Rethinking the Economy

Monday’s post was my last thought on where enviros should go next after Copenhagen’s failure. Grist ’s Jonathan Hiskes reports on what Enviro leaders are thinking post-Copenhagen:
In the month since then, I’ve been trying to find out how the outcome at Copenhagen changed the U.S. climate movement. Whether advocates thought it [...]

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[Part 8 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
There’s a lot more I was going to write about in this series: how to build a bigger base of supporters, media strategy, the importance of tackling race and class head-on, et cetera. But my energy is flagging a [...]

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[Part 7 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Once you figured out where you are going to play, you need to figure out how you are going to play — your strategy for winning.
I asked a few of my organizer buddies the top tips more [...]

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After Tuesday’s Massachusetts debacle, everyone’s been talking about what we do next in DC. But nobody’s talking about the other glaringly obvious next play — switch more of our action to the state/local board. Progressive States Network explains:
the filibuster allows as few as 3% of the total U.S. population to potentially elect representatives able to [...]

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[Part 6 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Taking on corporations around the globe may sound insanely ambitious, but boring it’s not. But using local/state government? It’s more Kumbaya than Mortal Kombat. Sure, there’s evil here — just ask the environmental justice groups who fight [...]

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[Part 5 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Playing on the local board sounds interesting. But can we win big enough here to make our efforts worthwhile?
To get a sense of what’s possible on this board, let’s take a quick tour of what US cities and [...]

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[Part 4 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Maybe banging heads with corporations around the globe is more than you’re up for. No problem. There’s still a much better board to play on than DC or Copenhagen — the state/local board. I don’t know a lot [...]

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I need a brief break — this time for wrestling with my Inner Theory Allegators, not because of my hands. I’ll return to the Underpants Gnomes series next week.

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[Part 3 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Imagine if McKibben had decided to use the same move — vigils and other protests — but did it on the Corporate Accountability Board. Here’s how it might have played out.
Nine months before Copenhagen, 350.org would’ve said, f**k Copenhagen [...]

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[Part 2 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
If you want to win the social justice game, first you have to figure out where you’re going to play.
Enviro groups do a lot at the local and state level, and they also go after individual corporations. But the [...]

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