Forward on Climate Rally – Eco-Socialist Contingent

On February 17 I was in Washington D.C. for the Forward on Climate rally put on 350.org. I was there for one obviously to make a stand against the Keystone XL Pipeline, all the environmentally devastation practices of tar-sands, hydro-fraking, mountaintop removal, oil, coal and all fossil fuels that are causing global warming. But I was also there to be part of the Eco-Socialist Contingent. This was an inspiring example of socialist groups in the US coming together in common work and struggle. The night previously the Eco-Socialist Contingent also helped put on a panel on ‘Capitalism is Killing the Planet: How We Can Fight Back” with Chris Williams from the International Socialist Organization, Nick Davenport from Solidarty, and Jill Stein the 2012 Green Party presidential candidate. Jill Stein had some pretty great qoutes on this need for cooperation and working together, “This how we do it. By building alliances on the left like between the Green Party and the International Socialist Organization. If we can march together as both Greens and Eco-Socialists, we’d be far stronger then apart.”

The march itself was quite fantastic. Estimates put the turn out between 40,000 and 50,000. Our Eco-Socialist Contignent was incredibly lively and led others in chants for a bit. Our chants and slogans were quite fantastic, some of them were even thought up on the spot:

System change not climate change / No XL

The planet, the planet, the planet is on fire / we don’t need no tar-sands, let the corporations burn

How do you spell climate change / O.B.A.M.A

Down with false solutions / People’s revolution

You frak me / I’ll frak you up

Climate devastation will not be solved by corporations / That’s bullshit, get off it, the enemy is profit

Frak Wall Street / Not our water

God, GODAMMIT / Capitalism is killing the planet

1, 2, 3, 4, Climate change is class war / 5, 6, 7, 8, Overthrow the bourgeois state

Below is a photo gallery of pictures I took from the Forward on Climate rally and the Eco-Socialist contingent