Blockadia and Beyond: Left Climate Politics for the 21st Century

With Thea N. Riofrancos, Ashley Dawson, Audrea Lim, and Daniel Aldana Cohen. Moderated by Daniel Denvir. Recorded at Verso Books in Brooklyn, August 17, 2018.

Co-sponsored by Jacobin and Science for the People.

NOTE: The first 15 minutes of this event are unavailable.

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Climate change is already exacerbating social and economic inequalities from the local to global scale. Big Energy and green capitalism are turning environmental destruction into an opportunity for profit—but their development of clean energy and transportation technologies also provides opportunities. What political strategies can prevent runaway climate change and eco-apartheid, and instead build an alternative future? Today, the most vibrant form of climate justice organizing centers on the frontline communities who are directly impacted by climate chaos and fossil capital. But this resistance must be paired with projects to develop alternative energy and resource economies. How can frontline communities ally in coalitions to meet this challenge? Which movements can consolidate a broader constituency of the poor and working class majorities that would be necessary for a just transition? In this panel discussion, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Ashley Dawson, Audrea Lim, and Thea N. Riofrancos will reflect on the current state of ecological crisis, and the challenges—and opportunities—it poses for building left climate politics for the 21st century.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Thea N. Riofrancos is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Providence College. Her research focuses on resource extraction, radical democracy, social movements, and the left in Latin America. Her writing has appeared in N+1, Jacobin, NACLA and Dissent magazines. She also serves as co-chair of Providence Democratic Socialists of America.

Ashley Dawson is Professor of English at the Graduate Center/CUNY and the College of Staten Island. He is the author of two recent books on topics relating to the environmental humanities, “Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change” (Verso, 2017), and “Extinction: A Radical History” (O/R, 2016), as well as six previous books on global social justice movements and anti-imperialism. He is a long-time member of the Social Text Collective and founder of the CUNY Climate Action Lab.

Audrea Lim is a Brooklyn-based journalist who has written for New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and The Nation, and also edits for Verso Books. She is originally from Calgary, Alberta.

Daniel Aldana Cohen is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Socio-Spatial Carbon Collaborative, or (SC)2.

Daniel Denvir is the author of “All-American Nativism” (forthcoming from Verso), a writer in residence at The Appeal, and the host of “The Dig” on Jacobin Radio.

Видео Blockadia and Beyond: Left Climate Politics for the 21st Century канала Verso Books