Rhiana Gunn-Wright

it just so happens that lots of the policies that we need to help people participate in this economy are the same policies that people will need to benefit from the greening of our economy. and in fact they become MORE necessary in the context of a GND. 3/

M4A: in WWII, migration patterns changed. thousands moved for jobs. why wouldn't that happen in GND, given how much industrial growth we'd see and the nature of the work to transition from power from fossil fuels to power from renewable sources. 4/

unlinking employment from health care means people can move for better jobs, to escape the worst effects of climate, AND re-enter the labor mkt without losing HC from Medicaid (dumb asset limits ) 5/

similar case with paid family leave: how are women going to fully participate in the GND and make bank from the explosion in trades and other nontraditional jobs if they can't access affordable child care? how we gonna get to full employment? 6/

and miss me with the "but we're already near full employment!" argument. go to my hood in chicago. if the black unemployment rate was the national unemployment rate, it would be a crisis. 7/

same with the jobs guarantee. JG offers perhaps the simplest way to build a real workforce development system in this country, which is CRUCIAL to a GND and the transition to a green economy. 8/

it gives a single point of entry, offers opportunities for on the job training, can easily be coordinated with community colleges and public unis to provide paths for further upskilling, AND creates a paid way to retrain people. 9/

plus it can be structured so states and localities DECIDE where they want to place workers, so it meets the demands of the transition AND lets communities put workers where they need them. (plus you can use it to increase job quality in sectors where workers are exploited.) 10/

folks may be mad that the GND is not all about climate. but this is what a commitment to justice and equity means! this is what just policy looks like, especially in an economy as disfunctional as ours. don't like it? take it up with the leaders who let things get this bad. 11/

we KNOW what happens when nat'l mobilizations make justice negotiable. you think the racial wealth gap ain't connected to agricultural and domestic workers (aka black people) being left out of social security? 12/

you think black people being clustered in high poverty neighborhoods has nothing to do with blk vets being shortchanged by the GI bill? 13/

and again, miss me with the "but we can deal with that later. climate change is unique!" yes, but the great depression was also unique. when did at workers get included in SS? 1950. that's 15 years. FIFTEEN. 14/

you want folks to wait 15 years again for the rights they deserve? all because it's too "complicated" to try to make policies address more than one crisis at a time? NOT IN THE YEAR OF MY LORD 2019. we ain't got to let folks suffer like that. 15/

so next time someone tells you that the GND is just a "laundry list" of random policies, remember: ISSA TRAP we ain't gotta choose between equity and climate action. this mobilization is big enough for all of us. thank you for coming to my TED talk.