#113 / Earth Day (To May Day)

Today is "Earth Day." April 22nd has been "Earth Day" since 1970. 

Today is also the beginning of a ten-day organizing effort called "The Global Climate Convergence," extending from "Earth Day" to "May Day." Economic justice and workers' issues are being featured, along with environmental issues, in the Global Climate Convergence. I heard about it from an online interview with Jill Stein, spokesperson for the Green Party and the Green Party candidate for President in 2012. She made a pretty compelling presentation. 

Listed below are the ten goals of the Global Climate Convergence. All possible. 

1.     Full employment with community-based small businesses, worker co-ops, small farmers & government jobs.

2.     100% clean renewable energy by 2030. International binding treaty for swift, deep cuts to carbon emissions. Wealthy polluting nations pay for technology transfer & climate adaptation.

3.    Universal free healthcare & education through college. Affordable housing for all & a moratorium on foreclosures.

4.     Secure the global food supply: Support small farmers, our major source of food production. Put carbon back in the soil through restoration grazing and climate-smart sustainable agriculture. Ensure the right to land, food sovereignty and gender equality.

5.     Economic democracy: Replace “too big to fail” banks with public banks. Secure workers’ rights, support for co-operative enterprise & fair trade. Tax Wall Street & the rich. End third-world & student debt.

6.    Demilitarization: Cut at least 50% of military spending, freeing up resources for social programs & infrastructure. Foreign policy based on international law, human rights and diplomacy – not the military-industrial complex.

7.    End mass incarceration & deportations. Treat immigrant rights as human rights & drug abuse as a public health issue.

8.    Political democracy: All people, not corporations, have the right to self-government, to vote, & to have our votes count. Public financing, proportional representation & free use of public airways for candidates.

9.    Civil liberties: Restore the rights of free speech, protest, privacy, & internet freedom. Close Guantanamo, end torture/renditions, & pardon whistleblowers including Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, & Julian Assange.

10.  Support human rights, rights of Mother Earth, the call for peace & an end to colonialism & imperialism, as called for in the Cochabamba People’s Agreement & the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We would have to change the world to get there, but then, we can do that!

Image Credit:

http://globalclimateconvergence.org/