Confronting the far right means solidarity with climate refugees
~ James Horton ~
In late January, the Climate and Nature (CaN) Bill failed to pass at the House of Commons. It would have given the UK government a legally binding duty to pursue goals aimed at reducing and reversing the effects of the climate crisis. Specifically, the proposal suggested that the UK government should seek to reduce carbon emissions in line with the 2015 Paris agreement, and work to drive back the ecological damage done domestically and globally. It also suggested the formation of a temporary citizens assembly for consultation on climate crisis issues.
It was Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage who sought to use state power and a promise of democratic dialogue to combat the crisis through this legislation. However, both Labour and Reform welded together to euthanise the debate, with the latter celebrating its failure on X as an absolute and undeniable win.
So why exactly are the loathsome cretins at Reform UK so exuberant about defeating this legislation?
Part of Reform’s anti-climate stance is about social class. Legislation like the CaN Bill—or the white reformism of organisations promoting green consumerism—appeals to the upper middle class, the same people who might donate to the Wildlife Trust or vote LibDem. But it alienates the lower middle class and de-classed groups targeted by Reform UK. Although their lives will also be ruined by climate change, they respond to climate legislation as an imposition from above and feel expected to experience guilt and shame.
At the same time, the far right does stand to benefit from climate apathy and the growing opportunity to target climate refugees.
Like in France, Italy and elsewhere, the far right in Britain only pretends that it doesn’t want refugees within its country’s borders. From an anti-fascist point of view it is plain to see that they actually rely on them as an ‘other’. As the crisis worsens, they will increasingly seize on opportunities to victimise climate refugees. The imperial forces of the world are doing fascists a huge favour as their climate policies continue driving people to escape affected regions.
After a forced effort to distance himself and his clique from Tommy Robinson and the street fascists, Nigel Farage, the last of Margaret Thatcher’s menagerie, now leads a party polling evenly with Labour. Meanwhile climate activism and antifascism remain separate for all the wrong reasons. Antifascists and climate activists should work together, and in solidarity with refugees and indigenous people around the world. How we resist the far right and its victimisation of ‘others’ is bound up with our politics of planetary survival.
Image: Refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece by Julian Buijzen CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
