Polar Explorers and Michigan Youth Climate Activists:

By Michael Collins
Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition

(cross posted from http://www.thelongestsummertour.org)

Most students on a Friday night are out celebrating a hard earned break from classes or resting up for the morning football tailgate. Not the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition or students at Grand Valley State University. This past weekend the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition (MSSC) caravanned throughout Michigan with the Will Steger Foundation (WSF) for their Longest Summer Tour. The Michigan leg of the tour kicked off in Grand Rapids with presentations all day and a Friday night program at Grand Valley State’s downtown Grand Rapids campus. The Friday evening event literally moved climate change from the lecture hall to prime time, as over 100 students filled a packed room to see polar explorers share the stage with professors, students from the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition and Steve Chester, Director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Student representatives from various colleges in Michigan and MSSC coordinators had the honor of sharing the floor with arctic explorers and climate change solutions activists Will Steger and Toby Thorleifsson. Conversations ranged from how individuals and governments can combat climate change to the first hand accounts of arctic explorers on the effects of global warming on the polar regions of the world.

As MSSC activists traveled the state with Will Steger, Toby Thorleifsson and the rest of the group it immediately became clear that a unique relationship had been forged with the wonderful folks at Will Steger Foundation. I personally first met Mr. Steger about 10 minutes prior to a presentation at Calvin College in Grand Rapids on Friday, and what struck me most was his respect for the undertakings of young activists and students here in Michigan. Many people are almost immediately dismissive of youth groups, “what foolish idealists and kids” some say, others approach us less cynically but sometimes it is as if their eyes are telling me “awww isn’t that cute, the kids are organizing, lets give em a cookie”. Mr. Steger and entourage on the other hand were immediately respectful of our work and at times even seemed impressed. I didn’t feel a burden to them, except when badgering Jim the AV tech with only seconds to spare before show time.

Over the last few days we traveled with the tour to the great Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Once there, it was evident that we had entered more familiar territory for the Minnesota based Will Steger Foundation. U.P. there we were closer to many friends of Will Steger and this could be evidenced by the fact the crowds that gathered grew in strength the farther north we traveled. A Sunday night event in Marquette, home of Northern Michigan University, drew 200 people and added Brandon Knight of Global Exchange and Northern Michigan University activist Michael Rotter as speakers at the event. The youth climate movement literally grew in mass at the event, as NMU students flocked to a Power Vote table set up outside the event and the crowd lingered for an hour after the event to continue networking.

The MSSC connection with WSF continued to grow through the tour. On Monday we were even able to share in a hike with Abby and Ellie, two of WSF’s tour organizers. This was an amazing event itself, though at the time we weren’t reaching out to crowds of dozens with our message, it was tremendous for me, a Michigan native, to be able share the near metaphysical nature of the North Woods of Michigan, if only for a moment.

The culminating event in Michigan was at the tip of the state in Houghton at Michigan Technical University. Will Steger’s name attracted a crowd of over 500 Michiganders. While I was sweating profusely during my entire speech about youth climate activism in Michigan, Mr. Steger and his fellow explorer/friend Toby seemed as at ease in front of the crowd as they do in subzero temperatures surrounded by wolves. Maybe this is because the one thing I really took away from the whole experience is that this stuff matters. Aside from being able to hang out with cool people all weekend drinking craft Michigan spirits and hiking our trails, I left with a sense of renewed passion for the work I do.

The folks at the Will Steger Foundation have all been working for climate justice and fighting for a great global awakening for years and some of them for decades, yet their spirit is as unwavering and determined as ever. Toby at one point commented on “the real world work” that many young activists fear having to enter into, abandoning their foolish and idealistic ideals, saying goodbye to their friends and welcoming a so-called corporate 9-5 lifestyle. If I learned anything this week it was that this is the “real world” and it is the only one we have. Our planet and economy demands that the youth of this country rise up and demand a clean and just energy future. Otherwise as the Longest Summer Tour states, “You’re gonna miss it when it’s gone”.

Power on the Streets of Detroit - Part 1

Each person and idea I have encountered in the Youth Climate Movement has altered the lens through which I view the world. Preconceived notions of identity, privilege, value, power, love and what is good or right have been reshaped, strengthened and shattered.

Last August, I drove my parents' Toyota Camry 500 miles to New Hampshire for the Sierra Student Coalitions summer leadership gathering – Shindig. Five days later I drove home with new friends, renewed inspiration, and new understandings. Among those I met was Ivan Stiefel. He's the sort of human that radiates community. His is the energy that fills a room, and rather than sucking people to him, it floods the room with a shared joy. At Shindig, he and another climate justice leader, Timothy Denherder-Thomas, - for whom I also hold immense respect - co-led a training on community organizing and power. It was a brilliant combination of insight on the nature of power and the strength of communities and the tools with which to leverage power. The most empowering idea and tool I internalized can be represented in a simple diagram, and it looks like this:

Power is simply the ability to do. Perhaps this is an old hat to all you organizers out there.

It is interesting to think about these power dynamics in the abstract, but every day I experience each dynamic in some capacity. My experience as a participant in Sunday's Freedom From Oil rally at the North American International Auto Show brought each of these power dynamics into sharp contrast and revealed the tangible connections between them. This is part 1 of my narrative, reflections, and analysis of a moment in the movement.

I arrive in Detroit with the University of Michigan student contingent at 10:30 AM. On the fifth floor of the Central Methodist Church of Detroit is a small gymnasium with two crooked basketball hoops illuminated by hazy sunlight filtering through warped glass windows. I wonder what the people on the fourth floor think when people play basketball up here? On this Sunday morning in January it is filled with my brothers and sisters from the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and Co-Op America. A sister from Central Michigan University hands me a large industrial coverall. Somehow I fit in it, coat and all (layers are key on a cold day like this!). Bucket-drummers warm up as signs are painted, and a banner that says "Toyota, Pull Up Your Prius, Your Tundra Is Showing" is raveled up for special delivery to the North American International Auto Show media luncheon.

At noon we march down the streets of Detroit's commercial district. Walk, bike, or drive a few miles from here and you'll see the gross inequities of wealth produced by Detroit's rampantly capitalist industrial legacy. And that's why we're here, marching down these streets, proudly wearing our industrial coveralls and green hard hats, rallying to the chant of "Green Jobs." We know that if the auto industry puts fuel efficiency (or elimination) above decadence, greenhouse gas emissions from cars will decline as employment in manufacturing, research, development, and engineering blooms. But these days, the premium is on profit, not people. We are the vanguard of a transformational movement.

Cole Smith, from Michigan State University, is beating away on his bucket-drum with three others (Zack Brym leads the way, here). It'd be inappropriate to refer to our procession to the Auto Show as a march. I'd call it a mobile dance party. I slow my dancing to talk with Cole.

"Remember the Power diagram I shared at the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition Fall Conference… With power over, power to, power with, and power within?" Cole's drum sticks are still moving, but he's listening.

"Yeah."

"I'm feeling some major Power With. And that's feeding my power within. We're in one of those spirals."

Cole laughs, nods, and drums a little faster. The drumming quartet is a musical manifestation of the power dynamic I just tried to articulate. "One of those spirals." These are beautiful occurrences. Each one of the 60 students I'm marching with is a leader – a powerful individual striving for change in their community. When we come together, there is a synthesis of power. Whether it is in discussion or action, we give generously of our energies. Individual power flows from each of us, and like each drummer's beats, meets in a collective, dynamic pool of pulsing energy on which we ride, gaining momentum with each step. It is impossible not to dance. We do.

We round a corner. The Cobo Center, home of the Detroit Auto Show, is in sight.

So are ten squad cars.

More approach quietly – coming from Cobo.

The dance party is met by three unmoving police men. They deliver the automaker's ultimatum. "We have our orders, you can't come within two blocks of the Auto Show." The line is marked by a blockade of four police cars. There are at least six more, one at each corner of the intersection, two in the middle, and a few more patrolling the area.

The auto industry forcefully silenced the voice of Michigan's youth. No doubt this is a mark of my privilege, but I have never personally experienced power of this scale wielded so arbitrarily or illegitimately. It shook me. What is the logic, or the moral reasoning that forcefully attempts to keep the voices of peaceful ralliers out of sight and mind? Was this a moment for civil disobedience? It was certainly not a moment for capitulation. Who capitulates in mid power-spiral? Certainly not the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition.

We dance, chant, clap, and sing for two hours. In the midst of our celebration we pause when Maia Dedrick asks us "What brought us together today?" The consensus she elicits from us is a possibility of new transportation systems that build community and do not rely on fossil fuels. We convey this hope through song. Queen's bicycle anthem "Bicycle Race" and others, all to the beating bucket drums. Though police attempt to keep us from the press, the press comes to us (Brandon Knight with Channel 13). We wave our signs at passing cars. Some respond with irony tinged honks of solidarity. Two hummers sneer, as we condemn the passing climate criminals. Despite the heavy police presence we maintain an air of hope in our demands for a transformed auto industry. I am proud. The power spiraled on.

I now carry a renewed determination to fight corporate greenwashing. However, this determination emanates from a source I have never felt.

I had experienced a loss of agency.

We came with a message of hope and to be met with threatened violence. We were victims of the power over dynamic. No dialogue drew the line two blocks from Cobo. It was drawn by the auto industry and enforced by the police. We march across the street with the right-of-way. The police forcibly turn us back. In response, Cole and I led a chant of "Protect the People, Not the Corporations." Other chants that afternoon were chants of hope. As I screamed "protect the people, not the corporations" into the bull horn I directly addressed the illegitimate force wielded against us...

That's part 1.

In part 2 (maybe 3 as well) I will give my perspective on "Fuck the police vs. Free the police" in a framework of power dynamics and privilege, strategies of resistance and tactics for change in a semi-democratic police state, and tie up any strings I left hanging.

This is a movement. This is a struggle. Meet injustice at every turn. Model the society you wish to create. Do not compromise your values. We will win.

To peace and solidarity,
Andrew Munn