We are campaigners for climate justice. We know that climate justice is impossible to achieve without also achieving racial justice. We wage tenacious campaigns to demand that the climate revolution benefit those suffering the most from climate change and economic and racial oppression. We see our role as focusing unrelenting, escalating pressure on a specific target. We leverage our power as outside agitators and rebels to challenge entrenched power structures and win concrete victories. As we win, and others win, our work will add up to necessary transformative shifts in our economy and culture.

We intentionally grow our understanding of how our work is connected in an ecosystem with other movements for justice, recognizing there is much we don’t yet know. We build authentic relationships of solidarity, learning, and accountability across race, class, and other differences which inform how we act inside and outside our campaign. We take initiative and act when we see a role we can fill, and we actively open ourselves to feedback and adjusting course to ensure our work contributes to a holistic vision for justice. This is how we embody the Quaker principle of right relationship. 

We are nimble. While our campaign goals are our North Star, we remain responsive to continuing revelation. We know that our playing field is always shifting, and we open ourselves up to learning if we step forward in ways that aren’t welcome to the communities most impacted by our campaign. We shift our strategy and tactics when what we’re doing is not working. We debrief when we’ve stretched ourselves -- as individuals and as an organization -- and allow ourselves to let go of thinking that no longer serves us, as we strive to better embody the world we seek to create. 

We are hopeful. We proclaim justice from the heart of the broadest vision for liberation we can imagine, intuit, dream. We believe a more just world is possible, and our protest is an active way of saying “yes” to that vision. This belief inspires participants to engage deeply with our actions. We use art, song, and movement to access grounding, hope, and joy. We are sincere in our commitment to this work. 

We are grounded in Quaker spirituality. We are founded by Friends and anchored in Quaker histories of speaking truth to power. We actively organize with Quakers, alongside others who share our vision, to take action for climate and social justice. Spirit gives us the courage to act in daunting circumstances, and hope that change is possible. We believe in and practice nonviolence in our campaign, our communications, and our actions. We listen to the group’s wisdom and in any decision, we use collective discernment to find the way forward. We embrace complexity, knowing multiple things can be true at the same time, and that real learning, growth, and truth-finding happen when we embrace that. We dispense with Quaker practices that don’t serve us. We welcome many forms of spiritual exploration and expression including silence, prayer, song, and chanting and we welcome people of all faiths and those with no religious tradition to join us.

We are volunteer-led and powered by those who do. The people who do the work make the decisions about their work, whether they are staff, board members, or volunteers. Many decisions are made by the small committees of volunteers and staff who plan and execute campaign tactics. Volunteers work with staff to hold and shape the big picture. Staff weave, support and provide accountability to volunteers across the organization. For the health of the organization, our staff also look out for big picture trends, lead large strategy projects, and manage administrative tasks. The broad course of the organization is held by the board, who are themselves expected to be active volunteers. Those who give their time and energy to EQAT are expected to listen for the sense of the group and will have the most influence on the course of our work together. 

We listen to the group's wisdom. In any decision, we use collective discernment to find the way forward. We have an openness to and awareness that Spirit is working with us and through us in discerning a way forward. Those involved are expected to weigh in and contribute ideas and we make time and space for them to be heard. We listen for disagreement and seek to understand, before moving forward. We invite our membership into the work of brainstorming, planning, and analyzing results. However, we do not expect consensus for each decision. For any decision, there is a clear decision-maker who is called to consider if there is a sense of the group and make the best decision they can. 

We believe there are many kinds of expertise. We know different people are listened to for different reasons, and we are intentional about whom we listen to, whom we give power to, and why. We don’t just listen to one kind of expert. We seek out different perspectives and ways of knowing to help us when making hard decisions. We welcome new energy and respect old wisdom and experience. We seek out data and know that inspiration can come from anywhere. We consider lived experience, especially where people are speaking/challenging from the margins of society and of our group. We know holding all of these at once can lead to conflict and we welcome the complexity of navigating that.

We build community to be connected -- to our region, to each other, to the earth, to other movements for justice. We connect across age, race, class, disability, gender, sexuality, location, religion, and more. We use 1:1 connection and relationship-based organizing to strengthen our bonds with each other so they are strong enough to support us to take big risks. We connect for encouragement, to find hope, and to stay motivated for the long fights. We check in on each other during hard times. We build trust and act with integrity, as we believe that those are fundamental to remaining connected. We stay connected to each other in the hard places and while in conflict.

We are on our learning edge. We welcome people to join us in action no matter their level of experience campaigning. We supportively push people to take action outside their comfort zones. We encourage people to learn new skills and take on tasks they don’t yet know how to do and offer supportive feedback to each other to grow. We do this to win our campaign and because transforming ourselves is living into the world we want to see. Whether people are with us for one year or ten, they leave having learned how to think about campaign strategy and how to make strategic decisions, thereby contributing to movements.

We are growing to be a powerful, welcoming community. We support each other to learn, grow, and take action to resist both internalized and systemic oppression. This healing work helps us be better people and more powerful changemakers. We commit to noticing and acting against patterns of supremacy and oppression when they show up in our group spaces. We recognize that our work is not to change the makeup of our group for its own sake but to constantly work toward creating the kind of world we envision, where everyone feels welcome and supported to bring their full selves. We live in the tension of knowing we are enough to act as we are, and we cannot do all we are meant to only as we are now.

Affirmed by the Board October 2020