COP30: Dialogue between Social Movements on Decolonization and Demilitarization for Climate Justice
As organized social movements, we take the fight against the climate crisis and the devastation it causes seriously. That is why we take the fight against imperialism seriously. And we know that we must do this by resisting and building alternatives to militarism and colonization—two twin forces at the root of the authoritarian and far-right offensives in the world, both today and in the past.
On November 18th, in the Blue Zone, an official space within COP30, La Via Campesina and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance brought together a panel of speakers to engage in dialogue and share struggles aimed at demilitarizing and decolonizing the climate crisis.
From Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, CLOC/La Via Campesina in Haiti, Pierre Mary Louis shared the perspective of Haiti, the first independent Black nation in the world.
From 1804 to 1895, France refused to recognize our independence. To punish us, it forced us to take out a loan. Knowing that this independence was won through our labor and the efforts of our ancestors, we faced massive repression. Today, France and Northern countries are exacerbating the climate crisis by increasing militarism, which adds immense challenges for the Haitian people—more air pollution, droughts, poverty, famine, and forced migration. This is the machine of empire, and we resist.
Responding to the invitation from La Via Campesina, Melody Goldbarry-Yobo from the Ogoni Farmers Agroecology Movement in the Niger Delta evoked the spirit of Ken Saro-Wiwa, giving strength and hope to all those who continue resisting in the face of violent repression. In 1995, Saro-Wiwa—a powerful community organizer executed by the Nigerian military acting on behalf of the oil multinational Shell—had mobilized a mass resistance against the devastation caused by the fossil fuel industry in Ogoniland. According to Goldbarry-Yobo:
Instead of restoring justice, the Nigerian government is allowing more extraction. They don’t care about the wellbeing of the people because they think we are disposable. We fight in our own way, and we have decided not to remain silent. Like Ken, I am sitting here to show the children that we will get the justice we deserve. I will not stand by while my people become a footnote in a new report. I express my solidarity with all Indigenous and peasant communities so that we can unite and overcome what seeks to break us.
Other powerful contributions came from community organizers and Indigenous Peoples from Guam, Pueblo territories (United States), and Puerto Rico, underscoring the importance of international solidarity in defending Mother Earth.
By denying imperial powers access to territories for establishing military bases, by resisting those who seek to criminalize and repress, and by organizing mass resistance and internationalist solidarity to end the genocide in Palestine, we simultaneously decolonize and demilitarize the material and social conditions that give us life and nourish the hope of a more climatically stable world.
This post is also available in Français.