Climate Justice Activists Rally Deliver Letters to Sens. Kerry and Kirk
BOSTON/Government Center - Over 25 people congregated on a rainswept City Hall Plaza Monday at a rally called by the Massachusetts Mobilization for Climate Justice. The action aimed at pressuring politicians to push for more far-reaching policies to deal with the negative effects of climate change. Organizers also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the mass protests by labor and environmental groups against the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle - which were widely-credited with effectively shutting down the proceedings and forcing a public reevaluation of corporate-driven global political and economic agendas.
Several participants spoke to the crowd, including Jill Stein, Co-Chair of the Mass. Green-Rainbow Party, "We are facing nothing less than an emergency. And I think the kind of determination we have here today, out in the rain in front of the big city hall here, that doesn't quite seem to be getting the message that this is why we're here, and there is a long road ahead - heavy weather ahead too - it's not going to stop us now. And I'm here today, representing the Green-Rainbow Party - I'm cochair of the party and my other fellow cochair is over there behind the camera. And I'm here to bring the endorsement of the party. And we are very proud to be enthusiastically endorsing the mobilization for climate justice. And also we're proud to be the only political party - so far, that I know of - that has endorsed this campaign. So, I invite all political parties: join us, this should be above politics! This is about justice and this is about survival."
Following the rally, the activists crossed the Plaza to the federal building where they held a brief symbolic "die-out" - holding pictures of various "climate victims" as they lay on the ground - before entering the building and delivering letters to the offices of Senators John Kerry and Paul Kirk. The open letters called "for real solutions to replace false solutions such as cap and trade, biomass incineration, coal and nuclear, and ... systemic reform to get money out of politics and climate policies."
The event was sponsored by: American Friends Service Committee – New England, Climate SOS Coalition, Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, Global Justice Ecology Project, Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, Dr. James Hansen, Massachusetts Coalition for Clean Air – South Coast, Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, Massachusetts Forest Watch, Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party, Massachusetts Peace Action, Safe and Green Campaign, Students for a Just and Stable Future, VegWorcester, and all members of the national Mobilization for Climate Justice network. There were no counter-demonstrators and no arrests.
