It Takes Roots participates in Santiago to support the Chilean social movements and uprisings throughout Chile and in Madrid, Spain for the UN Climate Talks- the UN COP25
The 25th annual UN Conference of Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is taking place from Dec. 2-13, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. We are on the ground to participate in inside and outside actions and events, together with international social movement groups. Our work at COP25 includes pushing back against Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which supports Carbon Pricing and offsets, exposing the thread of Geoengineering, building for a Just Transition, and to coordinate with others around Frontline Green New Deal work.
COP25 was initially scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile. However, a massive popular feminist and student uprising against neoliberalism, which started in Santiago, led the Chilean government to move COP25 to Spain. We are standing with the courageous Chilean social movements, who continue the resistance in the face of police repression and violence. We are in Chile in the streets, and we are taking part in the Cumbre de los Pueblos and the Carpa de Mujeres, to build an alternative to the extractive systems of production and consumption, which have caused climate change.
GOALS OF THE IT TAKES ROOTS DELEGATION
Madrid, Spain: Heads of state and international leaders meet in Spain from December 2-13, 2019, for COP25, the UN climate-change talks. Social collectives and organizations have called for a Social Summit for Climate.
- Strategic alignment with social movement allies. In the context of the UNFCCC and global climate movement a number of our global movement allies are mobilizing to the COP. We are coordinating most closely with Friends of the Earth International, Corporate Accountability, La Via Campesina, DCJ (Demand Climate Justice) and European climate activist forces.
- Frontline intervention against Carbon Markets. We will disrupt the entrenchment of a global carbon market regime through article 6 of the Paris Agreement and the Techno Fix dangerous false solutions of geoengineering.
- Advance social movement articulation of Just Transition. Just Transition is a strategy for addressing the climate crisis at the root–capitalism and the extractive economy. Release Just Transition Primer & engage in discussion and events around Just Transition frames with organized labor and other movement forces.
- Build Practice around the Frontline Green New Deal. Bring attention to our strategies and our frames. Engage with the North American popular front broader forces who will be present at the COP to keep frontline voices and frameworks at the center, including the Feminist Green New Deal Press Event.
GOALS IN SANTIAGO, CHILE
Chilean popular movements announced that even tough COP25 moved to Spain, the peoples mobilization would continue. We joined the Cumbre de los Pueblos.
1) Stand with the Chilean Uprising against Neoliberalism and State terror. We are standing with the courageous Chilean social movements in the struggle against neoliberalism and against the repressive Piñera government. The steadfast rebellion for social justice in Chile has been attacked with militarized state terror. We condemn the human rights violations and we will join the protests in the streets of Santiago, Chile together with the World March of Women. The leadership of women in the uprising has been inspiring.
2) Deep engagement with International Allies and Support for Popular Movements in the Americas. Strategic engagement with social movement allies in the context of a the popular uprisings in Chile and Ecuador, and the contestation for power between popular movements and a global right-wing realignment of power from Bolivia to Venezuela, Brazil, Honduras, and across the Americas. We will build with the World March of Women, ANAMURI and La Via Campesina, Amigos de la Tierra, the Movement of People Affected by Dams, the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, and Indigenous Peoples Movements from across the Americas.
3) Political Education & Member Leadership Development. We will sharpen our articulation of Feminist Economy & challenge Neoliberalism & Neofascism through participation in the Cumbre de los Pueblos, the womens, campesino, and workers assemblies, as well as the escuelita feminista.
4) Advance Social Movement Articulation of Just Transition. Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This means approaching production and consumption cycles holistically and waste-free. The transition itself must be just and equitable; redressing past harms and creating new relationships of power for the future through reparations. If the process of transition is not just, the outcome will never be. Just Transition describes both where we are going and how we get there.
More Political Context on COP25 and the Cumbre de los Pueblos:
The global conditions for the struggle to protect Mother Earth, humanity and many life systems threatened by the severity of the climate crisis face very difficult conditions, as we are well aware. The rise of far rightwing leadership over key lungs of Mother Earth with Bolsonaro in Brazil and Modi in India, alongside the dominant super power of the US under the Trump administration are major set backs in a critical historical moment. In this context, the impacts of the global climate negotiations are very unclear, and remain operating within a corporate/capital captured logic where we are seeing very low ambitions, and a lack of real regulatory and divest/invest interventions that are essential to actually cooling the planet.
For It Takes Roots, COP25 is a significant moment as the first time in many years when the UNFCCC COP was scheduled to return to the Global South where popular frontline movements are much more deeply rooted. Chile is particularly significant in this historical moment because of the massive popular uprising rejecting neoliberalism and demanding a new constitution.
The spark for the revolt that started October 14 was a 30-Peso increase to the subway fare in Santiago, the country’s capital and largest city. But demonstrations quickly escalated into a general protest against the decades of neoliberal economic policies carried out by successive governments that increased the cost of living and marginalized and disenfranchised the population, leading to greater social and economic inequality. As a popular slogan of the protest goes: “It’s not about 30 pesos; it’s about 30 years.” “Neoliberalism was born in Chile and will die in Chile” has become a rallying cry for the movement.
In an effort to block global attention to the popular movement, and to hide the brutal violence of the Chilean police, President Piñera announced on Oct 30th that Chile would no longer host COP25. The official COP meeting was quickly moved to Madrid, Spain on the same dates. A number of our social movement allies, including the World March of Women, La Via Campesina, the Trade Union Confederation of Chile, and a number of other Chilean popular movements announced that the COP was moving to Spain, but the Cumbre de los Pueblos would still continue in Chile . Social movements are focusing on the Cumbre de los Pueblos from Dec 2-8. The core objective of the La Cumbre de los pueblos seeks to mobilize and build a global social force, in order to build an alternative to the neoliberal production and consumption model that overcomes the social and ecological crisis that puts the future of life on the planet at imminent risk.
¡Alerta! Livestream Webinar from Spain and Chile
The two delegations put together a joint webinar on December 5, connecting the mobilization against neoliberalism in Chile and the participation of indigenous and frontline youth at COP25 in Madrid, Spain.
Watch the recording to learn how we are pushing back against Carbon Market schemes at COP25, and why addressing only carbon emissions without challenging the growth-at-all-costs economy doesn’t resolve the real crisis.
Speakers also talked about the importance of the popular uprising in Chile, and about frontline community solutions that are being discussed at the Cumbre de los Pueblos in Santiago, Chile.
Webinar presenters: Mafalda Galdames, of the World March of Women, Chile and the peasant organization ANAMURI, Christian Rodriguez, of Ironbound Community Corporation, Eriel Deranger of Indigenous Climate Action, and Nyiesha Mallett of UPROSE. Moderator: Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network
To read more about It Takes Roots at last year’s UN COP24 on the home page of http://ittakesroots.org
Please visit http://co2colonialism.org/ to learn more about Carbon Pricing. Toolkit created by Climate Justice Alliance and Indigenous Environmental Network.