As heads of state, corporate leaders, and token civil society organizations meet behind the UN Climate Summit’s closed doors Tuesday, the streets continue to resound with the messages of the 400,000 people who marched on Sunday, the thousands who flooded Wall Street, the ongoing People’s Climate Justice Summit, and the workshops, teach-ins, and rallies still filling New York.

That massive crowd is not only challenging those within the summit. Many participants and organizers are pushing discussions within the environmental movement about social and economic justice and the critical role that front-lines communities—those directly bearing the brunt of climate change—play in leading the struggle to transform society and defend the earth. And on Sunday, it was these front-lines communities who led the march, with youth at the front.

“The front-lines of the climate crisis are low-income people, communities of color and indigenous communities here in the US and around the globe,” said Cindy Wiesner, Co-Director of the Climate Justice Alliance. “We are the hardest hit by both climate disruption—the storms, floods and droughts—as well as by the extractive, polluting and wasteful industries causing global warming. We are also at the forefront of innovative community-led solutions that ensure a just transition off fossil fuels, and that support an economy good for both people and the planet. That is why Climate Justice Alliance members are here in the thousands, to march and say to global leaders: we have the solutions to ecological and economic crises.”

Indigenous Voices

“Brothers and sisters, we’re calling out to the world to join together for true change. Let’s leave the oil beneath the ground. The Sarayaku indigenous people believe that instead of bringing ‘development’, the oil industry is destructive for indigenous society, non-indigenous society, the planet, and nature. It disrupts our indigenous worldview and destroys our ecosystems. That’s why we vociferously fight so that oil is not extracted from our territories.” –Patricia Gualinga, international relations director for Kichwa indigenous community of Sarayaku, Ecuadorian Amazon

“You’re not guaranteed, ever, that you’re going to win in this movement by sticking your neck out and making your voice heard. But you’re definitely guaranteed, a hundred percent, to completely fail if you don’t at least try.” –Kandi Mosset, Native Energy & Climate Campaign Organizer 

“No money in the world is worth destroying our land and our water…. I pray that more of us can have the courage to stand up and speak out.” –Shelley A. Young, Mi’kmaq leader from Eskasoni First Nation

Workers Rising, From Appalachia to Immokalee

“I’m a 69 year-old retired coal miner from Lynch in southeast Kentucky. I worked underground for 41 years and I have black lung disease. I’m actually having a hard time breathing just to get to this stage. I am marching today because I want to build a bright future for my family, for Appalachia, and for this world. I have a vision where my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren can have good jobs that support our families without doing damage to our water, air, land and climate.” –Stanley Sturgill, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth

“We are suffering and dying from all this. We deserve water, clean air, stable work.” —Kimberly Shepherd, of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth

“Our members are marching because climate change affects all of us. We live in the communities that get destroyed by storms like Sandy. We work in the buildings that get flooded. We get hit by health epidemics like asthma that are rampant in our communities, and we care about the world that we will leave for our children and grandchildren.” – Héctor Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU

We are domestic workers! We want climate justice now!” could be heard ringing through the crowd.

Migrant Justice

“We are here representing the communities who are suffering directly from an exploitative, extractive economy that doesn’t respect people’s dignity, or human, labour, and civil rights. We are here to lift this voice and to send the message that we have the opportunity to create an economy that values humanity and dignity. We are here to redefine a just transition, where all communities have equality, access to resources, and also an economy that is good for the people and the planet.” –Abel Luna, Migrant Justice, Flood Wall Street

Peace and Justice Connection

“It’s not sustainable to go to war, to be at war, to put people through war. There is so much damage done to the physical environment, to people. War is wasting resources. It is the opposite of sustainability. As a veteran, a better fight out there is to fight for climate action. You just have to spend a year in a war zone and see the devastation that is done.” –Matt Stys, Iraq Veterans Against the War

“I thought I went into Iraq to win hearts and minds and ended up pointing my weapons at civilians. That is not the kind of medic I thought I would be.” –Jennifer Pacanowski, Iraq Veterans Against the War

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“I think now is a time to highlight Palestinians as frontlines communities. Climate change will devastate land that is cordoned off, where people have no ability to escape.” –Noor Mir, anti-war organizer from D.C.

Global and Coastal Justice

“We are here not only to demand justice and reparations, but to let the world know that every day the world’s poor are fighting and resisting imperialist plunder, and the fight for climate justice is a matter of life and death.” —

“These criminal acts started a long time ago, from slavery to colonialism to structural adjustment programs to neoliberal policies. Corporations took power.  Now it is time to take back our power.” –Godwin Uyi Ojo of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria

“The economy is crashing and the climate is crashing. This stems from the same issue of putting profit over people and the planet. We need to support people and the planet. We need a just transition that does not leave people behind. We need to heal the planet.” –Michael Leon Guerrero, Climate Justice Alliance

Voices from NYC

“Climate change affects everyone, but will not impact everyone equally. The NYC Environmental Justice Alliance is proud to join the hundreds of organizations in the historic People’s Climate March to advance climate justice. Its not every day you can help ‎secure humanity’s future just by showing up—but this is one of those days.” –Eddie Bautista, Executive Director, NYC Environmental Justice Alliance