Why did we stick anti-rich posters up all over Cambridge?

The Multi-generational Leadership Course

From the 11th of November till the week’s end, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership will be running their week-long ‘multi-generational leadership program’. Costing almost £13k a head, the course promises to teach ‘wealth and business owning families‘ how to sustain… something [hint: themselves] into the future and “shape the 21st century”.

COP29

Also starting on the 11th is the 29th COP – a global meeting about the climate crisis. Despite meeting regularly for decades, COP has done little to turn around the worsening environmental and climate crises. This is because it is structurally incapable of addressing the issues that underlie these crises, namely capitalism and neo-colonialism. Indigenous, poor and decolonial voices are sidelined, while oil companies, mega-corporations and colonial powers control the proceedings. 

This year, the President of COP has been caught using the conference as an opportunity to discuss new oil and gas deals. The host country, Azerbaijan, is also throwing climate journalists in jail ahead of COP.

29th Anniversary of the killing of the Ogoni 9

On the 10th of November it was the 29th anniversary of the killing of the Ogoni 9 at the hands of the Nigerian government and the oil company Shell. You can read more about it here.

The experience of the Ogoni 9 and the resistance they were part of teaches us to be very critical about the relationship between land, power and environment. In 2023, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People were part of the People’s Health Tribunal, which looked at the harm done by Shell and Total Energy across Africa. It recommended that movements “stop endorsing ‘green capitalism’ and the continued colonial extraction for renewable energy.” 

We respond to this call by highlighting and resisting the green capitalism found in CISL’s program, which aims to sustain wealth hoarding and the exploitation that depends on.

But more generally… what’s the problem?

CISL’s program promotes a type of “bunker environmentalism” – that is, teaching those with power and wealth how to keep themselves safe through the multiple crises we are experiencing today. 

Bunker environmentalism is a part of eco-fascism – the allying of violent authoritarian politics with environmentalism. You can find out more about eco-fascism here and here

Don’t we need the rich people to change?

Yes – we need them to stop hoarding their wealth. The rich will lead us to nothing but further pain – any effective action against climate and environmental harm will be led by the communities which have been most affected by the violence of extractivism, and which are currently experiencing the most immediate effects of climate and environmental crisis. 

Aren’t Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership on the good side?

They definitely want you to think that. However, their work speaks for itself – here’s a short ‘best of’ list:

• The opening of their new building was marked by a celebratory event featuring arms companies Boeing and Rolls Royce, and oil company BP
• They’re friendly with the British Royal Family, who famously espouse ecofascist ideas like overpopulation and colonial conservation. 
• They have ties with colonial conservation models like WWF through their business partnerships.
• CISL are very cosy with Coca-Cola, famous for paramilitary violence, working on stolen Palestinian land, water theft and plastic pollution.
• Other partners include – inexplicably – oil company Total and mining company Anglo-American.

At the end of the day, what CISL hopes to sustain is the status quo; with the rich on top, safe from climate change’s worst effects, and the global majority left to suffer the consequences of the rich’s actions.