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R'dale Press cover JS photo PCM

Activists with the Riverdale-Kingsbridge Coalition for Climate Action (predeccesor to BCJN), hit the front page of the 9/25/14 edition of The Riverdale Press as they participate in the historic People’s Climate March in Manhattan. Photo: Jessica Bal

A little history

Our organization began to coalesce during the summer of 2014, with mobilization efforts in the northwest Bronx for the People’s Climate March. We called ourselves the Riverdale-Kingsbridge Coalition for Climate Action (RKCCA). The assistance and support of two local institutions were of particular importance – Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture and the Church of the Mediator, Kingsbridge. We are also very grateful to The Riverdale Press, which has covered our activities from the beginning.

The People’s Climate March “Host Committee” –  the many individuals and organizations who came together in the winter, spring, summer and early fall of 2014 to organize what became the half-million-strong People’s Climate March on September 21, (in the winter of 2015, the PCM Host Committee became the People’s Climate Movement NY-PCMNY) – came together in response to the announcement that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would convene a UN Climate Summit when the UN convened in September, 2014. The decision to hold a massive people’s march, calling on governments attending the summit to take immediate, urgent steps to curb climate change, included the understanding that as important as the march itself would be, even more critical would be the growth and strengthening of the civil society underlying the burgeoning global climate movement. RKCCA took this double mandate very much to heart, committing itself to turning out large numbers from the northwest Bronx at the September 21 march, and to continuing the struggle to build the movement for climate justice long after the march was over.

In early October, RKCCA began a post-march series of meetings and discussions that culminated with the formal adoption of the name Bronx Climate Justice North (BCJN). The name was chosen to underline our commitment to the work and tenets of climate justice, as well as to our formal alliance with Bronx Climate Justice South, a coalition of environmental justice organizations based in the South Bronx.

RKCCA in the news:

BCJN in the news – picking up where RKCCA left off:

BCJN speaks:

BCJN co-sponsors/co-signs:

BCJN in solidarity:

BCJN in the Bronx:

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