Feminist Green New Deal Coalition Hosts First In-Person Convening

Bridget Burns (left), WEDO, and Diane Duarte (center), MADRE (Photo by Survival Media Agency)

The Feminist Green New Deal Coalition (also known as the FemGND for short) was thrilled to gather for its first ever in-person convening on February 9-11th, 2023. The U.S.-based coalition was created as an organizing space for intersectional feminist climate advocacy—gathering gender and climate justice organizations, advocates and activists around shared global justice and feminist justice advocacy on U.S. domestic and foreign policy, as well as movement building. WEDO is a founding co-convener of the FemGND Coalition and we were honored to support the planning and coordination of the convening, as well as be in attendance.

After nearly three years of coordinating virtually, over 30 individuals, representing diverse movements nationwide and internationally, gathered to deepen relationships across and beyond the Coalition, assess the state of crises we are living and working within, and discern areas for feminist collaboration for the coming years.

Participants came from a wide cast of organizations and backgrounds, bringing a broad cross-section of expertise and leadership from the fields of labor, gender, environmental, health, economic justice, reproductive rights, Indigenous rights, and beyond.

We convened as a network of advocates dedicated to feminist climate justice to deepen understanding of analysis of current crises—and priorities, goals and capacities in tackling these issues. We also came with the intention of developing and deepening relationships and trust, which are central to collective and successful organizing. Above all, we convened to reaffirm the need for collective, feminist, climate justice organizing and to inform a clear mapping of opportunities where this specific gathering of organizers and groups—in working together—could identify critical intervention points for collaboration.

We mapped connections across our movement journeys—the teachers, particular events or points in time, and values that led us to the work we do now—to learn more about each other and find synergy. We dove into sector-specific conversations, discussing the key upcoming moments and solidarity requests from the labor sector, the global policy sector, the bodily autonomy and reproductive justice sector, and more. We mapped the state of the movement, with exploring both the root causes of intersecting crises we face right now, as well as aligning around what we are building and how we will get to that world. We examined how to be in better alignment and solidarity with each other, showing up as a coalition in the best way we can. 

After all this groundwork was laid, it was clear that three themes emerged as core intervention points for  this formation: the care economy and labor rights, bodily autonomy and health, and economic justice. 

With a strong history of working around the care and climate intersection, recognizing that the rights and well-being of care workers are central to climate action, the care economy and labor rights emerged as a clear theme. The regression of reproductive rights around the country was also at the forefront of minds at the convening, creating a clear through-line of standing for abortion rights, reproductive rights, and health and bodily autonomy generally. Economic justice as a theme was underscored by the many conversations around redistribution of resources, reparations, climate finance, and divesting from fossil fuels and institutions of harm and reinvesting in care and social protections.

At the conclusion of the convening, we left with renewed momentum to continue building and advancing a feminist climate justice framework, deep gratitude for learning and sharing space with each other, and commitment to continue envisioning and shaping the world we know we need to care for our communities and planet.