The perils of child sponsorship Is ethical tax avoidance possible? Dispatch from Kyiv HOW WE STOP BIG OIL Canada & USA $8.95 NI 537 May-June 2022 Publications Mail Reg No. 40063336
EQUALITY SUSTAINABILITY PEACE SIMPLICITY TRUTH In turbulent times... be a Quaker
GUEST EDITOR’S LETTER SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: NICK DOWSON for the A massive ice shelf on the edge of Antarctica is New Internationalist starting to crack. Fissures began appearing in the Ken Henshaw works for We Co-operative newint.org ice holding back the Thwaites glacier – a sheet the the People, an organization size of Florida which could raise sea levels around based in the Niger Delta, Cover: Silhouetted against a gas the world by more than half a metre, should it slip which supports communities flare, a woman sets tapioca out into the Southern Ocean. affected by crude oil to dry, in Warri, Delta State, extraction in their demands Nigeria. Warri is a port city Geophysicists estimated this collapse could for ecological justice. and an oil hub. come within five years – a warning surely made sharper by the news that ‘heatwaves’ this year have Tuğçe Őzbiçer is a journalist GEORGE OSODI/PANOS seen both poles more than 30°C higher than normal. from Istanbul, based in London. She covers mostly It’s just one illustration of the urgency LGBTQI+ issues, women, to act on climate change. According to the arts, culture and human Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at rights stories. current rates of emissions we have only nine years before there is no longer a good chance to keep Maina Waruru is a freelance the world under 1.5°C degrees of warming. journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, with over 20 years of Something’s got to give but the oil and gas experience. He writes about industry, the driving force behind the climate crisis, the environment, science and has a different idea of what is practical. social justice for publications around the world. For this Big Story we dive into how these corporations have kept on turning a profit even as Max Ajl is a postdoctoral the evidence of hydrocarbons’ destructiveness fellow at Wageningen piles up – like the mess the companies leave University and a researcher behind. We look for ways out of that mess, at the Tunisian Observatory envisaging a better world. for Food Sovereignty and the Environment. He is the Also in this edition, we report from Tajikistan author of A People’s Green where there’s a chill wind of change afoot as New Deal (2021). mighty powers jostle to exert influence. And more strong-arm tactics are exposed in Tina Burrett’s piece on how lawsuits are being used by the uber- rich to silence critical journalists. 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CONTENTS JOHN VAN HASSELT/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES CURRENTS THE BIG STORY Stories making the news 8 Ukraine: Defiance in Kyiv BIG OIL Plus: Borderlines 15 Beyond Big Oil 9 Introducing: South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol How can we stop the fossil fuel giants blocking urgently needed climate action? Plus: Seriously? Nick Dowson looks to the road ahead. 10 Mexico’s unions declare independence 21 THE FACTS Kenyan tea pickers seek justice in Scotland 22 Fossil fuels – a journey in time Plus: Inequality Watch Plus: Sign of the Times A short history of dependency. Saving vultures in Nepal 24 Cut and run 12 Sámi fight for the land in Sweden Plus: Open Window Transnational oil companies are looking to 13 Land and freedom in Tanzania leave the Niger Delta without cleaning up Plus: Reasons to be cheerful their mess. Ken Henshaw reports. 28 The new greenwashing REGULARS Nick Dowson gives the low-down on the latest tricks in corporate spin. 6 Letters 30 The fracked earth Plus: Why I… In Argentina, indigenous resistance to the controversial practice is taking on 7 Letter from Buenos Aires money-hungry corporations, writes Grace A blackout during a heatwave leads to a new Livingstone. resolve for Virginia Tognola. 32 Fighting the fossils Profiles of groups from Palestine, Mozambique, 38 Country Profile: Belarus Uganda and India who are saying no to new oil and gas infrastructure. 40 Cartoon History: Voices of the NHS 34 A global just transition Darryl Cunningham’s oral history of the UK’s Max Ajl takes inspiration from the historic pioneering health service. Cochabamba People’s Agreement in the fight for climate justice. 45 Temperature Check Is it time we banned ads from greenwashing fossil 4 fuel companies? Danny Chivers has some answers. 63 Southern Exposure A wrestling match with a difference in Bolivia, clicked by Mexican photographer Rodrigo Cruz. 72 Hall of Infamy Joe Manchin: the US Republicans’ favourite Democrat. 80 The Puzzler 81 Agony Uncle Is there such a thing as ethical tax avoidance? Our Agony Uncle gives some advice. 82 What if… We said ‘No’ to concrete? Vanessa Baird posits an alternative. NEW INTERNATIONALIST
OPINION MURAD SEZER/REUTERS/ALAMY MIXED MEDIA 47 View from Africa 74 Spotlight Why do many devastating wars quickly disappear Steve Chandra Savale of trailblazing collective Asian from public consciousness? Nanjala Nyabola Dub Foundation on music for spiritual change and examines our attention. social justice. By Subi Shah. Plus: Polyp’s Big Bad World 76 Book Reviews 59 View from India Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor; This World Does Some Indian men are threatening a marriage strike Not Belong to Us by Natalia García Frere; Come to for a most dubious reason. Nilanjana Bhowmick tells This Court and Cry by Linda Kinstler; Aftermath by them to bring it on. Preti Taneja. Plus: Kate Evans’ Thoughts from a Broad 78 Film Reviews 73 View from Brazil The Drover’s Wife directed and written by Leah Leonardo Sakamoto on his country’s deadly cycle Purcell; The Wall of Shadows directed and co- of racism. written by Eliza Kubarska. Plus: Marc Roberts’ Only Planet 79 Music Reviews FEATURES Strike by Lining Time; ɊȺɁɈɆɁȺɍɄɊȺȲɇɍ/ Together for Ukraine by Various Artists. 48 Slapped down Tina Burrett explores the malicious lawsuits used IN THE NEXT ISSUE:RIVERS by the rich and powerful to silence journalists and activists across the globe. ONLINE FEATURES newint.org 52 The dragon and the bear on the roof of the world 22.03.22 New year, fearful past Strategically important Tajikistan’s future is At Persian New Year, Sahar Fahimi speaks to increasingly being shaped by a powerplay between Afghans about the humanitarian crisis tearing China and Russia. Klas Lundström reports. through their country. 56 ‘As long as the world keeps running, we’ll be here’ 21.03.22 Must we ration compassion? Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community is standing firm, Europe’s response to accommodate people fleeing despite increased oppression. Tuğçe Özbiçer Ukraine illustrates how sanctuary for all refugees is explains how solidarity has blossomed. possible. Jun Pang and Nadia Hasan write. 60 Please continue to not sponsor this child 15.03.22 ‘We will oppose it until the end of our lives’ Kathleen Nolan examines a simplistic non-solution to Shadrack Omuka reports from Kenya’s Arabuko complex problems. Sokoke forest on the threat posed to East Africa’s largest coastal forest from titanium mining. 64 The Long Read – Is it too late? As human frailty becomes increasingly apparent, should 04.03.22 Russians say: ‘Stop the war!’ we be preparing for societal collapse? Richard Swift Tina Burrett speaks to the people taking to analyzes whether ‘deep adaptation’ is the way to go. the streets of Russia to protest the invasion of Ukraine. MAY-JUNE 2022 5
LETTERS SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK The New Internationalist welcomes your letters, but please note that they might be edited for space or clarity. Letters should be sent to [email protected]. Please remember to include a town and country for your address. Vague forms seem to know this: the fact Pay for time Boring compromise that under capitalism labour Re: ‘The politics of futility’ itself is a form of capital. I welcome Frank Formby’s I like the idea of taking (NI 536). We all know that ‘What if . . . we took the money money out of politics (NI 535), liberal democracy in the US PETER SOMERVILLE out of politics?’ (NI 535). but I predict considerable is effectively a plutocracy, However, I take issue with his opposition from most of the where the super-rich MANCHESTER, UK proposal that political parties media to anything that might control political parties and should ‘become entirely lead to co-operation and governments through their Get the balance right volunteer-run organizations’. compromise rather than pig- wealth. What Neil Vallely headedness and confrontation. calls ‘the politics of futility’ Re: NI 536’s Long Read: ‘To Consider the hours of work Confrontation makes for eye- is a predictable consequence believe in the myth that involved in running the offices catching headlines, whether in of the powerlessness that individual behaviour can of a political party. It is exploit- print or online. No news may people feel living in such change society is to cement ative to expect people to do this be good news, but good news a system. He complains the logic of futilitarianism.’ for free. Besides, who would be is no news. about futility but only Any change to society able to? Primarily, people who reinforces it by claiming must stem from individual did not have to worry about SUSAN FRANCIS MALVERN, UK that consumer action such behaviour, as individuals earning a living or looking after as ‘buycotting’ is futile and are the basic unit of any children. Who wants political True colours denying that we have any community, movement, parties to be run by such a personal responsibility to institution, and all new ideas narrow demographic? As one of your earliest and tackle systemic problems. must come from individuals continuing subscribers, I have His discussion of social or their collaboration. A far better proposal is for learned to depend upon your capital is just a long-winded Individual liberty is crucial political parties to charge consistent concern for justice way of saying that capitalism to facilitating change, but modest membership fees and your compassion in tends to colonize all of life. (as your article discusses) and receive match-funding reporting. Many thanks. But there is no effective ‘individual freedoms’ are also from the state, with no other analysis of capitalism. He just often aggressively defended sources of funding allowed. ROBERT WILD BRITISH wastes valuable writing space in the face of greater good COLUMBIA, CANADA attacking nonsense like ‘anti- for wider society. We need to CHRIS BLUEMEL natalist environmentalism’ navigate the balance between (I say ‘nonsense’ because individual freedom and other SOUTHAMPTON, UK how else is the world to be human rights (which indeed, saved except by our children unfortunately, do not always Why I… fight for better buses and their children, etc?). He go hand-in-hand). even criticizes human rights If we’re serious about tackling climate change, addressing activists for being too focused And in that edition’s What inequality and creating thriving local economies, then on the individual – he seems if… on degrowth: ‘planet- it’s vital we take back our buses. Since bus deregulation in to favour some vague form friendly activities like public 1986, we have been held to ransom in the UK by private of collectivism. He talks of a healthcare and regenerative operators. They have presided over a dramatic decline – mythical ‘generational divide’ agriculture would be scaled cutting routes not considered ‘commercially viable’ and and quotes Grace Blakeley: up’. Public healthcare is not hiking up fares on those remaining. With the Get Glasgow ‘Why should young people necessarily a ‘planet-friendly Moving campaign (getglasgowmoving.org), I’m proud support capitalism when activity’ (eg it could lead to an to be part of a growing movement demanding change. they never expect to own any increase in the already high We want each region to be empowered to bring its buses capital?’ To which the obvious pollution from the pharma- back into public control and develop world-class, fully- answer is: because it provides ceutical industry). Access to integrated and affordable public transport that prioritizes them with work, and even quality healthcare and envi- people and planet – not just bus company profits. a career in some cases. But ronmental sustainability are Vallely (and Blakeley) don’t both crucial issues but they ELLIE HARRISON GLASGOW, UK won’t be achieved through a simple ‘win-win’. To share your passion, please email [email protected] SUSANNAH FLEISS 6 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
LETTER FROM BUENOS AIRES THE BIG BLACKOUT Being forced to go without electricity sparks thoughts about living differently for Virginia Tognola. ILLUSTRATION: SARAH JOHN Back in January, we had an intense heat- working lights. Although it was almost refund to affected clients. But it was tiny wave. For a short while Buenos Aires and dawn, the park was full – families with compared to the losses suffered. People its surrounding provinces became the chairs, kids playing football, a group of lost all their refrigerated food, and some hottest part of the world. Air conditioners friends listening to music, everyone escap- appliances got damaged. got cranked up, power consumption esca- ing from hot and unlit enclosed spaces. lated and, inevitably, the grid fell short. Of course, the main culprits of this For one sweltering week, entire neigh- A friend who lives in another part of problem are the companies who avoid bourhoods experienced constant outages. the city called to warn me that they were investing in infrastructure. But it got me To some extent, power cuts are common- experiencing a storm, and that within thinking that perhaps now is a good time place during summer in Argentina, but minutes the rain would reach where I to put new ways of living on the agenda this year the problem was more acute. was. I wanted to finish a chapter before that are not tied to the comforts we take going back home, but it was too late; the for granted. Time to start questioning Even though – compared to other first drops started to fall, and soon the the environmental and social conse- countries – the price we pay for electric- storm was hosing everyone away from quences that come with overconsuming ity is still relatively low, rates have been the park, except for the kids playing foot- urban lifestyles. rising in spurts. Every time I pay an elec- ball. When I reached home, I lit some tricity bill I mutter to myself: ‘Damn you, candles and leaned back in my armchair Recently I’ve heard on the news warn- scammers.’ It seems crazy to be paying so to continue reading – what else could ings of possible power outages, not just in much for a service that is a basic need. I do? – and a few hours later the power summer but for the approaching winter. came back on. The small drop in tem- Maybe they exaggerate, but I am getting But such dependence on electric- perature caused by the rain had calmed myself ready for a winter with less power ity is an urban thing: in other places down the power grid. consumption, and thinking of alterna- people have got used to doing without. In tives to my electrical heater in case of Esquina, the small town where I was born As we say here, ‘la saqué barata’ – another blackout. O and raised, power lines are in such a bad meaning I got lucky. Some people went state that people can experience months for up to 10 days without power. The gov- VIRGINIA TOGNOLA FOCUSES ON POLITICS, of blackouts. Some rural areas still aren’t ernment finally decided to fine the elec- CULTURE AND HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL connected to the grid. I remember when tricity companies, which had to offer a RIGHTS IN HER WRITING. SHE IS AN ACTIVIST IN THE we used to visit my grandfather, who MOVIMIENTO POPULAR NUESTRAMÉRICA. lived in one such place. He taught me tricks to cool environments and liquids without air conditioning or a refrigerator, or how to maximize the light of candles. I learned how essential it is to start the day at dawn and end it at sunset. This makes me think that urban dwellers like myself are so comfortable overconsuming energy that we can’t think of any alterna- tives. Paradoxically, this way of life leads to overburdened grids and blackouts. As I’m a big fan of the hot weather, I took the blackouts during our heatwave in my stride – except for the last night in the dark. What got to me it wasn’t the suffocating heat but the boredom. It was one of those humid nights. A storm was imminent. I put together a tereré – a cold drink made from juice and yerba mate – using the last surviving ice cubes from my freezer. I grabbed my book, a blanket, and went to the park around the block from my house. It was the only place close by with MAY-JUNE 2022 7
CURRENTS UKRAINE BORDERLINES KYIV DESPATCH Soup and cookies Yuri Fedorenko was asleep in downtown Kyiv, not far forces stalled in the city’s Governments across Europe in his Kyiv apartment on from the Khreshchatyk suburbs, supermarket shelves have offered sanctuary the morning of 24 February, thoroughfare that serves were the fullest they had been to refugees escaping the when he was woken up by a as the main street of the since the war had begun. Less war in Ukraine. The EU has telephone call. Having slept Ukrainian capital. He now essential businesses were also announced that Ukrainians through the first Russian spends his time cooking at beginning to reopen. can enter without visas and bombardments of his city, the his friend’s cafe, which is a number of countries have 27-year-old artist was confused closed to the general public Soldiers and members of granted them free train travel. when his friend told him that but provides meals to the the territorial defence were It’s been heartening to see Kyiv was under attack. territorial defence force also building increasingly the generosity, but it has also that patrols the streets. sophisticated fortifications been a stark reminder of the Fedorenko was incredulous Sometimes he volunteers to in the streets, with stashes deeply-rooted racism of our at first. ‘He said, today you drive cars around the city, of Molotov cocktails kept on global border regime. This have the day off, because we transporting supplies. standby in case they were cannot simply be explained have war,’ he recalled. needed to attack Russian away through cultural ties or Fedorenko said he will armour. shared borders – is Europe On the one month fight, or even die, to resist the not inextricably linked anniversary of the war, invasion. ‘This is Ukraine’s While it remained to be to Syria and Afghanistan Fedorenko was still at home last chance to make a normal seen if Russia would again through its colonial past and culture, normal relations with try to push into the city imperial present? A woman and child at a railway other countries, because now itself, citizens were mentally station in Uzghorrod in western if we bend down to Russkiy preparing themselves for the Europe’s response to black Ukraine, near the Slovak border. Mir [the ‘Russian world’], the possibility. ‘If we don’t put and brown people fleeing Slovakians, along with the people of world is not going to see us as up a fight then my country danger has been worse other neighbouring countries, have independent,’ he said. will disappear, and this is than unwelcoming – it’s worked with Ukrainian activists to not an option for me at all,’ been deadly. Many crossing organize humanitarian convoys. The mood was defiant in said a 25-year-old academic European borderlands have the Ukrainian capital at the researcher turned citizen been pushed back to starve, ISABELLE MERMINOD end of March. With Russian soldier who was helping to drown and freeze to death on land borders and at sea. One Syrian refugee who slept in sub-zero conditions on the Polish-Belarusian border and faced violence at the hands of armed border guards, said: ‘How is it possible that on one border you beat people and yet on the other you give them soup and cookies?’ The only logical explana- tion for this differential treat- ment is racism, which remains intrinsic to the nation-state system. There are ‘insid- ers’ who must be defended against the purported threats of ‘outsiders’, while those in the Global South, on whose backs Western capital is built, are denied entry. nin.tl/3tKHAsj JUN PANG AND NADIA HASAN 8 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
In the News bolster the frontline around posing as a new broom or libertarian – if you are SERIOUSLY? the war torn suburb of Irpin. to sweep away the old being polite. Part of his He requested his name not to corruptions, and promising success amongst tech-savvy Lunar real estate be used as he had not told his a new dawn. Take the new younger voters has to do with Progressive taxation? Living parents that he had joined the president of South Korea, his championing of virtual wages that keep up with battle. 61-year-old Yoon Suk-yeol. currencies. One divisive inflation? Universal Basic On election day (10 March) promise is to raise the capital Income? No, free-market He said that he finds the the odds were too close to gains tax threshold on Bitcoin thinktank the Adam Smith actual experience of combat call in the rambunctious and other cryptocurrencies Institute has come up with easier to live with than the contest between Yoon, the from $2,000 to $40,000 – an even more innovative awful anticipation that candidate of the conservative which would make it the solution to global poverty preceded it. ‘When I hear the People Power Party, and the world’s most generous tax-free and sovereign debt crises – shell landing right near me, I liberal Lee Jae-myung of the allowance. privatize the moon! In what feel this bad feeling inside me, governing Democratic Party. one Twitter user ridiculed as a but that’s just a natural reaction In the end Yoon edged out On the other hand Yoon ‘comic book evil genius plan’, of your body,’ he said. Lee by a hair – 48.56 per cent is known for various slips the Institute proposed that to 47.83 per cent. in justifying and forgiving Earth’s most precious lunar Fedorenko recalled the some of South Korea’s most companion be carved up and moment earlier in the week Much like the ‘lesser evil’ nefarious political characters, divided between nation- that he felt the explosion electoral theatre in many including Chun Doo- states so they can use their from a Russian missile countries, neither candidate hwan and Park Geun-hye. plots of cratered property to attack. Although it was 10 was particularly inspiring Occasionally he has been invest in space exploration kilometers away, the windows to Korean voters, causing forced into apologies for such and tourism. of his apartment rattled. Eight media outlets to dub the utterances. Yoon is also known people died when the rocket whole poll ‘the election of for his disdain for women, Aside from the logistical destroyed a shopping mall in the unfavourables’. Koreans denying discrimination and concerns, such an out-of-the- the city’s Podilskyi district. take their politics seriously. calling for the abolition of the box proposal is in violation of Turnout was some 77 per Ministry of Gender Equality the UN’s Outer Space Treaty, ‘In my head I think of more cent – perhaps because, until and the Family. He apparently which states that space happy times, not about bad 1987, the country had been sought to cash in on a growing cannot be expropriated by times,’ he said, adding that ruled by a series of military anti-feminist backlash in the nations and that ‘states shall he reminisces with his father despots backed by the US. country. avoid harmful contamination – who is not in the city – on South Koreans have always of space and celestial bodies’. the phone everyday. been willing to go the streets But it is in the area of to defend their democratic geopolitics and the all- A damaging free-for-all BENNETT MURRAY rights, as they did in Gwangju pervasive influence of North could set a precedent for in 1980 when an estimated Korea that Yoon’s rhetoric wider galactic plunder, and INTRODUCING... 2,000 demonstrators were is most troubling. With no there’s little evidence to murdered by the Chun experience in balancing suggest that commodifying YOON SUK-YEOL dictatorship, or more recently on geopolitical ledges, he the moon would actually in 2016 when weeks of street promises to ‘teach some solve inequality. Widespread An electorate discontented demonstrations brought down manners’ to nuclear toy- privatization of social goods with the self-satisfied Park Geun-hye for her corrupt wielding Kim Jong-un. has more often than not led political classes can rarely political practices. Wonder how that is going to to what the UN’s 2018 report resist the temptation of an go? At least the US has made on extreme poverty describes ‘anti-politics’ politician, Yoon’s ‘new broom’ polite refusals to Yoon’s as ‘the systematic elimination reputation is due, at least ideas about re-nuclearizing of human rights protections in part, to his role as a the South. But then Yoon’s and further marginalization of ILLUSTRATIONS: EMMA PEER lead prosecutor in the case liberal predecessor made little the interests of low-income against Park and 100 of her headway in a friendly entente earners and those living in cronies – as well as against he promised with the man poverty.’ Alas, back to the the corporate giant Samsung with the famous slicked-back drawing board then. for its corrupt accounting haircut. One thing is for sure: practices. Under the Korean Koreans’ desire for a united HUSNA ARA constitution, newly-elected Korea will not disappear any Yoon will have only a single time soon. five-year term to implement his rather vague programme. RICHARD SWIFT Similarly to Donald Trump of the US and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Yoon comes to the presidency with the reputation of a bit of a rightwing populist; MAY-JUNE 2022 9
CURRENTS MEXICO laws which strengthened KENYA/UK collective bargaining. All PROPER TEA IS THEFT INSTITUTIONAL union contracts must now be revisited and voted on by Kenyan tea pickers are taking REVOLUTION workers before May 2023. bosses at a major supplier Previously, agreements to court in Scotland over A landmark vote on union were signed behind closed alleged workplace abuses and recognition at a General doors and genuine collective industrial injuries. Motors (GMC) factory in bargaining was denied. It’s Mexico has raised hopes of a hoped that Sinittia’s win in Over 800 workers, collective bargaining domino Silao is a sign of things to represented by Thompsons effect across the country. come. Solicitors, are pursuing a multimillion-dollar negligence In the first ever genuine MATTHA BUSBY action against Aberdeen- union election at the plant based Finlays, which was in Silao, central Mexico, INEQUALITY founded in the 18th century. the Independent Union of WATCH Finlays argued that the group Workers of the Automotive litigation should instead be Industry (Sinttia) won an % OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME heard in Kenya, but a judge at overwhelming victory to SPENT ON FOOD Edinburgh’s Court of Session be recognized as the official rejected the plea. voice of workers. The US organization defeated the At a hearing earlier this dominant Mexican Workers 9% year, it was alleged that Federation (CTM), which has workers had been required to faced allegations of systematic NIGERIA work 12-hour shifts with no stitch-ups with big business breaks over a six-day week. to deny collective bargaining 57% Average monthly wages were and keep wages low. The just $130 in 2017. Pregnant Federation is close to the Source: USDA; workers said they had not Institutional Revolutionary National Bureau of Statistics been provided with sanitation Party (PRI), which governed facilities. Mexico for most of the 20th SIGN OF THE TIMES century. ‘[My] health problems are a PA/ALAMY/DANNY LAWSONresult of the work I was doing,’ Sinttia is now negotiating a 47-year-old Emily Chepkurui pay rise for employees, some Sang, who recently retired on of whom earn less than $9 a medical grounds, told BBC day, despite the factory making Scotland. ‘I don’t know what I the lucrative GMC Sierra and can do but I want justice.’ Chevy Silverado pickups. CONRAD LANDIN ‘Unions must be there to defend the interests of their NEPAL colleagues... That is the flag SAVE THE SCAVENGERS we raised and that allowed the CTM to be removed There’s hopeful news for after a long history marked the world’s disappearing by vices and abuses against vulture populations with its members,’ Sinttia leader the announcement of the María Morales told local first ever Vulture Safe Zone media. Thought to be the first (VSZ) in Nepal. The often female union chief in the unloved scavengers perform Mexican automotive sector, a vital clean-up role in she allegedly received threats the natural world, helping in the run-up to the vote. prevent the spread of disease. But vulture numbers have After the revision of free taken a hammering in recent trade rules with the US and Canada and the toppling of the PRI by leftwing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in 2019 the Mexican government introduced new labour 10 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
In the News decades, with 90-99 per cent communities in the Gandaki- and other countries in Asia and we’ve been releasing.’ declines throughout Asia. Lumbini region have been Africa – from India to Zambia. Despite these positive steps, This is largely due to the use working together to create of the anti-inflammatory a provisional Vulture Safe ‘Vulture Safe Zones are Thapa is concerned about drug diclofenac to treat cattle, Zone. In this area diclofenac important because they further challenges facing whose carcasses then become is removed from veterinary protect and retain small and vultures, including other toxic deadly for vultures. use; wild populations are critical vulture populations in drugs, habitat degradation, monitored, safe feeding sites the wild,’ says Ishana Thapa, poison baits, lack of food Nepal has bucked the established, and a breeding and CEO of Bird Conservation availability and electric power trend with a slow recovery release programme set up. No Nepal. ‘These locations will lines. The future of the species of vultures over the past five wild vultures have been killed be crucial, not only for the remains far from assured. years. The use of non-steroidal by diclofenac since the VSZ wild population breeding anti-inflammatory drugs was established. The approach colonies and the foraging and GRAEME GREEN (NSAIDs), like diclofenac, is can be extended to other feeding sites [where] NSAID largely under control there and provisional safe zones, with poisoning and other risks A Griffon vulture flies high in since 2009 conservationists, aims to certify more in Nepal [will now be lessened], but Mustang District, Nepal. scientists, vets and local also for the captive birds that FRANK BIENEWALD/ALAMY MAY-JUNE 2022 11
CURRENTS SWEDEN Sevä’s Sámi village, has awarded British company starts taking indigenous rights Muonio, has been engaged in a Beowulf the license to mine seriously, this image will LETHAL LOGGING high-publicity struggle against here on Sámi land. remain just that: an image. Sveaskog since the company In Sápmi, a battle is raging to abruptly stopped consulting The Swedish state has FRAN MILLS protect the traditional lands them about forestry on gained a reputation as a of the Sámi people from their lands five years ago. champion of human rights Katarina Sevä, a member of the Sweden’s state-owned logging Travelling across Muonio land and sustainability, but for Council of Mounio Sámi reindeer- company, Sveaskog. one notices that the forests many Sámi people this herding district. are frequently interrupted seems little more than good Repeated calls for it to stop by swathes of snowy-white marketing. Until Sweden RASMUS TÖRNQVIST/GREENPEACE the clear-cutting of lichen-rich ground: clear-cutting sites. forests on reindeer-grazing OPEN WINDOW lands have been ignored, During the freezing winter, including an impassioned call activists camped in the forest to Oil prices & war by Miguel Morales Madrigal (Cuba) from representatives of 29 block Sveaskog’s harvesters with Sámi villages in 2020. their bodies. The Sámi village – with support from Greenpeace Lichen is a vital food and civil disobedience group source for reindeer, which are Skogsupproret – succeeded, an important part of Sámi and in February Sveaskog culture and livelihoods. Since announced that they would the 1900s, Swedish lichen-rich resume consultations with forests have decreased by 70 Muonio’s representatives. per cent and reindeer have reportedly begun to starve. There are many other sites of resistance across Sápmi, ‘I see how fast the logging including against the planned takes place,’ says reindeer- iron-ore mine in Gállok. herder Katarina Sevä. ‘Each Despite warnings from the UN year it goes faster. Soon, that this constitutes a violation we’ll have no hanging lichen of indigenous rights, Sweden forests left,’ 12 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
In the News TANZANIA since February. Petitioners are REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL urgently calling on Tanzania’s LAND LOCKED new president Samia Suluhu TOXIC TIES SEVERED Hassan to intervene. ‘We Tens of thousands of Maasai are counting on you to be a In another milestone for GREEN WAVE WIN in northern Tanzania fear champion for your people and what campaign group they could be forced off their stop any attempt to change Culture Unstained has Abortion in Colombia has ancestral lands in Loliondo their land rights against their called the ‘unstoppable finally been decriminalized and Ngorongoro conservation will,’ the petition states. rejection’ of fossil fuel on all grounds up to 24 areas, to make way for elite funding, BP and London’s weeks of pregnancy tourism and trophy hunting. On one occasion, protesters National Portrait Gallery – thanks to a long and shut down the Ngorongoro area have announced the end of hard-fought battle for In Ngorongoro, four fifths by blockading major roads. their 30-year partnership in reproductive justice in of land currently accessible ‘Throughout the entire area no 2022. It comes after years of the country. It’s the latest for livestock grazing will cattle could be found grazing activism against the oil and victory in the ‘green wave’ be designated purely for as every able-bodied individual gas giant’s sponsorship of for abortion rights that conservation. The government was participating in the the BP Portrait Award. has recently swept Latin claims ‘relocations’ will be demonstration,’ activists said in American countries from voluntary, but campaigners say a statement. A number of cultural Argentina to Ecuador and the national park authorities institutions in the UK have Mexico. are already intimidating There were also a solidarity cut ties with the likes of residents, and intend to protest outside the Tanzanian Shell and BP, including the Access to safe and legal demolish schools, places of High Commission in London. National Theatre, Royal abortions in Colombia has worship and other amenities. Placards featured slogans such Shakespeare Company and been incredibly unequal, as ‘No tourism where Maasai National Galleries Scotland. with poor rural women At the centre of the dispute are evicted’ and ‘Land is life: Next in activists’ sights? much more likely to face is the UAE-based Otterlo no survival without it’. The The British Museum’s criminal penalties, or Business Corporation, which demonstration then moved sponsorship deal with BP. experience complications has had a longstanding on to the offices of travel requiring medical care close relationship with the companies Trailfinders and PLASTIC PROMISES after clandestine abortions, government of Tanzania. It Kuoni. Paola Hernandez, one than their wealthier urban professes to be ‘100 per cent of those who took part, said Political leaders and counterparts. for wildlife conservation’, and the agencies had ‘a chance… representatives from 173 pledged, in 2013, to not evict to signal that they take their countries are thrashing out AMY HALL indigenous communities – but social responsibility obligations a legally-binding treaty its record is in fact far more seriously’. that could be the first and ILLUSTRATION: EMMA PEER chequered. much overdue step for Senior government officials global action on plastic In 2009, more than 200 have made a number of visits pollution. A resolution Maasai homes were burned and even held public rallies agreed at the March UN down during a series of in support of the Maasai, but environment assembly in evictions that paved the fears of an impending eviction Kenya includes financial way for an expansion of the persist. Prime Minister Kassim and technical support, wildlife range and hunting Majaliwa promised to find as well as recognition for area. More people were forced ‘a solution based on human the work of waste pickers. from their homes in 2017. Now rights’, but for the Maasai, who An intergovernmental campaigners fear evictions on want a public assurance that negotiating committee has an even larger scale, affecting they will not be evicted, this been tasked with finalizing 80,000 Maasai residents rings hollow. President Suluhu the ‘historic’ treaty on the living in the Ngorongoro has called for ‘restraint’ in full lifecycle of plastics, conservation area, and over handling the matter, but has from design to production 70,000 living in Loliondo. not made her position on a to waste, by 2024. The local Maasai community, potential resolution clear. Her which survives by keeping predecessor Jakaya Kikwete livestock, is well known for its had vowed the community ability to co-exist with nature, would never be evicted from its holding values against the ancestral land, but that pledge killing and exploitation of did not hold. The Maasai wildlife. community and its supporters want to make sure Suluhu The campaign group Avaaz holds up that vow. launched an online petition to stop the planned evictions, MAINA WARURU and more than three million people have backed their call MAY-JUNE 2022 13
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THE BIG STORY BIG OIL BEYOND BIG OIL We cannot let the ever-expanding oil and gas industry stand in the way of urgently needed climate action. Nick Dowson lays out a path to change. MAY-JUNE 2022 15
THE BIG STORY T his isn’t working. fossil fuels are the core driver of climate Wherever Big Oil goes, it brings devas- change; that pumping and burning them has to stop – soon. tation. Spills smother ecosystems; air pol- lution chokes cities. Earthquakes follow Close to 75 per cent of humanity’s fracking and gas extraction. Plastics greenhouse gas emissions come from clog up seas. Democratic governments burning fossil fuels – and nearly all our are toppled or corrupted, strongmen carbon dioxide emissions.1 The oil, gas propped up. and coal that could be extracted from existing wells and mines is more than Wars are fought over hydrocarbons, twice what we can burn to avoid danger- fuelled by them. Here Ukraine is not an ous climate change.2 Planting trees or aberration but a continuation, the latest changing diets may be useful but will in a line of conflicts and coups that runs count for nothing if we don’t leave fossil back through Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Iran fuels in the ground. and beyond, back to the coaling stations of the British Empire. Fossil fuels tie But Big Oil continues to expand, Europe to Putin’s government and enrich supported by both massive subsidies his oligarchs – just as they tie the US to and private finance. Over the last five Saudi Arabia’s murderous monarchy. years Europe’s biggest banks alone have ploughed $406 billion into oil and gas This just isn’t working. Many people companies.3 Overall, global subsidies for are bracing for a drastic drop in living fossil fuels amount to around $1 trillion standards as, led by oil and gas markets, a year – $6 trillion if negative environ- energy prices are skyrocketing around mental impacts are factored in, according the world. Some countries have seen to the International Monetary Fund.4 blackouts. But so far the boosted profits of Big Oil have been left untouched by Such subsidies prop up Big Oil’s profits the politicians in its thrall. Meanwhile at our expense. BP, Shell, Chevron and greenhouse gases fill the atmosphere, ExxonMobil alone have cashed $2 trillion past Earth’s breaking point. over the last three decades.5 UK-based BP and Shell announced a combined £40 ‘There are a Spreading like a slick billion ($53bn) in profits in February, just small group of days after government agency Ofgem companies who Imagine for a moment what life could hiked energy bills by 54 per cent – adding have deliberately be like if we were free of our depend- £15 billion ($20bn) to households’ energy derailed action on ence on oil and gas. Stepping out into a costs and leaving millions more facing climate change, neighbourhood without the noise of the energy poverty. and we can take combustion engine, you breathe deeply, them on and win’ fresh air filling your lungs. It could be a ‘We need to clearly identify the world with fewer resource conflicts, one organizations that are not only driving, with good quality green jobs, where eve- but also profiting from, the climate ryone has access to the renewable energy crisis: namely the fossil fuel indus- they need. Climate change’s worst effects try,’ says Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, could be avoided. Standing up to dicta- which campaigns to end North Sea tors would be easier. fossil fuels. ‘Each of us has been made to feel that individually we’re responsi- Something is blocking that future – ble, which is overwhelming and disem- the oil and gas industry. For decades it powering. But actually, there are a small has dumped its waste on communities; group of companies who have deliber- dumped workers according to its whims. ately derailed action on climate change: For decades industry bigwigs have known we can take them on and win.’ that their products are imperilling the planet, burning up what the latest Inter- Transition, what transition? governmental Panel on Climate Change report calls ‘a liveable and sustainable Against this dire backdrop, renewable future for all’. technologies – vital for replacing our fossil energies with something better Even as it has become crystal clear – have gone from strength to strength. that time’s up, the Big Oil gang has Onshore wind and solar are now com- obstructed action. Selling ever more, fortably the cheapest ways of generating drilling ever more, investing ever more electricity. Unfortunately, apparent pro- in fuels of the past, and investing too in gress in some countries – often through the PR and politicians to deflect a clean the export of energy-intensive manufac- future (see ‘The new greenwashing’, page turing to the Global South – disguises a 28). Anything to distract from the incon- big picture which is not quite so rosy. trovertible, uncomfortable fact that 16 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Big Oil Previous page: Passersby walk past a mural Overall, in 2020 wind and solar direction,’ said Francesco La Camera, in Venezuela showing oil drilling. Oil accounted for just 10 per cent of global Director-General of the International has made an important contribution to electricity generated, and only 1.6 per Renewable Energy Agency last year.6 Venezuelan state revenues. cent of total primary energy supply. But the increasing share of renewables Importantly, these sky-high emis- JOHN VAN HASSELT/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES in the energy mix has been outstripped sions do not correlate with population by soaring usage of all forms of energy, growth but are linked to technological Below: Wind and solar generation at Phan including oil, gas and coal. Increas- and social systems, as energy scholar Rang, Ninh Thuan province, Vietnam. ing sales of larger SUVs (Sports Utility Simon Pirani, who has researched fossil Vehicles) are creating more pollution fuel consumption since the 1950s, has QUANG NGOC NGUYEN/ALAMY than electric vehicles are saving. Green- demonstrated. Economic growth has house gas emissions are at record highs been the chief driver of increased con- and continuing to rise. ‘The gap between sumption, he argues, with major crises where we are and where we should be is the only interruptions to the upwards widening. We are heading in the wrong trend.7 And fossil fuel growth has been intrinsically linked to the expansion of MAY-JUNE 2022 17
THE BIG STORY capitalism (see ‘Fossil fuels – a journey indigenous land without consent, extract- of the oil and gas sector to renewables. It in time’, page 22). A step change in ing profit while returning little benefit could bring an end to the lobbying and both technology and policy – actively to communities. And if ever-increasing corruption the industry uses to obstruct phasing out production – would be energy usage continues even renewables climate action. ‘There is no longer a role needed for fossil fuel use to be cut as fast are likely to butt against resource limits, for companies or profit-seeking as an as is required. such as the availability of rare earth metals. organizing principle of this aspect of human society – not if we want to continue Instead, the usual imperatives of the Neither is nuclear the answer. It is to have human society,’ argue scholars market remain: produce more, sell more. much more expensive than wind or solar Johanna Bozuwa and Olúfémi O Táíwò.11 More goods, more cars, more flights, – as well as adding to the risk of another more energy, more oil. Big Oil still profits planetary scale catastrophe through Routes to public ownership could from selling hydrocarbons; utilities still nuclear waste, the possibility of reactor include using compulsory purchase laws profit from selling more electricity. meltdown, or creating the ingredients to acquire assets, or purchasing major- for nuclear weapons. Hinkley Point C, a ity stakes. (In 2020 majority stakes in Tweaks are made to try and adapt reactor under construction in the UK, is the whole US fossil fuel sector could have networks to cheap variable renewa- likely to prove the most expensive build- been bought for only $350 billion.12) bles, but we are nowhere near the grid ing in the world, while a similar model in Modifications to bankruptcy laws for development required. Investor courts Finland took 15 years to build – too long fossil fuel companies could insist on like those of the Energy Charter Treaty for the climate.9 government oversight (receivership) also hamper change. The evidence also to protect the interests of workers and suggests that in a market system many Ending climate profiteering communities while ensuring wells and of the savings from energy efficiency mines are wound down, and prevent will be swallowed up by increases else- It’s not as if this frenzy of production bankruptcies being used to wriggle out of where. Fuel-efficient cars may be driven is working for everyone: 770 million obligations. further; cheaper electricity can lead people still don’t have access to electric- to other wasteful usages – take Bitcoin ity, despite all the harm to our climate 10 Then there’s the role of lawsuits, which mining. This ‘rebound effect’ can wipe are beginning to mount up against fossil out most of the efficiency savings, or even Big Oil has had decades to do the right fuel companies. They could force the lead to higher usage overall.8 ‘Currently thing – it can’t, and it won’t. Therefore, release of company documents making there’s not a market for producing less enabling a just transition must mean, first it increasingly tricky for them to defend or using less,’ points out Sean Sweeney, a of all, bringing private oil and gas com- themselves. If cases gain momentum they researcher with Trade Unions for Energy panies into public ownership. No-one might recover significant sums from Big Democracy. should be able to profit from destroying Oil, potentially making nationalization the only home we all share – what income easier. ‘If fossil fuel companies are ever Meanwhile, green capitalism threat- remains in the last years of oil must go to found liable for the full extent of climate ens new problems. Large scale renew- cleaning up the messes of extraction. damage that could be caused by their able projects risk becoming a new form of products... they would immediately be extractivism, with Global North compa- Public ownership is also a vital step to insolvent,’ says Bloomberg New Energy nies replicating the same dynamics seen planning the transition of workers and Finance founder Michael Liebreich.13 with fossil fuels – building projects on communities into new, green industries, and to reorienting the skills and capacity Volunteers attempt to clean up the coastline after NEW INTERNATIONALIST oil spilled from a tanker wreck, Mauritius. OHRIM/SHUTTERSTOCK 18
Big Oil ‘We can either continue to live without electricity or clean cooking, and with an exploitative energy system, the many more who are forced to spend or build one that is for people large chunks of their income on essential rather than profit’ needs. Access should not be determined by ability to pay: energy needs decom- Public ownership will need to align Ideally a phaseout will need an interna- modifying. ‘We shouldn’t be able to profit operations with the climate imperative – tional agreement featuring binding caps from energy,’ argues Lavinia Steinfort, a immediately ending all expansion, while on fossil fuel production, reducing year on researcher with the Transnational Insti- prioritizing workers and communities year – but the absence of this is no excuse tute. ‘The Global North needs to cut out and creating real democratic control. for rich countries to delay action. non-essential energy use... Transition can never happen if buyer and seller are the The fossil wind-down Alternatively, a framework such as organizing models.’ ‘Cap and Share’ could function even While vital to a rapid transition, public within a system where some privately For Sweeney this means reclaiming ownership will not be enough. In fact, owned fossil fuel companies remain. Oil, the mission of energy utilities and elec- much of the world’s oil and gas produc- gas and coal companies worldwide would tricity networks, which are major con- tion is already owned by national oil be required to buy a permit at auction for sumers of fossil fuels. Rather than being companies such as Norway’s Equinor and each unit of carbon extracted, but with about selling more power, it should be Russia’s Gazprom, as is the overwhelming strict caps, informed by science and cut about conserving energy – minimizing majority of known reserves. rapidly. Income would then be redistrib- use – while maximizing renewable pro- uted to people, providing some world- duction. Again, public ownership would Ending subsidies for hydrocarbons wide cushioning from the impact of be the best route, enabling the transfor- should be the first step, and given their fuel-price hikes. These policies could also mation of networks in the shortest possi- eyewatering scale could make much pro- be pursued by one country or a group ble time. Public and active transport will duction unprofitable. This must include with permits applied to both production also need support in preference to car ensuring Big Oil pays all its social obli- and imports. use. The potential for savings is massive gations, like pensions and clean-up costs – Cambridge University researchers (see ‘Cut and run’, page 24), and be paired Enabling a global phaseout will also found practical design changes to the with increased support for ordinary require transferring resources and most energy hungry systems could cut people, particularly those whose liveli- technologies to poorer countries. The demand by up to three quarters.7 hoods depend on cheap fuel. G77, representing most low and middle- income countries, has called for annual Meanwhile genuine democratic Rapid, binding targets need to be set transfers of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP control should put workers and affected for reducing and then stopping produc- from richer nations – nearly $800 communities back in the driving seat. tion, guided by the available carbon billion in 2020.15 Not only do Global Gabrielle Jeliazkov, a campaigner with budget and the principle of common South countries need this be able to London-based campaign group Platform, but differentiated responsibility. Richer build their own clean energy future, the points out that an organized workforce countries in the Global North, whose Global North has already burnt far more is a potential source of power and that economies are less dependent on extrac- than its fair share of hydrocarbons (see just transition work requires climate and tion, must move fastest – with a 2031 ‘A global just transition’, page 35). Spend- labour activists to work together. ‘Energy deadline, one new study suggests.14 ing on militaries – huge polluters – and workers are a part of the communities other harmful sectors must be cut to that benefit or don’t benefit from the Some countries have already commit- protect living standards while making fossil fuel industry existing,’ she says. ted to phaseout: The Beyond Oil and Gas these transfers. ‘We can either continue to live with an Alliance founded last November by Costa exploitative energy system, or build one Rica and Denmark now has eight full Public power that is for people rather than profit.’ members, pledged to licensing no new extraction projects and setting a ‘Paris- While a daunting prospect, this is also Examples already exist. Uruguay aligned’ date to end drilling. an opportunity to build a better energy has transitioned its electricity system system – one that works for all. to near 100 per cent renewable energy ‘We need to start with a target like over a decade, and is setting up distrib- eight years, say, and work back from that This will mean making renewable uted generation alternatives for the 0.3 to what we have to do,’ says Grahame energy available to everyone as a public per cent of the population that cannot be Buss, a spokesperson for new UK cam- good, not for private profit – includ- connected to the grid. Led by state power paign group Just Stop Oil and a former ing the hundreds of millions currently company UTE, it has cut electricity costs principal scientist at Shell. and made wind power its largest energy source.16 And in the northern highlands of Nic- aragua, the Association for Rural Devel- opment Workers has been electrifying rural communities through small-scale hydro projects. Community members contribute labour towards construction, decisions are made democratically, and MAY-JUNE 2022 19
THE BIG STORY residents pay into a fund for maintenance ‘Before we introduce solutions, there depending on their income, rather than is a lot of work for movements to con- ACTION buying electricity.17 vince people that we actually need to AND INFO end the fossil fuel industry,’ says Archana Time to move Ramanujam, co-host of the Future INITIATIVES Beyond Shell podcast. ‘That means there Fossil freedom is within our grasp. We is a discursive role for movements, to fossilfueltreaty.org know what’s at stake, we know it can work revoke the social license of fossil fuel Working for a Fossil Fuel Non- – and we know Big Oil will obstruct our companies. Campaigns for divestment Proliferation Treaty way to getting there. and to ban fossil fuel advertising are great examples of this.’ lofotendeclaration.org A struggle for energy democracy – for For a just phase-out led by green energy for all – can bring together Some have even called for sabotage. wealthy fossil fuel producers a range of movements. With boundless Author John Lanchester suggested a creativity, campaigns are beginning to steady campaign could take SUVs, the ACTION draw together the threads that connect second largest cause of increased CO2 the climate crisis with fights to protect emissions last decade, off our streets gastivists.org land and livelihoods from the fossil fuel – hundreds in UK cities recently had Support for grassroots groups industry, that link strengthening indig- their wheels deflated by the group Tyre fighting fossil gas enous and Global South sovereignty Extinguishers.19 with struggles for democratic control platformlondon.org over resources and the energy system. This year we’ve seen workers in the Campaign group focused on oil From divestment campaigns, shown to UK and US push both countries towards and the arts push firms into emissions cuts, to law- banning Russian oil and gas after refus- suits.18 From the indigenous people and ing to unload Russian fossil fuels. Fridays fridaysforfuture.org allies putting their bodies on the line to for Future youth activists held demon- Youth-led movement for climate action stop pipelines, to campaigns like Stand strations in 130 cities in response to a call LA, which last year won a motion for the from Ukrainian activists to end hydrocar- foei.org phaseout of oil and gas extraction in Los bon imports from Putin’s regime. Build- Friends of the Earth International Angeles, which disproportionately affects ing labour power and solidarity further black and Latinx communities. can help fight Big Oil’s stranglehold. greenpeace.org/international/act Greenpeace International ‘When we create space from our front- Rapid changes in the conversa- line communities to lead, we can make tion are possible, as shown by the inva- 350.org big change that not only benefit our most sion of Ukraine, or, more positively, by Climate campaign to build a vulnerable, but all of us,’ says Rabeya Sen, the success of networks like Extinction global grassroots movement policy director at Esperanza Community Rebellion or the youth climate strikers. Housing Corporation, one of the coali- With clearer demands we can go further. juststopoil.org tion’s members. Better understanding of what needs to A new XR-linked coalition organizing change is the first step. O direct actions with some risk of arrest Bans on lobbying and political dona- tions can help cut off Big Oil’s corrupting NICK DOWSON IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST LEARN influence. Supporting movement media WHOSE INTERESTS COVER PUBLIC SERVICES, and building political education will also THE CLIMATE CRISIS, TECHNOLOGY AND futurebeyondshell.org be crucial. INVESTIGATIONS. HE IS BASED IN THE NORTH EAST Podcast exploring how to end Big Oil OF ENGLAND AND TWEETS AT @NICKMDOWSON tni.org/en/article/our-climate-reading-list 1 Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, ‘Emissions by sector’, Our World in Data, nin.tl/3wzjAtN 2 Freddie Daley, Readings on energy democracy, trade, ‘The Fossil Fuelled Five...’, The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, November 2021, nin.tl/3HZJSra climate justice and food sovereignty 3 Kelly Sheilds, ‘“Net zero” banks continue to finance oil & gas expansion...’, Share Action, 14 February 2022, nin.tl/3NiaFD4 4 Oil Change International, ‘Fossil fuel subsidies overview’, priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies priceofoil.org and Ian Parry et al, ‘Still not getting energy prices right: a global and country update of fossil fuel subsidies’, Oil Change International’s research International Monetary Fund, 24 September 2021, nin.tl/34uJTFW 5 Matthew Taylor and Jillian Ambrose, and briefings on ending oil ‘Revealed: big oil’s profits since 1990 total nearly $2tn’, The Guardian, 12 February 2020, nin.tl/3JGlfSd 6 Sean Sweeney et al, ‘Energy transition or energy expansion?’, The Transnational Institute, 22 October 2021, nin.tl/3LbVWaP nin.tl/3urNOfM 7 Simon Pirani, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, Pluto Press, 2018. Zero Carbon Britain’s blueprint for a 8 Paul Brockway and Steve Sorrell, ‘Why “rebound effects” may cut energy savings in half’, Carbon Brief, rapid switch to 100% renewable energy 2 March 2021, nin.tl/3Nf5fsq 9 Paul Brown, ‘Hinkley point C...’, Nuclear Consulting Group, 8 January 2020, nin.tl/3wC82WN 10 International Energy Agency, ‘Access to Electricity’, 2020, nin.tl/3Ld38Ue 11 Johanna ejatlas.org Bozuwa and Olúfémi O Táíwò, ‘It’s time to nationalize Shell...’, 7 June 2021, The Guardian, nin.tl/3wD9iZB Atlas of the myriad ways people are 12 Future Beyond Shell podcast, ‘Nationalizing Shell’, 4 November 2021, futurebeyondshell.org/ fighting for environmental justice nationalizing-shell 13 Michael Liebreich, ‘Liebreich: Climate Lawsuits...’, BloombergNEF, 26 September 2019, nin.tl/3iB0pb6 14 Romain Ioualalen, ‘New study charts a stark pathway’, Oil Change International, 22 March rapidtransition.org/stories 2022, nin.tl/3Lj1LDF 15 Todd Miller et al, ‘Global climate wall...’, The Transnational Institute, October 2021, Examples of change from around nin.tl/3NlSsEv 16 Daniel Chavez, ‘Energy democracy and public ownership’, The Transnational Institute, the world 4 December 2018, nin.tl/3IySu8A 17 M’Lisa Colbert, ‘Combatting Energy Poverty in El Cua, Nicaragua’, 24 January 2018, The Transnational Institute, nin.tl/3tDQI1J 18 Martin Rohleder et al, ‘The Effects of Mutual 20 Fund Decarbonization...’, Journal of Banking and Finance, Volume 134, January 2022, nin.tl/3Df4CdN 19 John Lanchester, ‘Warmer, Warmer’, London Review of Books, 22 March 2007 and Tyre Extinguishers, ‘How to Deflate an SUV Tyre’, 2022, nin.tl/3tG3aOk NEW INTERNATIONALIST
BIG OIL New money is being poured into oil and gas despite the harm THE FACTS it causes to people and planet. With more than 1°C of global warming already, the time remaining to change course is short. DIRTY PROFITS FOLLOW THE MONEY TURNOVER TOP 10 OIL AND PROFITS OF THE 5 BIGGEST $1bn $5.9tn GAS COMPANIES PRIVATE CORPORATIONS (REVENUE, $BN, 2020)1 ($BN, 2021)2 greenwashing and lobbying global subsidies for fossil by the big 5 private oil and gas fuel production in 2020, PETROCHINA 281 EXXONMOBIL companies in only 3 years from 6.8% of global GDP – or 2015 - 2018.4 $11m a minute.5 SINOPEC 271 1 23.2 SAUDI ARAMCO 230 $300bn $1.4tn BP 180 2 SHELL new funds directed to fossil fuel investment in new oil and gas production by the G20 since the production planned by Big Oil 178 21.7 start of the Covid-19 pandemic.6 across Africa up to 2050.7 EXXONMOBIL SHELL 170 3 TOTAL TOTAL 120 16 CHEVRON 94 HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT GAZPROM 91 4 CHEVRON 3.2m 8.7m 75 15.7 tonnes of oil number of people who died are spilt into the prematurely from fossil fuel- MARATHON PETROLEUM environment related air pollution in 2018 each year.8 – 18% of total deaths.9 TOP 5 OIL PRODUCING AND 5 BP CONSUMING COUNTRIES (2020)3 14.9 (% share of world total) US EMISSIONS 20% SAUDI ARABIA RUSSIA CANADA CHINA 93% 15% of energy-related emissions come PRODUCERS 12% 11% 6% 5% of all CO2 emissions from oil and gas production and transportation are from fossil fuels.10 – before it is even used by consumers.11 US CHINA INDIA RUSSIA JAPAN 360bn 20% 14% 5% 4% 4% tonnes CO2 remaining in global carbon budget for a two-thirds chance of limiting warming to under 1.5°C. At current emissions rates this will CONSUMERS be exhausted by 2030.12 1 Katharina Buchholz, ‘The biggest oil and gas companies in the world’, Statista CLIMATE FALLOUT (using Forbes Global 2000 data), 18 May 2021, nin.tl/BOGC 2 Accountable. US report, 9 February 2022, nin.tl/accountable and Andrew Dykes, ‘TotalEnergies Extreme wildfires 75% Current posts $16bn…’, Energy Voice, 10 February 2022, nin.tl/EVTotal 3 EIA oil FAQs, are expected mortality from 8 December 2021, nin.tl/EIA 4 Figures cover three years following the 2015 Paris to increase of the global extreme climate climate agreement. InfluenceMap, ‘Big Oil’s real agenda on climate change’, population could March 2019, nin.tl/real-agenda 5 Ian Parry et al, IMF working paper, 24 September 30% events is 2021, nin.tl/IMF 6 Oil Change International and others, The Fossil Fuelled 5, be exposed to November 2021, nin.tl/FF5 7 Oil Change International and others, The Sky’s Limit by 2050 and ‘life-threatening’ 15x Africa, October 2021, nin.tl/SL-Africa 8 Ismail MK Saadoun, ‘Impact of oil spills on marine life’, September 2015, nin.tl/IOSM 9 Karn Vohra et al, ‘Global mortality…’, 50% conditions of higher in the Environmental Research, Vol 195, April 2021, nin.tl/Vohra 10 Mengpin Ge et al, extreme heat and most vulnerable ‘4 charts explain…’, World Resources Institute, August 2021, nin.tl/WRI 11 International by 2100 due to countries than Energy Agency press release 20 January 2020, nin.tl/IEA 12 Budget from the start climate change.13 humidity of 2021 according to the IPCC. Zeke Hausfather, ‘Analysis: What the new IPCC by 2100.14 in the least.14 report…’, Carbon Brief, 10 August 2021, nin.tl/CB 13 UNEP press release 23 February 2022, nin.tl/wildfire 14 IPCC estimates. See Carbon Brief, ‘In-depth Q&A: The IPCC’s sixth assessment…’, 28 February 2022, nin.tl/impact MAY-JUNE 2022 21
THE BIG STORY F or many millennia humanity’s energy FOSSIL FUELS 1712 First commercially successful came ultimately from the sun. – A JOURNEY steam engine – the Newcomen – From the photosynthesis of plants, IN TIME invented. The coal-powered machines that provided fuel for human and animal were mostly used for pumping water labour, to the wood or dung burnt for 1914 The British Navy decisively from coalmines. In the early 1800s they cooking or warmth. switches from coal to oil, signing a began to be adapted to locomotives. 20-year supply deal with the Anglo- Even wind and water power – used Persian Oil Company (now BP). IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM for grinding corn and sailing ships – came ultimately from the steady beating 1916 First of three federal road 1979 Iranian revolution takes down of the sun’s rays mobilizing our acts in the US begins a decade of significant amounts of oil production atmosphere and climate. They rooted the subsidized road building, boosting the out of world markets, leading to a energy available to us in space and time. car industry and putting railways in price spike. decline. In the UK, Margaret Thatcher begins The expansion of coal – powering the privatization of the majority state- and powered by the steam engine 1973 Arab countries cut production owned BP. – offered an escape, a cheat. Later it and begin an oil embargo against the 1992 Rio Earth Summit takes place, was joined by oil and gas. Those fuels, US and other countries who supported with 154 states signing the United buried in the ground, provided access Israel in the Yom Kippur War. This Nations Framework Convention on to a store of transportable fossilized leads to oil conservation efforts, Climate Change. photosynthesis – millions of years of contributing to support for renewables the sun’s rays, trapped in the bodies of through the 1970s, with a ‘mini-boom’ MIKA BAUMEISTER/UNSPLASH countless organisms and turned into in solar in the US and energy efficiency hydrocarbons. technologies. Following Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, support is This historical sunshine powered the slashed. birth of a new fossil economy, enabling the seemingly unstoppable growth of 2015 The Paris Agreement capitalism, creating the illusion that this introduces a new goal of limiting could be endless. global warming to 1.5°C but replaces the Kyoto principle of Fossil fuels also assisted capitalists in binding emissions reductions with their struggles with organized workers voluntary ‘Nationally Determined – by firing up the machinery that could Contributions’. directly displace human labour, or by allowing them to move production where it suited them, as steam power was more nimble than water power. Fossil fuels were crucial in the capitalist colonial project – coal-powered ships and railroads allowed European colonialists to seize new territories across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, in a rush to extract resources. In the 20th century petrol and petrochemicals sparked a consumer boom and the rise of the automobile. Cars took over, despite the technology for electric transport (which could have used power generated from water and wind) existing almost from the start. Plastics, produced from oil and gas, became ubiquitous within a century following the invention of Bakelite in 1907, penetrating even to the bottom of the oceans. Greenhouse gases filled the atmosphere. The fossil economy did have limits after all, even if Big Oil tried to keep them out of sight. 22
1825 ‘First truly automatic machine 1886 World’s first car built by Karl Benz. in the world’ – the self-acting mule or ‘Iron Man’ – invented for steam- 1887 First electricity-generating wind powered cotton spinning, using turbines built. In Denmark particularly coal. It helped break worker strikes these caught on, making a small but in Preston and Glasgow, UK, in the significant contribution to electricity 1830s. Britain accounted for 80 per generation in the early 1900s. cent of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel Hydroelectric power had already been combustion up to this date. around for a decade. 1936 A holding company set up 1945 The war ends. Oil companies PUBLIC DOMAIN by General Motors, Standard Oil, begin a drive to create new demand as Firestone Tire and Mack Truck begins a downscaling of military action leaves 1958 A British Overseas Airways buying up electric streetcar systems in refineries facing overproduction. Corporation plane makes first 45 US cities – shutting down 100 over transatlantic passenger jet flight. the next decade. In 1949 a federal jury 1950 North America now accounts for just 1965 Scientists warn US President convicts General Motors and allies of over half of global fossil fuel consumption. Lyndon B Johnson that atmospheric conspiring to dismantle the systems. CO2 may cause climate change. Their 1952 Solar photovoltaic panels invented. report is mentioned at the annual 1939 World War Two begins, meeting of the American Petroleum signalling a massive expansion of oil 1953 CIA-sponsored coup deposes Institute. infrastructure including refineries and democratically elected Iranian President pipelines to supply militaries. Mohammad Mossadeq over his attempts NATSUKI SAKAI/AFLO/ALAMY to nationalize the country’s oil fields. PUBLIC DOMAIN 1997 The Kyoto Protocol is adopted, committing industrialized countries to binding greenhouse gas reduction targets. 2009 Shell announces it will not be investing further in wind or solar power, claiming they are not competitive. 2011 BP complains it can’t ‘make any money on the sun’ as it closes down its solar panel factories. LEONHARD LENZ/PUBLIC DOMAIN 2018 Greta Thunberg sparks a Sources: Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital: wave of school climate strikes The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots around the world. of Global Warming, Verso, London and Brooklyn, 2016. Simon Pirani, Burning In the UK Extinction Rebellion Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel launches, with public pressure Consumption, Pluto Press, London, 2018. forcing a range of democratic James Marriott and Terry Macalister, Crude bodies to declare climate Britannia, Pluto Press, London, 2021. emergencies. Christophe Bonneuil et al, ‘Early warnings and emerging accountability: Total’s MAY-JUNE 2022 responses to global warming, 1971–2021’, Global Environmental Change, Volume 71, November 2021. 23
THE BIG STORY CUT T he two largest transnational oil com- AND panies operating in Nigeria’s Niger RUN Delta, Shell and ExxonMobil, are packing up and leaving. Pollute, don’t pay. Big Oil has perfected Both companies have announced its playbook in the separate plans to sell off their assets as Niger Delta and is now soon as they find buyers, and to leave the looking to walk away. Niger Delta, where they have extracted Ken Henshaw reports. crude oil and gas for over half a century. For communities living in the region, 24 the news is cause for bewilderment and uncertainty – the fear that after the dev- astating impacts of oil extraction they have suffered, their quest for ecological justice may never be realized. Counting the costs communities among the least developed and most impoverished in the country.3 The Niger Delta region consists of nine states in Nigeria, bordered to the south The larger Nigerian nation has also not by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by made any progress using its oil wealth. Cameroon. It occupies 112,000 square kil- Instead, it has overtaken India as the ometres, roughly 12 per cent of Nigeria. world’s poverty capital – with 94 million Over 40 ethnic groups and nationalities Nigerians living in extreme poverty.4 speaking hundreds of languages and dia- Again, the narrative for the Niger Delta lects are indigenous to the region. is worse still – oil extraction makes tradi- tional sources of livelihood unproductive Crude oil has been extracted in com- without providing any alternatives, while mercial quantities from the Niger Delta also compromising health. since 1956, expanding from a few viable oil wells to over 900 active wells today. Thousands of kilometres of crude oil Together with thousands of other oil pipes are buried beneath the land, swamps facilities these have turned the Delta and rivers of the Niger Delta, sometimes into one massive oil and gas field, pro- right in people’s farmlands and backyards. ducing up to 2.5 million barrels of crude They regularly rupture, releasing oil that oil every day.1 contaminates farms and rivers, leaving a trail of ecosystem destruction. The oil and gas produced from the region has been responsible for a big It is estimated that more than 2 billion chunk of Nigeria’s income for several litres of crude oil have been spilled in decades, driving an oil dependency that has exposed its economy to intense vola- tilities. As of 2019, oil and gas made up 84 per cent of government export earnings.2 However, the reality for the people who ‘host’ oil activities is far from rosy. Despite the massive hydrocarbon profits, living conditions in areas where extrac- tion takes place are unbelievably horrible. The over 30 million people who live here have not benefitted in any signifi- cant way from the resources pumped from beneath their lands, rivers and swamps. Poor healthcare and education, insecurity and poverty are widespread. Mismanagement, corruption and elite capture of wealth and resources with oil company complicity has made these NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Each year the Niger Delta over the last 50 years.5 electricity usage of all 206 million Nige- companies flare According to the National Oil Spill Detec- rians.7 Alternative ways of managing this $2.5 billion tion and Response Agency, there were gas are available but the oil companies worth of gas - ‘around 370 publicly available oil spill find wasteful flaring cheaper and more creating more records in 2020’ alone.6 More are never convenient. Deadlines to end flaring emissions than reported officially. have been repeatedly put back – from the transport and 1979 to 2030. electricity usage The effects of spills are immediate and of all Nigerians devastating. Even small-scale spillage in a In 2011, the United Nations Environ- river can cause mass fish die-off, pushing ment Programme (UNEP) released an thousands of fisherfolk towards starva- assessment report of polluted sites in tion and destitution. Mangroves, which Ogoniland, the oil-rich territory of the are the breeding ground of fish and other Delta’s Ogoni people, from whose lands aquatic species, wither and perish. Rivers and rivers Shell extracted 28,000 barrels become lifeless. Similar livelihood losses of crude oil daily between 1958 and 1992. occur on farmland, too. It detailed the ravages of oil pollution, contaminating water sources and expos- Then there is the flaring, which causes ing communities to severe health risks. heart and respiratory illnesses. Each year companies burn off $2.5 billion UNEP estimated the clean-up of worth of gas, produced as a byproduct of Ogoniland alone would take 25-30 years oil extraction, in this manner – creating and an initial investment of $1 billion. more emissions than the transport and The report exposed the repeated failures MAY-JUNE 2022 25
THE BIG STORY With each flood fishers and farmers are forced to survive without income for months, engendering a new wave of poverty, insecurity and forced migration of oil companies to clean up spills – sites National Petroleum Corporation, which 1995 after a stage-managed trial. Shell supposedly remediated by Shell were has joint ventures with most oil majors, had repeatedly raised the Ogoni ‘problem’ found to still be heavily contaminated.8 committed to developing a divestment with then-dictator General Sani Abacha, Meanwhile a Nigerian study found clean- policy to safeguard the country’s interests. as recorded by Amnesty and others.15 ing up the entire Niger Delta region This has yet to materialize and the time would cost more than $50 billion and before transnationals leave is running out. Resistance has stopped all extrac- take at least 50 years.9 Life expectancy in tion by Shell in Ogoniland since 1993, the Delta has fallen to under 43 years.10 Operating with impunity although new spills from pipelines that criss-cross the territory continue. Getting out When affected communities have tried to hold transnational companies to account, In other communities where the people It’s no wonder that affected communi- they have rarely received the support have attempted to hold the transnationals ties take a dim view of the new wave of of the Nigerian government. From the to account, the repression has followed oil company ‘divestment’, seeing it as an outset, the business of oil extraction a similar pattern. Seeking redress from opportunity for the companies to cut and in Nigeria operated along the patterns Nigerian courts has not always been an run after years of environmental pollu- of commerce established by Western option – they are firmly in the grip of the tion in the Niger Delta. traders and colonial powers – as a deadly government and the chances of commu- mix of corporate profiteering facilitated nities getting positive outcomes are slim. Shell’s chief executive officer, Ben van by state-backed repression. Beurden, claims the company cannot One rare exception came in 2005, ‘solve community problems in the Niger In 1990, the people of Umuechem, a when a court declared in favour of the Delta’ and that it has concluded that ‘this community just north of Port Harcourt, Iwerekhan community that flaring vio- is an exposure that doesn’t fit with our the Delta’s largest city, went on a peace- lated constitutional rights to life and risk appetite any more’.11 ful march to demand that Shell deliver dignity, including to a ‘clean, poison- on promised benefits. When the company free, pollution-free, healthy environ- Indeed, the last decade has seen a had arrived in the community 32 years ment’.7 Alas, by the time the court met to resurgence of community resilience and earlier, they had pledged roads, hospitals, determine whether Shell had complied environmental justice campaigns fuelled schools, electricity and job opportunities. with the order for an immediate halt, by recently discovered opportunities Instead, the farming and fishing commu- the presiding judge had been moved for holding transnational companies to nity was exposed to pollution, land grabs elsewhere, and the court file could account in European courts. The ‘expo- and loss of livelihoods. not be traced. Gas flaring continues in sure’ Shell is suddenly shy about is expo- Iwerekhan to this day. sure to accountability for rights abuses Peaceful protest felt like the only and ecological destruction. option left as they gathered at a crossroads Kentebe Ebiaridor, who works with several kilometres away from any Shell the NGO Environmental Rights Action, As Shell and ExxonMobil sell off their facility, where they sang and danced. In believes it is the failure of the Nigerian assets to local players, there are uncer- response to the affront, Shell called in courts to provide justice that led locals to tainties about who exactly will be respon- tactical units of the Nigerian police who arm themselves and resist the oil compa- sible for assessing the enormous damage burnt several buildings and shot indis- nies in the late 1990s. caused by pollution and cleaning up the criminately, killing 80 people according mess. When Shell talks of making a ‘clean to Amnesty International.13 To this day ‘How do you take a peoples’ resource, break’ from Niger Delta assets, the pos- no-one has been held accountable. destroy their fish ponds, their farmlands sibility of accountability becomes ever and turn their children into beggars, and more remote.12 Better known is the case of Ogoni- when they demand justice, you invite the land, where protests against Shell trig- police and army to kill them?’ he asks. Tijah Bolton, who works with com- gered a prolonged siege by the Nigerian munities heavily impacted by the activi- army, during which several community A rising tide ties of ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom state, members were murdered, raped, beaten, says divestment is ‘an attempt to abdi- detained and exiled.14 Many oil-producing areas lie along cate responsibility… After over 50 years coastal plains, in close proximity to the of extracting oil, you just sneak away The leaders of the Movement for the Atlantic Ocean and other water bodies, without informing your host.’ Survival of the Ogoni People, including and communities located there are expe- writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed in riencing regular floods as a result of In 2021, the state-owned Nigerian climate change. 26 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Big Oil In 2012, many community lands includ- Above: A poster in a Niger Delta cafe displays a ing entire villages were submerged under portrait of Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed in 1995 two metres of water, an entire farming along with eight other Ogoni activists after season was lost and countless people were protesting Shell’s oil extraction. forced to migrate to higher grounds. Since then, the floods have come regularly. Each ROBIN HAMMOND/PANOS time community members, predomi- nantly fishers and farmers, are forced Previous page: The Dooh family on their lake in to survive without income for months, the Niger Delta which was devastated by an oil engendering a new wave of poverty, inse- spill. The farming family won a case against Shell curity and forced migration. in the Netherlands, which took 13 years. Many of these people are yet to come PETTERIK WIGGERS/PANOS to terms with the fact that the oil and gas extracted from their lands is responsible for the climate change impacts that now threaten their existence. For the ecologically devastated com- munities of the Niger Delta, no hurried divestment by transnational oil compa- nies will be tolerated without restoration of their environment and livelihoods. For them, the definition of just transi- tion has to include repairing the damage occasioned by oil pollution, an audit of the health of the people and a plan to respond to the threats posed by climate change. A just transition must also provide justice for the countless victims of oil company- inspired and state-sanctioned abuses, and reparations to the people of the Niger Delta for decades of expropriation. Any- thing short of these is injustice. O KEN HENSHAW WORKS AT THE NIGER DELTA ORGANIZATION WE THE PEOPLE, SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN DEVASTATED BY CRUDE OIL EXTRACTION, AND WHO ARE FACING NEW CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES, TO DEMAND ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE. 1 Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation figure, nin.tl/NNPC 2 Samuel Oyekanmi, ‘Nigeria’s crude oil & gas exports proceeds fall by 42%’, Nairametrics, 14 July 2021, nin.tl/export 3 JC Ebegbulem et al, ‘Oil exploration and poverty in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria: a critical analysis’, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol 4, No 3, March 2013. 4 Homi Kharas et al, ‘The start of a new poverty narrative’, Brookings, 19 June 2018, nin.tl/new-poverty and Peter Uzoho, ‘Nigeria: FDC – Nigeria still poverty capital of the world’, allAfrica, 9 September 2021, nin.tl/poverty-capital 5 ‘Those 546 million gallons of crude oil spilled in the Niger Delta’, The Nation, 21 February 2014, nin.tl/546m 6 Sebastine Obasi, ‘Nigeria loses 21,300 barrels of oil to spill – NOSDRA’, Vanguard, 13 July 2021, nin.tl/lost 7 Udeme Akpan, ‘Gas flaring: Nigeria loses $2.5bn yearly’, Vanguard, 18 February 2020, nin.tl/loss ; Joe Lo, ‘Nigeria to end gas flaring by 2030, under national climate plan’, Climate Home News, 13 August 2021, nin.tl/flare ; Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, nin.tl/NNPC-gas 8 UNEP, ‘Environmental assessment of Ogoniland report’, 2011, nin.tl/UNEP-Ogoni 9 Udeme Akpan et al, ‘Cleanup of oil producing areas to cost $50 billion’, Vanguard, 6 June 2017, nin.tl/cleanup 10 Orji Sunday, ‘Nigeria’s health contradiction is dividing the country’, OZY, 13 April 2018, nin.tl/OZY 11 Bunmi Aduloju, ‘Report: Seplat, Sahara Group plan to buy Shell’s onshore assets’, The Cable, 06 January 2022, nin.tl/cable 12 Gail Anderson, ‘Shell to divest its entire Nigeria joint venture portfolio’, Wood Mackenzie, 16 August 2021, nin.tl/divest 13 Amnesty International, ‘Was Shell complicit in murder?’, 28 November 2017, nin.tl/AI-Shell and Human Rights Watch, ‘Protest and Repression in the Niger Delta’, 1999, nin.tl/HRW-ND 14 Richard Boele et al, ‘Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni’, Sustainable Development, 2001, nin.tl/susdev 15 Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: Shell complicit in the arbitrary executions of Ogoni Nine…’, 29 June 2017, nin.tl/Ogoni9 MAY-JUNE 2022 27
THE BIG STORY ANDY K THE NEW GREENWASHING Faced with planetary catastrophe, Big Oil has applied boundless creativity, not to solving the climate crisis but to deflecting action. Nick Dowson dissects the corporate spin. The mission: Keep pumping, fill your pockets gases (GHGs) emitted with the amount There are also extensions to the removed from the atmosphere. schemes called carbon ‘offsets’ or so- W hat’s missing from our efforts called ‘nature-based solutions’. These against climate change? The global It’s a much fuzzier concept that allows scams treat a whole range of different bureaucracies of corporate climate for a variety of accountancy tricks and measures – reducing damage to carbon- inaction have a new idea: ‘Blue Carbon’, loopholes. And it’s currently being pushed sequestering ecosystems, planting trees or more specifically, as the bods at the by the oil and gas industry as, after that will absorb carbon during their International Monetary Fund put it: a decades of denial, they seek to deflect lifetimes, switching to less-polluting ‘financial facility’ to ‘subsidize… whales’ renewed focus on the changing climate. technologies – as equivalent to negative CO2 sequestration efforts’.1 emissions. From these they create credits The key fallacy here is assuming allowing polluters to burn carbon, but In other words: pay whale killers to climate change can be prevented by now ‘carbon neutrally’. desist, so our ocean-dwelling cousins can choosing between different forms of envi- store more carbon in their bodies. The ronmental degradation: companies can No matter that the net result is still – IMF report’s authors estimate the value continue pumping out CO2 so long as they at best – the movement of carbon from of allowing whales to return to pre-whal- pay to prevent deforestation, for example. stable long-term fossil stores, where it ing numbers, ‘capturing 1.7 billion tons of has been for millions of years, into the CO2 annually’, at around $13 per person However, returning the planet to equi- atmosphere (trees – or whales – will re- per year. librium means both stopping producing release stored carbon when they biode- GHGs from fossil sources and repair- grade, or are burnt). Other ‘ecosystem services’ from the ing ecosystems (not merely preventing marine world could bring yet more harm). Then, assuming catastrophic Putting a price on ‘ecosystem services’ benefits, it is argued. An Ocean-Based feedback loops haven’t already kicked in, is having some perverse results. Valuing Climate Solutions bill has already been we will also need to find ways of tackling forests in this way is fuelling the dispos- introduced to the US Congress. Using ele- the carbon hangover – pulling excess session of indigenous peoples who have phants to sequester carbon has also been GHGs out of the air. protected them for generations, and proposed.2 Meanwhile Big Oil continues often exacerbating deforestation. For to ramp up production. Paying to pollute example, Kenya’s Mau Forest has seen forced evictions of the Oviek people, Netting zeroes 00 Trick 2: Sell false solutions while in Chiapas, Mexico, children and elderly people died when medical ser- Trick 1: Distract, delay, obfuscate A rational response would require separate vices were cut off as part of a nature- targets for all three – reducing emissions, based solutions ‘land grab’.3 Where do whales and elephants fit into fixing natural carbon sinks and carbon climate inaction? Let’s back up a bit. removal – each pushing at the bounds of Hot air what is possible, recognizing the scale of How bad the climate crisis gets is the impacts climate change will have. Trick 3: Greenwash gas largely dependent on how much fossil carbon is spewed into the atmosphere. A capitalist response involves trading Far-off net zero targets are creating space them off against each other – and using for other false solutions, such as Big Oil’s But policymaking has focused on it as an opportunity to speculate, as big spinning of fossil gas as a ‘transition’ setting targets for a generation away – polluters are doing with carbon trading fuel – Diet Coal. The gas in question is for 2050 or beyond. Fossil fuels didn’t schemes. These schemes require com- almost entirely methane, a greenhouse even get an official mention in the first 26 panies to hold carbon credits to cover all gas almost 90 times more powerful years of UN climate summits. So, it’s no emissions – if they want to pollute more than CO2 over a 20-year timescale.4 The surprise that rather than ‘fossil freedom’ than their initial allocation, they must today’s buzzword is ‘net zero’ - the idea of buy credits from other companies. balancing of the amount of greenhouse 28 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Big Oil industry wants you to believe it is a clean caught creating fake grassroots organi- culpability by painting climate change as fuel because, hey, it’s ‘natural gas’. zations (‘astroturfing’) for Big Oil. Now an issue of personal responsibility. billions of EU Covid-19 recovery funding While some analyses have declared will be spent on the gas. Just as packaging manufacturers gas to be better for the environment created large-scale anti-littering cam- than coal, recent research suggests that What Big Oil doesn’t want you to paigns to reframe a problem they had leakages of methane during production, know is that, in most cases, using hydro- quite literally created, BP invented the transportation and usage may be much gen is horrendously inefficient compared idea of the carbon footprint in 2004, higher than thought, making any climate to using electricity directly, particularly shamelessly hosting a calculator on its benefit negligible at best.5 The climate for heating. website so individuals could work out impact of unconventional extraction like how their daily lives contributed to global fracking is even worse. Gas also contrib- Carbon capture or warming.13 ‘It’s time to go on a low-carbon utes to air pollution, harming human corporate capture? diet’, the company shouted on its web- health – causing more deaths than coal in pages in 2016. at least 19 US states.6 Trick 5: Divert subsidies from renewables to unproven technologies Framing the tackling of climate change The industry has yet to explain how as a problem of individual consumption spending money on gas can help us tran- The promise of carbon capture and allows Big Oil to carry on dealing its dirty sition towards the renewable future we storage (CCS) is good at making money: goods. If it encourages incapacitating guilt need – creating yet more fossil fuel infra- in the last decade over $7 billion was among those who do want to solve the structure doesn’t act as a ‘bridge’ but locks lavished on it in the US, while Shell and problem, or sells a few carbon offsets along in pollution. ExxonMobil last year bagged $2.4 billion the way, so much the better. in subsidies for a project in Rotterdam.9 Industry lobbying has convinced the It’s also an excellent distraction from the If all else fails… European Union to – bizarrely – label gas need to phase out fossil energy. as green, while at least 16 US states have Special abilities: Deny, bribe, intimidate proposed legislation to prevent local gov- A minor snag is that it shows little evi- ernments banning new gas connections.7 dence of actually working. The Interna- While polluters have found ever more elab- tional Energy Agency lists only two power orate ways of extending the life of oil and Hyping hydrogen H stations in the world with carbon capture gas, they haven’t abandoned their oldest and storage, as well as a handful of projects tricks. Denial, which has served them well Trick 4: Peddle futuristic-sounding at refineries or other industrial plants.10 for over four decades since the first major fictions One, the Canadian Boundary Dam power climate warnings, is alive and well. station, aimed to capture 18 per cent of Already making plans for when the world its emissions but required 25 per cent of Companies also continue to cultivate sees through the fossil gas con, the fossil the plant’s capacity to power the carbon their political links. From the revolving fuel industry has ramped up efforts to capture. The $1 billion Petra Nova project door which saw oil executive Rex Tiller- justify gas infrastructure by pushing at a coal and gas power station in Texas son, former ExxonMobil chief, become hydrogen. was suspended in 2020 after reducing life- US Secretary of State under President cycle emissions by only 4.5 per cent.11 Trump, to naked bribery. Like the $61 Some ‘green’ hydrogen, produced million allegedly funnelled by a utility using renewable electricity, is likely to Meanwhile one of the largest attempts through an organization controlled by play a limited role in a fossil-free future, to capture carbon during hydrogen pro- the Speaker of Ohio’s House of Repre- for instance for some industrial purposes duction, by Shell in Alberta, Canada, sentatives and his associates, in return for and shipping. But the industry is using emitted more greenhouse gases than it the slashing of clean energy laws.14 this as a trojan horse to skim off public captured.12 Yet Big Oil wants billions of money to create demand for the conven- dollars of public money to be thrown at And then there’s good old-fashioned tional way of producing hydrogen – from CCS, rather than in expanding cheap, intimidation of those who oppose them. fossil fuels – and justifying carrying on tried and tested renewable energy. The Dakota Access pipeline’s company building fossil gas networks. boss called for two women who had sabo- Following the footprints taged it ‘to be removed from the gene A 2020 report found the hydro- pool’ – later charges were laid against gen lobby, particularly gas companies, Trick 6: Individualize, demobilize them which could have carried a sentence declared $64 million of annual expendi- of over 100 years in prison.15 ture on attempts to influence EU policy- For a while now Big Oil has deployed making, with PR firm FTI Consulting a technique previously perfected by Their game is devious. Ours is clearer. setting up groups including Hydrogen industries like tobacco – deflect its own Learn, educate, organize. O Europe.8 The firm has previously been 1 Ralph Chami et al, ‘Nature’s solution to climate change’, Finance and Development, Vol 56, No 4, December 2019, nin.tl/35VtueE 2 Ralph Chami et al, ‘The secret work of elephants’, Finance and Development, September 2020, nin.tl/3CJuwGt 3 Global Alliance Against REDD, ‘A dozen of the worst REDD-type projects…’, April 2015, nin.tl/364nSOX 4 Eric D Lebel et al, ‘Methane and NOX Emissions…’, Environmental Science and Technology, Vol 56, No 4, 27 January 2022, https://nin.tl/36o1UpU 5 Alejandra Borunda, ‘Natural gas is a much “dirtier” energy source than we thought’, National Geographic, 19 February 2020, nin.tl/3IgRUw6 6 Jonathan Buonocore et al, ‘Negative impacts of burning natural gas and biomass have surpassed coal generation in many states’, Environmental Research Letters, 5 May 2021, nin.tl/36jZbOq 7 Emily Holden et al, ‘A Texas city had a bold new climate plan…’, The Guardian, 1 March 2021, nin.tl/34QdMAQ 8 Corporate Europe Observatory, ‘The hydrogen hype…’, 7 December 2020, nin.tl/3MVmbnA 9 Leah Douglas, ‘Factbox: Biden administration sees carbon capture as key tool in climate fight’, Reuters, 7 February 2022, nin.tl/36of5aH 10 International Energy Agency, ‘About CCUS’, April 2021, nin.tl/37p088z 11 Simon Holmes à Court, ‘Could Petra Nova, the leading CCS power station, provide a model for Australia?’, CleanTechnica, 12 June 2017, nin.tl/3CLB8E4 12 Global Witness, ‘Hydrogen’s hidden emissions’, 20 January 2022, nin.tl/3COn4tt 13 Mark Kaufman, ‘The carbon footprint sham’, Mashable, 2021, nin.tl/37uUCkN 14 Leah C Stokes, ‘An FBI investigation shows Ohio’s abysmal energy law…’, Vox, 23 July 2020, nin.tl/3JlbVmr 15 Alleen Brown, ‘Dakota Access pipeline activists face 110 years in prison, two years after confessing sabotage’, The Intercept, 4 October 2019, nin.tl/3iv07T7 MAY-JUNE 2022 29
THE BIG STORY THE FRACKED EARTH The Mapuche people in Argentina are saying no to an influx of transnationals trying to frack their lands. Meanwhile the government offers sweetheart deals. Grace Livingstone reports. I n the early hours of one Monday Cow’), close to the town of Añelo, which semi-arid shrublands of northern this February, 50 Mapuche women, has become the epicentre of the frack- Patagonia were already dotted with gas men and children of the Fvta Xayem ing boom. Several other operators have wells. But there has been a rapid inten- community assembled – some on fracking concessions nearby, with mul- sification in the last six years: more than horseback, others on foot – to blockade tinational companies including Shell, 2,451 wells have been drilled. Related the entrances to a fracking site in Vaca ExxonMobil and BP subsidiary Pan infrastructure for the ‘megaproject’ has Muerta, western Argentina. American Energy all active. also expanded, including pipelines and highways – as well as waste dumps, sand Standing in the dust by the barbed- Vaca Muerta is home to 34 Mapuche mines and oil landfills.1 wire gates of the Loma Campana fracking communities; it also holds the world’s installations, they held aloft the red, green second-largest shale gas reserves. Com- Fracking uses enormous quantities of and blue flag of the indigenous Mapuche munity members say fracking is devas- water: 90 million litres of water, along people, and vowed to stop the operations tating their land, contaminating water with chemicals and sand, is injected into oil and gas company YPF carries out on supplies, killing livestock and causing each well to release the shale gas and oil their land without consultation. earthquakes. trapped within the layers of rock under- ground. ‘Our animals are suffering tre- Loma Campana, run jointly by the Industrializing the land mendously,’ Jorge Nawel of the Neuquén Argentine state-owned YPF and the Mapuche Federation told me. ‘There is US multinational Chevron, is the flag- Fracking began in Vaca Muerta in 2013, a scarcity of vegetation to eat, the land ship fracking site in Vaca Muerta (‘Dead and when I first visited in 2016, these 30 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Big Oil is drying out because the industry has freshwater sources have also been contam- ‘There are tremors taken all the water.’ inated. ‘Twenty of my animals died. Some day and night of my neighbours lost everything. We used About a quarter of the injected water to get crystal clear water here, but now we when the fracking returns to the surface, contaminated have to buy it in plastic tubs. The situation work is going on. with heavy metals such as mercury, is desperate, but no one is listening.’ The houses shake, chromium, lead, cadmium and arsenic. the land moves, This wastewater is stored in old fracking Sweeteners for the companies wells or dumped into lakes, says Nawel. the children ‘The animals drink this contaminated Indeed in 2021, the Argentine government start crying’ water. We find them dead in the lagoons. announced new subsidies – totalling $1bn It is also causing genetic malformations: a year for four years – for oil companies This follows years of direct action we’ve had animals born with deformities operating in the Vaca Muerta gas field. by indigenous communities in Vaca such as an extra hoof.’ Meanwhile in 2019, the Overseas Private Muerta, which has included climbing oil Investment Corporation, a US agency, towers, chaining themselves to machin- ‘It is difficult to quantify the impact approved $450m in financing for frack- ery and forming human chains around of this massive territorial advance of the ing here.2 Citi, Credit Suisse and Morgan fracking wells. industry – the introduction of machinery Stanley have also bankrolled projects and drilling equipment, the use of water, in Vaca Muerta, while BlackRock, BNP Jorge Nawel says this new agreement the construction of roads and pipelines – Paribas and Goldman Sachs hold shares is an important step forward, but laments on this fragile, semi-desert terrain with in YPF.3 that the landscape is already ‘scarred’ delicate flora and fauna,’ says Fernando with a network of roads and paths, and Cabrera of the Observatorio Petrolero Sur Heavily indebted, the Argentinian that native species have disappeared. ‘We (Southern Oil Observatory), an Argentin- government has promoted fracking, used to see rheas running across the land ian NGO. ‘It is vital that studies are carried claiming producing gas domestically will – not any more. Patagonian hares, capi- out and the results made public.’ reduce the need to spend on imports. But baras, maras: they have gone. environmentalists say enormous incen- Legal actions launched by affected tives worth billions of dollars, such as tax ‘For us fracking is a symbol of death communities provide some evidence breaks and guaranteed prices, have been – we will continue our struggle for life. of the impacts. Residents of the town provided to the fossil fuel industry. Both Fracking is turning our territories into of Allen, in the province of Rio Negro the state and domestic consumers have cemeteries.’ O in the southeast of the formation, have footed the bill.1 lodged a complaint saying that people GRACE LIVINGSTONE IS A JOURNALIST AND AN living near one drilling site have suffered ‘For countries in the Global South, AFFILIATED LECTURER AT THE CENTRE OF LATIN asthma, stomach pains, vomiting and it is expensive to make the transition to AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. convulsions. renewables,’ says Santiago Cané, a lawyer HER BOOKS INCLUDE AMERICA’S BACKYARD: THE for FARN. ‘Big multinationals should be UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA FROM THE Meanwhile two communities in helping to fund the transition to clean MONROE DOCTRINE TO THE WAR ON TERROR AND Neuquén province, in the northwest of energy, not taking subsidies to invest in BRITAIN AND THE DICTATORSHIPS OF ARGENTINA Vaca Muerta, have complained of constant fossil fuels.’ AND CHILE. @GRACELIV GRACE-LIVINGSTONE.COM earth tremors in a lawsuit launched by environmental NGO Fundación Ambiente Vaca Muerta holds recoverable reserves 1 Observatorio Petrolero Sur and Taller Ecologista, Recursos Naturales (Foundation for Envi- equivalent to 16.2 billion barrels of oil and ‘Vaca Muerta Megaproject: A fracking carbon bomb ronment and Natural Resources, FARN). 308 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to in Patagonia’, February 2018,. nin.tl/Vaca 2 Ministry Eduardo Romero, the lonko (chief) of the US Energy Information Agency estimates. of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship Wirkaleo Mapuche community told me: If fully exploited, they would create 23.9 Argentina, ‘OPIC to fund investment projects in ‘There are tremors day and night when billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions Argentine energy sector’, 12, September 2019, the fracking work is going on. The houses – more than two-thirds of the world’s nin.tl/OPIC 3 BankTrack, ‘Vaca Muerta shale shake, the land moves, the children start current total annual CO2 emissions. bBasin’, BankTrack, JJanuary. 2021, nin.tl/VMSB; crying, the animals start bleating and Gastivists, ‘Fossil gas supply chains’, nin.tl/fossil-gas; running about. It is causing great anxiety, But oil companies have responded to CNN Business factsheet on YPF SA, nin.tl/YPF we never felt anything like this before.’ the climate emergency and increasing 4 Charles Newbury, ‘Argentina oil producers…’ pressure for an end date for fossil fuels S&P Global, 16 July 2021, nin.tl/SPGlobal Andres Durán, a fruit farmer who also by suggesting that Vaca Muerta should raises goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys and be exploited at an even faster rate. ‘We’re geese, had to abandon his home in Sauzal racing against time,’ Danny Massacese of Bonito, on the banks of the river Neuquén, Pan American Energy told market intel- because earthquakes created gaping cracks ligence firm S&P Global. ‘If we don’t react in the walls and the floor. His community’s quickly… we will miss the opportunity.’4 Previous page: Indigenous spokesperson Lorena After a week of blockading the gates to Bravo, wrapped in a Mapuche flag, looks towards Loma Campana, the Mapuche protest- a gas plant at Campo Maripe, a land claimed by ers won a significant concession – the her community, in Anelo, Neuquen province. Argentine government and YPF com- mitted to calling a meeting of all locally EMILIANO LASALVIA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES affected groups to draw up an agreement on pre-consultation. MAY-JUNE 2022 31
THE BIG STORY FIGHTING THE FOSSILS Big Oil is throwing money at new fossil fuel infrastructure like there’s no tomorrow. New pipelines, refineries, wells and rigs are being built across all continents. But everywhere the industry goes, it meets resistance. Here are four profiles of groups saying enough is enough. Words: Nick Dowson PALESTINE MOZAMBIQUE – CABO DELGADO ‘Our campaign starts from the principle that the vast In 2010 the world’s ninth largest gas reserves were gas resources discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean discovered off Mozambique. But the three major during the last decade should remain underground gas projects being driven by European and US com- – fossil fuels are not the future,’ says Manal Shqair, panies at Cabo Delgado, in the country’s north, are climate activist and the International Advocacy Officer bringing devastation in their wake. of the Stop the Wall campaign based in Palestine. As well as directly displacing hundreds of fami- Palestinian activists in the nonviolent Boycott, lies, the projects have helped fuel an Islamic State- Divestment and Sanctions campaign are challenging linked insurgency in the region, which has left 4,000 Israel’s use of the occupation and blockade of Gaza dead and forced over 800,000 people to move.3 to drill offshore and export gas. They point out that Israel is withholding money due to Palestine for gas JA! Justica Ambiental (Now! Environmental transported across and extracted from its waters. Justice / Friends of the Earth Mozambique) has been working with affected communities in the region The Mari-B gas platform is 13 nautical miles from and disseminating information to help campaign- the Gaza Strip and the EMG gas pipeline from Israel ers in other parts of the world. ‘Pretty much all of to Egypt also passes at that distance in areas claimed the companies involved are international,’ says by the Palestinian Authority. In 2018 Israel opened a Ilham Rawoot, co-ordinator of the group’s Say No tender for 26 oil and gas exploration permits in the to Gas! campaign. ‘This means most of the lobbying Mediterranean, including four in disputed zones.1 happens in those countries.’ The protection of gas interests has driven the naval blockade of Gaza, say activists, preventing Palestinian The projects – by Total, ExxonMobil and Eni – use of the waters beyond six nautical miles offshore. could together create the equivalent of 49 years of Mozambican emissions.4 The gas find has also con- Activists are targeting the involvement of Global tributed to wider damage to the country’s economy, North companies in oil and gas in disputed zones of including the Credit Suisse secret loans and kick- the Mediterranean, as well the EU-funded EuroAsia backs scandal, the aftermath of which led to lenders [electricity] Interconnector. ‘The European Union pulling out. This triggered an economic crisis which claims to oppose illegal Israeli settlements,’ say caused $11 billion of harm and pushed two million Shqair. ‘However, it is building the longest subma- Mozambicans into poverty.5 rine electricity cable in the world, connecting Isra- el’s colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank JA! is also working with Friends of the Earth with Europe’s electric grid via Cyprus and Greece.’ Netherlands on a parliamentary review of funding Activists argue it will be used to export gas-powered from Dutch state financier Atradius. In the UK it has electricity – Israel’s largest power station is currently worked with campaigning groups to apply for a judi- being converted to gas from coal.2 cial review of UK Export Finance’s $1 billion support. And it keeps confronting the companies involved by For campaigners, climate justice and fighting the attending their AGMs. ‘It means they can’t say they occupation are intrinsically linked. ‘We are facing didn’t know,’ says Rawoot. an environmental catastrophe worldwide but we ja4change.org are affected by it disproportionately and differently. Climate injustice threatens what sustains life for Pales- tinians – land and natural resources, particularly water,’ says Shqair, adding that Israel controls most water in the West Bank and prevents its transfer to the Gaza strip. stopthewall.org bdsmovement.net 32 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Big Oil ‘It is our responsibility as humans to act on climate change and we owe this to future generations’ ESTHER RUTH MBABAZI INDIA – RATNAGIRI REFINERY FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE UGANDA A proposed $44 billion dollar refinery in India – which could have been the world’s largest – was Today Fridays for Future Uganda has a network of cancelled in 2019 after concerted protests from 53,000 young people mobilizing for climate action. But villagers and farmers. when Hilda Flavia Nakabuye (above), now 24, started it as a student in 2019 very few people were interested. The Ratnagiri refinery at Nanar, a village 400 kilometres south of Mumbai in the state of Maha- ‘I got involved when I saw Greta [Thunberg] rashtra, would have had a capacity of 1.2 million posting about her climate strike outside the Swedish barrels of oil per day, using crude imported from Parliament. Few people [here] knew about climate Saudi Arabia. A plastic manufacturing plant would change. I saw the droughts, floods, strong winds, have operated alongside. changes in seasons that were becoming very unpre- dictable… Crops were withering and it was becoming But the project, a proposed partnership of harder to get water. I decided to act to raise awareness.’ state-run Indian oil companies with Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, was expected to displace 22,000 With the slogan ‘people above profit’, they are farmers and 5,000 fishers, and destroy 1.4 million currently focused on stopping the building of Total mango trees, 600,000 cashew trees and 200 hec- and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s tares of paddy fields. East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline. ‘They’re planning a 1,445 kilometre pipeline from Hoima, near Lake After it was announced in 2017, over 2,000 Alberta in Uganda to the port of Tanga, Tanzania,’ farmers marched in protest to Mumbai’s Azad said Nakabuye, who lives in Kampala, the capital. Maidan square. In Nanar farmers spent days Electrically heating the entire length to 50°C to keep patrolling the roads, obstructing government sur- oil flowing will add to emissions. veying using sheets of cloth and black umbrellas. ‘Taking away existing livelihood in the name of ‘For the last four years people have been moved employment generation and development is the off the land for the project – 178 villages in Uganda worst kind of human rights violation,’ one pro- and 231 in Tanzania, that’s 14,000 households moved, tester, Suryalata Kamble, told independent-media their incomes and livelihoods destroyed. outlet The Wire.6 ‘We are using digital spaces, approaching banks Protests and obstruction continued in Nanar, and other investors and working with other organi- Mumbai and elsewhere. After 14 gram panchayats zations globally to create awareness about this – and (village councils) around Nanar passed resolutions with campaigners in other countries, especially against the project, regional party Shiv Shena came France where Total comes from. It is our responsibil- out against it. It was formally scrapped in early ity as humans to act on climate change and we owe 2019 and land acquisition stopped.7 O this to future generations.’ stopeacop.net 1 Al-Haq, ‘Al-Haq warns third states…’, 17 November 2018, nin.tl/alhaq 2 General Electric, ‘Israel Electric Corporation awards contract…’, 16 April 2019, nin.tl/34GmgKF 3 Sophie Neiman, ‘Explosive mix’, New Internationalist, November-December 2020, nin.tl/3CHu8Z9 ; Kate Bartlett, ‘Mozambique’s displaced recount brutality of Cabo Delgado insurgents’, Voice of America, 4 March 2022, nin.tl/3q2awK4 4 Gastivists, ‘Fossil gas supply chains’, nin.tl/3IzXqee 5 Edson Cortez et al, ‘Costs and consequences of the hidden debt scandal of Mozambique’, Centro de Integridade Pública and Chr. Michelsen Institute, May 2021, https://nin.tl/34GqPEN 6 Sukanya Shantha and Ruchira Petkar, ‘Thousands in Maharashtra…’, The Wire, 6 June 2018, nin.tl/35Wnz8P 7 Arpita Lulla, ‘Ratnagiri Oil Refinery in Nanar, Maharashtra, India’, Environmental Justice Atlas, 18 August 2019, nin.tl/3pZgdYX MAY-JUNE 2022 33
Big Oil A GLOBAL JUST TRANSITION How can we phase out W hen it comes to climate change, pre- plants supplying furniture plants, and so fossil fuels in a way dicting how things will play out is that works for people tricky: how fast is the permafrost on. A lot of profit thus remains domestic, everywhere? The melting, how quickly will glaciers slide historic Cochabamba into the sea, and can cities armour them- and wages are earned and can be spent at People’s Agreement selves against floods? offers a way forward, home, spurring economic activity. argues Max Ajl. One fact however is simple: if we burn all the coal, oil, and gas currently owned Purge oil and gas? The big frackers Opposite page top: Banners wave at the opening by nations and corporations the world ceremony of the People’s World Conference on over, human life could end. We need to and oil multinationals are unhappy. But Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth stop as soon as possible. near Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2010. The overall, exchange and production can People’s Agreement signed at the conference That’s where the simplicity stops and called for the Global North to repay a ‘climate the complexity begins. We is a complex carry on provided there is alternative debt’ to the Majority World. term. We as human beings have a lot in common, including living on a shared energy architecture in place. Northern AIZAR RALDES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES planet. But some of the ‘we’ need the money from selling oil and gas to buy economic activity, accumulation, and Opposite page bottom: Flares in front of an oil food and other consumer items, while refinery and storage tanks in Southern Iran. others do not and will be more or less middle-class life could continue. OK without. NIK WHEELER/ALAMY It would be different in the Global How the West underdeveloped the rest South. The history of global colonialism and capi- In Angola, Nigeria, Venezuela, Bolivia, talism explains why. Although historically and to date Europe and North America are Iraq and Iran, if oil and gas production important hydrocarbon producers, most oil especially is held in the Global South suddenly stopped, the consequences – the lands that suffered colonialism and Western imperialism. would be catastrophic for overall eco- Due to the historical partnership nomic activity. In Angola, oil represents between oil extraction and imperialism, the Global North has concentrated most 25 per cent of GDP; the Republic of of the wealth arising from fossil fuel pro- duction. Countries like Canada, the UK Congo, 43 per cent; Iran and Iraq, 20 and and the United States are now ‘developed’. They have used domestic economic plan- 39 per cent respectively. In Timor-Leste, ning to build industrial capacity, produce most of their required cereals, milk, meat gas accounts for 29 per cent of GDP.1 and food oils, and become centres for sci- entific research and development. This is not due to Southern incompe- Their economies became diversified tence. Those countries that have consid- – producing a range of things – and dif- ferent sectors became interlinked: tool ered nationalizing resources or radical agrarian reforms have faced murderous imperialist coups d’état. From the 1953 coup against Iranian nationalist Moham- mad Mosaddegh, to the little-known US- backed coup in Iraq, on to destabilization in Venezuela and Bolivia, it is extremely hard to achieve real sovereignty over natural resources and use mineral wealth to break dependence on commodity export, let alone build up the full range of domestic industries and research and development capacities. Furthermore, underdevelopment and dependency produce underdevel- opment and dependency in a vicious cycle. Even Southern countries that have industrialized remain mostly poor. As a result, they continue to send wealth and cheap natural resources to the North, MAY-JUNE 2022 35
THE BIG STORY What we call led to the historic Cochabamba People’s the adoption of more radical domestic ‘development’ Agreement. Based on Northern coloniza- transformations. is the fruit tion of atmospheric space, the agreement of Northern called upon the industrialized capitalist Third, the South would need to change plundering of countries to repay a ‘climate debt’ to the its own neo-colonial development paths, the South Third World.3 to pursue new more self-reliant and eco- socialist policies, based on the interests relying on it for technology and needed That would include returning atmos- of the poor and marginalized: peasants, goods, including cereals.2 pheric space occupied by unjust amounts women, indigenous, racially or ethni- of greenhouse gas emissions, debts cally oppressed sectors, slum-dwellers, Amid talk of ending fossil fuel use, we related to loss of development opportu- all woven into national development cannot simply ignore that history. What nities and to climate change’s impacts. projects. we call ‘development’ – including flexible and advanced industry capable of swiftly To enable transition they urged shat- Agrarian reform and appropriate tech- switching to renewables – is the fruit of tering a pillar of capitalism, intellectual nology will be central. And fiscal trans- the North’s plundering of the South. property rights: ‘Patents... should move fers will be critical for acquiring needed from the hands of private monopolies to technology, especially for renewable Repaying climate debts the public domain in order to promote energy. Self-determination also requires accessibility and low costs.’ And within active defence of those countries when Ending fossil fuels cannot simply an eco-socialist framework that would their people push though such policies. ignore the distinction between oil and depart from ‘the path of capitalism, dep- gas production in the North and South. redation, and death’.3 A movement of movements Transition must be anti-colonial, anti- imperialist, and anti-capitalist. The Bolivian government further A new convergence of progressive Global demanded that rich countries pay 6 per South states and massive social move- This notion has been partially crystal- cent of their Gross National Product per ments across the North and South is lized in international climate meetings: year to poor countries: 3 per cent for needed to force this onto the world the idea of ‘common and differentiated adaptation, 1 per cent for mitigation, 1 agenda.5 responsibility’. Common: every state has per cent for technology development and to do something. Differentiated: each transfer and 1 per cent for capacity build- We can build on the leadership shown state does not have the same amount of ing: around $1.2 trillion annually from by countries like Bolivia with its radical responsibility, nor obligations. the US, or $3.2 trillion from the Global climate discourse. Worldwide struggles North as a whole.4 for ecological transitions in farming like Southern states have emitted far less La Via Campesina can also form part of carbon dioxide per person and overall Capitalism could no longer endure this potential movement-of-movements. than Western capitalist states. In fact, alongside such tremendous North-South In the North it will mean the conversion Western countries have burnt so much resource transfers, because it requires to peacetime economies working towards oil, gas and coal in their build-up of domestic and worldwide polarization of a framework of a worldwide eco-socialist industrially intensive ‘development’ incomes and wealth. just transition. paths and militaries, they have exhausted the South’s fair share. Now the South Defending self-determination The prime obstacle is imperialism cannot use those readily accessible and and building this platform will require cheaper energy sources if global warming Because such a shift of the world system us to make anti-imperialism a key part is to be held below 1.5° Celsius. in the direction of global eco-socialism of people’s day-to-day politics in the requires strong advocacy from radical North. Rising to that challenge is the Conflict over responsibility has been a states, it would need a far stronger com- order of the day. O battleground between radical states like mitment to Southern self-determination. Venezuela and Bolivia and imperial power. MAX AJL IS A POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW AT In 2010, in reaction to Northern attempts The starting point needs to be active WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY AND A RESEARCHER to bin ‘common and differentiated respon- defence of the rights of Global South AT THE TUNISIAN OBSERVATORY FOR FOOD sibility’, Bolivia hosted a meeting which nations to determine their social, eco- SOVEREIGNTY AND THE ENVIRONMENT. HE IS A LONG nomic, and ecological policies. For TIME ANTI-WAR AND ANTI-ZIONIST ACTIVIST. HIS people in the North, that means anti- RECENT BOOK IS A PEOPLE’S GREEN NEW DEAL (2021). imperialism: opposition to sanctions (Iran and Zimbabwe), military assault by 1 World Bank figures: data.worldbank.org/indicator proxy (Yemen), direct assault (Iraq), coup 2 Harriet Friedmann, ‘The Origins of Third World d’état (Bolivia, 2019) and blockade (Cuba); Food Dependence’, in H Bernstein et al, eds, The ending coercive lending terms (IMF and Food Question: profits versus people?, Routledge, World Bank); and working against impe- 1990. 3 ‘Final declaration of the World People’s rialist propaganda. Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth’, 22 April 2010, nin.tl/WPC Secondly, it means dismantling the 4 ‘Submission by the Plurinational State of Bolivia Pentagon system, or Euro-US militaries, to the Ad-Hoc Working Group On Long-Term including military-mercenary outsourc- Cooperative Action’, UNFCCC, nin.tl/submission ing. These are major sources of emis- 5 Paris Yeros, ‘Elements of a New Bandung: Towards sions (see the Long Read, page 64). And an International Solidarity Front’, The Agrarian South they are the North’s tools to deny South- Network, 2021, nin.tl/Yeros ern sovereignty and scare countries off 36 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
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COUNTRY PROFILE A long the Polish-Belarusian border quarter, and 800,000 Jews – 90 per cent of pro-Western forces, and independence grows Europe’s largest prime- the total Jewish population – were killed. was followed by factory closures, falling val forest: the Belovezh Pushcha, standards of living and hyperinflation. In reputedly haunted by a six-armed spirit. After the war, Belarus again became the 1994 presidential elections, both sides Many armies have perished in its swamps, a key industrial centre of the USSR, of the new regime and resurgent nation- and it was at a summit here in 1991 the with tractors and motorcycles its most alists were defeated by former state-farm USSR passed into history. recognizable exports. Of all the Soviet director Alexander Lukashenko. He republics, Belarus suffered most from promised alignment with Russia, social For centuries, the people of Belarus the nuclear fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl stability and a fight against corruption. were neglected and oppressed by ruling disaster. Attempts to conceal the disaster’s feudal dynasties of Lithuania, Poland and Under Lukashenko, Belarus returned Russia. Exiting World War One, the Bol- BELARUS to its former Soviet iconography. While sheviks handed Belarus to the Germans, strengthening his own power, Lukashenko sparking an early nationalist movement. impact radicalized part of the Belaru- gained popular support by implementing sian intelligentsia, leading to a flourish- price controls and halting privatization. After Germany’s defeat, ‘Byelorus- ing of opposition: including anti-Soviet By the late 1990s Lukashenko was already sia’ became a co-founder of the USSR. nationalism. being called ‘Europe’s last dictator’, but his Even nationalists acknowledged the early record for economic stability had won him success of the Soviet system in the new After the demise of the USSR, power popularity in both Belarus and Russia. republic. But later they allied themselves was contested between post-Soviet and Nonetheless, Belarus became more inte- with Hitler’s Germany, hoping to achieve grated into the global market and suffered independence. Under Nazi occupation in the world financial crisis of 2008. (1941-44) Belarus’s population fell by a LATVIA LITHUANIA Vitebsk RUSSIA Hrodna Minsk Mahilyow POLAND Soligorsk Homyel Brest UKRAINE 0 300 Miles 0 500 Kilometres 38 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
In the 2010s, the government imple- Thousands were imprisoned during STAR RATINGS mented two devaluations of the national the initial crackdown. By Lukashenko’s currency. Incomes fell while privatization own admission, labour unrest in key INCOME DISTRIBUTION +++,, and liberalization resumed. Lukashenko’s state-owned industries played a role Income inequality is among the lowest state capitalism was becoming less social in getting the authorities to abandon in Europe, with the top 10% receiving and more neoliberal, and his popularity some of their most brutal tactics. The income 6 times higher than the was melting. EU imposed sanctions and Lukashenko incomes of the bottom 10%. In Russia retaliated by inviting refugees from this figure is 15.4. But inequality has Observers have condemned most the Middle East to travel via Belarus to been growing in recent years. recent elections in Belarus, but when Poland (see Currents, NI 535), sparking Lukashenko claimed an 80 per cent win a migration crisis on Fortress Europe’s LITERACY ++++, in 2020, mass protests broke out, with an eastern frontier. Belarus has a high literacy rate of estimated 10 per cent of Belarusians taking 99.7%, thanks to a strong education part. The mainly pro-Western opposition Lukashenko, meanwhile, received system and a highly successful IT won extensive support from Belarus’s new substantial support from Moscow in cluster. Around 60% of university middle class, but much of the working quashing the demonstrations. Belarus’s students are women. But the number class remained sceptical of its support for escalating involvement in Russia’s inva- of university students has shrunk from large-scale privatization. This – along with sion of Ukraine has underlined how now, 100,000 to 59,000. fear of repression – perhaps explains why more than ever, Lukashenko is a hostage the protests did not grow even larger than of the Kremlin. O LIFE EXPECTANCY +++,, they did, in spite of widespread feeling Before the pandemic, life expectancy in that the election was a sham. ALEXEY SAKHNIN Belarus had reached 74.5 years: higher than Russia and Ukraine, but worse AT A GLANCE than most of Europe. The government obscured Covid-19 death rates, but it is LEADER: President Alexander Lukashenko gradually decreasing in Chernobyl fallout zone. likely that the epidemic has lowered life Forest fires are increasingly frequent due to expectancy. ECONOMY: GDP per capita at purchasing power climate change, but Belarus is less affected than parity (PPP) $19,148 (GDP per capita 6,222) Russia and Ukraine due to a more effective forest POSITION OF WOMEN +++,, (Russia PPP: $26,456; UK PPP: $45,170) management system. Social programs such as three years of paid maternity leave has pushed Monetary unit: Belarusian ruble (1 BYN = $ 0.39). CULTURE: Belarus was home to people of Belarus high in gender equality 130 ethnicities. Among them, the most well- rankings. Women are more educated Main exports: re-exporting Russian oil and represented are Belarusians (7.9 million or and live almost 10 years longer than petrochemicals to the EU. Tractors, farming 84.9%), Russians (706,992 or 7.5%), Poles (287, men, but were worse affected by machinery, agricultural equipment and produce 693 or 3.1%) and Ukrainians (159, 656 or 1.7%). Covid-19’s economic impact. to Russia and countries of the Eurasian Customs Union. Belarus has a negative balance of LANGUAGE: Russian (official, spoken by 80% FREEDOM +,,,, payments. of population). Belarusian (official, spoken by The backlash against the 2020 protests 23% of the population but only 10% day-to-day). continues through propaganda, POPULATION: 9.45 million, slowly shrinking A preference for Belarusian is usually linked to censorship and repressions, with 5,000 due to emigration and low birth rate. Population nationalist and/or pro-Western positions. Small prosecutions. Last country in Europe to density 45.3 per sq km. (Ukraine 76; UK 281) Polish and Ukrainian-speaking minorities. still use the death penalty. HEALTH: Under-5 mortality rate: 2.9 per 1,000 RELIGION: A rather secular state, with 48.3% SEXUAL MINORITIES ++,,, live births (Russia 5.4; UK 4.2). Maternal mortality identifying as Russian Orthodox, 7.1% Catholic Belarus, like Russia, has high levels of per 100,000 live births: 2 (Russia: 17; UK 7). 1.1 (mainly the Polish minority and some in western homophobia. There is no specific anti- million citizens live in Chernobyl contamination regions), 41.1% no religion. Prior to the Holocaust, discrimination legislation, and marriage zone. Belarus had a large Jewish population. is defined as a ‘union between a man and a woman’. But there are no ENVIRONMENT: Many forests and swamplands, other anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, and unlike with moderate continental climate. Soil Russia the government does not use contamination and population exposure is homophobia in its propaganda. Photos (clockwise from top): protesters wave the tricolour flag used by the nationalist government in 1918 POLITICS +,,,, and from 1990-95 during an August 2020 demonstration in Minsk; villagers in Logoisky region prepare The legislature is made up of firewood for winter; ore deposits from potassium mining in Soligorsk; monument to printer and educator parties and independents loyal to Francis Skaryna in Minsk. Lukashenko. Elections are regularly condemned over alleged irregularities. ANDREI BORTNIKAU/ALAMY, ZUMA/ALAMY, ALEX FILLIM/SHUTTERSTOCK, ALENA ZHAROVA/SHUTTERSTOCK A recent referendum on constitutional amendments – again branded a MAY-JUNE 2022 sham – granted more authority to the All-Belarusian National Assembly: a committee of nomenklatura which could act as a check on a future president. +++++Excellent ++++,Good +++,,Fair ++,,,Poor +,,,,Appalling 39
CARTOON HISTORY BY 40 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
NHS MAY-JUNE 2022 41
CARTOON HISTORY 42 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
NHS MAY-JUNE 2022 43
CARTOON HISTORY Darryl Cunningham is an author, cartoonist and former healthcare worker. An extract from his NEW INTERNATIONALIST book Putin’s Russia, published by Myriad Editions, appeared in NI 535. This Cartoon History is extracted from an e-book produced for Warwick University’s People’s History of the NHS project. https://peopleshistorynhs.org 44
TEMPERATURE Words — Danny Chivers CHECK Hundreds of billboards and bus stops – like this one in Brighton, England – have been hacked by activists across Europe as part of the call to #BanFossilAds and stop greenwashing. DESIGN: NOEL DOUGLAS/INSTALLATION: BRANDALISM CAN WE BANISH POLLUTERS FROM OUR BILLBOARDS? Enough and Adbusters, to the ‘subvertis- ing’ tactics of Brandalism (who take over The fossil fuel companies are lying to us. Greenpeace Nordic and the New Weather billboards with more ‘honest’ adverts’) Again. Institute (NWI) has found that, globally, or badverts.org. There are also growing adverts for cars and flights are responsi- numbers of complaints being made about A recent peer-reviewed study exam- ble for up to twice the annual emissions of polluters’ misleading marketing to the ined the climate claims of ExxonMobil, the country of Spain, thanks to the extra relevant watchdogs.5 Chevron, Shell and BP in detail – and demand they create for driving and flying.4 found that they amounted to little more But is it time to take the next step and than greenwash.1 All those adverts and Different high-carbon ads serve dif- ban major carbon emitters from advertis- announcements about moving to a low- ferent purposes. Some seek to create the ing for good? carbon future? In fact, these companies false impression that polluting corpora- have been increasing their exploration for tions are taking the climate crisis seri- A growing movement is calling for just new oil and gas. ously, which helps to deter criticism and that – and is beginning to get results. Six protest and maintain their access to the Dutch cities, including Amsterdam, have Increasingly sophisticated ads, making corridors of power. Others aim to directly passed laws to restrict or ban high-carbon carefully ambiguous claims, create the influence consumers, encouraging and ads. France has passed legislation to ban impression of a fossil fuel sector that’s normalizing high-carbon behaviour, petrol and diesel adverts and reduce the working hard to clean up its act. BP is often backed-up by some comforting impact of car advertising, which – though ‘reimagining energy’. Shell is ‘accelerat- ‘green’ claims. All are causing huge harm partial and flawed – could be a significant ing to net zero’. But in reality, both are in the middle of a climate crisis. first step towards tougher rules. A Green- pushing to open up new oil and gas fields peace-led petition to the European Com- which – according to the International This marketing may also be damaging mission to ban fossil fuel adverts across Energy Agency – is completely incom- our mental health. By suggesting we need the EU is building towards the 1 million patible with keeping global heating below to choose the right brands (or buy the right signatures it needs for consideration.6 1.5 degrees Celsius.2 offsets) to ‘do our bit’, these adverts are pushing the blame for the climate crisis There are multiple ways for people to The digital space is the latest frontier from the biggest polluters onto the public. take action, including supporting cam- for the stories they tell. In 2020, the oil At a time when so many of us are wrestling paigns to ban fossil fuel adverts in your and gas sector spent almost $10 million with feelings of climate anxiety, guilt and country, city or region.7 You can also on Facebook advertising in the US alone, despair, this is a deeply cynical tactic. report misleading examples to your which were viewed an estimated 431 advertising standards watchdog, and if million times.3 There are people who have been chal- you’re in the EU, you can sign the petition lenging these adverts for a long time to the European Commission.6 And it’s not just fossil-fuel advertis- – from anti-consumerist groups like ing that’s a problem. Research from In the words of Andrew Simms of the NWI: ‘We ended tobacco advertising to save lives, now it’s time to do the same for adverts by major climate polluters.’ O With thanks to Georgia Whitaker from Greenpeace’s #FossilFreeRevolution campaign. 1 Damian Carrington, ‘Oil firms’ climate claims…’, The Guardian, 16 February 2022, nin.tl/greenwash 2 Fiona Harvey, ‘No new oil, gas or coal development…’, The Guardian, 18 May 2021, nin.tl/2050 3 InfluenceMap, ‘Climate Change and Digital Advertising…’, August 2021, nin.tl/dig 4 Badvertising, badverts.org/reports- and-publications 5 Advertising Fossil Free, ‘Shell may not call itself “driver of the energy transition”...’, 15 February 2022, nin.tl/shell 6 banfossilfuelads.org 7 Advertising Fossil Free, ‘Worldwide initiatives to ban fossil fuel advertisements…’, verbiedfossielereclame.nl/ only-words , action-on-fossil-ads.net , adfreecities.org.uk MAY-JUNE 2022 45
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VIEW FROM about war are told. We are in a period ILLUSTRATION: KATE COPELAND of increased sensationalism and com- AFRICA modification of the news, and coverage either through purchasing advertising or is shaped by how well conflicts can be through propaganda by any other name. War and the attention packaged for our attention. Beyond social economy media, the competition for attention in This leaves us with the inhumane the news ecosystem overall is leaving approach of making war ‘sexy’ – treating it Across Sudan, thousands of people have many important stories untold or told like a video game, dehumanizing victims, been protesting a military coup that poorly, and the ongoing resistance of the valorizing strategies like transnational vig- returned soldiers to the helm of Africa’s Sudanese people is just one of them. ilantism that ultimately mean more people third largest country in October 2021. As die. Yet the unfortunate reality is that most the military summarily ousted the civil- We exist within an attention economy experiences of war are less full of fast- ian leader of government, it was clear that – our attention is a finite resource that has paced action – being unable to put food on the 2019 revolution – when a hybrid mili- to be allocated to various things. There the table, or walk safely to school or work, tary and civilian regime seized power, is always a tension between all the other or soldiers wasting their lives waiting to ending the 30-year presidency of Omar things that must get done. Most people attack or be attacked. We need to reset the al-Bashir – was incomplete. need to focus the bulk of their attention attention economy. Supporting meaning- on surviving because of the hardships they ful and accountable public interest journal- This latest wave of protests has been navigate daily. The ability to think beyond ism is one thing that can help the stories of largely peaceful but the response from this is both a marker of privilege and an places like Sudan get told properly. O the state has been violent: arbitrarily obligation for those who have more time to killing, detaining and disappearing civil- allocate to events beyond their nose. That NANJALA NYABOLA IS A POLITICAL ANALYST ians who have publicly supported the leaves us two options – either we invest in a BASED IN NAIROBI, KENYA. SHE IS THE AUTHOR OF revolution. reliable, transparent and consistent system of drip-feeding information to everyone, DIGITAL DEMOCRACY, ANALOGUE POLITICS: HOW Outside Sudan, attention towards the or we have the system that we have now THE INTERNET ERA IS TRANSFORMING KENYA (ZED protest has waned considerably. In fact, which is predicated on competition and BOOKS) AND TRAVELLING WHILE BLACK: ESSAYS Sudan joins Yemen, the Central African gaming the attention economy. INSPIRED BY A LIFE OF TRAVEL (HURST). Republic, Cameroon, Afghanistan and countless other conflicts that are disap- News is packaged as entertainment pearing from the public consciousness and focused on conflict narratives that because of our collective inability to can be neatly folded into easily digest- sustain meaningful attention on them. ible morsels. It’s about converting the attention of those who have the time Certainly, the first two decades of into advertising revenue. But gaming the the 21st century were characterized by attention economy makes us vulnerable an increase in global conflict, but there to the influence of money on journal- has also been a shift in the way stories ism. In this era of cable news and social media, we are stuck in information wars precisely because power, in all its forms, has figured out how to play our attention, MAY-JUNE 2022 47
F E AT U R E Slapped down The rich and powerful are using ruinous lawsuits to target journalists and activists who hold them to account. Tina Burrett explores the threat. D aphne Caruana Galizia was on her America’s response to growing environ- way to the bank when her car blew up. mental activism. A bomb had been planted under the driver’s seat while it was parked outside Rather than seeking justice, SLAPPs her home in Bidnija, Malta. The investi- aim to exploit libel, data protection and gative journalist was trying to gain access other laws to swamp people with costly to her accounts which had been frozen in legal battles. The purpose is not to win connection to a libel case against her by a lawsuit – few cases ever reach a verdict Malta’s Economy Minister Chris Cardona. – but to silence those speaking out in the public interest through self-censorship or But this wasn’t the only legal action financial ruin. Caruana Galizia was confronting. At the time she was killed, in October 2017, she ‘The process itself is the purpose,’ says was subject to over 40 separate Strategic Sarah Clarke of human rights organiza- Lawsuits Against Public Participation, tion Article 19. also known as ‘SLAPPs’. Reputation over information The proliferation of SLAPPs is posing an increasingly significant, but often ‘One of the great trends of the 21st century hidden, challenge to journalists around is the rise in oligarchic wealth and power the world in their role as society’s watch- and the corresponding decline in wealth dog. SLAPPs are used by the powerful and power of those investigating them,’ and wealthy in order to evade scrutiny says Observer columnist Nick Cohen. He – by intimidating journalists and activ- argues that a global increase in financial ists into withholding or withdrawing inequality explains why the use of SLAPPs information from public debate. They has exploded in the past decade. first emerged in the 1970s as corporate According to Forbes Magazine there are 2,755 billionaires in the world today ANDY K 48 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Waging ‘lawfare’ compared to just 140 in 1987.1 This three reasons why wealthy plaintiffs use their London lawyers, while cleansing their increase in extreme wealth has spurred British courts to harass journalists. First, reputations in British courts. ‘It’s a lucrative the growth of a ‘reputation management’ legal costs in the UK are particularly business,’ Radu concludes ruefully. industry that specializes in the legal high. As Guardian lawyer Gill Phillips intimidation of journalists and activists explains: ‘Libel lawyers can charge up to A global scourge on behalf of the super-rich and powerful. £600 [around $810] an hour.’ The pros- pect of huge costs alone can force jour- A 2019 survey by the Business and Human An escalation in populist and polar- nalists and their employers to remove an Rights Resource Centre found that glob- ized politics has also encouraged the use offending story. ally human rights and environmental of SLAPPs. It is easier to accuse journal- activists are the most common victims of ists of spreading ‘fake news’ or to label Second, Britain’s legal system moves these lawsuits and that mining and energy activists as ‘eco-terrorists’ in a highly very slowly, preventing journalists corporations are the most frequent peti- divided society. Politicians like Donald from investigating other stories while tioners. In 2021, the organization recorded Trump even boast of suing journalists to tied up with the courts, and accumulat- 355 SLAPPs in total. curry favour with their supporters. ing further financial and psychological damage. Radio Free Sarawak founder In India, corporations exposed for Britain has become the ‘SLAPP Clare Rewcastle Brown, who was sued causing environmental damage are the tourism’ capital of the world, with in the British courts over her investiga- foremost source of SLAPPs, while in many vexatious cases against journal- tion into the 1MDB corruption scandal in Brazil evangelical churches frequently ists and activists, based both in the UK Malaysia, faced a two-year legal battle. resort to them to silence their critics. and abroad, appearing before London’s courts. In fact, the country is the most Finally, under British defamation law, Writer Subir Ghosh laments that in frequent source of legal threats against the burden of proof falls on the defend- India corporations don’t even need to journalists – almost more than the US ant. In Kafkaesque fashion, it is not up go as far as issuing SLAPPs. ‘A few legal and EU combined, according to the to the plaintiff to prove that what the letters are enough to make journalists Foreign Policy Centre.2 journalist said is false, rather journal- withdraw information,’ he says, ‘such is ists must prove their statement is true. the climate of fear under the Modi gov- British journalist Catherine Belton Furthermore, as human rights lawyer ernment.’ The use of SLAPPs against faced multiple libel actions from four indi- Helena Kennedy explains, London is journalists reporting on the strip-mining vidual Russian oligarchs, as well as Kremlin home to many boutique law firms that of sand from India’s rivers, as well as the oil giant Rosneft, over her acclaimed 2020 specialize in helping wealthy clients to murder of reporters exposing this illegal book Putin’s People which meticulously pursue SLAPPs. practice, have led to rampant self-cen- details the Russian president’s rise to sorship says Ghosh. His own book, Sue power. In December 2021, to avoid extor- ‘This ecosystem creates a monster- the Messenger, which reveals how abuse tionate damages and costs, Belton and her machine generating a high volume of of the law is undermining free speech publisher HarperCollins were forced to threats,’ says Paul Radu, director of the and democracy in India, received four settle a case brought by former Chelsea Romania-based Organized Crime and SLAPPs. ‘Reporters won’t touch stories Football Club owner Roman Abramovich. Corruption Reporting Project. Britain’s that might get them in trouble,’ he says. ambiguous defamation laws also allow the Peter Geoghegan, an Irish journal- corrupt and the criminal from across the Under Poland’s populist government, ist who was SLAPPed over his 2020 world to launder money as payments to journalists are increasingly subject to book Democracy for Sale, argues there are SLAPPs from big players in business, politics or state television. Leading Polish The purpose is not to win a lawsuit newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza is facing - few cases ever reach a verdict - but over 50 of them. ‘The ruling party uses to silence those speaking out through taxpayers’ money to pursue journalists,’ self-censorship or financial ruin says Emilia Zakrzewska, a representa- tive from Agora, the outfit that publishes Gazeta Wyborcza. ‘There are currently 25 defamation SLAPPs under Article 212 of the criminal code that could see defend- ants jailed for up to a year.’ Polish plain- tiffs deliberately choose criminal over civil action to place maximum pressure on the free press. ‘Even if journalists win, there are usually health and emotional consequences,’ says Zakrzewska. In 2020, Slovenian investigative news outlet Necenzurirano was hit with 39 SLAPPs. Three of its journalists were tar- geted with 13 lawsuits each, all filed by Rok Snežić, a tax expert and unofficial MAY-JUNE 2022 49
F E AT U R E financial advisor to Prime Minister Janez Greenpeace, who were SLAPPed with minister made about his wife. Downing Janša – himself known for intimidating racketeering charges in the US by paper Street quickly retracted the threat of legal reporters. The lawsuits target reporting manufacturer Resolute Forest Products, action after a dozen other media outlets on Snežić’s alleged illegal loan to Janša’s are leading efforts to build an anti-SLAPP reposted the article, demonstrating that ruling SDS Party. Journalist Primoz coalition among NGOs. ‘SLAPPs work solidarity can deter SLAPP actions. Cirman says the SLAPPs against him and by dividing and isolating,’ says Green- his colleagues are only one element of the peace UK legal advisor Charlie Holt. ‘We SLAPPs are not just a problem for harassment they are facing. ‘Our accusers need a coalition to protect the protest.’ activists and journalists. By denying us are also trying to block Necenzurirano’s Those who bring SLAPPs try to divide by the ‘right to know’, they are a problem bank accounts where we might get some claiming ‘we’re only going after unpro- for us all. Malicious lawsuits against jour- donations to help with our fight,’ he says. fessional journalists’, says Holt. Accord- nalists weaken public trust in the profes- ing to ECPMF legal advisor Flutura sional media, creating fertile ground for Reasons to be hopeful Kusari, these jibes often hit the mark. disinformation. When the rich and pow- ‘In Europe there is a stigma attached to erful abuse laws designed to protect the This may well be grim reading but there being subject to a SLAPP,’ she says. ‘Jour- poor and powerless, accountability and is a fightback underway. Already parts of nalists don’t want to speak up as it may democracy suffer. Anti-SLAPP legislation the US and Canada have introduced leg- spook their sources or suggest they are is urgently needed to redress this imbal- islation allowing judges to dismiss nui- unprofessional.’ ance in a legal system which is currently sance cases which would otherwise sap far too easy to misuse. O time and money from media organiza- In 2021, Greenpeace, which had won tions, activist groups and other targeted its battle against Resolute, led 100 other TINA BURRETT IS A VISITING FELLOW AT CLARE people. The European Centre for Press NGOs in successfully lobbying the EU to HALL, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE AND ASSOCIATE and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is mapping propose an anti-SLAPP directive. Sadly, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT SOPHIA SLAPP cases across the globe and offering the UK has been slow on the uptake. In UNIVERSITY, JAPAN. SHE IS CO-EDITOR OF PRESS legal and financial support to journalists November 2021, Boris Johnson threatened FREEDOM IN CONTEMPORARY ASIA, PUBLISHED BY facing harassment lawsuits who may oth- to sue The New European magazine over ROUTLEDGE IN 2020. erwise be forced to abandon the fight. an article exposing a cruel jibe the prime 1 ‘Forbes world’s billionaires list’, forbes.com/ billionaires 2 Susan Coughtrie (editor), ‘Unsafe for Scrutiny…’, The Foreign Policy Centre, December 2020, nin.tl/unsafe Explore our Spring range ethicalshop SPECIAL OFFER Natural Rubber Save Our Bees 10% FSC Seed Trays Jute Bag OFF £14.99 - £18.99 £5.95 VARIETY Seeds for PACK Native Wild- flowers for Spring Organic Cotton Giant Plastic Free Seedball Use code: SPRING10 Produce Bags Bird Feeder Tubes by 30.06.22 Set of 3 £5.00 £26.99 £5.00 ethicalshop.org SEE MORE ONLINE 50 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
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