I was a member of the RC Sustaining All Life/United to End Racism (SAL/UER) delegation to the New York (USA) Climate Summit (NYCS) in September 2019. I led the RC Jewish constituency and a workshop called “Jews and Climate Justice—Building a United Front.” 


As we were preparing for the workshop we heard about an anti-Jewish incident and attempted attack in one of the key national climate justice organizations. Over the years we have seen anti-Jewish oppression disrupt and derail progressive wide-world conferences, particularly using Israel-Palestine as a flashpoint. Because of the above we prepared ourselves to handle possible anti-Jewish attacks at NYCS. 


Cherie Brown (the International Liberation Reference Person for Jews) shared some of the thinking and tools for interrupting disruptions and attacks that she has developed over the years in her wide world work. In phone calls with Cherie and others, workshop team members learned how to recognize an attack and diffuse disruptions. We made a plan for handling a possible attack. We also had sessions prior to the NYCS about that possibility. All of this contradicted the isolation and targeting of Jews and developed skills and confidence for handling attacks as we take RC into wide world movements. 


Diane Shisk and Barbara Love’s (Barbara is the International Liberation Reference Person for African Heritage People) statement (“A Call to Unity: Standing Together for Climate Action” in the October 2019 Present Time and on the SAL/UER website) builds on our understanding that such attacks are an entering wedge designed to weaken working-class and progressive movements. It suggests a process for building unity in the climate movement. It acknowledges that disagreements, mistakes, and oppression may occur within the movement and states our intention to address these and resolve differences while moving forward on our common goal of ending the climate emergency. The statement is a step forward in understanding the role we can play as RCers in wide world movements. We can use it to protect the climate justice movement and other progressive movements from distractions and splintering by the mechanisms of division. 


The Jewish workshop at NYCS went well and without disruption. Our workshop team members did a lovely job of showing themselves and how they have used RC in their wide world work. A highlight was the presence of an Israeli leader of a Palestinian/Jordanian/Israeli climate action organization. I worked with him briefly in front of the group. The attention that had been put to ending anti-Jewish oppression seemed an important contradiction [to distress] for him. He and other Jewish climate action leaders are interested in learning more about SAL/UER. We plan to teach them RC and help bring it to their organizations.


We were oddly disappointed not to have to try out our plan for handling attacks. However, we now have a foundation for when they do occur. The anti-Semitic attack in the wide world climate organization was diffused with the help of RCers who are close to that organization’s leaders and who listened to them and shared RC perspectives on Jewish liberation.