Issue: Principles & Processes

The next global youth climate strike takes place on March 25, marking three years since 1.4 million young people from 123 different countries first walked out of class to demand climate action in March 2019.
The school strikes and other large climate protests of 2019 activated a new generation of leaders and elevated public support for climate action. Since then, challenging social and political conditions have also emerged: a global pandemic and uprising for racial justice, major blocks to progress at the federal level, and now a war in Ukraine.
Navigating uncertainty and challenge is at the core of organizing, but so are practices of adapting, building on past lessons, and bringing bold leadership to pathways forward. Reflecting on the past three years, we dig into the youth climate strike movement and how they are learning to adapt and build on past efforts in the face of growing challenges.

Amplifying working-class people’s experiences with climate and energy may be key for political progress. UK-based Climate Outreach highlights some often-held beliefs by working-class folks in Europe in this resource. Some take individual actions to conserve energy (for financial reasons) but feel powerless to make political change. Some don’t trust politicians. Many favor broadly redistributive climate policies that would make life better for many people, such as expanding public transit. Some want to ensure that freedom and autonomy for individuals would be preserved in any energy transition. Some want to still be able to drive a car (especially those in rural areas) while others are ok with transit options in metro areas. Many favor taxing the rich to finance climate policies.

Over the last year, the Lab has been involved in a strategic planning process. The purpose of this body of work has been: to be clear about the focus of our programming, have a clear vision of the type of climate movement we want to bring into fruition; and how as a movement support organization we can use our programming to build this future.

Land Justice can only be achieved through three goals: Reparations, Regenerate the Commons, and Landback. The organization Nuns & Nones has created three creative guides—on each of these themes—to imagining land justice. Our nation was built on stolen lands, with stolen labor, carrying a legacy of violence that continues to this day, so Reparations calls for those who have profited from this injustice to repair past and ongoing harms. The climate crisis is unfolding in our daily lives, so the Regenerate the Commons (“solidarity economy”) movement is building real alternatives to capitalism, seeking to shift wealth into shared ownership and governance, and to prioritize planet and people over profits. Through the process of colonization, Indigenous people were forcibly removed from billions of acres of land that they depended upon and belonged to, so the Landback movement can heal the harms of colonization, support regenerative stewardship of the land, and help us evolve into a new era of right relationship. These guides provide thorough arguments for each of these themes.