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Smash Illusions: There Will Be No “Just Transition” from Fossil Fuels Without the Expropriation of Capital

Smash Illusions: There Will Be No “Just Transition” from Fossil Fuels Without the Expropriation of Capital

Smash Illusions: There Will Be No “Just Transition” from Fossil Fuels Without the Expropriation of Capital

“The capitalist mode of production is the main cause of the growing climate crisis. The main cause of the growing climate crisis. The main environmental problems of our time are a consequence of the relations of production, circulation and disposal of goods, under the logic and domination of financial capital and large capitalist corporations.”
– Statement from People’s Summit, COP 30

April 30, 2026 – From April 24-27, The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and collaborating organizations participated in the People’s Summit for a Fossil Free Future (the “Summit”) and the Assembly of the Peoples for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (the “Assembly”) hosted by the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands in Santa Marta, Colombia. We, the Afro-descendant delegation representing more than six nations including, but not limited to, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, the United States, and Canada,  brought our presence on the ground and during the planning process not appeal to existing power structures but to support, facilitate, and represent the demands of our global peoples and communities - the African/Black and colonized masses, the working classes, farmers and fisherfolk, and all others living under the extraction and violence of oppressive systems and structures.

BAP, along with The Chisholm Legacy Project and Terra40, took part in and influenced both the Summit and Assembly spaces, and as well as the participation of the “Afro-Descendant Sector”,  to identify barriers, solutions, and pathways forward for our peoples in the context of a “just transition,”through unified and principled struggle. We understand that these discussions related to ending fossil fuel dependency cannot be permitted to delve into technocratic decisionmaking and hand-wringing while our territories are bombed, our neighborhoods occupied, and our people poisoned. To speak of a “just transition” that is led and developed by the same institutions – who have in just the last few years aided and abetted genocides in Palestine and Sudan, the occupation of Haiti, an ongoing war on Iran, the bombing and kidnapping the head of state in Venezuela, tightening the strangulation against Cuba, and massacres in the Philippines, while many just opposed or abstained on a historical United Nations (UN) resolution that recognizes the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a major crime against humanity – is to speak of a white supremacist, colonial lie that aims to demobilize our movements and communities.

Instead of following the path of the UN and other institutional multilateral spaces, these processes must crystallize the firm anti-imperialist ecological position that supports struggles for national liberation, collective self-determination, popular sovereignty, and human dignity. As this new process continues we remain encouraged yet vigilant that the Colombian government will continue to maintain a firm commitment to the radical territorial, cultural, and economic processes of the Black, Afrodescendant, Raizal, Palenquero and all African populations of Colombia that are building sovereignty and collective self-determination. We also demand that any participation of the Dutch or other European governments come with clear and immediate resolution and reconciliation of their refusal to recognize the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a crime against humanity. 

For BAP, TCLP, Terra 40 and the larger Afro-descendant coalition, as well as the other representatives of the masses of our African/Black peoples it has been our duty to principledly support this process with our Colombian comrades while in Santa Marta, and to emphasize the need for Colombia and all progressive regional governments reaffirm and commit to the fulfillment of the Caribbean and Latin America as a Zone of Peace, including through grassroots cooperation and struggle, as part of any just transition.

Peace, a true and liberatory peace, is fundamental. The connection between increasing military operations, ecocidal violence, imperialist warfare, and the exacerbation of the increasingly deadly and disruptive climate/environmental crisis has been well established, yet liberal actors peddling false solutions continue to ignore this reality. At the same time, fascism consolidates through state violence, enhancing the power of military-industrial, technology conglomerate, and energy corporations, and deepening fossil fuel dependency. 

Accordingly, throughout the Summit and Assembly discussions, debates, and sessions to develop comprehensive and measurable solutions, we were clear that the fossil fuel economy cannot be separated from its roots in the global, racial capitalist-imperialist system that has established and maintained its grip through genocidal and colonial violence, enslavement, political and social domination, and economic coercion and subversion. This economy was built on the extraction and destruction of African/Black and Indigenous land, labor, and life. The question of who pays for and who benefits from the so-called “energy transition” is not primarily technical. It is political, defined by power, and too often, militarist force. 

African/Black peoples, communities, nations – from the Gulf South of the United States to the Niger Delta to the Colombian Pacific to the nation of Haiti – have had to endure extraction, displacement, and violence because of the richness of their lands, waterways, and cultures – insatiable desires and demands of those in power. As African/Black peoples whose ancestors were forcibly relocated and forced to work on lands brutally stolen from Indigenous peoples of “the Americas”, we affirm the unique relationship between our peoples and maintain that it remains imperative that we are in constant development of global Afro/Indigenous solidarity efforts. In particular, both Afro-Descendant and Indigenous peoples, nations, and communities face increasing militarism globally and domestically. 

We maintain it is those peoples, nations, communities who paid the price that must define the solutions for a fossil-free future – against the greenwashing and liberal reformist tendencies that too often structure and dominate these conversations. There can be no climate and environmental justice without climate and environmental liberation, and there can be no path toward liberation that is not dedicated to fighting the interlocking systems of oppression that still shackle our people: imperialism, capitalism, (neo)colonialism, patriarchy, militarism, and white supremacy. This requires political clarity, concrete action, and sustained struggle.

As one of the coalition delegation members, Jo Banner (Co-Founder of The Descendants Project) said: “We, the Global Afro-Descendant sector delegation, stand united in dismantling both historical and ongoing injustices that continue to shape global systems and harm our communities. Through systemic change and self-determination, we envision a radical restructuring of global trade, finance, and migration systems away from exploitative practices rooted in colonialism, white supremacy, and racial capitalism.”

As the “High-Level Conference” for the First Conference for the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels closed yesterday, the closing plenary and final remarks excluded any mention of Afrodescendants. The welcoming of sectors to the Second Conference in Tuvalu in 2027 also made no mention of an Afro-Descendant Sector. We condemn this omission and exclusion of African/Black peoples, which undercuts the progress made from the COP 30 and Santa Marta processes.

It is clear to BAP that while we must engage the institutions of power and decision-making ability, the only path forward from fossil fuel dependency and economy is the defeat of those interlocking systems of oppression through a unified, protracted struggle and social revolution based in People(s)-Centered Human Rights. Anything less is ultimately a false solution to the climate and ecological crises, and an abdication of our radical movement’s vision for self-determination and human dignity. The fight is here and now, and we must be ready.

No Compromise. No Retreat.


See here for an example of documents produced during this process before and during our time in Santa Marta:

More on BAP’s Climate, Environment, and Militarism work: blackallianceforpeace.com/environment

Destruyan las ilusiones: No habrá una “transición justa” de los combustibles fósiles sin la expropiación del capital.

“El modo de producción capitalista es la principal causa de la creciente crisis climática. Los principales problemas ambientales de nuestro tiempo son consecuencia de las relaciones de producción, circulación y eliminación de bienes, bajo la lógica y el dominio del capital financiero y las grandes corporaciones capitalistas.”
– Declaración de la Cumbre de los Pueblos

30 de abril de 2026 – Del 24 al 27 de abril, la Alianza Negra por la Paz (BAP) y las organizaciones colaboradoras participaron en la Cumbre de los Pueblos por un Futuro Libre de Combustibles Fósiles (la «Cumbre») y en la Asamblea de los Pueblos para la Primera Conferencia sobre la Transición para Abandonar los Combustibles Fósiles (la «Asamblea»), organizadas por los gobiernos de Colombia y los Países Bajos en Santa Marta, Colombia. Nosotros, la delegación afrodescendiente que representa a más de seis naciones, entre ellas, pero sin limitarse a, Colombia, Brasil, la República Dominicana, Ecuador, Estados Unidos y Canadá, hicimos presente nuestra voz tanto en el terreno como durante el proceso de planificación, no para apelar a las estructuras de poder existentes, sino para apoyar, facilitar y representar las demandas de nuestros pueblos y comunidades globales: las masas africanas/negras y colonizadas, las clases trabajadoras, los agricultores y pescadores, y todos los demás que viven bajo la explotación y la violencia de sistemas y estructuras opresivas.

BAP, junto con The Chisholm Legacy Project y Terra40, participó e influyó tanto en los espacios de la Cumbre como en los de la Asamblea, así como en la participación del «Sector Afrodescendiente», para identificar barreras, soluciones y caminos a seguir para nuestros pueblos en el contexto de una «transición justa», a través de una lucha unificada y basada en principios. Entendemos que no se puede permitir que estos debates relacionados con el fin de la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles se sumerjan en la toma de decisiones tecnocrática y en el lamento, mientras nuestros territorios son bombardeados, nuestros barrios ocupados y nuestro pueblo envenenado. Hablar de una «transición justa» liderada y desarrollada por las mismas instituciones —que en los últimos años han ayudado e incitado genocidios en Palestina y Sudán, la ocupación de Haití, una guerra en curso contra Irán, el bombardeo y secuestro del jefe de Estado en Venezuela, el endurecimiento del estrangulamiento contra Cuba y las masacres en Filipinas—, mientras muchos simplemente se opusieron o se abstuvieron en una resolución histórica de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) que reconoce la trata transatlántica de esclavos como un grave crimen contra la humanidad, es hablar de una mentira colonial y supremacista blanca que tiene como objetivo desmovilizar nuestros movimientos y comunidades.

En lugar de seguir el camino de la ONU y otros espacios institucionales multilaterales, estos procesos deben cristalizar la firme posición ecológica antiimperialista que apoya las luchas por la liberación nacional, la autodeterminación colectiva, la soberanía popular y la dignidad humana. A medida que este nuevo proceso continúa, nos mantenemos esperanzados, pero vigilantes, de que el gobierno colombiano siga manteniendo un compromiso firme con los procesos territoriales, culturales y económicos radicales de las poblaciones negras, afrodescendientes, raizales, palenqueros y todas las poblaciones africanas de Colombia que están construyendo soberanía y autodeterminación colectiva. También exigimos que cualquier participación de los gobiernos de los Países Bajos u otros gobiernos europeos vaya acompañada de una resolución clara e inmediata y de la reconciliación de su negativa a reconocer la trata transatlántica de esclavos como un crimen contra la humanidad.

Para BAP, TCLP, Terra 40 y la coalición afrodescendiente en general, así como para los demás representantes de las masas de nuestros pueblos africanos/negros, ha sido nuestro deber apoyar con principios este proceso junto a nuestros compañeros colombianos durante nuestra estancia en Santa Marta, y enfatizar la necesidad de que Colombia y todos los gobiernos regionales progresistas reafirmen y se comprometan con la consecución de que el Caribe y América Latina sean una Zona de Paz, incluso a través de la cooperación y la lucha de base, como parte de cualquier transición justa.

La paz, una paz verdadera y liberadora, es fundamental. La conexión entre el aumento de las operaciones militares, la violencia ecocida, la guerra imperialista y la exacerbación de la crisis climática y ambiental, cada vez más letal y disruptiva, ha quedado bien establecida; sin embargo, los actores liberales que promueven soluciones falsas continúan ignorando esta realidad. Al mismo tiempo, el fascismo se consolida a través de la violencia estatal, potenciando el poder de las corporaciones militares-industriales, los conglomerados tecnológicos y las empresas energéticas, y profundizando la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles.

En consecuencia, a lo largo de las discusiones, debates y sesiones de la Cumbre y la Asamblea para desarrollar soluciones integrales y medibles, dejamos claro que la economía de los combustibles fósiles no puede separarse de sus raíces en el sistema capitalista-imperialista global y racial que ha establecido y mantenido su control a través de la violencia genocida y colonial, la esclavitud, la dominación política y social, y la coacción y subversión económicas. Esta economía se construyó sobre la extracción y la destrucción de la tierra, el trabajo y la vida de los africanos/negros y los indígenas. La cuestión de quién paga y quién se beneficia de la llamada «transición energética» no es principalmente técnica. Es política, definida por el poder y, con demasiada frecuencia, por la fuerza militarista.

Los pueblos, comunidades y naciones africanos/negros —desde el sur del Golfo de los Estados Unidos hasta el delta del Níger, pasando por el Pacífico colombiano y la nación de Haití— han tenido que soportar la extracción, el desplazamiento y la violencia debido a la riqueza de sus tierras, vías fluviales y culturas —los deseos y demandas insaciables de quienes están en el poder—. Como pueblos africanos y negros cuyos antepasados fueron reubicados por la fuerza y obligados a trabajar en tierras brutalmente robadas a los pueblos indígenas de «las Américas», afirmamos la relación única entre nuestros pueblos y sostenemos que sigue siendo imperativo que desarrollemos constantemente esfuerzos de solidaridad afro-indígena a nivel global. En particular, tanto los pueblos, naciones y comunidades afrodescendientes como los indígenas enfrentan un militarismo creciente a nivel global y nacional.

Sostenemos que son esos pueblos, naciones y comunidades los que pagaron el precio y quienes deben definir las soluciones para un futuro libre de combustibles fósiles, en contra del lavado verde y las tendencias reformistas liberales que con demasiada frecuencia estructuran y dominan estas conversaciones. No puede haber justicia climática y ambiental sin liberación climática y ambiental, y no puede haber un camino hacia la liberación que no se dedique a combatir los sistemas entrelazados de opresión que aún encadenan a nuestros pueblos: el imperialismo, el capitalismo, el (neo)colonialismo, el patriarcado, el militarismo y la supremacía blanca. Esto requiere claridad política, acción concreta y lucha sostenida.

Como dijo uno de los miembros de la delegación de la coalición, Jo Banner (cofundador de The Descendants Project): «Nosotros, la delegación del sector global de afrodescendientes, nos mantenemos unidos para desmantelar las injusticias tanto históricas como actuales que siguen dando forma a los sistemas globales y perjudicando a nuestras comunidades. A través del cambio sistémico y la autodeterminación, vislumbramos una reestructuración radical de los sistemas globales de comercio, finanzas y migración, alejándonos de las prácticas de explotación arraigadas en el colonialismo, la supremacía blanca y el capitalismo racial».

Al concluir ayer la «Conferencia de Alto Nivel» de la Primera Conferencia para la Transición Fuera de los Combustibles Fósiles, ni en la sesión plenaria de clausura ni en las observaciones finales se hizo mención alguna a los afrodescendientes. La invitación a los distintos sectores a la Segunda Conferencia, que se celebrará en Tuvalu en 2027, tampoco incluyó ninguna referencia al sector afrodescendiente. Condenamos esta omisión y exclusión de los pueblos africanos/negros, que socava los avances logrados en la COP 30 y los procesos de Santa Marta.

Para BAP queda claro que, si bien debemos involucrar a las instituciones de poder y de toma de decisiones, el único camino para salir de la dependencia y la economía de los combustibles fósiles es la derrota de esos sistemas entrelazados de opresión a través de una lucha unificada y prolongada y una revolución social basada en los derechos humanos centrados en los pueblos. Cualquier cosa menos que eso es, en última instancia, una solución falsa a las crisis climática y ecológica, y una renuncia a la visión de nuestro movimiento radical de autodeterminación y dignidad humana. La lucha es aquí y ahora, y debemos estar preparados.

Sin concesiones. Sin retrocesos.

Consulte aquí un ejemplo de los documentos elaborados durante este proceso antes y durante nuestra estancia en Santa Marta:

Más información sobre el trabajo de BAP en materia de clima, medio ambiente y militarismo: blackallianceforpeace.com/environment

Move the Games: No World Cup for Genocide, Ecocide, or State Thuggery

Move the Games: No World Cup for Genocide, Ecocide, or State Thuggery

Move the Games: No World Cup for Genocide, Ecocide, or State Thuggery

Statement By the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition & BAP Climate, Environment and Militarism Working Group

This Earth Day the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition declares that the United States and its Zionist partner have disqualified themselves from the community of civilized nations — not only through genocide, domestic repression, and imperialist violence, but through the systematic ecological destruction of Africa and West Asia. The U.S. military is the single largest institutional polluter on the planet, leaving behind toxic bases, polluting equipment and munitions, and poisoned air and water across the globe. Beyond emissions and direct pollution, U.S.-led militarism enforces imperialist domination, as it dehumanizes and discards the colonized, working class, and “surplus” populations by contaminating our ecosystems and poisoning our bodies. All the while, the U.S. evades accountability to international law.

In Gaza, Israel has waged ecocide as a weapon of war: tens of millions of tons of rubble have contaminated the soil and water, farmland has been razed, and the freshwater aquifer is now undrinkable. Across Africa, from the extraction of Congolese diamonds that fund the Israeli military to the destabilization of the Horn of Africa and Somalia to the gold and mineral resources that drive a UAE- backed genocide in Sudan, U.S.-Zionist imperialists drive deforestation, poison rivers, and displace entire communities. This is deliberate environmental and global class warfare.

The U.S. has “americanized” the beautiful game, providing a platform that enables and normalizes  genocide and ecocide, within the U.S. and globally. The tournament itself will generate millions of tons of carbon emissions from stadium construction and air travel, while inside the United States, the policing apparatus that terrorizes Black, Brown, and migrant communities makes the country fundamentally unsafe for fans, players, and tournament personnel. Militarized ICE agents and state thugs can now routinely stop, detain, and disappear foreign nationals  under the guise of immigration enforcement as racial profiling has become the way of law. No visiting fan from Africa, West Asia, or anywhere else can be assured of safety on U.S. soil. Therefore, the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition demands: 

  • FIFA immediately relocate all 2026 World Cup matches scheduled to take place in the United States.

  • The international community, including teams, supporters, cultural workers, and civil society organizations, initiate a boycott of the United States as a host of international sporting events.

  • International sporting institutions adopt non-selective accountability standards rooted in collective human rights and anti-colonial principles.

No whitewashing of US gangsterism and neo-fascist violence. No World Cup in a nation hostile to the People(s)-Centered Human Rights of our neighbors and family across the globe. No more poisoning our Earth. No peace under imperialist gangsterism and repression.

Before FIFA pretends this tournament is anything but a celebration of empire, we invite every anti‑fascist, every climate defender, every supporter of Palestinian and African liberation to study the true geography of U.S. control. Explore our “Map of U.S. Militarization in Our Americas” every base, every training facility, every cop city and join the peoples war against U.S gangsterism. 

blackallianceforpeace.com/us-militarization-in-our-americas

Move the Games! Boycott the U.S.! No Compromise! No Retreat!

Endorse the Campaign to Move the Games from the U.S.: bit.ly/EndorseNow

Join the Global Network for the Advancement of People(s)-Centered Human Rights: bit.ly/GNPCHR

We Denounce U.S. Government Deregulation of Environmental Protections as Ecocide, Class Warfare, and a Murderous Assault on Public Health

We Denounce U.S. Government Deregulation of Environmental Protections as Ecocide, Class Warfare, and a Murderous Assault on Public Health

We Denounce U.S. Government Deregulation of Environmental Protections as Ecocide, Class Warfare, and a Murderous Assault on Public Health

March 5, 2026 – The Black Alliance for Peace, and undersigned organizations, call on environmental and climate justice organizations to denounce and confront the recent and anticipated deregulatory actions against environmental protections and public health by the U.S. government. Over the last several weeks, the Trump administration has taken executive actions: to repeal scientific findings that greenhouse gases are harmful to the climate and public health (“the Endangerment Finding”); to encourage and protect the domestic production of cancer-causing glyphosate herbicides and toxic phosphorus; and to decimate environmental protections on coal production that regulated mercury and other toxic substance pollution that harm brain development and cause other debilitating health issues. Simultaneously, Congress is trying to reduce states and municipalities ability to regulate glyphosate and other toxic chemicals in food production, through the latest Farm Bill draft.

These actions represent a grave violation of the People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHRs) of residents of the United States by a ruling class that has completely unmasked itself. They make good on the EPA’s decision to value human life at zero dollars, and represent an intentional poisoning of the Earth and millions of people as a sacrifice at the altar of greater corporate profits, and as a foundation for extraction that would fuel the growing domination of the militarist state domestically and globally. The Trump administration and its Congressional and Judicial allies, in service to an increasingly bold and sadistic capitalist-imperialist ruling class, show that they are willing to wield their power to prioritize corporate profits and capital to the extreme over the health, safety, and welfare of the general public, especially poor, working class and colonized people.

These moves also ultimately drive forward deeper domestic militarization to serve the expansion of U.S. ‘full spectrum dominance’ globally and domestically. The endangerment findings’ elimination and associated rollback on regulating toxic pollution by power plants, cars, and petrochemical productions are themselves largely a move to open the pathway to expanding fossil fuel energy to service mass data center proliferation, which is a priority of the Department of War, and of Artificial Intelligence (AI)  corporate tech actors. These data centers are a core physical infrastructure in the capitalist-imperialist ruling class’s economic and environmental warfare on the working classes and colonized peoples, domestically and globally, including mass surveillance, ICE terrorization and detention, and tech-enabled genocide in Gaza, Sudan, and beyond. They drive up utility costs for residents; pillage water, energy, and clean air from the public; and occupy swaths of land area that should be used for local food production and the siting of renewable energy. In addition, the deregulation and promotion of glyphosate-based herbicide, which is proven to cause cancer, and phosphorus, the mining and use of which has massive public health implications, are being actioned directly through the Defense Protection Act, to clear the way for domestic production and use. In effect, the administration justifies displacement and mass poisoning of its population domestically as a matter of “National Security”. 

This should be no surprise, as the United States has never hesitated to take land or use chemical weapons like glyphosate (the main component of Agent Orange) in its military conquests or corporate ventures globally. This is not a departure from the consistent white supremacist, capitalist logic of U.S. empire, rather it is the domestic and global fronts collapsing into one another. The Trump administration has simply accelerated and deepened the neoliberal crisis of deregulation, deference to corporations, increased privatization, massive austerity, increasing the coffers and influence of the military industrial complex, and U.S. imperialism. 

However, this most recent removal of any semblance of public health support, environmental protection, and social safety nets in the U.S. should serve as an alarm bell for those most vulnerable and those disproportionately exposed to and impacted by environmental pollution and associated climate change calamities – African/Black, Indigenous, colonized peoples and the working class. These actions also signal that poor and working class white people, as well as elements of the white middle to upper middle class, are also being swept into this larger surplus population, now scheduled for poisoning and disposability. This is a population that no longer serves any purpose for the ruling class and represents an impediment to unlimited growth through unlimited resource extraction that produces unlimited externalities, specifically pollution of our air, land and water. 

We, the undersigned believe that our response to this era of mass poisoning, runaway militarization, imperial gangsterism, and deepening public health crisis must be a more interconnected class struggle rooted in a People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHR) approach — a bottom-up struggle for collective self-determination and human dignity.

In a world rendered profoundly imbalanced and unequal — conditions intensified by a white supremacist, capitalist-driven climate crisis — the pursuit of “environmental justice” or “ecological balance” within the existing order is a political illusion. Justice cannot be extracted from a system whose very logic depends on capitalist extraction, dispossession, and ecological sacrifice. What is required instead is a framework of climate and environmental liberation — one that names imperialism, racial capitalism, and colonial domination as the structural sources of ecological collapse.

As the Black Alliance for Peace North–South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights has made clear, such a framework cannot be bestowed from above, legislated into existence, or managed through technocratic fixes. It can only be achieved through concerted and collective praxis by the masses — grounded in struggle, forged through solidarity, and oriented toward liberation rather than mitigation.

This responsibility carries particular weight for peoples residing within the Global North, who occupy a contradictory position within the imperial system. Those living at the core of U.S.-led imperialism bear a specific historical and political duty: to confront empire from within, to disrupt its machinery, and to strike a decisive blow against its systemic ecocide — the organized destruction of life, livelihoods, and the planet in service of accumulation and domination.

To defend life, dignity, and the future of humanity requires nothing less than an internationalist, anti-imperialist struggle rooted in People(s)-Centered Human Rights — a struggle that recognizes that there can be no ecological survival without liberation, and no liberation without the organized power of the people.

No Compromise No Retreat! 

SIGNED,

Black Alliance for Peace
Black Lives Matter South Bend
Build & Fight Coalition
CODEPINK
Community Movement Builders
Cooperation Jackson
Lowcountry Action Committee
Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights
Pan-African Community Action (DC)
Science for the People
Youth Climate Finance Alliance

Key References

A Final Solution to The Human Surplus Problem (Or, How the End of EPA’s Endangerment Finding Also Ends the Farce of Trump “Populism”): https://www.blackagendareport.com/final-solution-human-surplus-problem-or-how-end-epas-endangerment-finding-also-ends-farce-trump

Bulletin on Domestic Militarization: Issue #3 – Black Alliance for Peace: https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bulletinonusdomesticmilitarization/issue-3

“Oppose the Normalization of Genocide and International Gangsterism!” – North/South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights: https://peoplescenteredhumanrights.com/oppose-the-normalization-of-genocide-and-international-gangsterism/

Climate, Environment, and Militarism – Black Alliance for Peace: https://blackallianceforpeace.com/environment

“Praxis from Center to…Cabral” – Ajamu Baraka (2023): https://www.academia.edu/8830885/Praxis_from_center_to_Cabral_final

“People(s)-Centered Human Rights: Decolonizing Human Rights for Human Liberation”: https://peoplescenteredhumanrights.com/

Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect 

Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect 

Los Angeles Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect 

The incendiary cataclysms in Los Angeles, California remind us that the root cause of the climate crisis exacerbating the fires spreading throughout that city and surrounding areas is fossil fuel production emblematic of runaway capitalism fueled by white “supremacy” ideology, patriarchy, and colonization. And while it’s easy to focus solely on the fires, it’s important to note that the associated smoke will be the main culprit in the loss of life due to environmental racism that has assaulted the public health of Black, Brown, Indigenous and all poor and working class people in Los Angeles and throughout the country. As revealed during the height of the Covid pandemic, Black and Indigenous peoples suffered a higher morbidity rate due to decades of exposure to poisoned air and the intentional siting of pollutive industries and operations in our communities from Los Angeles, to the Bronx, and Cancer Alley in Louisiana. These communities remain at high risk because what’s happening in Los Angeles, won’t stay in Los Angeles - the smoke generated from these fires will traverse our communities as it travels eastward, and exacerbates existing public health emergencies that are consistently overlooked and ignored by lawmakers representing both the corporate Democrat and Republican political parties and their wealthy acolytes. 

To this end, while we sympathize with those who have lost their homes in affluent communities like the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and the Hollywood Hills, we empathize with communities that will suffer long term public health impacts, including, but not limited to, respiratory and other illnesses due to years of being treated as energy and economic sacrifice zones. This pattern was most recently exemplified by the environmental travesty of New York City’s congestion pricing program, which will divert high volumes of traffic to poor, Black and Brown communities in the Bronx and Staten Island, thereby sacrificing them to accommodate affluent communities in Manhattan.  

Will President Biden, the incoming Trump administration,  and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency whose racism, classism and contempt for the poor is well documented, consider environmental justice communities across the country being choked out by smoke they had no hand in creating while billions of dollars are doled out to primarily accommodate wealthy people? It should be noted that many of these wealthy people  benefit from and advocate for the capitalist system that fuels and maintains these crises.  These are the kinds of questions BAP must perpetually ask as a principled and radical Black formation; and that we must ask as a people who understand confronting and dismantling the climate crisis requires confronting and dismantling racialized and classist capitalism - hence why we refer to climate change as the racial/class capitalocene. 

Finally, it is not lost upon BAP that, very recently, many of the people enlisted to fight California wildfires were incarcerated people, some of whose prison sentences were extended by soon to be former Vice President, Kamala Harris when she served as Attorney General of California. This was an effort to generate cheap labor from lives she and far too many others deem expendable and disposable. There is an axiomatic nexus between how these inmates/political prisoners are treated and how Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities are treated in the context of the climate crisis. This nexus extends to the treatment of Palestinian people who continue to be dehumanized and exterminated while also being displaced from their homelands due to an inferno of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and militarism. Such is the pathology of settler colonialism, which too many still refuse to connect with environmental degradation and the climate crisis in the United States.

We must and will continue making these requisite connections and intersections as we develop a multi racial/multi ethnic poor and working class response to this latest episode of the racial/class capitalocene’s atlas of destruction. 

No Compromise! 

No Retreat!


Banner photo: Homes on fire and palm trees blowing in wind during LA fire, courtesy bbc.com/weather.

The BAP-Baltimore Condemns Baltimore Water Crisis As Gross Negligence

The BAP-Baltimore Condemns Baltimore Water Crisis As Gross Negligence

The Black Alliance for Peace-Baltimore Condemns Baltimore Water Crisis As Gross Negligence

For Immediate Release:

Media Contact

communications@blackallianceforpeace.com

(202) 643-1136

October 5, 2023—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns Baltimore City’s Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore City’s City Council President Nick Mosby, the entire Baltimore City Council, Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW), and Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) for their gross negligence in handling the Cryptosporidium parasite in the Druid Hill water supply contamination crisis.

Five days ago, a “routine” test of the Druid Lake Reservoir found levels of the Cryptosporidium parasite inside the uncovered reservoir. The drinking water is used by Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Howard County Maryland citizens. City council member Mark Conway posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this microorganism can “potentially cause gastrointestinal issues in those who are immunocompromised, elderly, or children.” The Department of Public Works (DPW) released a statement, just before noon, with the same information and a graphic. No mention of when citizens should look forward to the water being decontaminated, but just continuing the narrative that the parasite will only potentially cause gastrointestinal problems for those who are “immunocompromised, elderly, or children.” They further stated to “please rest assured that the drinking water remains safe for the general public.” Mayor Brandon Scott has released zero statements outside of one quoted post and a couple of re-posts from DPW on X. Zero press releases from the Baltimore City Council, public pages or websites.

The BCHD shared a fact sheet and re-shared the DPW’s FAQ but no information about where to get free water and when this issue could possibly be fixed. It mirrors a similar scene from last September during the E.coli outbreak. The city waited two days to notify the public after water tested positive for contamination, and even then many residents had to find out from friends and neighbors. In March of this year, it was found that Baltimore City officials violated the federal and state public notice rules for E.coli contamination. The parasite found in the water impacts us all, as the “immunocompromised, elderly, and children” are our neighbors, friends and family. In addition, the COVID-19 virus can weaken immune systems, and we are currently in a surge without mask mandates, meaning many citizens could experience health problems from the parasite before they realize they are at risk. Again, Baltimore City officials are performing an illegal act to its citizens and the rest of Marylanders by not properly informing, educating and providing bottled water for its affected citizens. 

This crisis is in a larger context of continued neglect of Baltimore’s aging infrastructure, including in other systems. For example, the city is refusing to expand a program to help residents clean sewage backups again caused by neglect though it is under a modified consent decree by the EPA and has been directed to do so by state and federal regulators. Instead the city chooses to pump money into bloated police programs such as the “Deadly Exchange” program, a massive exchange between the U.S. and Israeli police. Recently, the city is proposing a new $330 million joint training facility for Baltimore’s police and fire departments on West Baltimore’s Coppin State University campus. Even more, routinely half of Baltimore’s discretionary annual budget is allocated to police such that Baltimore spends the most per capita of any major city in the United States on policing. Rather than spending on absurd police budgets that do not increase public safety, resources should be prioritized to fix the city's debilitated infrastructure. 

The city’s trusted government officials and departments are continuing to be neglectful and misleading the majority of its citizens to believe that only a certain community among them would be affected. In Baltimore, resources are only rapidly mobilized to provide cover for police malfeasance. Similar to the government's messaging on COVID, the city downplays the actual dangers of the situation and does little to protect its citizens. Instead, we demand accurate information be dispersed in a timely manner across platforms that reach majorities of city residents, resources, including water, be accessibly distributed across affected neighborhoods, and city resources directed to improve utilities. Given that there was a problem with the water supply last year around the same time, city leadership should also have a preventative plan to address safety and cleanliness of the city’s water supply permanently.

Sources:

DPW Baltimore:

Mayor:

City Council President:

CDC:

BCHD:

BAP Articles:

Baltimore pushes back against EPA order to cover more sewage backups

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/environment/bs-md-baltimore-sewage-backups-disagreement-epa-20230726-cmvjhplddba65ks2k3smnx3sli-story.html

Baltimore Won’t Expand a Program to Help Residents Clean up After Sewage Backups

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072023/baltimore-sewage-backups-epa/

Aging water infrastructure at the root of Baltimore E. coli contamination, city officials say

The city received positive tests of bacteria in the water system on Saturday, Sept. 3, but residents didn’t learn about the contamination until two days later, on Labor Day morning.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/aging-water-infrastructure-at-the-root-of-baltimore-e-coli-contamination-city-officials-say-OWQ4VB3FKREYBBLQPYN6DRBGA4/

A Look at Environmental Justice Issues in Maryland

Black Americans in Baltimore are disproportionately impacted by water affordability issues, as water rates have risen more rapidly than the national average, partly due to failing infrastructure. Studies show that by 2022, the average annual water bill for Baltimore citizens will be triple the national average of 2010 water bills. 

https://climate-xchange.org/2022/01/14/a-look-at-environmental-justice-issues-in-maryland/

BALTIMORE’S CRIME NUMBERS GAME

Baltimore spends the most per capita of any major city in the United States on policing.

https://therealnews.com/baltimore-police-spending-violent-crime-statistics 

Despite 'defunding' claims, police funding has increased in many US cities

An ABC analysis of state and local police funding and overall violent crime data in the U.S. between 1985 and 2020 found no relationship between year-to-year police spending and crime rates. An analysis by the Washington Post found similar results from 1960 to 2018.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/defunding-claims-police-funding-increased-us-cities/story?id=91511971#:~:text=An%20ABC%20analysis%20of%20state,results%20from%201960%20to%202018.


Banner photo: Baltimore activists protest for the human right to water (courtesy peopledemandingaction.org, David Card)