Bridging mass movements for economic and environmental justice
The System of Debt is the System of Death:
Examining the intertwined root causes of the crises we face
A workshop and dialogue hosted by Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle
of Hinesburg-based Global Justice Ecology Project
11am, City Hall Park
Saturday, Nov. 12th
“We live in a toxic crisis-ridden world because choices are driven, not by ethics or morals, not by justice vs. injustice, not even by objective science. Choices are driven by the bottom line. The 1% who run corporations make their decisions based on profits–on advancing their own self-interests to the detriment of all other life on Earth.”
In this workshop, we will discuss the intertwined root causes of the crises we face, and develop ideas about what we can do to build alliances based on these commonalities to diversify and strengthen our movement.
Coordinated by the #OWS-VT Burlington Environmental Working Group
http://owsvt.wikispaces.com/burlington+environmental+working+group
The System of Debt is the System of Death Workshop/Dialogue
The use of taxpayer money for the outrageous bailouts of banks engaged in high stakes gambling, and the subsequent slashing of the social safety net has mobilized people, around the world, with “occupy” movement rising up in 1,500 cities globally. One of the biggest galvanizing issues has been rapidly expanding economic injustice, exemplified in the U.S. by the enormous debt burdens being carried by graduating college students.
Combined with the million plus people who’ve lost their homes to foreclosure because of predatory lending scams by huge financial firms, there is no doubt as to why many thousands of people across the U.S. are mobilizing for a more just economic system.
But the financial crisis and its outcomes are merely symptoms of a much greater crisis. The crisis of death: exemplified by the climate crisis, the food crisis, the water crisis, the biodiversity crisis, and on and on…
The climate crisis is fast becoming climate catastrophe as region after region suffers the impacts of extreme weather–from floods to hurricanes to droughts to tornadoes to snowstorms–in a trend that shows no sign of slowing down.
Hundreds of species go extinct every day to extinction. The oceans have lost 90% of their life due to industrial fishing and climate change. The world’s forests–known both as the cradles of biodiversity and the lungs of the earth–are rapidly being destroyed, and there are plans to accelerate this deforestation to produce wood-based electricity.
We live in a tangled and beautiful web of life. This means that these myriad crises are reflected in our own bodies. Cancer is an epidemic. One in two men in the U.S. will develop cancer over the course of their lives; as will one in three women. Think about all of your family and friends. Now realize that one in two or one in three of them will develop some form of cancer. Imagine what that means.
We live in a toxic crisis-ridden world because choices are driven, not by ethics or morals, not by justice vs. injustice, not even by objective science. Choices are driven by the bottom line. The 1% who run corporations make their decisions based on profits–on advancing their own self-interests to the detriment of all other life on Earth.
The system must be transformed. It cannot be sustained.
In this workshop, we will discuss the intertwined root causes of the crises we face, and develop ideas about what we can do to build alliances based on these commonalities to diversify and strengthen our movement.
Outrage! Many young people were rounded up after a protest and put on a bus to take them off the grounds of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010) in Cancun, Mexico. Photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC
