The Deeply Political Struggle for Liberation
I wanted to write this post to highlight the shallowness of some organising particularly on climate change in terms of how some activists see their struggle as wholly disconnected from, for instance, the struggle to end the genocide, occupation and apartheid in Palestine. This problem was most recently demonstrated at a protest in Amsterdam where an attendee at the protest attempted to grab the microphone away from Greta Thunberg after she had invited a Palestinian and Afghan speaker to take the stage. He interrupted Greta by saying that “I have come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view”. After he was ushered off the stage, Greta led a chant, “No Climate Justice on Occupied Land.” This chant demonstrates quite clearly how the struggle for climate justice cannot be achieved without an end to colonialism and apartheid in Palestine. The military-industrial complex that is driving forward the climate crisis is also at the heart of bombing children in Gaza. Resource extraction is also intimately tied to both the genocide in Palestine and the climate crisis. The US is urging Israel to exploit the natural gas reserves off of Gaza’s coast. This demonstrates how the economic interests of the US are deeply rooted in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the further destruction of the environment through natural gas extraction. Of course, the extreme environmental destruction caused by bombing Gaza to rubble should ensure that every environmental organization should be in full solidarity with Palestine even if they value Palestinian lives as lesser than Israeli lives.
While Greta has shown that she understands how the systems that have contributed to dehumanization and massacre of the people in Palestine are the same as those propelling the climate crisis, environmental organizations have not been vocal at all in speaking out against the genocide. As part of the mailing list of 350.org Chicago, I see that they have organized protests around new oil projects but there is complete silence over the genocide in Palestine. Organizers who ignore the interconnectedness of the struggles for liberation cannot credibly claim that they are seeking a meaningful change in the status quo of patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism. Israel is also complicit in the genocide in the Congo where resource extraction is deeply tied into exploitation of the Congolese people and the climate crisis as these resources are extracted to fuel ever-increasing consumption in the Global North. One of these resources is diamonds, and while Israel has no diamond mines itself, it uses the Congo’s mines to such an extent that in 2016, diamonds were 23.2% of Israeli’s total exports. These diamond profits in Israel are directly connected to displacement and violence. As of the beginning of November, almost 7 million people had been displaced by violence from armed groups such as the M23, which is an armed group backed by Rwanda operating in the Congo. The displacement and violence against the Congolese people with many including children forced to work in mines for resource extraction exposes how connected climate change and colonial violence are.
This brings me back to the statement by the white man in Amsterdam about how he was attending a climate protest, not a political one. While I have written about this topic before (including in my post about how no one is neutral), everything is deeply political. Choosing to be silent whether it is in terms of the genocide in Palestine or on the climate crisis or on structural racism in policing is complicity in the ongoing perpetuation of these injustices. Taking an “apolitical” stance is, in fact, taking a political stance in favour of maintaining systems of oppression. It is also clear that many white activists like that man in Amsterdam have no desire to alter the structures of white supremacy or meaningfully challenge the colonial violence, for example in the Congo, that underpins their standard of living and consumption practices. This general lack of concern for meaningfully challenging these systems can also be seen in mainly white liberals showing contempt for Arab Americans and Palestinians in the US who have stated that they will not vote for Biden because of his full-fledged support for the genocide in Palestine. When the implications of a free Palestine, of a free Congo, of a free Sudan, of an end to colonialism are truly within reach, these liberals will do their utmost to maintain the oppressive structures that have benefitted them.
A future free of colonialism, free of white supremacy, free of patriarchy, free of eugenics (where addressing the ongoing pandemic would not be beholden to economic interests) is also tied into the struggle to address climate change. Activists who lose sight of this or who will not work against whiteness as a political construct are not allies in the struggle for liberation. Before starting my masters, I was interested in social justice more broadly but was primarily looking to focus on climate change. And I do think it is perfectly reasonable for activists to focus on climate change. But this focus on climate change must never lose sight of the fact that this activism must be rooted in dismantling interlocking systems of oppression. There will not be climate justice without ending the exploitation of the Congolese for their resources. There will not be climate justice while Israel bombs Gaza to rubble. There will not be climate justice while carceral prison systems profit off the suffering of marginalized people. There will not be climate justice while colonialism and capitalism exist. As Greta Thunberg said at the protest, “There can be no climate justice on occupied land!”
