“Polycrisis” is a word being used to describe the current confluence of military, geopolitical, economic, political, climate, and other crises. This series of commentaries on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal,” probes the dynamics of the polycrisis and what alternatives there might be to its race to destruction. This commentary, the third in the series, examines the stunning expansion of armed conflict in the polycrisis era.

“Polycrisis” is a word that has recently come into use to characterize the way crises in many different spheres – ranging from geopolitics and economics to climate and pandemic – are aggravating each other and even converging.

This is the first of a series of Strike! Commentaries on the “Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal.” The term “polycrisis” is increasingly being used to describe an era in which multiple crises collide – in particular, our present era. The first set of Commentaries in this series examine geopolitics and war in the era of polycrisis.

The Green New Deal from Below pursues strategic objectives that implement Green New Deal programs, expand the Green New Deal’s support, and shift the balance between pro- and anti-Green New Deal forces. Not every action is likely to accomplish all of these objectives, but most actions aim to accomplish more than one of them at the same time.

More than 2000 protestors have been arrested in pro-Palestinian demonstrations since mid-April. They have been charged with “criminal trespass” and other crimes. University officials, police, and politicians may say that students protesting Israeli genocide in Gaza and US complicity with it are criminals. But far from breaking the law, their actions are actually enforcing it. Here’s why.

The Green New Deal from Below expresses the values and programs of the Green New Deal at local, state, and regional levels. But it is also a strategy for how to realize those values and implement those programs. This Strike! Commentary will explore how, in a complex and conflicted political arena, the Green New Deal movement has constructed such a strategy. The next commentary will explore how it has implemented that strategy in practice.

While the original Green New Deal congressional resolution primarily envisioned a program at the federal level, activists and governments in local, state, regional, and civil society arenas have gone ahead and implemented many of its programs. Federal and sub-federal actions can be synergistic, but they both require planning, resource mobilization, and the avoidance of false solutions.

The International Court of Justice has found that Israel’s actions in Gaza may constitute genocide in violation of international law. A US District Court has endorsed that finding and added, “It is every individual’s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza.” What can we learn from history about the responsibility of individuals to confront war crimes and how it may be possible to do so.