Decolonising the “We” and the Tyranny of illusion. Part 1

Ketana Saxon : 22 DECEMBER 2015

“If there is any hope for the world at all, it does not lie in climate-change conference rooms or cities with tall buildings. It lives low-down on the ground, with its arms around the people who go to battle every day to protect their forests, their mountains and their rivers because they know that the forests, the mountains and the rivers protect them.”

Arundhati Roy.

With the dire state of affairs facing all life forms on this planet there is a frequent chant being heard from emerging “Climate change/ Climate Justice movements. “We are all in this together”, “to change everything we need everyone”, and various versions of this call for a “Global Movement”. It is easy to understand the attraction to the collective euphoria of imagining, and on the few occasions when large groups join a large march, the brief euphoria of experiencing, “we” can change things, turn the disaster around, “create a new world” and so on. There is a growing assumption that if only all activist groups and movements around the globe could just come together on the same mission, “the system” (whether you define that as capitalism, and/or industrial so called civilisation) can be defeated. The current popularity of Naomi Klein and her book and movie is in its ability, (in large part due to the sheer scale of resourcing of that ability, more on that later) to both capture and fan this euphoria.

Many excellent and in depth writings abound that have spelled out with extensive and conclusive evidence the scale of what humanity and all other life forms are facing which is as devastating and dire as imminent total life systems collapse. The questions I want to raise however, address the response to that reality within which the following assumptions are becoming prevalent, potentially tyrannical and even instrumental in ensuring our fate:

1. The strength needed to “defeat the system” requires a “global mass movement”.

2. ”We” must “put our differences aside” in order to work together to create that “global movement”.

3. The “urgency” is such that “taking too much time” in the process will weaken “unity” without which all is lost.

4. And last but by no means least, the “message” ( promoting all of the above via the slickest possible means ) is even more important than the outcome in real time.

First lets look at the “We” apparently required for the “global movement”. In recent weeks there have been numerous reports written by indigenous peoples on their experiences of participating in climate action marches coinciding with the Paris Cop21. (see below links). These incidents, where Indigenous groups have been pushed to the back of the march by organisers (often from the large NGO’s), and voices and presence silenced and sidelined, highlight that colonialism and racism is, of course, as pervasive as it always has been wherever groups gather in combination of peoples from the global North and South. The responses from the climate march organisers to the challenges from the peoples affected, have been dismissive and patronising such as “we are all in this together” the “planet” needs us to “work together” and there’s “no time to get hung up on our cultural differences/rights” and various versions of such arrogant avoidance. Herein lies the inherent colonising and re colonising power of the “We”. “We”, like it or not, when declared by those to whom the status quo bestows advantage, and privilege ( whether or not they actively collude with that privilege does not remove the privilege bestowed by the system) is loaded to the hilt with ( fake) entitlement,( to take over, go first, know better etc) with assumed superiority, and is nearly always entrenched within the domain of access to considerable resources( including corporate sponsorship) that back up and ensure that false, but within the current system powerful, position. Such oppressive behaviour and positioning props up and perpetuates the very system that is driving the climate emergency that “we” claim to be “all fighting together”.

“We” need to rise up in a “global movement”

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