those forces have names, faces, addresses, and corporations that we must disrupt, vehemently, to get what we want. As Frederick Douglas once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” We must make the right demands of the right people in power.

If we had a clearer power map of the people, corporations, and politicians who stand in our way, we might realize that banner drops, high school climate strikes, Wide Awakes and direct actions were not at all effective in moving those powerholders. (Yes, they may have targeted the public in powerful ways, but if winning material shit, not just shifting the common sense, is a core part of our theory of change, we must get clearer on how we think we build the power to win shit.) 

The final mistake we’ve made, and are continuing to make, is around people power/collective power. In Sunrise 1.0, we said we needed to build people power. But who? What kind of people power? How do we wield it? In frontloading, we’ve gotten better at trying to answer this question, but we’re still missing the mark. 

People, when organized, in society and our democracy, have power in several different ways: (I’ve laid out three, but feel free to challenge or push, may not be total.) 

1. Mass protest & mass noncooperation

1. Example: Gandhi Salt Marches

2. Strategic disruption (strikes, boycotts, etc.)

1. Example: United Auto Workers engaging in sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan 

3. Through democracy & electoral system (mobilizing at the voting booths) 

1. Example: AOC ousting Joe Crowley and getting elected to Congress (through the support of mobilization of working people at the ballot box). If an elected official isn’t accountable to the constituency, can try and re-elect them.  

We must do all of these better! And by running local campaigns that tie to federal legislation, we can definitely achieve #1 and #3. But more specifically, we’re making a HUGE mistake by not thinking deeply about the working class movement we need to build, and what power we can leverage from the constituency. For, building a multi-racial, cross-class movement for the sake of building it, is not strategic or powerful. We should want to build a MRXC movement, with working class members, because working class people have the power in society to withhold their labor and disrupt capitalism. And that gives us and our movement leverage, to seek out successions on our demands. We must think deeply about organizing young workers, and doing so in strategic places that disrupt power holders who can give us what we want. A Green New Deal. Real, sustained, transformation in this country can only come from organization of the working class. 

What should we be demanding of the Green New Deal

For a minute, I've been asking the question, What is the Green New Deal we’re fighting for? I’ve also been trying to reflect on that, and have thoughts.

Green New Deal, redefined: All future Green New Deal policy, can be tested with new framework, core outcomes & values listed below: 

• Decarbonization: GND policy should drive towards meeting the goal of full decarbonization, and 100% fossil fuel free economy and society. 

• Socialism: Any Green New Deal policy seeks to deliver a death blow to capitalism, a system that hoards wealth, capital, and resources in the hands of the few, at the exploitation of people and the planet. This includes the process of decommodification, the belief that housing, energy, healthcare, food, should be human right, not good to be traded in “free market” 

  Abolition: Abolition of violence institutions and structures, including fossil fuel industry, military, ICE, prisons, etc. All of these institutions seek to serve the ruling class, and allow them to continue in the playbook of control, harm, violence and exploitation in service of growing profits. 

• Decolonization: Giving land and power back to Indigenous peoples, who are the original stewards of this land. (There’s probably more here, but pulling from Red Deal)

• Internationalist: Any Green New Policy seeks to make connections between the climate crisis, and exploitation of countries in the Global South. GND policy passed should push for the United States to pay climate reparations, and open borders for climate refugees, who are often migrating due to US interventionist policy, and our role in the climate crisis.

What’s our theory of change 

So given all of these, what do we do? What shifts and interventions can we make in 2.0, given all the work we’ve done frontloading?

Here are my takes: 

• We slightly shift our theory of change by adding strategic disruption, for we don’t win a Green New Deal if each of these separate gears to move together:

• Continue shifting common sense (selling our politics & getting public to believe in problem, solution, and path to change) 

• Collective power (specifically building working class power)

• Includes mass movement building, expanding beyond professional middle class activist networks  

• Strategic disruption (strikes + mass protest) 

• Winning state & governing power: long road, electing GND champions

• Though we don’t take responsibility for these things, must consider role we play:

• Organizing labor to see GND as necessary (especially teacher & healthcare unions); strategic disruption. Labor was critical in history and during the New Deal Era, in passive massive legislation, and will be critical in the fight to win the Decade of the Green New Deal. 

• Grow People’s Alignment, specifically thinking about the work it will take locally to win GND campaigns (coalitions of community orgs, indigenous, local EJ, labor groups, etc.) 

Sunrise Strategy to Get There 

So, given the theory of change, what’s the best strategy? My take is that we make the choice to do the Green New Deal Communities, and embed GND for Education within that. Here’s why:

• A GND for Communities campaign would allow us to take advantage of the opportunity (and strategic thing we need to do) to bring union organizations into the fight for a Green New Deal, and leverage their power to win. By doing a GND for Communities campaign, and embedded GND for Education Demands within it, it allows us to work with teachers unions, while also making sure that the fight for good education isn’t siloed, but packaged within the fight for broader transformation in cities across the country.  

• We’d have the opportunity to select Priority Locations (based on the power map exercise we do this time, and maybe 70% capacity going towards supporting this in org) and determine where we need to build power and engage in strategic disruption across the country. We should also think more deeply & seriously about a worker constituency within those locations, beyond teacher unions. One example could be a young transit work constituency, that’s work to organize transit unions in support of demands like Universal Public Transit. We should see this is something incredibly new, experimental, but a choice in the right direction towards thinking more deeply about power, and the kind of power we need to build to win. 

• Opportunity, given money coming to local and state governments through federal funding that’s become available through BIF (and maybe BBB), to run campaigns during funding towards Green New Deal pillars 

• With a goal to continuing to shift the common sense on climate and the Green New Deal, the broadest and most appealing campaign will do that; not a Green New Deal for Education 

• If we want a policy that supports WWII style mobilization around climate, we need policy that appeals to the broadest subset of the public. That’s a GND for Communities. 

• We need to win shit locally, and shit that will have material impacts on peoples lives. A GND for Communities will most do that. And build the case that the government should be and can be effective in providing real change for working people. 

• Finally, to win massive climate legislation, we need to continue vying for state power, through the election of GND champions. By supporting our entire movement on GND for Communities campaigns, we can see it as a deep investment in getting towards this goal. But we must do it right. We must see community organizing as a long-term strategy, and set our movement's sights, in their local Green New Deal campaigns, as organizing opportunities towards the 2024, 2026 and 2028 federal elections. And the metric of our success; can we use our organizing locally, as a sort of structure test during federal elections? (e.g., can we mobilize our movement during these critical elections? To elect GND champions, and to set us up to mass federal climate legislation.) 

Conclusion 

First, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I want to wrap by saying that over break, I spent an hour crying my eyes out, terrified that all our efforts, all our organizing, all this work, would be for not. That we’d be unable to stop the capitalist class, unable to stop the fossil fuel industry, from turning society into a hellscape rife with disaster, mass death and devastation. 

And then I got my shit together, and said well dammit. If the ruling class can plan, can be strategic, can build and maintain power, can get what they want, so can I. So can we. So can the working class. And so can like Left. Organize, don't antagonize. And these reflections come from that place. 

In writing this, my hope isn’t that this analysis is right or entirely correct or spot on, but that it sparks a convo between us, as leadership in frontloading, as leadership in Sunrise, to be think about how we can be as strategic as possible, in making choices about how we think we pass massive federal legislation. About what we think our best shot at passing massive federal legislation to avert climate catastrophe is. 

For, the fate of the world, and future generations, could depend on our movement (and movements now, working on climate legislation) getting that right. 

DP