Climate Justice Forum & Reception Bring Together Grassroots Groups, Leaders and Supporters at the Boston Public Library

On May 10, hundreds of community members, climate justice supporters, and grassroots organizations gathered with Grassroots International and the Boston Public Library to share stories and hear words of wisdom from international Climate Justice leaders:

• Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist, author and columnist
• Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network
• Jade Percassi de Carvalho of Brazil’s Landless Worker’s Movement (MST)
• Carlos Marentes, Sr. of La Via Campesina

In the powerful Climate Justice Forum, speakers addressed our current political moment and how it impacts the struggle for climate justice, examples of Indigenous peoples’ resistance to the root causes of climate change, connections between migrant justice and climate change, and how climate issues affect rural communities in Brazil.  They emphasized how much grassroots organizing matters and how social movements create real solutions to the climate crisis. Watch the full forum below!

Stay tuned for our ongoing conversations around Climate Justice and funding real solutions. Follow us here on our website, on Facebook or Twitter and with these hashtags: #GrassrootsClimateJustice and #FundClimateSolutions.

Watch the entire forum:

Grassroots International’s Climate Justice Initiative
With the funds raised though the Initiative, we have been able to make the following grants to these organizations

• HOMEF – Health of Mother Earth Foundation (Nigeria): Community women environmental health monitoring project
• Rede Social – Social Network for Justice and Human Rights (Brazil): Environmental justice for Quilombola & traditional communities
• MPP – Peasant Movement of Papaye (Haiti): Support and reinforcement for the capacity of Peasants of the central
  plateau to face the climate crisis
• OFRANEH – Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras: Agroecology, forestation and defense of the Garífuna ancestral territory in response to the impacts of climate change
• MLA – Maya Leaders Alliance (Belize): Strengthening the collective authority of the Maya Q’eqchi and Mopan of southern Belize on the implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice Maya Land Rights Orders
• IEN – Indigenous Environmental Network (US): Organizing to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline
• La Via Campesina International: Cultivating Climate Justice for peasant-led global and local action
• MPNKP – National Congress of the Papaye Peasant Movement (Haiti): Urgent project to respond to the disaster caused by Hurricane Matthew
• UAWC – Union of Agricultural Work Committees (Palestine): Exchange visit learning climate change mitigation techniques by observing other nations’ experiences
• MAB – Movement of People Affected by Dams (Brazil):  Social and Environmental Justice for Madeira River communities in Rondônia
• Movement of People Affected by Dams (Latin America/Brazil): Building a united front across Latin America of grassroots groups resisting hydro-electric dams
• SER Mixe – Mixe Peoples Services (Mexico): Preserving the land and human rights of Indigenous peoples in Mexico
• COPINH – Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras: Strengthening Lenca human and resource
  rights
• MST – Landless Workers Movement (Brazil):Women, power, and agroecology in the Amazon region
• UNOSJO – Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (Mexico): The Resilience of Zapotec communities in the face of climate change

Calls to Action

Things you can do to promote Climate Justice wherever you are:

La Vía Campesina: Sign letter in support of UN Declaration of Peasant Rights, before the next round of negotiations in Geneva, May 15-19: https://peasantsrights.eu/

Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN): Connect with IEN’s Keep It In the Ground campaign, divestment, reinvestment, and more: http://www.ienearth.org/

Stand in solidarity with the Landless Workers Movement (MST): Follow the MST on Twitter and on Facebook and Brasil de Fato on Twitter and on Facebook.

Support the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, to suspend US military aid to Honduras: Sign on now

Grassroots International: Stay engaged and join our family, to stand in solidarity with social movements for climate justice, locally, nationally, and internationally (including LVC, MST, IEN, and more). Join our email list today!

Greater Boston Area Actions:

Support and connect with the local work of our local co-hosts, including:

GreenRoots and the environmental justice community in Chelsea

Neighbor to Neighbor

Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance

Alternatives for Community and Environment:

• Volunteer for community garden build-outs this spring! Contact ACE for more info at 617-442-3343 or olmis@ace-ej.org

Green Justice Coalition of Community Labor United:

• Let’s slash Boston’s climate footprint and bring renewable power to everyone in Boston! Boston residents, please call your city councilors, including the at-large councilors, at 617-635-3040 and ask them to support Community Choice Energy. For background, see CommunityChoiceBoston.org.
• Join us on Tuesday, May 16 from 6-8 PM for “13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance: US Tour with author Melissa Cardoza and singer Karla Lara,” two Honduran activists/artists honoring the life of Berta Cáceres. Find us at GreenRoots, 277 Marginal Street #1 in Chelsea.