The Left Forum Part One

The Left Forum was held at Pace University June 7th thru 9th. This year’s theme was “Mobilizing for Eco-logical and Eco-nomical Change.

Here is an excerpt from their website ( )

We need to mobilize now! The planet and humankind are in peril. The climate is warming, glaciers are melting, seas are rising, droughts are spreading and species are going extinct, all caused by unsustainable development and overconsumption of every resource on the planet. Meanwhile the ongoing economic crisis the worst since the Great Depression has devastated working people around the world with astronomical rates of unemployment, falling incomes and brutal austerity measures. Everywhere, the people least responsible for these interrelated crises are bearing their brunt, in particular people in developing countries, women who are the bulk of ecological refugees, and people of color. Bangladesh with its floods and factory fires is a tragic case in point. These twin crises reveal the destructive – indeed eco-suicidal – nature of capitalism’s inherent drive to growth, where everything in nature has a price, and nothing has a value, including human life.

At the same time, new forms of anti-capitalist and horizontal democratic resistance are emerging everywhere. There is reason to hope, as the basic question of who should own the Earth is coming to the fore. Come to this year’s Left Forum to explore the environmental and movement-building imperatives that make another world not only possible but necessary.

Share This Episode