Panel Discussion: Climate Change, Austerity and Social Movements

https://www.facebook.com/events/474583269310394/

At a time when the climate crisis is proving to be more urgent than ever, many governments are cutting back on public spending. Driven by a destructive obsession with austerity, environmental regulations are being scrapped while struggling families are being pushed off food stamps. Private consumption and the private sector are seen as supreme, while any public or collective effort is tarnished as inefficient and wasteful. Is this simply a disaster for the Left, or does it raise new possibilities for organizing?

Nastaran Mohit is a Political and Community Organizer with the New York State Nurses Association. She has worked as a labor organizer in NYC for the last 10 years, working primarily with low-wage and immigrant workers. She recently spent 6 months in Rockaway, Queens organizing with Occupy Sandy around issues of inequality, healthcare access, and environmental and social justice.

Duncan Meisel is a Brooklyn based climate activist. He works as a Digital Campaign Manager with 350.org, an international campaign against climate change. Past projects he’s worked on include the Tar Sands Action, US Uncut and many Billionaires satirical campaigns. Questions, concerns, beef can be directed at @DuncanWrites on Twitter

Alyssa Battistoni is PhD student in political science at Yale University and an editor at Jacobin magazine.

Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15, Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers