It is a compelling short documentary about the importance of unions to young workers. This video documentary shows not only why young workers want to be unionized, but also the challenges of involving young workers in the labour movement - how they could be the new leadership incorporating their hopes and concerns.
Don Kossick of Making the Links Radio interviews Rosa Kouri,a Canadian lead tracker for Adoptanegotiator.org, about what happened in Copenhagen and what there is to go forward with. Rosa has a particular view as part of the global youth movement striving for climate justice. She has participated in the Montreal. Bali, Poznan and Copenhagen climate talks and offers a unique perspective.
For two years we have been talking about Copenhagen.
Two long years, campaigning for a fair, binding and ambitious deal. A real deal that would protect our planet’s environment and see justice for all humanity that depends upon it. These two years come at the end of seventeen years, since the Rio Summit, when the world established the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a framework designed to address the threat of climate change.
As I am writing this, I am in Copenhagen watching the talks in overtime. They have been running continuously for the past 48 hours as leaders scramble to produce something of substance. Before reflecting on this outcome, lets go back to the beginning of the COP-15. During the opening of the conference, Christina Ora, a youth delegate from the Pacific, spoke prophetically to the powers of this world outlining her hopes and fears. She stated:
“I am 17 years old. For my entire life, countries have been negotiating a climate agreement. My future is in front of me. In the year that I was born, amid an atmosphere of hope, the world formed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to solve the climate crisis…. In the Solomon Islands, my homeland, communities on low-lying atolls are already being displaced by rising sea levels. Communities have lived on these atolls for generations. Moving from one province to another in the Solomon Islands is not just like moving house. Your land is your identity. It is part of your culture. It is who you are.
"I am scared, and so too are the people from these atolls about what this means for our culture, our communities and our identity. Because of climate change, I am uncertain about what is to come. How can I feel that my future is safe? How can I be sure that my home village won’t disappear in 10 years’ time? How can I be sure that my community won’t have to find a new home? How can I be sure that I will be able to raise my children in the same place that my mother and father raised me? I am not sure. I am scared and worried.
"For my entire life, world leaders have been negotiating a climate agreement. They cannot tell me they need more time. There is no more time. I hope world leaders realise this week that my generation’s future is in the palm of their hands.”
These inspiring and unsettling words set a tone of urgency for the Copenhagen negotiations. They reflected the fears of millions of people living on the front line of the impacts of climate change. Climate change is proceeding at an alarming rate and required urgent action. Copenhagen did not deliver what was necessary.
