Climate Justice Transitions
- Details
- Published on Monday, 13 June 2016 21:30
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1268 .... June 14, 2016
__________________________________________________
Climate Justice Transitions
Jesse McLaren
The devastating fires in Fort McMurray show the urgent need to transition to an economy that supports people and the planet, and this is part of a transition in climate justice politics.
The mainstream environmental movement used to be dominated by a narrow focus on consumerism, individual lifestyle choices, and single issue politics -- taking for granted the broader context of colonialism and capitalism. The environmental movement talked about saving the planet in the abstract, without acknowledging the territories on which we're living or supporting Indigenous communities defending them. There was even a racist campaign against the right of the Makah nation to hunt whales, which they've done sustainably for millennia. The environmental movement talked about changing our individual... consumer choices without questioning what we collectively produce and how workers themselves can be part of the solution. While the protests against logging in Clayoquot Sound successfully stopped the company, it led to bitter divisions between environmentalists and workers.
Fast-forward twenty years and there was a Defend Our Coast mass sit-in in Victoria. It was led by Coastal First Nations, and had support from environmentalists/workers. As a CAW activist explained, "the ongoing risks that these tar sands pipelines and tankers pose aren't worth any price. Tens of thousands of unionized and other jobs depend on healthy river and ocean ecosystems." The Yinka Dene Alliance has united First Nations against pipelines crossing territories and reached out to labour. Unifor and the BCTF signed the Solidarity Accord with the Save the Fraser Declaration: "We, the undersigned, say to our First Nations brothers and sisters, and to the world, that we are prepared to stand with you to protect the land, the water and our communities from the Enbridge pipelines and tankers project and similar projects to transport tar sands oil."
Obviously this position is not shared by the entire labour movement or NDP, as we saw in the reception of Leap Manifesto at the NDP convention (8-10 April, 2016). But this conversation is in transition, and it's driven by changes to the climate and the economy.