Beyond the Green New Deal: A Discussion with Monica Atkins of the Climate Justice Alliance

By Kali Akuno and Monica Atkins - The Institute for Social Ecology, January 22, 2022

This conversation with Monica Atkins, Co-Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, focuses on the limitations of the Green New Deal and Biden's Build Back Better bill while describing grassroots alternative solutions to the climate and social crises we face.

Monica, one of the dynamic new leaders of CJA, is based in Jackson, Mississippi. She journeyed to CJA via her work at the intersections of the trade union and solidarity economy movements with Cooperation Jackson. The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is one of the leading advocates for climate justice in North America. CJA is an alliance of over 70 frontline organizations from Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, and white working class urban and rural communities. Unlike many of the alliances and formations in the struggle for climate justice that focus primarily on policy, lobbying, or mass mobilization, CJA members focus primarily on the development and implementation of viable solutions to the climate crisis that focus on the development of new, autonomous institutions and productive systems focusing on creating community centered solutions to the climate crisis.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.