In my second newsletter I wrote about hope. Then, I wrote about the lack of it that I often feel. I wrote about the anxiety and fear of living in a world like this. Today, I want to share something that has given me the hope I really needed.
What's so nice about these newsletters is that I feel like you and I can have a longer conversation of sorts. Yes, I guess it's a bit one way, but it builds every time. In my first newsletter, I shared that I had just moved to Colombia after having lived in my birth country, Jamaica, for the last six months. I shared about the upcoming elections here in Colombia and how the left coalition - who were pledging to keep fossil fuels in the ground alongside other incredible policies - gave me so much hope. I feels wild that I'm writing this newsletter on my last day in Colombia, as I wait to board my flight back to the UK after many many months away and that what had seemed like a huge dream is now a reality: the left coalition won the election here. Colombia now has its first leftist government in the country's history. Francia Marquez, a climate justice and feminist activist since she was only 13 years old, is now the Vice President of Colombia. It is something that I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't truly believe was possible.
Having had pretty much every single hope in electoral politics crushed in my lifetime as I focused so keenly on the UK, I had become bitter and lacking in real hope. The possibility of real, radical change that could transform the world for the better felt impossibly far away from elections. In the UK, it still does. But, this election in Colombia reminded me of the importance of not toning down our demands. The things that we need - a livable, dignified, safe future and present for all of us - cannot be compromised. We have to continue to demand more rather than toning our demands down. We have to offer a radically better and transformed world - that's how we win.
These wins won't always come in the form of elections. Much of these battles must also be fought on the streets too. Even though Colombia's win came in the form of an election, it was only possible because of the grassroots work of millions of people who organised in their communities to resist the fascist violence they were living under. These community groups mobilised millions and managed to create a change that many would never have dreamed possible. That should be the goal of our work fighting for climate justice: to make transformations that once seemed utopian or impossible, realities.
The thing is, we are seeing those who oppose the fight for a better, more equitable world do this all the time. We are seeing them not give up on working to make seemingly impossible changes realities. We have to match their fight with our own. We have to fervently believe in the future we are fighting for and act with that belief.
Yes, the forces we are facing are powerful; the fossil fuel industry that funds most governing political parties, the lobbyists that are influencing climate policy for the worst, the coorporations and billionaires manipulating our media. But, we are all so powerful too when we come together. When we are organised and strategic, we can meet their power with our own. We can and will win if we do this. Colombia has shown us that. Now it's time for us to follow in their footsteps.
I am leaving Colombia with hope in our future very much renewed. I would encourage anyone else who can often find that UK or US politics can make them feel hopeless to zoom out a bit and see how much Latin America is rising up.
A new world truly is on her way.
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Keep a civil tongue.