It is easy to feel despair, grief and anxiety in the face of everything going on right now, and everything we collectively experienced in 2019.

It is easy to feel hopeless and to want to point fingers of blame and to attack politicians and people in positions of power.

All of that is normal response to the environmental and human rights catastrophe unfolding in front of us. And no doubt most of it is very valid.

Current and past political leaders failed to prepare us on so many fronts.

Failing to address climate change in the 90s and early 2000s when the opportunity to avoid these particular catastrophic impacts still existed. Failure to adequately resource our emergency services. Failure to ensure both existing and new buildings are fire safe before the long-predicted fires became reality. Failure to have an adequate social and economic safety net for those whose jobs and homes no longer exist.

In the face of inaction it is easy to think democracy and collectivism have failed. But this is not the case.

We need democracy and people power now more than ever before.

The only answer to a politics dominated by a powerful elite is to rebuild a powerful and organised citizenry.

Through collective organising we can plan and implement our own way through the just transitions we need to have, without leaving anybody behind. We can do this in our own communities, workplaces, industries and other areas of influence.

We can open-source the creation of a new and better society, even if we have to do so against the will of powerful elites.

We can have a future that is net-zero emissions across every aspect of society. We can get there very, very rapidly. We can have work and income guarantees, to ensure no person is left in poverty or without purpose. We can have safe, reliable, zero carbon transport. We can reduce inequality of wealth, opportunity and access. We can have a proper social safety net so nobody is left behind during hard times. We can have an environment which is healthy and thriving... If we make these things our top priority.

In 2020 that's the work we'll be doing.

We'll be working with community members to figure out how we do this transition in our communities, our workplaces, our industries and our state more broadly. We'll be bringing together community knowledge about what needs to happen, what is already happening and of how we bridge that gap.

In the face of all that despair, grief, anxiety we will bring action, planning and implementation. We will build power, organise collectively and share our resources.

If ever there were a time to be a part of something bigger and bolder and collective, it is right now.

Together we can and will get this work done.

Let's make this happen. Ask people you know to join the Climate Justice Union today: https://www.climatejusticeunion.org/join

In solidarity,

Luke Skinner

Secretary,
Climate Justice Union WA