Today, we are excited to get to tell you about a project we’ve been working on over the past year – one that we hope could be a major new force in the climate justice movement. This week three of us are headed to California for the first ‘on-boarding’ into a new national network of locally rooted cells, working at the intersection of direct action on climate change and racial reparations and atonement.

What is this network?

At the core this network of groups, which is still emerging (and thus hasn’t been named yet), is the belief that while there are many paths to make the strides needed in climate action and in reparations, and we are called to orient in a particular way. We know that we want to lead with a fierce vulnerability; being firm in the truth and leading with our hearts on our sleeve. We know that lifting up the gifts and the vocation of each person in the network will make us more powerful than trying to fill slots with foot soldiers. And we trust in the wisdom of emergent strategy, because the top-down, centralized organizations of the past can’t muster the power and creativity needed in these times. We hold a vision of a holistic, integrated approach to nonviolence that goes beyond a tactic or a strategy to the core of our world view where the means we use are the ends in the making.

Why?

We have felt for a long time that something is missing in the climate movement ecosystem – a network of people for whom nonviolence and justice are more than just buzz-words, but are rooted deeply in an integrated approach at a spiritual level.  And it is clear that an integrated approach where the means make the ends cannot simply advocate for a just transition, we need to be living and experimenting with new honest approaches of reparations right now. None of this can wait.

What about praxis groups?

If you’ve been following our work these last few months you’ve noticed we’ve been inviting people to form climate disobedience praxis groups. This isn’t replacing anything! This yet-to-be-named network is one of the ways that praxis groups may choose to associate with others and find ways to work together, though it won’t be the only one. If you’re interested in getting started with a praxis group now, start here with the praxis invitation.

How can I find out more?

We’ve selected part of the beautiful zine that’s been created to share as a bit of a preview. You can download a selection by clicking here. See what resonates with you. Does it lift your heart? What questions does it bring up? If this approach to the work is inspiring for you, we’ll be letting our network know how to plug in as we move closer to a north-east on-boarding in Massachusetts in March 2019.

We look forward to sharing some updates next week about how it’s going on the West Coast!

-Jay, Emma, Marla and Tim
the Climate Disobedience Center core team