“Speaking theoretically, a strike in the electricity sector would effectively shut down society, creating the effect of a general strike, given that economic activity is impossible without electricity.”   p. 236

The main argument made by Matthew T. Huber in his book, “Climate Change as Class War,” is that virtually all of the other ways that climate/climate justice activists have been organizing and taking action on this issue over the last 20 or so years have pretty much failed. They’ve done so first, he says, because they haven’t had a working-class base and strategy and secondly, because they haven’t realized that the key to bringing about the urgent shift we need away from fossil fuels to other energy sources is through the organization of workers in the electricity industry. As the quote above indicates, he sees them as having the power to force change because of their strategic place in the overall economy.

I support organized efforts by those who have not just a class consciousness but a climate justice consciousness to do this work. Without question, an organized rank-and-file movement within the electricity sector supportive of wind, solar and other clean renewable energy sources would be helpful, potentially critical, in making the Green New Deal type of shift in the economy that working-class and other people need and which Huber supports.

However, there are some very big obstacles to be overcome if this electrical workers focus is to play anything close to the role Huber believes it can.

One is the reality that the primary electrical workers union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), as is true of almost all the construction unions, has not been historically a big supporter of shifting to renewables. They support coal, methane gas and nuclear power, as well as renewable energy—the all-of-the-above approach. They support very problematic carbon capture and sequestration. Perhaps as renewables and electric cars/trucks/buses/trains grow and displace those polluting and climate destabilizing 20^th century energy sources, the IBEW will change, but as of now it’s a definite problem.

Then there’s the reality that electrical unions are part of the sector of the working class that is most conservative politically, in general. Workers in this industry are high-income in relationship to most of the working class. Historically and today, the construction unions are the least progressive, the most white and male, compared to unions in sectors like health care, transportation, retail, agriculture and government.

This doesn’t mean that organizing among this sector of the working class is not important. It can be. For white activists and organizers in particular, we have a responsibility to put ourselves in workplaces and communities where we can develop relationships and talk with white and male working-class people from an anti-racist, anti-sexist and progressive standpoint. Huber doesn’t write about this, but it’s definitely an additional reason why work in the electrical unions could be valuable.

A major weakness of Huber’s book is its downplaying of the environmental justice (ej) movement. At some places he speaks positively about it but at others it’s hard to understand why he’s saying what he is. Here’s one example, on p. 74: “Many justice-centered approaches lack a theory of power. . . [it is] focused on centering the most marginalized and vulnerable communities. . . While this is certainly morally important, and these struggles over livelihood are working-class struggles, these populations are defined by their social weakness.” He goes on from this to ultimately identify electrical workers as the sector with the potential power that he doesn’t see ej communities as having. Given the history of the trade union movement since after World War Two, this position is more ideological, almost “faith-based,” than one based on historical and present reality, although we are finally seeing a thankful resurgence of the union movement.

There is one place in the book where the word “intersectionality” is used, on page 22, and it is used in the context of Huber articulating that a “production-rooted theory of class” is the correct approach, that “these forms of oppression [race, gender, sexuality] are not separate from but constitute class power.” In other words, everything is all about class.

In my book 21^st Century Revolution I address these issues, particularly in a chapter entitled “US Class Structure and Revolution Making.” After analyzing some of the interrelationships between class, gender, race and sexuality and putting forward my analysis of the seven class groupings, three of them sectors of the working class, I conclude in this way:

“It is essential that there be significant involvement of working-class leaders in the leadership of the alliance. There will be other classes part of it, farmers, professionals, small businesspeople, ministers, others. In the absence of a conscious commitment to have a broadly-based, multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-issue leadership representing not just the different movements and sectors of the population but especially the different sectors of the working class, ¾ of the population, the potential of the alliance will not be realized.

“With such an alliance, and with sound strategy, tactics and methods of organizing, we can truly create another world.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com. 

“A solution of the present crisis will not take place unless men and women work for it. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Without persistent effort, time itself becomes an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of irrational emotionalism and social destruction. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”  Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, p. 197

Three days from now, January 15, will be the first day of the 95^th year since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born. It’s a federal holiday, won through the years-long struggle decades ago of many people who organized for it to be so. Because they did that work, for the last 39 years and for decades to come, young people and all people in the USA learn about Dr. King at this time, are exposed to some of his ideas, and without question this contributes to the building and strengthening of movements for justice, equal rights and peace.

People need examples of clarity and courage to be so themselves.

However, King’s quote above should deepen our understanding of what our responsibilities are as people trying to change the world for the better. Substantive change, change that is desperately needed, doesn’t happen without hard work, without “sacrifice, suffering and struggle.”

Frederick Douglass is famous for something similar that he said on August 4, 1857:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

King and Douglass were not saying that our lives need to be constant work, constant struggle against the racist, rich and regressive, predominantly white men with whom we must do battle. Both of them were part of an African-grounded culture in which singing and community-building were central. The civil rights movement of the 1950’s was a movement where singing was essential to the ability of that movement to ultimately win major victories, after years of struggle and sacrifice. And it wasn’t just singing in churches at rallies. People sang in jail. People sang when demonstrating right next to white racists. Singing gave them power.

2024 is a big year for us. Our grandchildren and great grandchildren and the seven generations to come need us to work hard and together on the major issues of the day, to defeat Trump and the MAGA fascists, elect genuine progressives, and in so doing, lay the basis for the systemic, justice-based change the world urgently needs in this climate emergency time.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com. 

Three months ago about 600,000 people took action in New York City and in 700 other localities around the world calling for an end to the fossil fuel era. According to mass media sources, the big September 17 March to End Fossil Fuels brought 75,000 people into the heart of Manhattan for an historic action. In addition to those big numbers, there were hundreds of people arrested in NYC before and after the 17^th in nonviolent blockades targeting fossil fuel supporting banks and other financial institutions like the Federal Reserve.

Imho, this was the primary reason that two days ago, for the first time ever in 30 years of these conferences and however weakly, the nations of the world at the Dubai United Nations climate conference said that “transitioning away from fossil fuels” is a good thing. Street heat and growing numbers of nonviolent direct actions on the climate emergency had an impact.

These actions are not going to end anytime soon. Words are one thing, but action on the part of governments to advance a rapid shift off polluting fossil fuels is where the raging battle over what the future will be like will be won or lost.

A major focus of the climate justice movement right now is the plan by the methane gas industry to dramatically escalate the number of LNG export terminals to ship fracked gas around the world. This is particularly planned for the Gulf Coast states of Texas and Louisiana. There are about 20 proposed new LNG plants, in addition to the seven that are already up and running. The biggest, new proposed one is Calcasieu Pass (CP2) in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, which if built would add massive amounts of gas to what is already being exported.

A letter signed by 238 organizations and released just a couple of days ago called for a halt to the LNG gas rush, saying, “CP2 LNG is a prime example of the environmental injustice of gas export expansion… [and] is emblematic of the broader trend of the ways in which LNG export expansion disproportionately impacts low-income and communities of color along the Gulf Coast, many of whom rely on coastal livelihoods and who are already overburdened by industrial pollution from the fossil fuel industry.”

Who is all this gas intended for? Those pushing this scheme say it’s needed because of the Russia/Ukraine war, that Europe needs this gas because the Russian invasion and the response to it has severely diminished the amount of gas available to them. This may have been true in the early days of the war, but recent reports say that it’s no longer the case. Warmer than usual weather and developments within the methane gas industry internationally have led to an oversupply of gas in Europe and worldwide right now.

This early-war dynamic was what coal baron and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairperson Joe Manchin used 20 months ago as he acted, successfully, to intimidate the leadership of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, into reversing a decision they had just made to have more rigorous reviews of gas industry expansion permit applications.

Not only was Manchin successful in forcing one of the three Democrats in the majority (of 5 commissioners) to change his vote, killing that new policy; he later stonewalled Biden and refused to hold a hearing on Biden’s nomination of Richard Glick, the FERC Chair who developed the policy improvements, for a second term when his term ran out at the end of 2022. Since those Manchin actions, and under the leadership of Democrat Willie Phillips, FERC has returned to the rubber-stamping ways that have existed for literally decades, with the exception of a brief time in 2021 and into the winter of 2022 under Glick’s leadership.

According to analysis done by former FERC employee Andy Hinz of Beyond Extreme Energy, since Manchin’s intervention close to 80 new coal plants’ worth of greenhouse gases have been approved by FERC.

To move forward, FERC and the Department of Energy must sign off on CP2 and the other proposed LNG export terminals. They’re the deciders. There is deep concern based on past practice that the Biden Administration, despite what happened at Dubai, will give the go-ahead for more approvals for unneeded and destructive fossil fuel infrastructure expansion.

Momentum is building within the climate justice movement to go to the mat on this one, to use all the tools in our toolbox, including nonviolent direct action. 220,000 people signed on to November petitions demanding no expansion of the LNG industry. Gulf Coast groups are making plans for mid-January action in New Orleans when the gas industry is having a big conference. And just last evening, Bill McKibben announced that he and frontline leaders, youth leaders, and climate leaders from around the world are calling on activists to join them in nonviolent direct action at the US Department of Energy’s headquarters in Washington DC February 6-8, 2024 unless and until they start treating LNG and fossil fuel exports like the climate-wrecking problem they are.

Once again, it’s time for the street heat that can force change in the corporate and government suites. We need to keep building the visible climate justice movement that, now and going forward, can bring about the transformative change the world desperately needs.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

I remember how I felt on October 7^th and 8^th as the news reports came out about the killings and kidnappings by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in what is now southern Israel. It was a terrible feeling. It would have been one thing if the attacks had been solely, or primarily, directed at Israeli military bases in that area. It was something else altogether when the targets were not just those bases but also about 20 towns and, worst of all, a music festival taking place.

I suspected that some of the coverage was distorted and over-the-top, such as the loudly trumpeted claim that those who broke out of Gaza had killed—implicitly, deliberately—40 Israeli babies. The last I’ve seen of that particularly egregious claim was a news report many weeks ago that there were three babies killed. But 1200 killed and over 200 kidnapped, the majority in both cases non-military, is very disturbing.

I’ve thought of other revolutionary organizations fighting for liberation that I’ve known about over my lifetime, and I can’t think of any who did something similar. During the Cuban revolution, as one example, the July 26^th Movement had a policy of treating the wounds of dictator Batista government troops they had just fought with and releasing them. And the Vietnamese independence fighters, engaged in warfare for over 30 years between 1945 and 1975 against first the French and then the Americans, wars that were tremendously destructive, never did anything similar to what happened on October 7^th.

Since that day Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, with at least 15,000 people killed, two-thirds women and children, the destruction of close to half of all buildings in Gaza, and many hundreds of thousands of Gazans desperately trying to survive, has generated massive anger by many people all over the world. The far-right-wing Israeli government has shown the world how little it values the lives of any Palestinians. They clearly intend, if they can get away with it, to take over all of historic Palestine, “from the river to the sea,” displacing millions of Palestinians who now live either in Gaza or the West Bank.

Appreciating this context for what has been going on for decades in this part of the world, and the particular reality of the racist and anti-democratic Netanyahu government, Hamas’ actions are understandable. It is a fact that oppression breeds resistance, and decades-long, brutal oppression almost always breeds violent resistance.

What about Israel’s stated intention, supported by no less than Bernie Sanders, to eliminate Hamas?

How can that happen without the continued genocidal destruction of Gaza? Instead of 15,000 dead, maybe it will be twice that, or even more. Gaza could become uninhabitable, or at least the northern half of it, with major destruction and loss of life in southern Gaza. And even after all of that, including the likely death of many of the remaining hostages, how is this going to in any way destroy the will of the Palestinian people to fight back?

I said to my wife last week that if Israel “eliminates” Hamas, the way they are trying to do so will eventually and undoubtedly multiply by many times over the number of young men ready to be suicide bombers or risk death in some other way to hit back at their brutal, genocidal oppressors and murderers.

And, of course, there is the very real possibility of this current war escalating into something much bigger and more widespread. Is the “elimination” of Hamas worth that?

Indeed, war is not the answer!

As a majority of US Americans and a big majority of the world’s nations want, it is time for a definitive ceasefire and a continuation of the negotiations that have freed, so far, dozens of Israelis and scores of Palestinians. Those negotiations, right now and going forward, are the only—THE ONLY—hope for true peace with justice for the long-suffering Palestinians, as well as Israelis.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

Standing on a corner,
alone,
in the early morning
half-dark, half-light,

You, waiting for
the commuter bus
to take you to
the Big Apple,

Me, on one of my
3/4 times a week
long distance bike rides,
approaching you,
30-20-10 feet away,

And our eyes meet,
followed a second or two later
by a smile,
an involuntary acknowledgement,
you to me
and vice-versa,
that though we
don’t know each other
and may never see
each other again,

Today, this morning,
for literally one second,
we felt the warmth,
the quiet joy,
the reassurance
of human connection.

I wrote this poem in 2016. I was reminded of it by something which happened yesterday morning.

I’ve been sick for a week and a half, needing to stay home and concentrate on trying to get well. I felt pressure to do so not just because I didn’t feel good and couldn’t do much work but because of a public event that happened two days ago, Thursday. At this event I was the only performer, singing/leading six songs, reading poetry, and reading excerpts from my two books published in 2020 and 2021. Fortunately, I recovered enough to make the event, and based on the input I got from those in attendance I did a pretty good job of it. But I was disappointed that more people weren’t there.

I was also feeling anxiety about Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza and the state of the world generally. So when I went out early the next morning to look for the newspaper which is delivered to our house, I was not in good spirits at all.

The paper wasn’t there, but as I took in the morning sunset across the street for a minute, up pulls a car and someone gets out of it. It was the newspaper deliveryman. He walked over, put out his hand and gave me the paper, and we spoke very briefly, me asking about his family, he telling me to give his best wishes to my wife, with whom he has talked in the past. As he went back to his car and I turned to walk back into my house, I felt very noticeably different. Instead of being down and anxious, I felt good, felt like something very small but very important had just happened.

Something very similar to this happened a few years ago with a crossing guard who we knew bringing our paper to me as I pulled into the driveway on my bike after one of my early morning rides.

What is it about human connection, friendly interaction with others, that can have such an immediate positive impact? Clearly, it’s something about the way that we are constructed with all our feelings and anxieties and hopes and fears. That “something” can be found in almost every human being, based on my experience and readings. All of us, whatever our other deficiencies, need friendly human contact.

How does this relate to the continuing, urgently-needed, historic process of positive social change?

Think about it this way: anyone who has done organizing knows that a situation where you are able to talk with someone else with some friendliness or even just basic mutual respect is going to be much more conducive to positive discussion than a situation of open disrespect or hostility. It’s not that a conflictual interaction can’t in some cases ultimately lead to positive personal and idea-change, but it’s harder, and definitely less productive numerically as far as results.

To me, this is common sense, but for too many revolutionaries in the past and still some today, it’s not. Some, I’m sure, would see these views as too “liberal,” not tough enough to fight the power.

I don’t think so. And here’s some back-up, via one of Che Guevera’s most famous sayings: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

Yes, yes, yes.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

“Global efforts to address climate change are already clouded by bitterness and distrust among countries of the world. Now a widening gyre of conflict in the Middle East threatens to fracture an already divided world, raise oil and gas prices at a time of persistently high global inflation, and direct financial resources to the business of fighting wars instead of the business of slowing down climate change.”

-Somini Sengupta and Jim Tankersley, New York Times, “War Imperils Action on Climate Change,” 10/24/23

I’ve believed for 20 years that a silver lining to the worldwide climate crisis is the possibility that when the nations of the world join together to get off fossil fuels and onto a truly clean and renewable energy path, the set of political and economic dynamics making that happen will open up a potential path to a much more just and peaceful world. I continue to believe that is a possibility.

But the world’s nations are NOT joining together right now in a substantive way to get off fossil fuels, with too many of them supporting false solutions like “carbon capture and sequestration.” In addition, we are now experiencing both the rise of 21^st century fascist movements and devastating wars in Ukraine and now Palestine/Israel.

In the USA, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia led the Biden Administration to ramp up production of methane gas and the expansion of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals, primarily along the Texas and Louisiana coast. That major greenhouse gas is now being shipped primarily to Europe to deal with Europe’s loss of energy resources because of the war. And despite a clear military stalemate, and a growing number of voices and countries calling for a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement, there is no indication that the Biden Administration has changed its position of no negotiations and  all-out military support for Ukraine.

As far as the Palestine/Israel war, a major danger is the spread of this conflict throughout the Middle East if Israel continues with its genocidal destruction of Gaza, escalation of violent settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, and tens of thousands of civilian Palestinian deaths as a result. It is realistic to expect that if those things happen, if a ceasefire is not soon put into place, the street demonstrations already taking place in massive numbers in not just the Middle East but many other parts of the world, including the US, are going to get even bigger, more angry and more militant.

For the US arms industry, this is what they want. In today’s Guardian newspaper an article entitled, “’Hamas Has Created Additional Demand’: Wall Street Eyes Big Profits From War,” says at one point: ‘Morgan Stanley’s head of aerospace and defense equity research, Kristine Liwag, took a similar approach to the conflict during Raytheon’s 24 October earnings call: ‘Looking at [the White House’s $106bn supplemental funding request], you’ve got equipment for Ukraine, air and missile defense for Israel, and replenishment of stockpiles for both. And this seems to fit quite nicely with the Raytheon Defense portfolio,’ said Liwag, whose employer holds over $3bn in Raytheon stock.”

No War, No Warming: this is a slogan that emerged in the mid-2000’s after the US invasion of Iraq and as the seriousness of the climate crisis began to be appreciated. It’s still appropriate right now, although there is a better, more clear articulation of the problem: No War, No Fossil Fuels.

Who is the enemy of peace, justice and a healthy, healing environment? It’s the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about over 60 years ago, but it’s also the fossil fuel industry. It’s all of the other polluting, undemocratic and destructive corporations. It’s the system, the domination of political and economic life by the billionaire class. As long as this class, the 1%, rules the world, our children and grandchildren face a truly awful future.

In the words of a song from the global justice movement 20-plus years ago, “Rise up, keep the spirit alive, come together, have to organize. Rise up, we don’t have long, come together, keep our movement strong.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

I’ve been arrested three times so far this year for nonviolent direct actions (nvda) on the climate crisis. I don’t think I’ve ever been arrested more than once in a single year before this year; since my first arrest in 1970 I’ve been arrested about 30 times.

I risked arrest with about 100 others a week ago in southwest Virginia, fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Five of us—not me–were arrested, four on purpose after locking down to four pipeline construction vehicles at two different construction sites. Both sites were pretty much shut down for the whole day, the main objective of these actions.

In two of my three arrests this year, one at Chase Bank in DC in March and one at the Federal Reserve in NYC about a month ago, I was not one of the primary organizers. I responded to the initiative of others, glad they had done so and pleased to join in and contribute what I could in the action buildup. The third one in April was one I helped to initiate and make happen, a blockade of an entrance to where a new methane gas compressor station was being built in West Milford, NJ

There have been many more, climate-focused, risk arrest actions this year, among them: many actions, probably at least 20, by the new and youth-led group Climate Defiance; over 200 arrests during the Wave of Action week before and after the big September 17th March to End Fossil Fuels in NYC; the disruption of the corporate sponsored US Tennis Open in NYC in September; about 20 MVP resisters in total arrested since August in Appalachia; many thousands in the Netherlands; Greta Thunberg just last week; 20 people in Boston last month; 14 at the East Hampton Town Airport in July in NY; and more, probably many more.

Next up as a major focus for US climate justice and other activists is the Asian Pacific Economic Consortium in San Francisco, Ca. in mid-November.

Then there are the hundreds of members of Jewish Voices for Peace, including 12 rabbis, arrested last week at the White House calling for a much-needed ceasefire in Palestine/Israel. Almost certainly there are going to be more such nvda actions to try to prevent an escalation of this decades-long, murderous and brutal conflict.

Both of these issues, the climate crisis and war in the Middle East, are very urgent. I think that the rise of climate nvda over the last six or so months is partly related to the many massive weather disasters around the world over the course of the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere. And the killings and kidnappings by Hamas in southern Israel, followed by the massive destruction wreaked upon Gaza afterwards by Israel, are a very big, very disturbing set of realities. It is to the credit of many groups in the USA and elsewhere that there has been such a rapid action response behind the call for an immediate ceasefire, something which polling reports is supported by a majority of US Americans.

However, as important as nvda is as a tactic, it’s just that: a tactic. It is not a strategy for either the kind of deep and wide societal transformation we need or even for an ongoing campaign on a specific major issue.

Take the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There is no question that the 932-consecutive-days tree sit from 2018 to 2021 by Appalachians Against Pipelines had a huge role in preventing the MVP from being completed. The actions now being organized by AAP are critical both for the delays in construction caused as well as to strengthen the morale of the overall movement, generate media coverage of the resistance and keep hope alive. But also important, right now, is the campaign being waged by others on the issue of corroded pipelines—pipelines that have literally been left outside exposed to the elements for as much as five years. That campaign has already had some impact on the actions of the federal agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA, which is supposed to be regulating MVP. And also important is the monitoring of construction, observing and taking pictures of MVP’s violations to be used potentially in court filings, as well as to press regulators to step in.

I’ve been part of activist groups in the past that had difficulty understanding this essential lesson of history: purist politics or the arrogant attitude of “my way is the only way” very rarely work. And if they do work in the short term, sooner or later the inherent problems with those ways of approaching the project of social change will lead to corruption, at least, if not an eventual failure overall.

Each of us taking the kind of actions we believe will be most effective, while always being willing to listen to and dialogue about why others with similar political views see things differently—this is an essential building block to ultimate victory and a new world.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

A recent article by Bill McKibben in which I am quoted has motivated me to write a Future Hope column focused on the issue: what should independent progressives be doing about the Presidential election? 

One thing we should be doing is already being done: being visible, demonstrative and in the streets taking action on the major issues. Two weeks ago this is what the broadly-based climate justice movement did for a number of days in New York City, with the big day being the 75,000 person March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17.

Who was the main target of this action? It was Joe Biden, since, as the President, he is the one person who has the power through Executive Orders to escalate the government’s actions to shift rapidly from fossil fuels to clean renewables like wind and solar. With the House of Representatives controlled by the MAGA Republicans, there is zero hope for any significant action from Congress until a new one is seated in January of 2025.

I’m sure some people who get it on the seriousness of the climate crisis and the need for action now didn’t come to the 9/17 action because of concern that the focus on calling out Biden might hurt his reelection chances. That’s an understandable concern. But there is a very strong argument to be made that the chances of Biden defeating Trump, or any Democrat defeating any Republican in the Presidential race, are very tied to how much independent grassroots activism there continues to be over the coming months. The overall progressive movement needs to continue the current upswing of activism both to win victories on issues and to maximize the progressive voter turnout before and on November 5, 2024.

Who can defeat Trump or any other Republican? Only Biden or the Democrat. No one else. So if you believe that 21^st century fascism needs to be electorally defeated if we are to have any hope of avoiding full-on climate and societal unraveling in the years ahead, our tactics have to reflect that.

Does this mean that Cornel West shouldn’t be running for President as a Green Party candidate? Not necessarily. The continued existence of the Green Party and West’s campaign are a reflection of a political current that is much stronger than the electoral showing of that party over the last 25 years, which has been a decidedly weak showing. The average national popular vote of GP Presidential candidates between 2000 (Nader) and 2020 (Hawkins) is below 1%; Hawkins got about 1/3 of 1%.

The latest I’ve seen as far as West and the polls is that he’s at 4-5%. The likelihood of those numbers going up is not very high given the MAGA threat that most progressives appreciate. And I remember when Nader ran in 2000, he was at 5% in the polls going into the last weekend before the election, and he ended up with about half that, 2.7%, on election day.

At the same time that there’s been such a poor vote showing for GP Presidential candidates, the number of GP members on local levels who have won local office has also gone down over the last 20 years. In the early 2000s there were about 220 such local officeholders; in 2020 Hawkins said there were 135, and my guess is that if it’s any higher now it’s not by much.

A Cornel West candidacy could help keep the pressure on Biden/whomever and other Democrats running for office to be stronger on the issues, which will help to generate the massive turnout of progressives, especially young people, that is the key to not just a defeat of the Trumpists but a decisive defeat. But, and this is a HUGE “but,” is the GP going to go all out to get on the ballot in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, the battleground states where Presidential elections are won or lost because of the anachronistic but still-very-real Electoral College? And if they are on the ballot in any of those states, what will West and the GP say about what voters should do?

All the past GP Presidential candidates have made very few distinctions. They’ve not said with any consistency, if at all, that the Republicans, especially in these Trump years, are worse than the Dems on most issues. They’ve not said that in the battleground states where the GP is on the ballot they are OK with progressives voting for the Democrat, much less encourage that. Because they haven’t done so, large numbers of progressives have not voted for them even though, like myself, they’re more in agreement with the GP on most issues than the Democrats.

It is very difficult to believe that Cornel West doesn’t care whether or not his candidacy leads to the election of Trump or some other Republican. I hope that he is thinking about how to run a campaign that doesn’t do that, particularly what he says about trying to get on the ballot in the battleground states. And I hope that if he agrees that the GP needs to do and say things differently this time around he will have the courage to say that and stand by it as he gets pushback from longtime GP leaders.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

The first time I heard the chant it was while helping to block the street in front of leading fossil fuel financer Black Rock in lower Manhattan last Wednesday the 13th: “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” The dozens of people I was taking action with also liked it, and we kept chanting loud and long while we watched the traffic back up and for when the police were going to move in on us.

Then there was the other one: “Tax the Rich, Tax the Mother-F—ing Rich!”, also a big hit all throughout the week of actions in New York City. The most memorable time chanting it for me was on the morning of the 18^th. I was with a group of 27 other people arrested, handcuffed and stuffed into an old police bus after blocking one of the entrances to the Federal Reserve bank in the Wall Street area. As the bus pulled away heading towards 1 Police Plaza and hours of processing, someone started up this chant. We must have chanted it for at least 5-6 minutes with no let up and loud-loud-loud as the bus traveled through the Wall Street area streets. And since our windows were partly open, there’s no question a lot of people heard us.

This was the spirit of the week of resistance to end fossil fuels and build another world, another world that looks much more possible now that we’ve shown each other just what we can do when we work hard together in a cooperative and respectful way.

It is just tremendous, a huge and very important thing that, according to mainstream media reports, 75,000 people took part in the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17. The organizers of the march did their job and did it well, and masses of people responded. It was and is, clearly, a movement moment.

It’s special that almost 200 arrests were made for the many acts of determined nonviolent direct action throughout the week.

It is a very big deal that there were many hundreds, possibly close to a thousand, local actions happening around the country and around the world over this weekend. The world is rising up together again on this most critical of issues, the rapidly deepening climate emergency.

And the mix of people! From where I was on Sunday, deep in the middle of the march, it was great to experience:

-the racial diversity—predominantly white but with a stronger mix of people of the global majority/people of color than I expected; and,

-the issue diversity—anti-militarism, feminism, youth, plastics, labor, elders and more, all in the context of the overall climate justice focus of the action.

Then there was the press coverage, lots and lots of it. One of special note is the New York Times on the day after the march displaying a big color picture on the front page, with a very good article and more pictures inside that front section of the paper.

This was a week not to be forgotten. This week really can be a turning point moment for climate justice-centered, mass movement-building. But what is next? Here are my thoughts:

This showing, this showing to one another what we can do when unified, has to continue. A top priority has to be support for the many battles raging against new fossil fuel pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LNG export terminals in the Gulf states and elsewhere, other infrastructure, and oil and gas leases. All of us need to do whatever we can when the calls go out for supportive acts of resistance, whether electronic or in person, responding as best as we can.

But we need more. The success of this week that was, this historic week in NYC and around the world, was seen and heard about by literally tens of millions of people who had no idea that our movement was this big, this unified, this organizationally capable. We need to take visible action in local areas all over the country, and maybe the world, on a regular basis, in part to give these new people an on ramp into the world of activism for justice.

Young people with Fridays for Future gave leadership on this tactic beginning years ago via the local, distributed-but-connected actions on the same Friday day. Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays did something similar for a while, and national webinars are still being done monthly.

What if one of the main follow-ups from this historic week is something similar: End Fossil Fuels Fridays, every month, like the first Friday of every month. Local groups would use the political framework of the March’s four demands and the context language going with them—see below–but they would determine what specifically is done each month, what important local or other fights are prioritized and what exactly happens. A diversity of nonviolent tactics would be the overarching tactical approach.

Can we do this? After what we’ve just done, of course we can. Is there a better idea? Very possibly. Let’s discuss! But not too long, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends. Every day we need to go about our life-saving work acting with the urgency, but also with the love and compassion, that the times require.

We need clean air, not another billionaire!

From www.endfossilfuels.us:

We call on Biden to:

-STOP FEDERAL APPROVALS for new fossil fuel projects and REPEAL permits for climate bombs like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

-PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUEL DRILLING on our public lands and waters.

-DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and turbo-charge the build-out of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar).

-PROVIDE A JUST TRANSITION to a renewable energy future* that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security, and employment equity.

*Our renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive past. Justice must ground the transition off fossil fuels to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic, and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era. 

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.