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  • From: "rafter t. sass" <liberationecology@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org, permaculturehudsonvalley@lists.riseup.net, Northeastern Permaculture <northeasternpermaculture@yahoo.com>, permaculture@openpermaculture.org, permie guild <wmasspermies@gmail.com>, growing_foodandjustice@lists.riseup.net
  • Subject: [permaculture] Northeastern Climate Justice Camp - The Confluence
  • Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 11:03:24 -0400

Here is a general invitation to a gathering this summer that I am helping to organize. Hope to see you there!

rafter t. sass
The Liberation Ecology Project
liberationecology.org
518-567-7407
skype: raughter


You are Invited to the Northeast Climate Confluence
The Northeast Climate Confluence will be a four-day gathering for people from all over this region to share stories about work that's being done to build a better world and discuss how climate change will affect that work and the place we call home. We live at a critical point in history, and this is an opportunity to strengthen our ties, strategize for action, identify the current gaps in our organizing, and find solutions close to home. We want to hear from you during the planning process, and we'd love it if you could be part of the event.

Our Vision:
A “confluence” is a place where rivers or storm fronts meet and become more powerful. The idea for the Northeast Climate Confluence is that it will be a place for people from a wide array of movements to encounter one another, share knowledge and skills, and develop strategies for building a better world. There will be a strong focus on environmental and economic justice, direct action, and the development of skills and plans to respond to the challenges ahead.
There will be several “tracks” of workshops and presentations during the Confluence, including a track designed especially for Youth. Throughout the event, we will have workshops on a diverse range of subjects, from Understanding Climate Science, to the Prison Industrial Complex, to Radical Sustainability for Autonomous Communities, and much more. The Confluence will of course include workshops, panels, speakers and discussions, but it's also a celebration, so expect lots of performances, music, and art, too.

The Most Important Part: You!
The people who have been organizing the Confluence are committed to creating a space for movements, organizations, and individuals in the Northeast to meet one another, and begin creating a future that works for all of us. We see our role largely as providing infrastructure to do this. We're working to get together supplies, funds, space, food, and invitations to organizations. We want to invite you to come to the Confluence, but we also want to know if you might be able to present a workshop about what you're working on, perform, create art, or be involved in coordinating any other aspect of the week or local organizing in the time between now and then.
We're looking for people who are resisting prisons, defending indigenous sovereignty and sacred sites, healing polluted land, fighting gentrification, dismantling white supremacy, growing food in the city, practicing permaculture, organizing communities, asserting immigrants' rights, monitoring police, opposing patriarchy, reclaiming land, organizing against poverty, defending wild places, creating their own media, teaching true histories, stopping corporate and colonial expansion, making music and art that says what we need to see and hear... you get the idea, right?

Location:
The Confluence will be happening at the Epworth Camp and Retreat Center in High Falls, NY. It is a beautiful space to relax and to focus. Most people will be camping, but there will also be a limited number of beds and cots. We don't expect everyone to have their own camping equipment, so we'll have some tents and sleeping bags to spare. Food will be provided at no charge. We are hoping to coordinate some amount of transportation from major cities and transportation centers in the area.

Goals:
The Northeast Climate Confluence aims to kick-start a regional disaster response network. We mean ‘disaster’ in a very broad sense; we want to be better able to respond to both ‘natural’ disasters and the unnatural disasters that people face in their communities every day. The main elements of this disaster response network might include local food networks, accessible health care projects, autonomous energy, first-responder trainings, access to land and housing, and networks of defense from violent authorities (such as police, prisons, and immigration enforcement). We're going to need to figure out what to do if a major storm hits the Northeast and causes flooding and displacement. We need to be able to feed ourselves as oil becomes scarce and gas prices rise. We need to do everything we can to reverse global warming. We need to link struggles, get off the grid, stop being dependent on systems that threaten our lives and hurt our communities, and create a world based on respect and justice.
The Confluence is a response to global warming - the disruption of the planet's climate caused by industrial pollution that threatens all life on Earth. Global warming/global climate change is a central focus, as one of the major emergencies we need to address during our lifetimes. However, we realize that we can't simply talk about the issue of climate change and ignore the hundreds of other issues that it is deeply connected to. We are trying to address the political and social “climate” as well as the Earth's changing climate. It is the combination of both that is already bringing us highly visible disasters like Hurricane Katrina, along with hidden disasters in our neighborhoods and worldwide
At the same time, there is so much amazing grassroots work being done all over our region and all over the world to celebrate, share, and learn from. People are creating and preserving positive alternatives and resisting oppression everywhere. Finding and growing those alternatives and that resistance are what this gathering is about and that's why we're contacting you to be a part of it.







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