Divest Yale // DSN Coordinating Committee
The People’s Climate March and the surrounding events were an incredible moment for our movement. On Saturday, September 20th, we gathered at the Youth Convergence with hundreds of high school and college students from across the country. In the divestment track of the convergence, we continued to dig deep as we explored things such as how fossil fuel divestment fits into the larger climate justice movement and how we can absorb the momentum from the March into our movement. Earlier in the day, we linked up by talking to others from our regions about some of the big questions like, What’s your stake in this fight? Why do you think divestment is powerful? and Why do you want to win? Through this, we were not only able to stay grounded in our belief that building relationships will build power for our movement, but also continue to revisit why we do this work.
The next day, we took action. With 50,000 students, in a march of over 400,000 people, student divestment organizers showed up in force. Months of hard organizing were put into the People’s Climate March, and it was every bit as beautiful that Sunday as we could have imagined – perhaps more so. The March was a stunning display of unity and power, and showed all of us what we can accomplish when we come together. As divestment organizers, we know that we are just one part of something bigger, that climate justice is a movement of movements, and we must connect in meaningful ways with other, parallel organizing. This means off-campus fossil fuel divestment organizers, but also others that showed up at the march, like unions, faith-based institutions, and powerful frontline-based organizing like the Our Power Campaign. It evoked feelings of positivity, joy, and hope – things we will all need as we strengthen our movement every day.
But the action didn’t end there. On Monday, the day after the March, thousands sat in on Wall Street to make the connection between our economic system and the climate crisis. #FloodWallStreet had a very different tone than the People’s Climate March, but was every bit as necessary. Student divestment organizers showed up to name that the reason schools have been getting divestment rejections is directly linked to Wall Street. We know that our school boards’ judgement is being clouded by corporate interests, sometimes coming in the form of Wall Street execs sitting directly on our boards, which makes divestment all the more difficult. We shut down the streets for hours to call out the root causes of the climate crisis and all the other injustices that are bound up within it, to show that climate change is just a consequence of an unjust system.
This inspiring weekend was just the beginning. We know how powerful our movement is, and are excited to see what can happen when we begin to coordinate together, regionally and nationally. Next step: 7 regional divestment trainings this fall!
