5 May, 2010 — The Bullet Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 351

I attended the alternative Climate Conference in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba as part of an eight-person Quebec activist delegation. I came back convinced that we witnessed a turning point in the global Climate Justice movement.

Up to now it has been very difficult to link environmental demands to social justice issues. The mainstream ecological movement, spurred by many NGOs, has generally avoided linking these issues under the spurious notion that a “realistic” approach of working with governments and the UN would yield significant results.

But as the spectacular failure of the UN-sponsored Copenhagen Conference of last December has clearly demonstrated, nearly 20 years of government summit-hopping and no less than 15 international conferences have yielded absolutely nothing in terms of binding international agreements. Furthermore, the Kyoto Accord lies in tatters and greenhouse gas emissions are rising dangerously, threatening the world with major ecological catastrophes by the end of this century. Continue reading →