DSA’s Ecosocialist Green New Deal Priority Resolution

“Ecosocialist Green New Deal Priority Resolution” by Matthew H. of Huron Valley DSA: Sydney G, of LA DSA; Ashik S. of Metro DC DSA; Ted F. of East Bay DSA; Shauna M. of San Diego DSA; Jeff G. of Austin DSA; Becca M. of Boston DSA.

“Amendment on the Red Deal and Rejecting a Green Military” by Sofia A. (NYC), Sydney G. (Los Angeles), Brian W. (Madison), Rory F. (Chicago), Spenser R. (NYC), Joe A. (Chicago), Nazir K. (Twin Cities).

A. Establish a national DSA priority campaign to fight at the national, regional, and local levels for a radical Green New Deal that is aligned with the Ecosocialist Working Group’s Guiding Principles to decarbonize all sectors of the U.S. economy by 2030; democratize control of major energy systems and resources through public ownership; center the working class in a just transition to a caring economy with a job guarantee that expands the public sector; decommodify survival by ensuring basic necessities and services are guaranteed public goods; reinvent communities to serve people and planet, not profit, and plan equitable resilience and adaptation strategies to prepare for inevitable climate impacts; demilitarize, decolonize, and strive for international solidarity toward global climate justice; and redistribute resources from the worst polluters.

This priority campaign will  incorporate and embrace all of DSA’s national campaigns and priorities, organizing for a society that is democratically run by working people; ecologically sustainable; free of oppression based on race, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, or sexual identity; and rooted in internationalism and solidarity rather than imperialism and war. To this end, the Ecosocialist Working Group will incorporate a campaign subcommittee (hereinafter the Green New Deal Campaign Committee) that will develop an organizing strategy and coordinate within DSA the work of organizing for a Green New Deal. The Ecosocialist Working Group will be tasked with organizing the subcommittee and its leadership selection, as well as strategic outreach to other national working groups whose charges intersect with Green New Deal goals to ensure their leadership and perspectives are reflected in the campaign.

B. Popularize the demand for an ecosocialist Green New Deal through outward-facing education, media, outreach, and other efforts aligned with the Ecosocialist Working Group’s Guiding Principles. Direct the Ecosocialist Working Group, the Green New Deal Campaign Committee, and the Political Education Committee to develop educational programs and materials that connect the latest environmental science, climate-related disasters, and related movements to broader struggles against capitalism to our fight for a Green New Deal. Utilize DSA listservs, social media platforms, publications, and other communication resources to amplify local and national work as part of an overall struggle for democratic ecosocialism and a Green New Deal.

C. Support the demand for a Green New Deal process that is transparent, inclusive, and democratic and includes the voices of frontline, disproportionately impacted, and threatened communities at all stages. Work to develop partnerships with anti-capitalist networks of organizers from communities that have always been at the forefront of struggles for environmental justice, and amplify the perspectives and insights of impacted communities through national media platforms. Recognize the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, with rights to free, prior, and informed consent before activities that will affect Indigenous peoples’ territory or environment.

As part of this effort, this Convention will endorse the Red Deal, launched by comrades in The Red Nation, a radical anti-capitalist Indigenous liberation group, and its principles on the fight for non-reformist reforms. As described by The Red Nation, “The Red Deal is not a counter program of the Green New Deal. It’s a call for action beyond the scope of the US colonial state. It’s a program for Indigenous liberation, life, and land—an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for this planet to be habitable for human and other-than-human relatives to live dignified lives.” At the end of this Convention, the Green New Deal Campaign Committee will be tasked with initiating a more direct working relationship between DSA and The Red Nation. The Green New Deal Campaign Committee will make direct connection with The Red Nation, dedicate one person to serve as the main point of contact, and collaborate with the comrades on joint actions, statements and local, national and international campaigns around indigenous liberation and climate justice.

D. Devote staff capacity (and expand staff as necessary) to coordinate with the Green New Deal Campaign Committee and local chapters engaged in Green New Deal and ecosocialist work and to maintain relationships with national and local organizations aligned toward a radical Green New Deal. Staff will partner with the Ecosocialist Working Group and Green New Deal Campaign Committee in parlaying local efforts into a focused and effective national campaign, with at least one staff member entirely dedicated to this purpose.

E. Work to build a powerful alliance of the labor, social justice, progressive, leftist, youth, racial justice, Indigenous liberation, and climate and environmental justice movements to win a radical Green New Deal and just transition policies at local, regional, national, and international levels based on our common demands around ecology, labor rights, jobs, justice, equality, and peace.

F. Task DSA’s Democratic Socialist Labor Commission (DSLC), in partnership and close collaboration with the Ecosocialist Working Group and Green New Deal Campaign Committee, to work with and support union organizing and worker struggles for a Green New Deal alongside the development of Just Transition implementation plans. These efforts should coalesce with broader alliance-building initiatives.

G. Support political candidates and organizations that aid in the fight for a radical Green New Deal and, in electoral campaigns in which DSA participates, agitate for elements of a radical Green New Deal described in the Ecosocialist Working Group’s Guiding Principles.

H. Direct the Green New Deal Campaign Committee, in partnership with the Ecosocialist Working Group, DSA staff, and each region’s field organizer, to provide support to chapters with analyzing their local contexts, developing individual climate/environmental justice plans, and counseling on implementation tactics. Provide education and mentorship to help chapters develop organizing strategies, knowledge, and skills most relevant to implementing radical Green New Deal efforts in their localities, recognizing the varying political terrains they face. Help develop materials and resources for local ecosocialist campaigns that can cohere as part of the broader struggle for a Green New Deal. Facilitate collaboration and political interaction between chapters working on similar campaigns, and between chapters and allied groups outside DSA.

I. Direct the Green New Deal Campaign Committee and designated staff to work with national working groups and appropriate DSA bodies to develop alliances of solidarity and cooperation that build an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, feminist, working class, internationalist movement here and abroad for an ecologically thriving and just world.

This Convention will also reject any effort at promoting a “Green Military” Green New Deal plan, as proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, including the bill she recently introduced in Congress, known as S. 1498, Department of Defense Climate Resiliency and Readiness Act. Any literature, statements, memes, and other communications produced to support the Green New Deal should also clearly state DSA’s opposition to this plan, which is not simply a policy proposal from Warren, but represents a wider consensus within the Pentagon, and therefore risks undermining and rolling back the democratic socialist vision for an end to the military industrial complex. These are similar to arguments about the precision of “surgical strikes” and expanded drone warfare made during the Obama administration. Recent arguments for “climate resilience” and the fear of climate change producing a “threat multiplier” represent an effort by the US military to maintain its operations, occupations and bases around the world and to win back legitimacy for its endless wars today. The Ecosocialist Working Group will work over the next year alongside the DSA for Bernie campaign to produce materials for Green New Deal organizing that challenge the greenwashing of the military and US imperialism, whether from Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden or other members of the Democratic or Republican Party in office or running for president.