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(Versión en español más abajo)
*Decolonize Climate Justice* is a call to transform our ideas, practices, and organizing to
protect the earth and its inhabitants from ecological, economic, and political devastation. One
day before the People’s Climate March, as part of the NYC Climate Convergence, Free UniversityNYC gathers to host teach-ins, workshops, indigenous performances, direct action trainings, and
more.
Those most affected by the first symptoms of climate change such as extreme weather and
environmental disasters brought on by capitalist exploitation are indigenous people worldwide,
marginalized majorities of the Global South and poor people of color in the Global North. These
connections are not coincidental: the same systems of thought and action that devalue and deaden the
world around us also function to devalue human lives and cultures.
Important worldwide movements on the frontlines of environmental crises are led by the same
communities who are first and most acutely impacted by environmental degradation, as well as by
refugees who bring experiential lessons across borders. And yet, the face of climate justice activism
is often white, Western, middle class, and the issues raised by such activism frequently exclude the
urgent perspectives and priorities of those most impacted by climate change. Free University-NYC
seeks to reverse this trend by prioritizing and re-centering questions about the intersections of race,
class, politics and environment in order to decolonize the climate justice movement.
From the struggles for the right to water and against the privatization of natural resources in Bolivia
and Detroit, to the resistance against over-policing of communities of color in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina and the murder of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, it becomes obvious that the demand for
ecological sustainability requires confronting systemic inequality.
Meanwhile, international climate summits are stalled from taking emergency actions by the empires
whose governments and companies are most responsible for the mounting disasters of rising
coastlines, rampant pollution, and land seizures and destruction. We can’t wait for limited marketbased solutions from the top; we must create anti-racist, public solutions ourselves—locally,
regionally, globally.
We invite all artists, historians, critics, performers, gardeners, planet-lovers and more to join our
collective insurgence by hosting a discussion, sharing skills, presenting a performance, etc., at this
community education event. We specifically seek to amplify usually marginalized voices and aim to
create a welcoming environment for horizontal, communal learning.
Themes:
- histories and current examples of grassroots resistance to ecocide and genocide
- the systemic extraction of natural resources and exploitation of labor at the expense of indigenous
cultures
- cultural and artistic responses to climate change
- the interdependence of imperialism, capitalism and environmental destruction
- connections between the struggle for climate justice and racial and gender justice
- degrowth and other alternative frameworks to the capitalist imperative of expansion
- economic and political privilege and its relationship to climate justice activism
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*Descolonicemos la justicia climática* es un llamado a transformar nuestras ideas, prácticas y
formas de organizarnos para proteger la tierra y sus habitantes de la devastación ecológica,
económica y política. Un día antes de la Marcha Popular por el Clima, como parte de la
Convergencia Climática en Nueva York, Free University- NYC acoga talleres, performances,
sesiones informativas de acción directa, entre otras muchas actividades.
L@s más afectad@s en todo el mundo por los primeros síntomas del cambio climático - tales como
el clima extremo y los desastres ambientales producidos por la explotación capitalista - son las
poblaciones indígenas, las mayorías marginalizadas del Sur Global y la gente de color pobre en el
Norte Global. Estas conexiones no son una coincidencia: los sistemas de pensamiento y acción que
empobrecen y sofocan el mundo que nos rodea son los mismos que empobrecen las vidas y las
culturas humanas.
En la primera línea de las crisis medioambientales surgen movimientos globales, liderados por las
comunidades que sufren más el impacto de la degradación medioambiental, y por refugiados que
portan consigo experiencias a través de las fronteras. Y sin embargo, los rostros del activismo por la
justicia climática acostumbran a ser blancos, occidentales, de clase media y, del mismo modo, las
cuestiones que tal activismo promueve excluyen frecuentemente las urgentes perspectivas y
prioridades de quienes se encuentran más afectados por el cambio climático. Free University trata de
revertir (frenar, invertir) esta tendencia dando prioridad y centralidad a discusiones acerca de las
intersecciones de raza, clase, política y medio ambiente con el fin de descolonizar el movimiento por
la justicia climática.
De las luchas por el agua y contra la privatización de los recursos naturales en Bolivia y Detroit, a la
resistencia contra el régimen de vigilancia de comunidades de color tras el Huracán Katrina y el
asesinato de un joven desarmado en Ferguson, resulta obvio que la demanda de sustentabilidad
requiere confrontar la desigualdad sistémica.
Mientras tanto, las cumbres internacionales sobre el clima se muestran inútiles para tomar medidas
de emergencia, bloqueadas por los imperios cuyos gobiernos y companías son los máximos
responsables de los crecientes desastres causados por la elevación del nivel del mar, la polución
rampante, el robo de tierras y la destrucción. No podemos esperar a soluciones limitadas, basadas en
el mercado y emitidas desde arriba: debemos crear soluciones públicas y antirracistas a nivel local,
regional y global.
Free University invita a todos los artistas, historiadores, críticos, performers, jardineros, amantes de
planeta y a todas las personas que quieran unirse a esta insurgencia colectiva organizando
discusiones, compartiendo saberes, conocimientos y habilidades, presentando performances, etc. en
una jornada de educación comunitaria. Buscamos especialmente amplificar voces usualmente
marginadas y tratamos de abrir un ambiente propicio para el aprendizaje horizontal y comunitario.
Temas:
- Historias y ejemplos presentes de resistencias de base al ecocidio y el genocidio.
- La extracción sistemática de recursos naturales y la explotación de las culturas indígenas
- Respuestas artísticas y culturales al cambio climático.
- Interdependencia del imperialismo, el capitalismo y la destrucción medioambiental.
- Conexiones entre la lucha por la justicia climática y la justicia racial y de género.
- Decrecimiento y otros marcos alternativos al imperativo capitalista de la expansión.
- Privilegios económicos y políticos y su relación con el activismo por la justicia climática.
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The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical community education and
an attempt to create education as it ought to be, building on the historic tradition of movement
freedom schools. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day, 2012,
Free University-NYC has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in
parks, public spaces, museums, and subway stations in New York City.
Our project is born out of a recognition that the current system of higher learning is as unequal as
it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and
undervalued. With tuition increasing at public and private colleges, the exploitation of adjunct
labor, and the larger and larger amounts of debt that students are expected to take on, a university
education is becoming a rarefied commodity only available to the few. As a study/action
alternative, Free University-NYC welcomes diverse networks of political education to learn,
grow, and transform society together.
Statement of Intentions
As participants in the Free University:
1. we support the empowerment of each person to challenge the histories and structures of
oppression that marginalize some, and divide us all. These may include ableism, ageism,
classism, heterosexism, racism, religious discrimination, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia,
among others.
2. we commit to learning about these different forms of oppression.
3. we understand individual freedoms are not above our collective safety, well-being, and ability
to function cooperatively; individual freedom without responsibility to the community is not the
Free University way.
4. we seek open and compassionate classrooms.
5. we encourage open and non-oppressive dialogues.
6. we strive for accessible interchanges of languages, knowledge, and discussions.
7. we understand and respect that there are differences among us.
8. we expect to listen and be listened to.
9. we are confident we can learn without policing or being policed.
Deliberate disruptions, accusations, violence, or other violations of this code are not within the
spirit nor the hopes of the Free University.
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Activities Schedule
*Si necesita traducción, por favor hable con nosotros
en el área de información cerca de la entrada East 5th St*
10:30am
Welcome/Opening Remarks/Statement of Intentions
Ongoing/All day
Round Up - button making with Jonette Jamison (11am - 1pm)
This is a button-making workshop for Peoples Climate Marchers. All materials will be provided. For ages
5 and up. If you want to make a button showing WHO you are marching for, bring a copy of a photo no
bigger than 2 inches in diameter.
Decolonizing The Word and the World: Writing Climate Justice
(A Portable Writing Center Virtual Writing Workshop) - Susan Naomi Bernstein
On the third anniversary of the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street encampment, we remember an
affirmation that energizes the movement still: “A better world is possible.” In Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, Paulo Freire offers connection to Occupy’s germinal moment: “The naming of the world,
which is an act of creation and re-creation, is not possible without love.”
What would it take to decolonize climate justice? What would we want to create instead? How would our
senses experience decolonized climate justice? What would we hear, taste, smell, see, feel? For this
writing prompt, imagine this world in writing. Include the bolded nouns as a starting point. Remember to
include the underlined word possible. Read aloud to each other when finished and post them on a google
doc at http://goo.gl/4ty3RD, edit and/or email them to susan.naomi@gmail.com. I will collect and post
the writing to the Free University facebook page and the Free University blog.
11am-12pm
Si, Se Pudo: Defeating the Gasoducto and Creating a Sustainable Puerto Rico - David Galarza
NY Contra el Gasoducto welcomes Dr. Arturo Massol, Biologist and professor at the University of Puerto
Rico and an important member of Casa Puebo de Adjuntas, a community organization in the central
mountains of Puerto Rico that defeated two multi-national mining companies 30 years ago and more
recently the Government of Puerto Rico in its attempt to build a destructive 92-mile long gas pipeline.
Local activist David Galarza will join Dr. Massol in discussing highlights of the campaign, the
importance of solidarity, and future projects like the Model Forest and another to save the government
millions in street lighting.
Direct Action Front for Palestine
We would like to talk about Palestine and climate in the ongoing struggle against apartheid, ethnic
cleansing and settler colonization. We will go over how the Gaza war in part was 'fueled' by a desire to
control natural gas and how the subjugation of the Palestinian people includes the pillaging of resources,
the advancement of a neoliberal project, that forces Palestinians to pay a disproportionate cost for the
benefits Israeli corporations.
The End of the Apocalypse. Imagining a Green Utopia - Nicholas Powers
The apocalyptic rhetoric of the environmental movement has had the unintended effect of making change
difficult. In this workshop, we explore the origins of catastrophe imagery and possible utopian
alternatives. Specifically looking at the Black Power Movement, Surrealism and the Gay Liberation
Movement for examples of utopian politics.
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Unkoch Your Campus - Rosie McGourty-Herring
Private Interests are taking over our campuses! David and Charles Koch are funneling millions into
higher education in exchange to have their libertarian agenda taught to unknowing students!
Over 100 universities have been given $28,903,854 by corporate interests from 2010-2012. Our workshop
aims to give students the tools necessary to create transparency and accountability policies within our
universities to alleviate the problem.
12pm-1pm
Climate Debt: Obligations of Industrial Polluters to the Global South - Andrew Ross, George
Caffentzis, Jim Costanzo (Aaron Burr Society)
The United Nations acknowledges that the world’s poorest nations will suffer the most from climate
change. And it has been established that industrial polluters have a responsibility to help developing
nations deal with the effects of global warming. This session will discuss these issues based on two
perspectives of Climate Debt from the books “Creditocracy” and “Debt Resistance Operation Manuel.”
There will also be frontline reports on the citizen’s revolution in Ecuador, the Mexican Zapatista
movement, and Oilwatch’s international seminar on Capitalism and Oil from Ecuador. Sovereign Debt
will also be discussed in relationship to climate change and economic justice.
Large Scale Mining and Indigenous Resistance - Elias Holtz
This workshop will explore how large-scale mining in our hemisphere is attacking indigenous land rights
at the same time that it is destroying the environment in places like Mexico, the Dominican Republic,
Peru and Bolivia.
There will be an emphasis on how we can forge hemispheric solidarity against our common enemy:
capitalism.
The Beehive Design Collective presents Mesoamérica Resiste! - Emma McCumber
The Beehive Collective is an all-volunteer, activist arts collective dedicated to "cross-pollinating the
grassroots" by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools.
The Bees will present Mesoamérica Resiste, the final installment in their trilogy about globalization in the
Americas. They will share (and seek) stories of resistance to megaprojects, as well as community defense,
autonomy, and cultural and ecological diversity. Using massive portable murals, they’ll explore ways
people are fighting back against a global economy based on colonialism, land grabs, and exploitation, all
over the globe – and draw connections to ongoing struggles in North America.
What is the Environmentalism of the Poor? Lessons from the Middlebury School of the
Environment - Gregory Rosenthal, Charlotte Ahern, and Marjeela Basij-Rasikh
Gregory Rosenthal (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Charlotte Ahern (Villanova
University), and Marjeela Basij-Rasikh (Middlebury College) will talk about their experiences in the class
"Environmentalism and the Poor" at the Middlebury School of the Environment in 2014. Copies of the
course syllabus and our co-written report on forms of environmental resistance will be distributed. We
will also talk about our service learning project on the topic of gleaning. We hope to engage workshop
participants in a discussion on the themes of environment, poverty, and justice.
Non-Violent Direct Action - Isaac Martín (Ruckus Society)
For the group that is new to the concepts, this training provides an interactive introduction to Nonviolent
Direct Action and Civil Disobedience. Participants identify the benefits of using NVDA, explore what
makes an action effective, and clarify their personal beliefs about what nonviolence means.
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1pm-2pm
The Commons: Building a Sustainable Environment and Economic Justice through Direct
Democracy - Alexa Bradley, Dario Azzellini, Jim Costanzo, Marina Sitrin, Oscar Olivera, Susana
Draper, Vicente Rubio
Around the world local communities are creating worker, food and other types of cooperatives while
building new social and economic relationships. These relationships exist outside of corporate capitalism
and are based on mutual aid and direct democracy. People realize that we live under a broken political
economy that values profits over people and the environment. This session will address different
movements from the perspective of the Global South and European nations living under IMF imposed
austerity. Activist and writers will discuss current tactics of resistance and strategies for moving beyond
capitalism to establish the Common Good based on our Commonwealth.
Ecosocialism 101 - Elias Holtz
Can we save the planet under capitalism? This workshop take an anti-capitalist look at the environmental
crisis and puts for the idea of Ecosocialism - a planned democratic economy that ensures the health for all
people as well as the planet. The workshop will look at environmental issues from a feminist and working
class lens, and touch on Environmental racism. We will put forth ideas like dismantling the Pentagon, the
world’s #1 Polluter and explore Ecosocialist ideas beyond alternative energy.
Kapit Bisig Kabataan Network Reportback - Joelle Eliza Lingat
Kapit Bisig Kabataan means “Youth Link Arms” in Tagalog. It is a national Filipino American youth and
student-led relief network built in response to Typhoon Haiyan and future disasters. Our aim is to support
survivors of calamities in the Philippines by raising funds, organizing relief and rehabilitation missions,
and advocating for long- term solutions to improve disaster preparedness. This workshop will center on
our trip to the Philippines this past summer. Our experiences lie at the intersection of increased
militarization and US imperialism, environmental degradation, and disaster capitalism.
Racism's Role in the Colonialization of Eco-Systems in Communities of Color and Poor
Communitiies - Lorraine Curreley
My workshop deals specifically with racism's colonialization of eco-systems in communities of color and
poor communities. We will as a workshop define, interpret and provide examples of its impact on our
quality of life. We will look at the quality of air we breathe, the ratio of specific illnesses to that of
wealthier communities, the food we consume and the services or lack of to these communities.
2pm-3pm
Yasuni-ITT: Ecuador's revolutionary environmental policy - Dave Backer
In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to give legal rights to ecological systems. Shortly
thereafter, the country launched a revolutionary campaign called Yasuni-ITT. This initiative sought to
protect a fifth of Ecuador's Amazon Rain Forest from petroleum exploitation by asking rich countries who
consume oil to pay the Ecuadorian government not to the drill the land. Ecuador said to the world: "We
won't ruin the lungs of the world if you compensate us half of the value of the oil that's under the ground."
This workshop will study the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, why it failed, and explore possibilities for similar
initiatives in the US and abroad.
El the Bronx river and stream health and poetry/Bronx River como torrente de salud - Miriam
Ventura
El Bronx River ha convocado muchas voces de amor y gratitud, en diversos aspectos culturales, es tiempo
de retornarle a sus aguas un espiritu distinto al de la simple limpieza de sus aguas, a la filantropia de
grupos e instituciones que bien hacen por mantenerlo limpio, al Bronx River le hace falta la voz que sus
aguas convocan: La musica, el ritmo, la identidad, la poesia. Como hacer poesia desde su pequeo pero
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significativo torrente, desde su extension a las más de cinco ciudades que contempla, desde el Bronx en
New York City hasta varias ciudades de Westchester County, como amasar poesia con toda la carga del
Bronx River.
Climate and Diet - Moses Seenarine
US spends $38 billion each year to subsidize meat and dairy. We need national and global climate policy
that recognizes that we will not be able to slow the pace of climate change without a dramatic shift in
Western consumption patterns and a shift in direction in the East and Global South, curtailing rising rates
of animal product consumption.
UnOccupy Corporate Control of Climate - Sumumba Sobukwe
This workshop will be about how deeply corporations influence policy that affects and INfects the climate
and environment for ALL communities but particularly communities of color.
Getting to know the space...
Garden entrances/exits: at the gates on E4th st and E5th streets.
Bathrooms/food: Port-a-potty at El Jardín’s 5th street entrance. Several restaurants and cafes on
Avenue C, some on Avenue D.
Closest subways: F train at 2nd ave and Houston. L train at 1st ave and East 14th St.
Twigs of El Jardín’s History (from eljardindelparaiso.org):
1900-1980 — Ten tenement buildings are destroyed in the area that becomes El Jardín del
Paraíso.
1960s-1970s — The stage is set for the re-emergence of community gardens during this time due
to three factors: a large influx of immigrants, predominantly from agrarian cultures; the
movement of many city-dwellers to the suburbs; and the deactivation of many fire houses due to
dwindling city budgets. The result is a dramatic increase in burned-out vacant lots. These empty
lots become the territory of drug dealers and the dumping grounds for rubble and toxic wastes
and yet they bring a new openness to this area of Manhattan. Two movements worked to bring
green spaces to the neighborhood of the Lower East Side: the homesteading and the gardening
movements. Homesteaders work to rehabilitate buildings. Gardeners removed the rubble and
turn the soil, reclaiming the vacant lots. El Jardín del Paraíso is founded by these two groups
who were inspired by the idea that the space was large enough to be a park and a community
garden.
1981 — El Jardín del Paraíso is created as a green space for use by the surrounding
Neighborhood. Homesteaders, religious leaders, the Junior League, and the principal of P.S. 15
petition Community Board #3 to make it a permanent park.
1999 — The New York City Planning Commission grants park status to El Jardín del Paraíso
with the stipulation that the park "contain community gardens and passive recreation areas." The
park is dedicated on October 22, 1999 by Commissioner Henry Stern. El Jardín del Paraíso is the
first new park built on the Lower East Side in almost thirty years.
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Reading/Viewing Materials (Decolonized!)
*Available at FreeUniversityNYC.org/decolonize-climate-justice-suggested-readings*
(in no particular order)
— Aura Bogado, “With Climate Change, a Bad Deal Gets Even Worse for the Global South,” Power Up!
Divest Fossil Fuels: Student Convergence on February 23, 2013, at Swarthmore College.
— Kat Yang-Stevens, “Quelling Dissent: How the Big Greens Contain & Dissolve Resistance,”
Groundwork for Praxis, August 2014.
— Oscar Olivera–Cochabamba organizer against water privatization–in conversation with Making
Worlds, NYC, June 20, 2013.
— Alexander Dwinell and Marcela Olivera, “The water is ours damn it!: Water commoning in Bolivia,”
Community Development Journal, January 2014.
— Alejandro Camargo, “Global Climate Change in Rural Colombia Is About More Than Just the
Climate,” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), July 23, 2014.
— “First scientific studies highlight an environmental Nakba in Palestine,” Bethlehem University, August
31, 2014.
— Deirdre Smith, “Why the Climate Movement Must Stand with Ferguson,” 350.org, August 20, 2014.
— Gregory Rosenthal’s students’ paper, “Forms of Working Class/Peasant Environmental Resistance,”
Summer 2014, Middlebury College.
— Naomi Klein, “Big Green is in Denial,” Salon, September 5, 2013; and This Changes Everything:
Capitalism Vs. The Climate, September 2015.
— Darwin Bond Graham, “Israeli Company Targeted by Oakland Blockade Imports Ammunition Into
US,” Truthout, August 28, 2014.
— Zoltán Glück, “Race, Class, and Disaster Gentrification,” Tidal Magazine, March 13, 2013.
— Phil Levin, “Toward Decolonizing Conservation,” The Nature Conservancy, February 5, 2014.
— John Vidal, “Climate change will hit poor countries hardest, study shows,” The Guardian, September
27, 2013.
— Rare Earth Catalog Tumblr.
— Unsettling America Wordpress.
Ongoing/Upcoming Events
- Friday 9/19 onwards: “People’s Climate Action Camp Against the Rockaway Pipeline” in Jacob
Riis Beach and B. 167 St. - facebook.com/norockawaypipeline
- Sunday 9/21 @11am onwards: "People's Climate March" in mid-Manhattan peoplesclimate.org/march
- Monday 9/22 @9am onwards: “Flood Wall Street” in Battery Park, Manhattan - floodwallstreet.net,
beyondthemarch.org
- Monday 9/22 @6pm-8:30pm: "CUNY Stands for Justice: From Ferguson to Palestine" in CUNY
Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave, Manhattan - facebook.com/events/959102910782363
- Wednesday 9/24 @4:30pm-7:45pm: “People’s General Assembly” in First Presbyterian Church, 12
West 12th St, Manhattan - apwld.org
- Thursday 9/25 @7pm: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous People’s History of the United
States in Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St, Manhattan - facebook.com/events/331897956967523
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- Friday 10/3 @7pm-11pm: “Open Mic #NYC2Palestine” in 520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn facebook.com/events/1464025527196093
- Saturday 10/4: People’s Climate March community debrief / Mayday Space Fundraiser maydayspace.org
- Saturday 10/11 @12pm-5pm: *Horizontal Art and Action* Free University in Campos Plaza, East
13th St. between Avenues C & D, Manhattan. - facebook.com/events/1505504096360596
- Saturday 10/11 @5:30pm: “The World Stands with Palestine” in Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz
Memorial and Educational Center, 3940 Broadway, Manhattan - facebook.com/events/714446095301696
- Thursday-Friday 10/16-17 @6:30pm: “Rare Earth” Screening, Conversation, and Catalog
Workshop in CUNY Graduate Center James Gallery, 365 Fifth ave, Manhattan centerforthehumanities.org/program/rare-earth, centerforthehumanities.org/program/rare-earth-catalogworkshop
- Monday 10/27 @6:30pm-8:30pm: “$15/hr for all! Social Service Workers Speak Out” in NYU
Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Manhattan - facebook.com/events/320695674770261
- ongoing until 11/16: “Self Determination Inside/Out: Prison Movements Reshaping Society” at
Interference Archive, 131 8th st #4, Brooklyn - interferencearchive.org
Stay connected with us
FreeUniversityNYC@gmail.com
FreeUniversityNYC.org
Facebook.com/FreeUniversityNYC
@FreeUnivNYC
Next Free University-NYC event:
*Horizontal Art and Action*
Saturday, October 11, 12pm-5pm
Campos Plaza, East 13th St. between Avenues C & D, Manhattan
*Horizontal Art and Action* Free University welcomes workshops, teach-ins, dialogues, and
performances by artists and community activists to learn and share power together (in Latin
America, a process called horizontalidad). In the wake of losing 5 Pointz, Brecht Forum,
Gathering of Tribes, Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, City College Morales/Shakur Center, 285 Kent,
and soon Death by Audio, and also seeing public art become the frontlines of gentrification, we
need art and actions that envision creative social change while practicing it. This event is part of
the Art in Odd Places Festival (ArtinOddPlaces.org).
Contribute an activity/volunteer: goo.gl/ki9So4
RSVP/share: facebook.com/events/1505504096360596/
Shout-outs of Gratitude!
Abundant thanks to the El Jardín del Paraíso community for welcoming us into your beautiful space,
Susana and Vicente for translation support, Susan for the visionary writing prompt from the Southwest,
Alma and Julianne for stunning poster designs, Skye and Peter with NYC Climate Convergence, all who
are participating today, and all who have graced Free University-NYC with your revolutionary wisdoms.