BREAKING: we, staffers of the US Congress, are peacefully sitting in on Senator Schumer’s office to demand Dems pass climate justice policy this year.
We are putting our bodies on the line because we have no other choice. Follow along for updates from inside!
This week, Chile announced a proposed new constitution written by a democratically elected convention, and it is likely the most legitimate constitution in the world, as it is written boldly in the context of the climate crisis. A 🧵on its inspiring climate provisions.
NEW: There have been over 100 Gaza solidarity encampments at colleges this week in US and abroad 🧵:
Arizona
ASU
Auraria
Barnard
Berkelee Music
Berkeley
Brown
Cal Poly Humboldt
Columbia
Columbia Chicago
Cornell
CU Denver
CUNY
Delaware
Drexel
Duke
Emerson
Emory
Evergreen
FIT
FIU
OSU
UMN
Penn
Emory
Columbia
Emerson
Harvard
GW
Northwestern
Pitt
Stanford
UT Austin
Cornell
Princeton
Wash U
UCLA
CUNY
Brown
Solidarity is spreading and spreading
UPDATE: there are now Gaza solidarity encampments/protests on campuses in at least 37 states + DC and 5+ other countries:
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
DC
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mass
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Tim Walz transit report card is insane:
🚞 new popular Amtrak line (A+)
🚍 new BRT funding (A+)
⚡️100% clean energy law (A+)
🚲e-bike tax credits (A+)
🥇best climate/transp law in US (A+)
💰erased deficits (A+)
❤️🩹unarmed fare enforcement (A+)
Trains are coming!
The climate crisis is spiraling out of control. 1000s of fish are washing up dead in the Gulf of Mexico because the water is too hot to hold oxygen. This is a climate emergency.
Right now, we Hill staffers are peacefully protesting Dem leaders INSIDE. To my knowledge, this has never been done.
We’ve also never seen climate catastrophe, so we’re meeting the moment. Follow along as we fight with everything we have to jumpstart climate negotiations.
There are NEW encampments up at 8+ schools just this am, joining 100+ protests for peace across the world
UChicago
Georgia
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UW Madison
Occidental
UMass Amherst
UBC
We sat in Schumer’s office today for a specific reason: we want people to know that Dems leaders have not used every tool at their disposal to pass climate policy.
There will always be a straggler (Manchin), but it’s those who set the calendar and rules who need our pressure.
Tim Walz’ unity resume is nuts:
🍎 teacher
🏈state champ football coach
💜 won red and blue districts
🎖️veteran
🥦passed free school lunch
🏘️from a small Midwest town
🐶dog dad
And an A+ from Planned Parenthood?
It’s almost too much 😭🥇
Just chiming in to say that as a Jewish
@CoriBush
staffer I’m extremely grateful for and proud of her no vote on the extraordinary increase in Iron Dome funding last week
For every encampment cleared, 10 more crop up.
For every student suspended, 50 more arrive with blankets.
For every student/professor attacked, 100 peaceful tents are put up.
They cannot stop our generation and our hunger for peace and justice.
Tim Walz’s transit resume is nuts:
🚞 new popular Amtrak line
🚍 new BRT funding
⚡️100% clean energy law
🚲e-bike tax credits
🥇best climate/transpo law in US
💰erased deficits
❤️🩹unarmed fare enforcement
Get on the Walz train!!
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: 48 hours after 5 fellow Hill staffers and I were arrested for peacefully demanding climate negotiations reopen in the Senate, THEY ARE OPEN AGAIN!
We don’t have more details yet, but this was our first demand 🥳
WE’RE OUT! We, Hill staff, did something outside the box because we need Schumer and Biden to do something outside the box.
We are acting on the emergency basis this moment requires in hopes they will too. We have no other choice, we’ve tried everything. We won’t give up.
Seems like if fossil fuels drive the climate crisis, fund wars, tear through Indigenous lands, endanger Black lives, blow up, are priced By OPEC, pollute oceans, cost more than renewables, cause earthquakes, and are in limited supply, maybe they don’t do much for energy security
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: 165 Congressional and agency staff have sent a letter to President Biden and Senator Schumer this morning demanding robust climate policy and a climate emergency declaration now.
We refuse to remain silent until climate policy is passed.
Chile’s proposed constitution, written by a representative democratic convention, is up for a vote on 9/4. If passed, it’ll be a victory for Indigenous self-determination in Chile and across the 🌎. I've translated key Indigenous provisions to expand access & celebrate them. A🧵:
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: over 200 Congressional staffers have sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer demanding robust climate policy THIS MONTH and distancing ourselves from inaction.
We refuse to remain silent until bold investments are made.
Early sections of the constitution inscribe environmental protection, environmental education, and the right to clean air and a healthy environment as basic human rights. Nature is given an inherent right to exist and other rights cannot impede that. See Articles 39, 81, 103-106.
The second covers water. Chile is the only country on earth with a fully privatized water market and it has Latin America's highest water prices. The constitution would make water a human right equitably distributed by a Nat'l Water Agency and a participatory governance system.
Chapter 3 covers nature and environment. It’s tremendous. It outlines state responsibility to protect nature’s rights and guiding principles inc. environmental justice and international solidarity. The state is mandated to work to prevent, mitigate, & adapt to the climate crisis!
As someone who writes climate justice and Indigenous policy in the US Congress, I am blown away by the courage of Chile and the way this document is written for today’s reality. Follow along as I continue to update on its amazing provisions that should be an example to the world!
My boss brought a 1988 Shell report that says large low-lying areas like Bangladesh may need to be abandoned.
@CoriBush
to Shell CEO: “does that bother you, that your company deemed a country of 98 million brown people expendable in exchange for soaring profits? Yes or no?”
Right wing forces are trying to undermine and delegitimize an admirable, equitable democratic process, implying their preference for a dictator's decree over the will of Chilean people. Intl solidarity is urgently needed to fend off these attacks on Chile’s popular sovereignty.
The way Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are talking about freedom - to choose, to learn, to eat, to breathe and more - may become a generational shift in the Dem Party narrative.
Freedom for all families and people means paid leave, school lunch, clean water, pre-K, fast trains, …
Eric Adams stole $10 million from New Yorkers, or the equivalent of 3.4 million subway rides.
That’s equal to if he jumped 148 turnstiles per day since he was born, or 6 per hour
Please note, this thread is among the most complete translations of the climate provisions into English yet, so please share widely so people know how serious this really is. On Sep 4th, Chile will vote on this Constitutional proposal, with fierce right wing opposition.
The Chilean people have risen up and rejected a constitution written by fascist generals and US ideologues. They've proposed an alternative (linked in Spanish) that could well be the most reasonable constitution in the world. A stunning achievement.
Huge shout out the 100s of staffers who worked tirelessly to reopen climate negotiations.
We gave it a push, but dozens of policy staffers, schedulers, custodial staff, etc. refused to accept no climate policy.
We’re on a team with many people you don’t see. Honor them!
The last section of Chapter 3 is especially creative. It establishes and outlines an autonomous body to protect the legal rights of nature, building on an Indigenous-led tradition that has been tested at smaller scales in the US, Ecuador, and India.
Ch. 3 has four sections. The first covers broadly defined natural commons, which are guaranteed for present and future generations and include water, air, the atmosphere, and underground. Ecosystem integrity is protected, including watersheds, glaciers, permafrost, oceans, etc.
SAIC
Smith
South Carolina
Stanford
Swarthmore
TAMU
Temple
Tufts
Tulane
U Washington
UCF
UCLA
UCONN
UCSB
UF
UIUC
UIUC
UMD
UMN
UMW
UNC
UNC Charlotte
UNM
UT Austin
UT Dallas
UTSA
Vanderbilt
VCU
Virginia Polytechnic
Virginia Tech
Wash U
Yale
Sec. 3 establishes “absolute and exclusive domain” over all minerals & fossil fuels. Any mining is made to consider their finite non-renewable nature and enviro/social concerns. Glaciers, parklands, & big water bodies are excluded from mining. Companies are made liable for harms.
If you think the 6 people who got arrested yesterday are cool, you’re right!
You know who else is cool? The people who cooked, stenciled, advised, trained, comforted, painted, sang, wrote, and strategized to make yesterday possible.
Our movement is expansive!
Fordham
FSU
Gallaudet
GW
Harvard
Howard
Iowa
IU
Kansas
Kennesaw St
Loyola
Mary Washington
Miami
Michigan
MIT
MSU
New School
North Texas
Northeastern
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Oregon State
OSU
Pace
Penn
Pitt
Pomona
Portland St
Princeton
Puget Sound
Rice
Rochester
Roosevelt
Rutgers
In 2022, Cori Bush withheld her vote on the Dem budget until they funded transit repairs for flooding.
She won $214M for transit in communities AIPAC can never erase.
The proposed Chilean constitution enshrines Indigenous sovereignty (Article 5), official Indigenous languages (12), self-determination (34), and representation (162). These are central pillars of its environmental legitimacy. Also see Articles 58, 65, 66, 79, 102, 234, 235, 309.
Summer Lee. Greg Casar. Becca Balint. Delia Ramirez. Maxwell Frost.
These are just some of the Green New Deal champions rejecting fossil fuel industry money and winning elections. Amazing!!
In other sections, financial activities are made to consider the environment. The Central Bank, state financial activities, and any creation or change of territories to consider environmental protection as a core part of the process. See Articles 184, 187, 358.
NYU!
And numerous universities outside US across at least 3 continents.
Note: this list will be incomplete by the time I tweet it but trying to help get the word out about how students everywhere want peace 💜 Pls share info on HBCUs as media is systematically undercovering
The train lovers for Harris/Walz call is HAPPENING! Account will be up tomorrow and ways to plug in coming.
Join us - follow along - all welcome.
We will win!
FYI: Congressional staff will not accept zero climate policy during Democrats’ two years in power, even if Dem leaders will.
We may even put our bodies between Joe Manchin’s greed and the people we serve, if we must. 🤔 The stakes are just too high.
Stay tuned.
Rivers of ice are cascading through Italian towns in an unimaginable climate disaster. And Italy had its hottest day ever last week. Our climate system is collapsing in catastrophic fashion.
Our first demand was to reopen negotiations and we did it!
We still need details (expected tonight), but this in itself is a huge win.
Now we need to make the climate bill as strong as possible and pass that ASAP. Let’s get it!
BREAKING:
@CoriBush
has introduced twin light rail and bus rapid transit bills to invest $120B in transit systems over 5 years.
The bills would strengthen climate, labor, disability, design standards and disproportionately benefit Black communities.
A Green New Deal is coming!
BREAKING: University of Chicago students join nationwide protest by setting up encampment in solidarity with Gaza. The camp is called UChicago Popular University for Gaza, located on main quad.
Pro-Palestinian students organize a demonstration outside the University of Sydney, joining American and European protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and demanding universities to divest from Israeli companies and institutions.
Students at France’s prestigious Sorbonne university have begun protesting in solidarity with Gaza, joining their peers at Sciences Po and top US schools.
Tim Walz is the most effective Gov in the US. He has passed/signed:
🥥100% clean energy
🥥free school lunches 4 all
🥥background checks
🥥3 months of paid & sick leave
🥥 best transit policy in US
🥥pro-labor, justice green bank
🥥PFAS chemical ban
🥥legal 🪴
Walz for VP!
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
Australia
Canada
France
Italy
Tunisia
UK
Please don’t let the stunning dearth of US media coverage keep the largest Indigenous protest in modern Brazilian history off your radar!
Nearly 200 Indigenous groups are in Brasilia this week in the
#LutaPelaVida
“fight for life.”
@ApibOficial
@midia_india
@AndrewDFish
4 more
New:
@CoriBush
has added ANOTHER $5M for renewable energy in the Defense Production Act to the proposed house budget.
The House budget was going to have $0 for climate through DPA, she has fought and dragged in $105 million!
With Lula’s victory, a Green New Deal is coming to Brazil, the largest country in Latin America.
Last time he was in office, Lula was credited with bringing ~10% of the population out of poverty and reducing deforestation by 80%. This is the best news of 2022!
Totally jazzed and lucky to share that I will be working on climate, EJ, and Native American policy for
@CoriBush
and MO-01 starting next week! If you love the GND AND hate police brutality pls be in touch :D
NEW: one month ago, six Hill staff were arrested in Leader Schumer’s office demanding immediate climate policy.
Because of organizing and work of thousands, major climate investments have since been made.
And today, our case has been DROPPED!!!
🚨🚨Today,
@CoriBush
and
@AOC
are introducing the Green New Deal for Cities and Towns, a bill that would federally fund a Green New Deal in every single community in this country!!!
There IS a lot of concern about
@RepBowman
- about the safety of this sweet, thoughtful man when a white supremacist lashes out on tv.
We cannot tolerate this behavior and we must keep Jamaal safe ❤️
Marjorie Taylor Greene says that when people like Jamaal Bowman call her a white supremacist it's "like calling a person a color the n-word"
"His physical mannerisms are aggressive ... I feel threatened by him," Greene adds of Bowman
Uncommitted contacted 1.5M Michigan voters in 3 weeks and got 100,000+ votes there.
They offered to do this for Harris if she shifted on policy and she said no.
🚍🚍🚍 NEW: Today
@CoriBush
introduces the Bus Rapid Transit Act - a transformative bill based on lessons from the best bus systems around the world.
Excellent story on how it could spur the “Year of the Bus” from
@awalkerinLA
:
I can’t let this week wrap without acknowledging
@CoriBush
’s (our) brilliant Deputy COS & Legislative Director
@lynesewallace
, who was building and sharing our strategy to extend the moratorium day in & out.
She is a cornerstone and a force. Watch her work bc more will come!
Yesterday, Team
@CoriBush
organized an emergency climate policy call to plan our response to Manchin.
With less than 1.5 hours notice, we had 60+ leading climate justice staffers, advocates, and orgs on the call planning together.
Manchin has time to reconsider. And he must.