McKibben:  We Can’t Just Win the Argument; Now We Have to Win the Fight

For those of you who aren’t on legendary climate activist Bill McKibben’s mailing list, I thought I’d reprint this masterful and ultra-compelling email I just received from him.  There are so many gems here, of which my favorite is: We’re in a fight, and like most fights, it’s about power and money. And the fossil-fuel industry has a lot of money. But I’ve learned this: Organized people beat organized money.

Wow.  Here’s his message:

Craig:

I’m supporting Jamie Raskin for Congress because he’s been in this fight from the start. I knew him in college, decades ago, when he was working with passion and skill to help bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. He’s gone on to help lead every fight for human dignity and ecological sanity. And now, with your help, he can do that leading from Congress.

Most days he wears a suit and tie; most days I wear a Fossil Free t-shirt, and some days I seem to end up wearing handcuffs. But despite the differences in attire, Jamie’s been a huge part of the movement we’re trying to build for a planet that works for all its people. We need people on the inside for this fight to succeed, and there’s no one I can think of more trustworthy to go inside and really battle.

Long story short: our movement needs people like Jamie in Congress.

Jamie knows that climate change isn’t an issue, it’s the entire context.

Jamie’s campaign is fossil-free: he’s not taking a single dollar from the oil, coal, or gas industry. (The same can’t be said of his main opponent in the April 26 primary.) Climate change really is the transcendent issue of our time, and Jamie is making sure his campaign reflects that.

I spent a lot of time overestimating the rationality of our system. I’m a writer, so I thought the answer was to write another book, to win the argument. And I’ve written a lot of books. As it turns out, we won the argument. It’s not that hard to do so when the facts are with you, and the health of our families, our children, and are planet are at stake. But I’ve learned we can’t just win the argument. Now we have to win the fight.

We’re in a fight, and like most fights, it’s about power and money. And the fossil-fuel industry has a lot of money. But I’ve learned this: Organized people beat organized money. One of the tricks of money is to intimidate people into not running, not organizing, but money doesn’t rule everything. People have learned not to be intimidated.

A big part of winning our fight is making sure we have the right kind of political representation where it counts. We need people of deep powerful conviction who are going to stand up to power every time. We desperately need people who will get in there and dig.

It is so incredibly important to have people willing to go into the halls of power and do what they came to do. A good number forget what they came there for. Jamie won’t.

Please join me and chip in $35 to help send climate hawk Jamie Raskin to Congress.