The Building Sustainable Security conference will be held Saturday, November 21, at Harvard Law School. This message, written by the conference planning committee, expands on the assumptions behind the conference. More Information and to Register
The 2016 elections are bearing down on us. Whether we are working for social justice or peace or combatting climate change or racism, this election will impact our issues and our organizing.
It’s long past time for us to mobilize for real human security and well-being.
The banner of national security has been co-opted by charlatans of all stripes to wreak constant war on people we don’t know, to strip away our freedoms, to undermine our movements for justice, and to hand over our world and our futures to an extractive corporate elite.
Our country has participated in policies that have erected the three greatest barriers to true national security– catastrophic climate change; constant war and a culture that nurtures war; and growing inequality that destroys democracy and feeds poverty, racism and mass incarceration as a way of life.
Only large social movements of ordinary people committed both to taking down these barriers and to constructing a society based on a shared vision can save us.
This conference will seek to identify new pillars upon which the real security of our country and our world must be based: saving our living planet from climate devastation; peace and nonviolent conflict resolution; dignified work, economic security, a place to call home; and the struggle against racism.
We work to build a renewable energy system, to rapidly cut carbon emissions and to stop the poisoning of our water, air and soil.
We work for the abolition of nuclear weapons, to stop the death and destruction of the conventional wars in which our nation has played a leading role, and to reclaim the vast resources wasted on militarism for our people’s and the world’s urgent needs.
We work for a fairly shared global prosperity and to end social, economic and racial injustice.
Promising efforts to organize for change have fallen short of what the crisis demands. Millions of Americans share our concerns, but we are divided at the very time when we need to work together. As the problems escalate, there doesn’t seem to be the time or capacity to build the larger, more powerful movement that is required.
This conference will focus on solutions, actions, and capacity building using the frame of “real security” to activate more people and enable us to develop both stronger ties among our efforts and more effective actions.
The Building Sustainable Security conference will be held Saturday, November 21, at Harvard Law School. More Information and to Register