Our Points of Unity — The Climate Action Movement

CAM: OUR POINTS OF UNITY

At the Climate Action Movement, we strive to always uphold these values in the organizing that we do. We understand that we are one small piece of a larger movement, and aim to contextualize our work using these points of unity.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Climate justice demands changing current systems of power, not merely making them “environmentally sustainable.”

In focusing on climate and environmental justice, we recognize the rights of individuals and communities to clean water, clean air, and a liveable world both now and in the future.
We believe a just transition from an extractive to a regenerative economy is essential to climate justice. This means redressing past harm to frontline communities, creating equitable relationships of power, and supporting workers whose current jobs uphold the extractive economy (inspired by the Climate Justice Alliance).
We identify capitalism as a key driver of the climate crisis, creating systems of unequal power and wealth distribution. We reject false solutions that focus on individual actions of the many instead of on these systems.
We challenge an economic system that prioritizes profit above all else, and ignores the rights and autonomy of human beings, other animals, and ecological complexity.
We reject colonialism (as defined by Wikipedia) and neoliberalism (as defined by SE Wikipedia), acknowledging them as pillars of environmental racism, exploitation, and injustice.
We recognize that the United States is responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s cumulative emissions and bears special responsibility to address this crisis.

SOLIDARITY:

Social, economic, ecological, and other injustices are systemic and intersectional in nature. We pledge to work in solidarity with those fighting oppression and mitigating its impacts, because all struggles for justice are intertwined.

We respect and credit the work of other movements. We strive to maintain coalitions with frontline communities and radical groups whose struggles overlap with ours, and integrate their goals and values into our work. We will use our voices to elevate this work through our actions and messaging.
We are committed to actively showing up for and supporting other movements based on respectful interdependence. We do this to build trusting communities, understanding that they are essential to our movements.
We seek to continually educate ourselves about all struggles against oppression to understand and align our fights.
We work to understand our individual identities and privileges in the context of the larger movement and will not speak for those we do not represent.
We believe in naming systems of oppression to erode their power. We stand in solidarity with fights against the following (non-exhaustive list of) oppressive systems: sexism, racism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, ageism, and unjustly imposed hierarchy.

INTERNAL CULTURE:

We strive to create a culture that uplifts humanity and democracy in our work, understands that people are engaging from all levels, and builds and maintains restorative practices to sustain ourselves as people and as a working organization.

We take care of ourselves and each other because we cannot do good work if we do not take time for people’s wellbeing.
We welcome all whose work aligns with our principles and values. We allow space for internal learning and disagreement, holding ourselves and each other accountable for our actions, and building relationships based on mutual respect.
We do our work with love and intention. We strive to create environments where people feel safe, included, and heard. That means we prioritize space for people who are most directly affected by the climate crisis and the systemic oppressions causing it.
We know we will make mistakes; we appreciate and encourage feedback from those inside and outside our organization and understand criticism as an opportunity to grow.

HOW WE ORGANIZE:

We commit to radical, responsible, and non-hierarchical organizing as a means of building power and creating the change we want to see.

We use direct action and disruption, lobbying, educating, and relationship-building as tactics to create change. Actions should mitigate harm to communities and organizers alike.
We believe in using civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action to strategically bring about political and cultural change. We consider this strategy carefully, while keeping in mind the historic and ongoing trauma, and the potentially severe consequences for the people who choose to employ these tactics (inspired bytaken from 350 Seattle).
We work within authoritative, hierarchical systems of power if doing so mitigates the harm they are causing, but we maintain the goal of disrupting these systems and working towards more equitable distributions of power.
We commit to helping the next generation of organizers by archiving and sharing information as well as promoting others’ organizing work.

WHY WE CENTER THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN:

We push the University of Michigan to be a leader for climate justice because we recognize its significant influence in the systems and communities in which it is embedded and that, as stakeholders, we have a responsibility to improve it.

We organize around, within, and against the University because:

Institutions of higher education such as U-M have the power and the responsibility to develop and model the “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” necessary to contain the climate crisis.
U-M is complicit in climate injustices through investing in utilities and companies which exploit land and people, reinforcing the unjust power structures that have created the climate crisis, and failing to account for the harm it has caused. The individuals and communities that the University’s actions impact are often not involved in decision-making; we will form relationships and work within the institution to make our voices heard.
U-M is an example of the increasing corporatization of higher education — we seek to hold it accountable to its stated mission to serve the public good.
U-M has largely chosen not to exercise its power for climate justice and therefore represents a piece of the oppressive systems that exist all around us by upholding capitalism, colonialism, exploitation, and disregard for the needs of marginalized communities, among others. Its authoritative and hierarchical power structures mirror society’s most harmful institutions—by changing power dynamics here, we offer a model for others.
U-M must prepare future generations of leaders for a radically transformed future, and empower them to enact community-level changes that are just and equitable. We work to shift the conversation and educate students who go on to implement what they have learned in society more broadly.
Our fight to change U-M is part of and strengthened by the national movement of student organizers urging their universities to urgently address the climate crisis.