Caracol DSA

The Degrowth Ecosocialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America

Resource Package – Resist Genocide & Ecocide: Build Democratic Socialism

Hosted by Caracol DSA: The Degrowth Ecosocialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America

Ecocide and genocide are two faces of empire. 

Fossil-fueled capitalism drives both ecological collapse and violent repression. From Gaza to the Amazon, genocide and ecocide are tools to secure land, resources, and power for imperial core economies.

An internationalist, ecosocialist perspective reveals that endless growth for the few means destruction for the many.

We must resist extractivism, militarism, and settler colonialism—not separately, but together. Another world is possible—but only if we organize for global solidarity, ecological repair, and democratic control of land and life.

Build resistance. Build alternatives. Build democratic socialism.

Thank you for joining Caracol DSA for this online panel and teach-in – below are resources and links to further information from this event and for follow up organizing. But first… some easy next steps to TAKE ACTION NOW!

  • Already a DSA member? 
    • If you’re ready to imagine and fight for a post-growth future of justice, care, and repair—we invite you to consider joining Caracol DSA.

Resist Genocide & Ecocide: Build Democratic Socialism

Panelists:

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian scientist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who is the founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, where he also teaches.

François Kamate, a young climate and human rights defender from North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is a co-founding member of Amani Institute ASBL and Extinction Rebellion Rutshuru and is active with various aligned groups and campaigns such as Save Virunga, LUCHACongo.org, and Notre Terre Sans Pétrole

Gina Cortés Valderrama, a Colombian activist who advocates for climate, racial, economic and gender justice at the intersections of feminism, decoloniality and degrowth. She co-coordinates  the Just Transition Thematic Group part of the UNFCCC’s Women and Gender Constituency.

Anna Libey, an ecosocialist organizer and member of Caracol from Denver DSA and Sunrise Movement. Anna is a systems scientist, environmental engineer, and activist interested in coalition building between environmental, economic, and racial justice movements.

  • Anna presented her work as an organizer with the Stop Fueling Genocide Campaign targeting Chevron for Palestine and the Planet and shared tools and resources for corporate pressure campaigns to win fossil free and apartheid free events – find more at: boycottchevron.info 
  • Boycott Chevron Action Toolkit: Picket & Campaign to Win! Public USCPR Boycott Chevron Action Toolkit

Resist Genocide & Ecocide: Build Democratic Socialism

Teach-in: 

After the panel presentations, there was an interactive teach-in for discussion and generating organizing. This segment was not recorded – but we can share the discussion outlines, resources, and some notes so that you can engage and even host your own discussions… 

Breakout room topics & facilitators:

  1. Room 1: Starting corporate pressure campaigns (Anna, she/her, Denver DSA)
  2. Room 2: Labor’s role in resisting genocide & ecocide (Lael, she/her, Miami DSA/Florida Int’l University YDSA)
  3. Room 3: Municipal organizing to resist and build (ref. Zohran Mamdani campaign in NYC) (Lalo, he/him, NYC DSA)
  4. Room 4: Degrow your community – local organizing to resist and build (Sämu, he/they, Boston DSA)
  5. Back up facilitator (Maple, she/her, NC Triangle DSA)

GROUP 1: Starting corporate pressure campaigns (Anna, she/her, Denver DSA)

Resources: 

Aims to discuss how opposing corporate power of polluters and war profiteers through targeted campaigns to damage reputation and make them lose market share or profits locally can build people power. We’ll discuss the case of Chevron and share a resource on corporate pressure campaigns that helps grassroots orgs to assess target vulnerability and tactics like petitions, pickets, boycotts, and culture jamming (guerilla marketing).

Discussion prompts:

I. Welcome & Warm-Up

  • Name, pronouns, Y/DSA chapter (if applicable)
  • Have you participated in any corporate pressure campaign work? If so, give some details!

II. What other corporations are there profiting from genocide and ecocide that you know of?

III. How can we encourage cultural shifts away from the norm of greenwashing and humane washing corporate greed through community sponsorships?

VII. Action Ideas & Next Steps

  • What could a corporate pressure campaign in your area look like around:
    • BDS?
    • Climate justice?
    • Refugee & migrant solidarity?
    • Demilitarizing police?
    • Housing justice?

GROUP 2: Labor’s role in resisting and building (Lael, she/her, Miami DSA/Florida Int’l University YDSA)

Aims to explore how our labor power, as workers, can be leveraged against ecocide and genocide. Addresses approaches to politicizing labor work and moving beyond purely economic demands.

Resources: 

Discussion prompts:

I. Welcome & Warm-Up

  • Name, pronouns, Y/DSA chapter (if applicable)
  • Have you participated in any labor work? If so, give some details!

II. Is labor organizing and degrowth symbiotic?

  • Both in scholarship and in practice, we see a lack of integration between the labor movement and the ecosocialist degrowth movement, or at least it seems that way. In what ways have you seen labor and degrowth thought intersect in your organizing?
  • Some scholars and organizers, like Matt Huber, believe that improving working class conditions and adopting degrowth are inherently opposed, especially with regards to workers in the global north. What is your evaluation of this analysis, especially considering how unions like the UAW have begun fighting for non-economic divestment demands?
  • What role does labor play in degrowth organizing and why is it important?
  • Why is it important to take a degrowth lens when trying to organize labor against genocide?

II. Practical steps towards a labor approach to anti-ecocide degrowth organizing 

  • Often, it is hard for degrowthers to outline concrete ways in which their visions can be achieved. Bringing labor into the picture gives us a unique opportunity to really consider how we can pressure for degrowth and divestment from ecocide. What do you see as the first material steps towards aligning the labour movement with degrowth thought, and vice versa?
  • What kinds of labor demands address degrowth and genocide alongside worker’s rights? How do we politicize workers towards these demands?
  • When advocating for shorter term changes and concrete demands using our labor power, how do we ensure a revolutionary degrowth horizon is maintained? How can we avoid the trap of “endless reforms”?

II. Lightning round

  • What’s one thing you can do to bring your labor work into closer alignment with an anti-ecocide degrowth approach, and vice versa?

GROUP 3: Municipal organizing to resist and build (Lalo, he/him, NYC DSA)

Aims to provoke insight, analysis, and concrete organizing ideas about how local/municipal strategy can play a role in resisting ecocide, genocide, and imperialism from a degrowth-oriented, ecosocialist perspective. Uses Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy in NYC as an example.

Resource: 

Discussion prompts:

I. Opening Round (Warm-Up)

  • What role has your city or local government played in either enabling or resisting extractivism, policing, or climate breakdown?
  • Have you been part of a local organizing effort? What worked? What didn’t?

II. The Power & Limits of Municipalism

  • What powers do cities actually hold to resist broader imperial, extractive systems? What are the limits?
  • How can a city like NYC resist a hostile state or federal government—as Mamdani might have to do?
  • Where have you seen municipal governments serve as models of internationalist or ecosocialist resistance?

III. Local Policies for Global Solidarity

  • Which of Mamdani’s proposals (free transit, natural building, tool libraries, child care co-ops) could be implemented where you live?
  • How do these types of policies support decolonization, climate justice, or economic democracy?
  • Could we imagine a “municipalist solidarity platform” shared across cities—for Palestine, Congo, the Amazon, etc?

IV. Infrastructure for Degrowth

  • What would a degrowth-oriented city actually look like? (fewer cars, more public goods, shared tools, natural housing, etc.)
  • How do we win support for these changes in cities currently shaped by capitalist logics and austerity politics?

V. Obstacles & Strategic Approaches

  • What are the obstacles to municipal socialist organizing in your city? (legal, political, cultural?)
  • How can we build municipal power through DSA chapters, city council races, participatory budgeting, etc.?
  • How do we prepare organizers and communities to govern and implement radical policy when we win?

VI. Internationalism from Below

  • How do we link municipal campaigns with struggles in Palestine, Congo, or the Amazon in real material ways?
  • Can cities be nodes in a global network of resistance—refusing complicity and building alternatives?

VII. Action Ideas & Next Steps

  • What could a municipal campaign in your city look like around:
    • Climate justice?
    • Demilitarizing police?
    • Housing justice?
    • Refugee & migrant solidarity?
  • What small wins could build momentum toward a broader democratic socialist city vision?

GROUP 4: Degrow your community (Sämu, he/they, Boston DSA)

Aims to spark reflection, creativity, and practical organizing ideas for building degrowth-aligned projects at the local level. This space is meant to explore how we can cultivate community-based alternatives to the growth economy through art, study, mutual aid, alliance-building, and direct action — rooted in care, collective joy, and radical imagination.

Resource: 

Discussion prompts:

I. Welcome & Warm-Up

  • What does degrowth mean to you, in your own words?
  • When have you seen or participated in something that felt like a “degrowth” moment—even if it wasn’t named that way?

II. Shared Learning & Collective Study

  • Have you been part of a reading group or political education space? What made it effective or exciting?
  • What would a degrowth reading group look like in your context (city, school, org)? What topics or readings would resonate locally?
  • Could you imagine starting a Degrow[YourCity] chapter? What might its first steps be?

III. Events as Political Practice

  • How can public events (like picnics, teach-ins, festivals, or protests) embody degrowth values?
  • What kinds of events could you imagine organizing to make degrowth feel tangible, joyful, or welcoming in your community?
  • Are there existing spaces (parks, libraries, cafés, protests) where degrowth ideas could be introduced or amplified?

IV. Degrowth Aesthetics: Zines, Murals, and Street Art

  • What visual or creative expressions of degrowth have you seen or could you imagine?
  • Would your community respond to degrowth art, zines, wheatpaste posters, or murals? What messages or styles might land?
  • What tools (printing, drawing, video, music) could be used to make degrowth legible where you live?

V. Building Alliances for Systemic Change

  • Who in your community is already fighting for justice—on housing, food, policing, ecology, labor?
  • How can degrowth organizing align with those struggles without co-opting or diluting them?
  • What might a conversation sound like between degrowth activists and groups focused on racial justice, disability justice, or Indigenous sovereignty?

VI. Opposition to Growth Projects

  • Are there active or recent struggles near you against new fossil fuel infrastructure, gentrification, or mega-developments?
  • Could you connect those fights to a broader critique of growth-centered economics?
  • What kinds of messaging might help local residents connect “stopping this project” to a degrowth future?

VII. Mutual Aid & The Gift Economy

  • In what ways do you already participate in mutual aid or informal sharing?
  • How do you see mutual aid as connected to degrowth—or as an alternative to capitalist growth imperatives?
  • Could your community host a gift market, public feast, or “degrowth fair” to demonstrate abundance without extraction?

VIII. Envisioning a Degrowth Future Locally

  • What would a degrown version of your neighborhood look and feel like?
    • Transportation?
    • Food systems?
    • Housing?
    • Work and leisure?
  • What are three small degrowth actions you or your group could take in the next six months?

IX. Close-Out & Next Steps

  • What’s one idea from this conversation that excited or surprised you?
  • Who could you talk to this week about starting something degrowth-related in your area?

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