Tomorrow Movement

Tomorrow Movement call themselves a group of “ordinary young people . . . fighting for a tomorrow that works for everyone, not just big business.” And yet, there’s nothing ordinary about what they’re doing. Working together as a 5,000 member strong organisation Tomorrow Movement is climate advocacy at its strongest. With a team of 400 volunteers, a clear vision that is practical and popular, and a politically savvy strategy resilient to the fossil fuel lobby’s tactics, they’re campaigning at the intersection of climate and economic justice and putting transformational climate policies – like the Climate Jobs Guarantee – on the political agenda.

Tomorrow Movement has won multiple Groundswell grants. In this interview, we speak to Des Cai, National Director of Tomorrow Movement.

Tomorrow Movement marching on Parliament House, Canberra

As the cost of living crisis intensifies, it’s more important than ever to understand the intersection between climate and economic justice. How are Tomorrow Movement doing this?

We know that climate change is a compounding crisis that intersects with so many of the other issues people face, including the cost of living crisis. While it’s easy to see these two issues as separate, addressing them together opens up the opportunities and possibilities for transformative solutions to reshape our society safer, fairer and more equitable for decades to come. That’s why we’ve been campaigning for a Climate Jobs Guarantee – a visionary plan that would see the government make policies that would create thousands of jobs and training opportunities in every sector to decarbonise, rebuild resilience in our society, and ensure no one is left behind. 

While our young members are facing rent hikes, a housing crisis and struggling to afford basic needs, young people across the country also know that the government needs to step up on climate as well as the economic crisis. Our local leaders have been running campaigns on the cost of living crisis and advocating for a holistic climate and economic plan to address both these crises. And we’re seeing more support in the community for tangible solutions to the climate crisis that also address cost of living, like electrification of everyone’s homes to reduce energy bills.

In 2022 you marched on parliament to demand more climate jobs from the newly elected Labor government. How is that campaign going? What feedback are you hearing from politicians on the Climate Jobs Guarantee?

Politicians are broadly supportive of policies that can address both the climate and economic crisis at the same time, but we’re still not seeing the level of ambition we need from the Labor government. There is broad support for the things we’re calling for, with positive signs from our meetings with Labor that they see the need to address the climate and economic crises in tandem. However, more pressure on the government is needed to actually match the scale and speed of the climate crisis in their policy response. Through some work with unions, we’ve helped win a Net Zero Authority that could help deliver parts of a just transition that would be included in a Climate Jobs Guarantee. And we’re gaining momentum, working with partners across the climate, justice and union movement on a broader campaign to win a historic investment in climate justice solutions, following the lead of countries around the world who have invested big in climate solutions through packages like the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act.

Tomorrow Movement campaigners occupying Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office in Sydney.

Recently, one hundred young people from Tomorrow Movement occupied Prime Minister Albanese's office demanding an ambitious plan for climate and jobs. How did that go? What did you learn?

Our occupation of Albanese’s office in August went really well, and we were successful in delivering the message loud and clear to his office: we need Labor to step up with a more ambitious climate and jobs plan at their National Policy conference. Their conference platform reflected a higher ambition for climate jobs policy, linking the climate response with economic outcomes. Through the action we were able to teach 100 young people how to organise powerful and strategic actions, and give them a sense of the kinds of actions they can replicate across the country. Since the action, dozens of young people subsequently signed up to host local community actions in November to keep up the pressure on Labor. 

We learned about the importance of spending a lot of time preparing for large-scale actions. A big part of our success was in the discipline of participants who were clear about our messages and demands. We also learned about the importance of the timing of actions for the media to pay extra attention. While the Labor National Conference was a key media moment, our action may have gained more attention if it was timed closer to the conference.

What are you planning next?

We know that in order to win a vision as ambitious as the Climate Jobs Guarantee, our movement can’t do it alone. We’re already training dozens of young people to run local teams and plan actions in November to keep up the pressure on Labor to deliver a comprehensive climate plan that addresses cost of living and creates thousands of good jobs in the process. These actions will kick off a summer of activity. We’ll be campaigning for policies to protect our communities in the face of extreme heat and bushfires.

Longer term, we’ve been working with a diverse coalition of unions, climate and justice organisations to win a historic investment into climate solutions, including record investment to build out renewable industry as well as electrifying our communities and increasing our climate resilience to protect our communities. We’ll launch this coalition campaign next year, looking towards the next Federal Election, to raise the ambition for a big climate solutions package.