#canoes2paris

Action. Today was full of it. 

The morning was checking out the action of the Global Village by Alternatibas, which you can read about here. Bottom line: it doesn’t confront power or stop exploitation. Being vegetarian is not the same thing as taking down the meat industry. One is an individualist choice that relies on shaming, the other requires a collective shift of power in society. For climate change, we need the latter more than ever.

On the other hand, the action organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network was amazing. It confronts power with clear demands to end the false solutions like REDD+ and instead calls for real change like #KeepItInTheGround and #DefendProtectRenew. Indigenous people from all over the world came to bring Canoes to Paris and well, you can read more about the action here, here, and here.  

“We have been resisting for centuries, and we will show you how, because we have to get through this together.” This quote rests at the front of my mind, a remark made by Dania tonight as she told me about an action in which her organization showed others how to fight for their rights. The context of the story is so powerful because she said it to a group of whites who wanted to fight for their own community. And it showed up today with the Canoes to Paris action.