Patrick Bond, Professor of Political Economy,

University of the W

itwatersrand School of G

overnance

Climate justice in the era of Trum

pism

(and capitalist crisis)

presented at the conference Activists, Artists, and Academ

ics: Building Just Clim

ate Futures Together U

niversity o

f Ca

liforn

ia-Sa

nta

Ba

rba

ra

1st President of

free South Africa 45

th President of the United States

1960s-90s, sanctions versus apartheid

time for anti-

Trump sanctions?

to be sure, Paris has fatal flaws:

•insufficient em

issions cuts (+3 degrees by 2100) •

non-binding, without enforcem

ent •

climate debt option prohibited

•carbon trading back on the agenda

•m

ain winners: U

SA & BRICS

•Jam

es Hansen: “Paris is bullshit”

•accelerated clim

ate change •

Pentagon’s ‘first-strike’ nuclear capability

and N

orth Korea and Iran conflicts •

extreme m

ilitary overkill in Syria, Yemen,

Afghanistan – including Islamaphobia

•heightened tension w

ith China •

renewed alliances w

ith authoritarian regimes

•trade w

ars and corporate investment deals

•m

acro-economic m

ismanagem

ent in an era of stagnation yet high volatility

•new

restrictions to imm

igration, refugees and developm

ent aid •

fusions of reactionary socio-cultural and political tendencies in society, plus U

S state with m

ega-corporate interests

deglobalisation

now under w

ay

roots of crisis:

long-term stagnation of

EU, U

S and Japan after Post-W

ar ‘Golden Years’

global uneven development

financial bubbles

indicators of radically-w

orsened clim

ate crisis: •

Rex Tillerson – Secretary of State

•Scott Pruitt – Director of Environm

ental Protection Agency

•Rick Perry – Secretary of Energy

•Ryan Zinke – Secretary of the Interior

$500 billion Siberian oil drill = ‘Order of Friendship’

sanctions against Trump,

and US corporations?

Trump’s cabinet

includes top officials from

Goldman

Sachs bank, ExxonM

obil oil, Koch Industries oil, Lockheed M

artin m

ilitary, Pfizer drugs, General

Dynamics m

ilitary, W

ells Fargo bank, Am

way beauty,

Hardees food and Breitbart m

edia

Billy Bush: “Your girl’s hot as s---, in the purple.” Donald Trum

p: “Whoa! W

hoa! I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her.

You know I’m

automatically attracted to beautiful —

I just start kissing them. It’s like a

magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even w

ait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do

anything.” Bush: “W

hatever you want.”

Trump: “Grab them

by the p---y. You can do anything.”

climate sanctions against

Trump &

the USA?

why South Africa sanctions w

orked •

developed in alliance of African National Congress

(led by Mandela), U

S civil rights movem

ent (M

artin Luther King) and UK left-internationalists

•how

ever, internal opposition to sanctions rose from

progressive trade unions – reversed in 1985 •

black Bantustan collaborators’ opposition to sanctions (via ‘Sullivan Principles’) w

as dismissed

•objective: d

elegitim

atio

n of apartheid – a ‘crime

against humanity’ – and m

aking South Africa a ‘rogue nation’ via corporate sham

ing •

identified strategic wedge betw

een white

(‘english-speaking’) Johannesburg capitalists and racist (‘Afrikaner’) Pretoria regim

e •

bank sanctions hit SA Achilles Heel: 1985 foreign debt crisis, w

hich broke capital-state alliance and com

pelled SA’s 9-year transition to democracy

imm

inent human rights victim

s (in the US alone):

•w

om

en

•M

uslim

s •

Latin

os

•o

ther im

mig

ran

ts •

Africa

n-A

merica

ns

•in

dig

eno

us p

eop

le •

LGB

T+ •

po

or p

eop

le •

trad

e un

ion

ists •

enviro

nm

enta

lists •

socia

l justice a

ctivists

Donald Trump

presidential inauguration,

20 January

Wom

en’s M

arch on W

ashington, 21 January

Advancement Project (N

ational) Asian Pacific Environm

ental Netw

ork Brave N

ew Film

s Center for Biological Diversity

Climate Justice Alliance

Coalition for Humane Im

migrant Rights of

Los Angeles (CHIRLA) Color O

f Change Com

mon Cause

Comm

unications Workers of Am

erica (CW

A) Daily Kos

Democracy Initiative

Demos

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Every Voice Food &

Water Action Fund

Forward Together

Free Press Friends of the Earth

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Green For All

Greenpeace, Inc Indigenous Environm

ental Netw

ork Jew

ish Voice for Peace Jobs W

ith Justice Labor N

etwork for Sustainability

MoveO

n.org N

AACP N

ARAL N

ational Domestic W

orkers Alliance N

ational LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

National N

etwork for Arab Am

erican Com

munities

Oakland Institute

Oil Change International

OneAm

erica O

ne Billion Rising O

ur Revolution People’s Action

People For the American W

ay Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Public Citizen Rainforest Action N

etwork

Restaurant Opportunities Centers (RO

C) U

nited RootsAction.org

Sierra Club The Story of Stuff Project

United W

e Dream

Working Fam

ilies Party W

orld Beyond War

V-Day 350.org

fossil fuels, climate justice

and energy: micro-struggles

Trump

ism as logical sanctions target

•w

eakening that power

requires boycott of key corporations in order to break Trum

p’s state-capital alliance and to attack the legitim

acy of profits m

ade within a neo-

fascist, climate-denialist U

SA •

a sanctions project could strengthen clim

ate activists and other Trum

p critics who

now require m

aximum

international solidarity

•even if Trum

p himself is im

peached, his power bloc w

ill remain intact

under influence of Michael Pence, Koch brothers and Dick Cheney

•W

ashington’s state-corporate power now

fuses multiple reactionary

political, socio-cultural and economic forces into a U

S neo-fascism