[VTCp9xGqq-Y_SPEAKER_00]: So next we're going to have Craig Altamos. He co-founded 350 Mass for a Better Future in 2011, and has served as its executive director since then. Before starting there, he co-founded and led Students for a Just and Stable Future, a statewide student network that engaged students at over 15 Massachusetts universities on climate policy. 350 Mass hasn't endorsed in this race, so he's not speaking in any official capacity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. So I've been working on climate change in Massachusetts for coming up on 14 years now. And we've made some progress, but we are really, really dragging. And one of the big lessons that I've learned is that climate activists can't do it by themselves. That's why we need a Green New Deal, which combines climate action with racial justice and people-centered jobs, good jobs, labor jobs, organized union jobs. Because, again, there's not enough power in the climate movement and the environmental movement to win it by ourselves. To say nothing of the fact that we have, as much of a climate crisis, we have an economic crisis, we have a racial justice crisis in this country. And so we have this once in a civilization opportunity, really, to kind of reset how we want our society to be shaped. reinvigorate the structures of society so it centers people first, the most directly impacted people first and foremost. And we need candidates like Anna Callahan, we're gonna fight for that vision. And again, it's not just the moral side, if you look at the strategic side, if you look at what happened in France with the Yellow Vest protests, you remember that? When there were policies, the Yellow Vest protests were actually protesting against the carbon tax, against a climate policy that didn't center the needs of working people. And the response of working folks in France was, you guys are talking about the end of the world, we're talking about the end of the month. And so when you don't have policies that really center the needs of the most directly impacted people, you're not gonna get the popular support you need to pass those policies into law. Those policies were originally passed and then they were repealed because of the massive public uproar. And so again, I'm thrilled to be here to fully support Anna Callahan as a person and as a possible organization. We have some stuff to work out in terms of who we're going to support. But Anna's going to be fighting like hell for the Green New Deal, and that's the kind of fight, the kind of champion that we need, because it's not just about supporting the right policies. Honestly, session after session within Massachusetts State House, people say the right things, and they co-sponsor the right bills, but then we never see the action we need. And that's because within the State House, there's a culture of fear. that feeds a culture of corruption at the top. A lot of legislators are afraid to speak out against the Speaker of the House because he will deny them committee chairs or vice chair slots. That means more money as the chairs get paid tens of thousands more than normal state legislators. They get to hire more staff, they get that prestige. And the Speaker basically tells every single chair what they need to do to remain as chair, which is to list everything, only pass bills out of the committee that he tells them to, only allow bills to come to a vote that he tells them to. And as long as that situation remains, we will not see action on a Green New Deal. We will not see action on Medicare for All. We will not see action on anything that we care about as progressives. Until and unless we have people like Anna Callahan willing to stand up for what she believes, and not just say that she believes in it, but fight for it. And that's, again, why I'm so thrilled to be backing Anna Callahan as our state representative.
[VTCp9xGqq-Y_SPEAKER_00]: It's how incredible it is to have really strong movement candidates like Anna that are going to really put the feet to the fire of the folks that are going to be able to get these real changes that we all need.