In 2019 I travelled to Sera, Portugal to attend an educator training on a beautiful regenerative farm. It was a 4 day intensive training to make us better at facilitating learning experiences for others in the sustainability and environmental movement. The second day of the course was entirely dedicated to intersectionality and how we can become more aware of the different privileges we each have. There were all sorts of exercises, many of which have still stuck with me to this day. Mostly because of the sense of guilt and shame I experienced when my awareness shifted. One exercise asked us to all stand in the middle of the room. Looking around there were pieces of paper in each corner of the room as well as in between. On a chair, a table etc. Each of the pieces of paper had a single word on it. ‘Religion’, ‘skin colour’, ‘sexuality’, ‘gender’, ‘disability’, ‘class’ and some others were among them. After we had taken them all in, the facilitator asked us a question. ‘Which of these things are you most reminded of in your day to day life?’ Meaning, ‘what are you being made aware of by the behaviour of others on a daily basis?’. We dispersed into different corners of the room. Some of us remained in the middle. Some were in between papers. The facilitator went around the room asking us what we chose and whether we could give an example. One person mentioned that people sometimes change seats when he is on the bus or that he has been asked ‘jokingly’ whether his family are all terrorists. Another woman mentioned her disability that is invisible to others that makes her feel uncomfortable in certain work scenarios. Others talked about discrimination because of their gender or derogatory comments from others in their community because of the way they lived. Some people couldn’t choose. There were just too many for them. It was one of the very first times I was very viscerally made aware of my own privilege and the fact that I didn’t have to think about many of those things. Class was among them.
The personal is, indeed, the political, and it is through the everyday actions of ordinary individuals that classism is most obviously felt.
– Karen Bell
This month we decided to dig deeper into the topic of a Just Transition and the inclusion of working-class environmentalism. Read our take aways of Karen Bell’s fantastic book below.
Help us enrich our community Notion document with useful and interesting resources around the topic of Just Transition.
This month’s take aways: Working-class environmentalism by Karen Bell
Working-class people bear the brunt of many so called ‘green policies’. The upheaval by the jaune gilets in France against a planned fuel tax to reduce emissions showed clearly how alienated the ruling class is when it comes to policy making. A lot of working class people rely on their vehicles to get to work and a lot of these cars are older and produce higher emissions. A fuel tax hits the working class the hardest.
There is a common misconception that the working-class doesn’t get involved in environmental causes. The reason being that they are busy fulfilling their basic needs. However this has been proven to be wrong. Very often, when working class people do get involved, their concerns or asks are ignored or sidelined. We also need to take into consideration the barriers present for example lacking public transport connections to meetings or expenses compensation.
The working-class is inherently more sustainable in a lot of ways. While it is true that the working classes are forced to spend more time working one or more jobs, including shifts, and have less time to shop around to look for more sustainable alternatives. They also tend to be more likely to live a lower carbon life over all as they tend to consume less and/or make more efforts to mend things as well as share communaly.
The perceived definition of environmentalism changes depending on which class we belong to. While middle class people tend to express environmentalism by advocating for nature preservation and fighting biodiversity loss, for working-class people tends to be more about making their environment more liveable and free of pollution and health hazards.
Rich countries ‘curb’ emissions by outsourcing their problems. In order to reach environmental targets, the UK and other high-income countries tend to outsource their environmental problems like waste management and recycling to lower income countries.
Recognising your own privilege and becoming aware of it can be tremendously helpful when it comes to decision making in environmentalism. The things the middle class might take for granted may not be as accessible for the working class. Being aware of this can help our efforts to make our movements and communities more barrier-free.
Check out the Guidelines for Working-Class Inclusion here. They are a handy guide and very helpful when planning any project, community event or action.
Join the next bookclub: Citizens by Jon Alexander
Join us for our 36th bookclub, where we discuss Citizens and our chosen topic ‘Us’ for letter U in the Alphabet of Climate Solutions.
About the book:
Citizens opens up a new way of understanding ourselves and shows us what we must do to survive and thrive – as individuals, as organisations, as nations, even as a species.
Jon Alexander’s consultancy, the New Citizenship Project, has helped revitalise some of Britain’s biggest organisations such as the Co-op, The Guardian and the National Trust. Here, with the New York Times bestselling writer, Ariane Conrad, he shows how human history has moved from the Subject Story of kings and empires to the current Consumer Story. Now, he argues compellingly, it is time to enter the Citizen Story.
Because when our institutions treat people as citizens rather than consumers, everything changes. Unleashing the power of everyone equips us to face the challenges of economic insecurity, climate crisis, public health threats, and polarisation.
Citizens is an upbeat handbook, full of insights, clear examples to follow, and inspiring case studies, from the slums of Kenya to the backstreets of Birmingham. It is the perfect pick-me-up for leaders, founders, elected officials – and citizens everywhere.
Join us for the discussion on the 4th of April at 7PM (GMT) – all tickets are donation based.
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Lisa & Tash ✨