A discussion on why winning a Green New Deal requires confronting both inequality and the right-wing's strategic racism.
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How can we win the Green New Deal and rapidly transform our economy to avert climate catastrophe while securing economic and racial justice for all?
Co-editors of the new book, WINNING THE GREEN NEW DEAL, Varshini Prakash and Guido Girgenti are joined by Green New Deal policy expert Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Data for Progress' Julian Noisecat, Dog Whistle Politics author and professor Ian Haney-Lopez, and Justice Democrats' Executive Director Alexandra Rojas for a discussion on why the climate crisis cannot be solved unless we also confront inequality and racism.
Order a copy of Winning the Green New Deal here: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781982142438
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Speakers:
Ian Haney López is the originator of the race-class approach to beating dog whistle politics. A law professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in Critical Race Theory, his focus for the last decade has been on the use of racism as a class weapon in electoral politics, and how to respond. In Dog Whistle Politics (2014), he detailed the fifty-year history of coded racism in American politics.
Rhiana Gunn-Wright serves as director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute. Before joining Roosevelt, Gunn-Wright was the policy director for New Consensus, where she was charged with developing and promoting the Green New Deal, among other projects. Gunn-Wright was previously the policy director for Abdul El-Sayed’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign. A 2013 Rhodes Scholar, she has also worked as the policy analyst for the Detroit Health Department, the Mariam K. Chamberlain Fellow of Women and Public Policy at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), and on the policy team for former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) is Vice President of Policy & Strategy for Data for Progress and Narrative Change Director for the Natural History Museum. A Fellow of the Type Media Center and NDN Collective, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and other publications. Julian grew up in Oakland, California and is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie.
Alexandra Rojas is the Executive Director of Justice Democrats, the progressive political organization most well-known for recruiting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress, launching the Green New Deal sit-in at Nancy Pelosi's office alongside Sunrise Movement, and for electing a new generation of Green Deal champions in Congress like Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Marie Newman, and so many more. Rojas got her start in politics working on the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016.
Varshini Prakash is the executive director and cofounder of the Sunrise Movement and a leading voice for young Americans in the fight to stop climate change. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, on the BBC, and more. Varshini was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in 2019. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Guido Girgenti is the Media Director for Justice Democrats and a founding Board Member of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led movement to stop climate change and win a Green New Deal. He is a lifelong organizer for racial, economic, and climate justice, and lives in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY.
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This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books:
https://www.haymarketbooks.org
and Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.org
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/FFjk7m6SQEA
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
More Episodes
Mar 1, 2021
On the Road With Abolition with Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and more (6-12-20)
We are in a historic moment brought on by the consistent exertion of people power across the country and around the world. This has brought us to a place where our communities are poised to win significant victories against the violence of policing on a large scale. To guide us in this moment, we need to hold central that Abolition is both a vision and a political strategy. Part of this strategy is recognizing and actualizing that we cannot call for reforms that further entrench and legitimize policing in any form as a solution to social, economic or political problems. As prison industrial complex abolitionists, the reforms we call for in our demands must be aimed at diminishing the political power of policing.
How can we assess which proposals to support or to oppose in our organizing? What are some abolitionist proposals? Join Dean Spade, Woods Ervin & Kamau Walton from Critical Resistance, K Agbebiyi from Survived and Punished NY and Mariame Kaba from Project NIA and Survived & Punished to discuss these questions and more. Join us for this conversation to deepen our shared analysis and to discuss how we use abolition as a politic, practice and framework to move us toward liberation and self-determination.
Co-sponsored by Critical Resistance, Project NIA, Survived and Punished, Reclaim the Block, and Black Visions Collective.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/GHdg4dqBMyk
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Celebrating Juneteenth with Charlene Carruthers, Marc Lamont Hill, & Critical Resistance(6-13-20)
Join Critical Resistance for their annual fundraiser: this year a conversation with Charlene Carruthers & Marc Lamont Hill in honor of Juneteenth!
Two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued ordering states in the confederacy to release their slaves, Black people in Texas achieved their liberation from chattel bondage. On June 19,1865, General Order Number 3 was read from the Ashton Villa balcony in Galveston, Texas, that demanded that slaveholders free their slaves. That day, Juneteenth, has become an annual occasion for celebration, reflection, and education about the meaning of freedom and the on-going, universal struggle for liberation from domination.
These questions about the true meaning of freedom are more relevant than ever to the work of abolitionists and those working to eliminate the prison industrial complex (PIC) and its attendant harms.
To explore the legacy of Juneteenth and ongoing struggles for Black (and international) liberation, CR is happy to host a conversation between two prominent Black thought leaders and firebrands, Charlene Carruthers (BYP100 cofounder) and Marc Lamont Hill (BET news host).
For more information on Critical Resistance: https://criticalresistance.org
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/UazJ0_7o1vA
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
This is an Uprising! with Boots Riley and Noname (6-15-20)
Join us for a conversation on art, politics and revolution with Boots Riley and Noname.
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The global uprising against racism and police violence has brought millions of people around the world into the streets to make Black Lives Matter, and has catapulted radical demands for police and prison abolition into the center of public consciousness.
It’s also brought new urgency to discussions of reform and revolution, challenging the power of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism in the 21st century, and the role of artists can as participants in political struggles.
Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on art, politics, and revolution with Noname and Boots Riley, hosted by Khury Petersen-Smith.
Noname is a rapper from Chicago. She’s the founder of Noname’s Book Club.
Boots Riley is a rapper and filmmaker from Oakland.
Join Noname's Book Club here: https://www.nonamebooks.com/
Get a copy of Boots Riley's Book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/489-boots-riley
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/_i12zRBXObI
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Covid 19, Bolsonaro, and Resistance in Brazil (6-16-20)
Join us for a special video conference with front line leaders in the fight for social justice in Brazil.
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30,000 Brazilians have died from Covid-19 according to official figures, soon to be second highest number in the world behind the United States. The real number is twice that and more than 1,000 are dying each day. Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro flouts social distancing, has fired two health ministers, and is toying with a coup all as unemployment skyrockets.
Meanwhile, a coalition of more than 500 left-wing political parties, unions, and social movements are pushing for impeachment and, after two months of lockdown, street protests against Bolsonaro’s neo-fascist movement are on the rise at least partially inspired by the uprising in Minneapolis and in towns and cities across the United States.
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Presenters:
Preta Ferreira is a coordinator of the Homeless Movement of Downtown São Paulo (MSTC) and was one of the main organizers of the campaign to free Workers Party leader Lula from prison.
Sonia Guajajara is the executive coordinator of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and was the Party for Socialism and Freedom’s vice-presidential candidate in 2018.
Moderated by Sabrina Fernandes from the editorial board of Jacobin Brasil.
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Sponsored by Haymarket Books, Jacobin Brasil, Left Movement for Socialism, Insurgência, Resistência, Ruptura, Punto Rojo, Spectre, New Politics, No Borders News, and Rampant.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/YhaAYAQ0KU4
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
#SayHerName Charleena Lyles: Police Murder and the Uprising for Black Lives (6-16-20)
Join Katrina Johnson, Michael Bennett, Nikkita Oliver and Jesse Hagopian to talk about justice for Charleena Lyles and Black Lives Matter.
Katrina Johnson, Charleena Lyles' cousin, will join Michael Bennett, Nikkita Oliver and Jesse Hagopian to talk about the struggle for justice for Charleena and the new uprising for Black Lives.
The mass uprising in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd around the world has created bold new possibilities for the Black Lives Matter Movement. Bold incentives are being taken around the country to defund, disarm, and dismantle policing.
As the African American Policy institute raised by launching #SayHerName, much of the focus of police violence has been given to the killing of Black men, and Black women and transgendered people have not received the same attention. The recent murder of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician, who was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department by police is one case that deserves more attention. Another is Charleena Lyles.
On June 18, 2017, two Seattle police officers entered the apartment of Charleena Lyles. The police had been called by Charleena because she feared someone was breaking into her home. Within minuets of entering the apartment, the officers shot her down in a hail of seven bullets, with at least three of them in the back. The officers alleged they had to use lethal force because Charleena had a paring knife. One of the officers was supposed to have a taser, but had not properly charged it, so he did not bring it with him–a violation of department policy. Charleena was pregnant and was killed in front of three of her four kids, who had to be carried over her body to leave the apartment.
Join a conversation about next steps in winning justice for Charleena and her family and how her story connects to the new movement for Black Lives in the streets today.
Katrina Johnson works for the Public Defenders Association as a Project Manager diverting people out of the criminal legal system into community based resources—instead of jail and prosecution. Katrina became a social justice activist/advocate and spokesperson for her family in June of 2017, after her first cousin Charleena Lyles was killed in her home in North Seattle after police officers responded to the location to investigate a theft Charleena had reported. Katrina works with other families who have lost loved ones to the use of lethal force in Washington State and around the county.
Michael Bennett is a three-time Pro Bowler, Pro Bowl MVP, Super Bowl Champion, and two-time NFC Champion. He has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter Movement, women’s rights, and other social justice causes. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans by The Root, was the Seattle Seahawks nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award, and was honored along with his brother Martellus with a BET Shine a Light award for exceptional service. He is the author of Things That Make White People Uncomfortable.
Nikkita Oliver is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. Nikkita is the co-executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing engaged youth-led community-based program.
Jesse Hagopian is an award-winning educator and a leading voice on issues of educational equity and social justice unionism. He is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine and is the co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives, and editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/vAM_XkdCXJY
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Appalachia and the Health of the Nation with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and more(6-17-20)
Join Barbara Ellen Smith, Lesley-Marie Buer, and Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson as they discus single health issues such as black lung, overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C, COVID-19, in Appalachia and what they reveal about the cracks in America's health and health care systems in general.
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Most responses to these single issues have done little to change the overall systems, but there are initiatives and groups that offer glimpses of what change could look like. They will explore topics such as mutual aid, researcher/clinician/community member coalitions, harm reduction, street medics and how they can be applied in Appalachia and beyond.
Lesly-Marie Buer is an activist and public health practitioner at Positively Living/Choice Health Network in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her work on substance use and harm reduction has appeared insuch publications as Boston Review, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and North American Dialogue.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson is a 33 year old, Affrilachian (Black Appalachian), working class woman, born and raised in Southeast Tennessee. She is the Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center in New Market, TN. She has served as president of the Black Affairs Association at East Tennessee State University and the Rho Upsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a long-time activist working around issues of mountaintop removal mining, and environmental racism in central and southern Appalachia, and has served on the National Council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition. She is an active participant in the Movement for Black Lives and is on the governance council of the Southern Movement Assembly.
Barbara Ellen Smith has participated in and written about movements for social justice in Appalachia and the U.S. South for more than forty years. She is professor emerita at Virginia Tech
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To order a copy of Rx Appalachia: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1496-rx-appalachia
To pre-order a copy of Digging Our Own Graves: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781642592757
For more info on the Highlander Research & Education Center: https://www.highlandercenter.org/
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/Gi2rOa2Wvo0
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
