We invited Nasreen Sayeed from the US and Ashish Kothari from Pune in India to discuss the outlines of a Global Green New Deal. Nasreen was involved in the grassroots mobilisations of the Sunrise Movement that was trying to bring a president into office who would enact a Green New Deal for the country. Ashish has worked for decades on alternative solutions and was able to provide a rich account of how alternative ways of organising society already exist in hundreds of places around the world.

The US Sunrise Movement – A “Credible Path to victory”

Two names and one movement are associated with the Green New Deal in the US. There is Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders who have shaken US politics and there is the Sunrise Movement that has mobilized thousands behind an ambitious environmental and social agenda. According to Nasreen, the key to Sunrise’s success is the group’s use of both protest organizing and electoral organizing to build political power. The movement is vocal and loud while providing a credible path to win real political power. It also focuses on weaving together the different social struggles that exist in localities by identifying common interests and agendas. For Nasreen the townhalls and municipalities are at least as important as the political arenas on federal and state levels.

Eco-Swaraj – Towards a Global Rainbow New Deal

Bernie Sanders Green New Deal proposal was possibly the world’s most ambitious social and environmental agenda by a mainstream politician. But without fundamentally addressing such questions as the offshoring of environmental destruction, of reinvigorating democracy, and changing consumption patterns and energy use – whether from fossil or renewable sources – the plan remains fatally flawed. Drawing from his decades of experience and after studying dozens of “living utopias” across the planet, Ashish outlined the contours of a Global Rainbow New Deal: an ambitious social, cultural, and ecological agenda whose protagonist would be smaller social units like communities and bioregions instead of powerful states.

Big Questions: The State, Energy, Peace and Autonomy

At least as insightful as the presentations were the questions that were discussed at the end.

• What are the chances for a Green New Deal mobilisation in India? 
• Do movements waste their time when they still put demands to state governments and institutions? 
• Do they even do more bad than good when they do so?
• What would governments need to do if they were to enact a truly Global Green New Deal?

Some themes from the presentations reappeared such as a general distrust in state governments to make drastic changes (while acknowledging their ability to move ahead on select environmental and social fronts), the power of locally acting groups to inspire people everywhere in the world and the necessity to scale down material and energy consumption in affluent places. We closed the session with some last words from Ashish who reminded us that a Green or rather Rainbow New Deal will remain weak and incomplete if it does not include the demilitarisation of societies and a movement towards peace.

We continue the conversation

Here you can join the reading group for the book “Pluriverse” that was co-edited by Ashish Kothari. In this group we will talk about the “Living Utopias” that are descirbed in the book and exist in the regions and countries we live in. Living Utopias are radical alternatives that already exist in many corners of this planet.
To join, simply send an email with the subject “Pluriverse Reading group” to team@climateactionbuddies.org