(Holly and I canvassing for Initiative 1631 in 2018)
Fighting for a future that works for all means focusing on climate justice, centering frontline communities, creating green jobs, and transforming our infrastructure and economy for a livable future. We must all vote in the 2024 election to elect pro-environment progressives throughout the state (including several DSA legislative candidates and Democrat Dave Upthegrove for Commissioner of Public Lands) and beat back right-wing, billionaire backed initiatives such as the anti-environment, anti-worker I-2117. But we also must move past a defensive position and begin making strong, united demands for a just, green future that works for all.
The only way we can do this is with courageous, charismatic leadership and bold plans to majorly invest in overhauling our utilities and infrastructure, directly confront and penalize the most egregious polluters, and bring together a winning coalition of our diverse working class. This must include leadership from frontline communities of color, Tribal Nations throughout Washington, and unionized workers in affected industries. It must include elected officials willing to organize their constituents and their colleagues. It must include a belief that we can work together to create meaningful change. And this must include significant public sector investments in innovative technologies that are in the service of survival, not profit..
What working for a green future can’t include is politics as usual, dependency on fossil fuels, compromised negotiations, or mincing words on how bad things already are. Climate change is the biggest existential threat we’ve ever faced. We must do whatever we can to prevent it turning into climate collapse. This means ending fossil fuel use today and finally ending the fossil fuel’s lobby’s grip on politics at all levels of government. I’m proud to refuse any and all corporate money, and specifically fossil fuel lobby money. My primary opponent, incumbent Jake Fey, frequently maxes out on donations from Puget Sound Energy, Chevron and other polluters, and even killed pro environmental legislation that would have lowered profits for waste hauling corporate donors.
My first environmental organizing was in Idaho in the early 2000s, working with local, and national environmental groups to challenge the old growth logging practices of the Boise Cascade Corporation (now known only as Boise). In a campaign centering how the company would benefit from the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we brought together an unusual coalition of environmentalists, loggers and mill workers facing job cuts, and student activists. A small but scrappy group of us in Idaho were unable to challenge the massive might of a global corporation or international trade regulations, but it was an incredible learning moment for me on the power of coalitions and the need to center impacted workers.
The struggle for real change is a long process, and in order to win, it needs to both bring along everyday people and resist immediately compromising with corporate power. That’s why A “just transition” to a green economy is a core component of my campaign. We must create good, union jobs for people in existing sectors facing transition, including and especially those most dependent on our current fossil fuel system, such as plumbers and pipefitters working in natural gas. This must be in coordination with rank-and-file workers, prioritizing the needs of our diverse working class over “green” corporations. This must include a youth green jobs corps, capable of planting millions of trees and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.
I’ve written a couple times about my excitement over wins by the “Build Public Renewables” act in New York State and the Green New Deal referendum in Portland, Maine. Both demonstrate that when workers and environmentalists have the political will, they can create visionary change. I’m proud to note both these victories were initiated by DSA members, including some elected to the New York Legislature, and both started out by refusing to concede to corporations or the politicians they control. That’s why I’m running as an expressly working class, pro environment, anti-corporate, DSA-backed candidate.
So, for now, let’s beat back Initiative 2117 and constantly remind voters that corporate polluters are the ones ruining their lives, not small but poorly explained taxes. Let’s elect true progressives. Let’s take a moment to breathe after this haze clears. But then let’s do the real work of fighting for a future that works for all.
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