Vanessa Nakate Has Done US All a Favor. Let's Not Waste It.

I had posted to this blog's Facebook Page an article from the Guardian Online about a photo (above) of young climate activists at Davos.  The young woman on the far left is a Ugandan climate activist named Vanessa Nakate. "The group had given a news conference in Davos on Friday....." the Guardian reports, "....when Nakate was then cropped out of a published version by the Associated Press." 

So the image the that accompanied the original story was this one:

As a climate activist from a country and continent deeply effected by climate change as well as other negative by-products of global capitalism, Vanessa Nakate, responded to this erasure of her presence with authority. Not only does she point to her personal erasure but the erasure of an entire continent and that behind this entire incident is the inherent racist attitude of western society and its media. Her comments are powerful and moving and I'll let her speak for herself.



In my introduction to the Facebook post I wrote:
" What person would allow this? It shows how disconnected single issue people can be, I am talking about the others in the photo. Of course climate change is crucial in importance but so is racism. We can’t eliminate racism without eliminating capitalism and we can’t overthrow capitalism without working class unity and overcoming racism."

The post was shared a number of times and on a share on Earl Silbars page some discussion ensued. One person pointed out that on seeing the end result, the others in the photo were just as surprised and were supportive so it was not right of me to attack them and this is a valid point. Since Nakate's video some white activists have spoken out. Jamie Margolin another climate activist who is white told the Guardian this today, “[Nakate’s] experience made me reflect on the conferences where the picture didn’t include the dark-skinned activists next to me – and I realize now I should have spoken up,". So I don't think it is accurate to draw the conclusion that other activists were surprised that it occurred as Jamie Margolin's comments confirm.  Vanessa Nakate's actions forced them to reflect on their own silence in what is a long standing practice.

The photographer cropped the photo, "purely on composition grounds" because he thought the building was distracting according to David Ake who is the director of photography for AP. This may be the case and the photographer never gave two thoughts about the image of the person. In other words, he never consciously intended to erase the only non-white or non European person from the image. But even if this is true, why did he not notice that the only person being cut was an African? Why did his boss not see the problem with that?

This is the most important lesson in this incident because it is an even stronger example of racism as it gets to the heart of the issue in that racism is passed off as a personal matter rather than a social one. In other words, that racism originates in the individual or a particular group of individuals when it is an integral aspect of capitalism. It is embedded in class society. I commented on this aspect of it in an earlier post: Racism Does Not Begin in the Home.

Marx wrote of the capitalist class in the Communist Manifesto that. "It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image." (my added emphasis).

It is not possible for any country in Africa to arise as a a credible threat to US and European capitalism. China has a huge footprint in Africa and is a threat to the interests of US and European capitalism there. There is increasing hostility toward China among some Africans as a colonizing power. They are not white. Like it or not, the bourgeoisie has successfully created a world after its own image but it brings with it its own, demise and unless capitalism is overthrown, an end to life as we know it through climate change or nuclear war. They do not make all those nuclear weapons never to use them.

That photographer probably never thought for one minute that he'd just eliminated the one African activist and a person from an area least responsible and yet most affected by the looming environmental catastrophe brought to us by capitalism.  In that sense he's innocent; but society isn't. The victim pushed back and AP will be more careful but racism and the process of environmental destruction will continue. Like all workers, our photographer is expendable if he fails to perform to so-called free market standards. It is as natural as the sun rising that this industry and a media giant owned by US capitalism would miss such a thing, it's not a matter of whether they think about it, it's natural behavior.

I am conscious of this in a real way as many others are because of my political activity and especially my union activity in an integrated workplace. I have been schooled by working class people of color, women and others about how their history and how society has treated them. They have helped me as all workers have as class allies, to confront my own worldview. In my conscious political life I have fought, in my small way, for the interest of working class people no matter where we live or work on this planet.

These experiences have helped me with this blog as there are times when I have to place a picture in a piece I put up,  something I have written or that someone has sent me. Unlike the photographer at AP or his boss, I have learned to look closely to make sure that to the best of my ability I choose images that reflect the roles all people play in the struggle against capitalism and the violence of the market. friends have helped me with this. No one is perfect, but we always have to be on guard against the destructive ideology of the ruling class that aims to divide us. We are always in an alien environment. If our goal is to assist in building the unity of the working class and class solidarity in order to change our conditions and the future for humanity, this is essential. In writing for the capitalist media it is not. Racism, sexism, nationalism, religious sectarianism, these are very useful divide and rule tactics for the ruling class and cannot be overcome within the framework of capitalist society just like the issue of climate catastrophe itself.

In the struggle against capitalism in the workplace or any arena such as housing, we learn, if we are willing to learn, through our experiences, that we have power as workers but that power is undermined by what we see in that picture.  

Western/European capitalism is dominant and led for the most part by people with white skin tone. This is due to historical development.  Global capitalism is dominated by Europeans or people of European origin although under pressure form its large Asian competitor. Capitalism is a by its very nature also a patriarchal system no matter what, so its leading figures are white and male. Theodore Allen pointed out in The Invention of the White Race Vol. 2, "There was to be no reformation for women in the Reformation."

 “As much as this incident has hurt me personally...." Vanessa Nakate told the media today,  "....I’m glad because it has brought more attention to activists in Africa.......Maybe media will start paying attention to us not just when we’re the victims of climate tragedies.”  They will have to be on their guard for sure, but the general process of environmental destruction especially in places like Africa will continue; the system demands it.


Surely this situation can only be resolved through the advancement of class consciousness on and international scale, by the workers of the world, the vast majority of us. National consciousness, must give way to the the workers of the world seeing ourselves as a class unto ourselves. As a distinct class with our own interests. This is why Marx's simple phrase. "Workers of all Countries Unite" is such a terrifying prospect for the global capitalist class no matter what their nationality, religion or color.

It is the only way we can solve the climate crisis, poverty, famine, and all the other market driven disasters. Humanity advanced through cooperation and collective effort not individual actions as the propagandists of the market claim.  It is a myth that human nature is naturally selfish. Human society based on class exploitation has not always existed and a global community based on cooperation, collective activity and in harmony with nature is not utopian. All human beings want this. It doesn't not happen because we don't desire it, there are real material social forces that prevent it; that class of people who do no productive labor but own the material means of producing and distributing the necessities of life, who control the labor process and profit from it.

Vanessa Nakate has hopefully helped millions of young people think about why every time there's a environmental conference this 16 year old upper middle class Swedish girl is at the center of things in the media or sailing across oceans in the company of millionaires and entrepreneurs hoping to profit for investment in this Green Revolution. All these young activists are in the lions den I'm afraid.

The problem is climate change, but the bigger issue is that capitalism cannot solve the problem of climate change and cannot avert a catastrophic future for humanity. This what we all have to grasp if we are to survive as a species.