As the polluter-packed Supreme Court readies its final decisions for this term, one of the last among them is West Virginia v. EPA. Like the abortion ruling, it's both the culmination of decades of careful and concerted conservative political machinations, and just the start of the damage this Court is going to do to the United States.
While there remains some hope for climate action even in a worst-case scenario, a Supreme Court that has so eagerly overturned Roe v. Wade is clearly a partisan body not even pretending to follow the law. What that means is that it's time for an intersectional organizing push for justice.
As the Chisholm Legacy Project details in a new report, there are dozens of ways that Black children are still harmed by systemic racism. What's more,
Real solutions call for radical systems change. We won’t be successful if we merely tweak or even reform a system that is doing exactly what it is designed to do, which is to enclose wealth and power in the hands of a few through extraction and exploitation. We must build new systems that center regeneration, cooperation, deep democracy, and caring for the sacred -- including our relationships with each other and with Mother Earth.
They provide a "Just Transition Framework" to guide the creation of these new systems, which will need to "deconstruct societal and systemic racism" with "anti-racism and pro-Black Liberation principles/standards/accountability measures."
Second is to "Establish a solid, unassailable system for environmental protection," followed by dismantling "the corporatocracy and advanc[ing] deep democracy," centering human rights to economic well being, land sovereignty, food, energy, water, healthcare, immigration, education and more, and finally, to "uphold healing justice/restorative justice."
The Chisholm Legacy Project also isn't the only group calling for democracy protections.The Global Center for Climate Justice also has a new report out on "Voter Suppression, Climate Justice, and the Polluter-Industrial Complex", explaining "How the Corporate Assault on American Democracy and the Climate Are Connected."
Clocking in at nearly 80 pages, the report details the history, starting with the present. Enabled by the Supreme Court's ruling in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, "the past five years have witnessed the greatest rollback of voting rights since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965." And of course, "these laws are meant to disproportionately impact people of color and young voters. Those being disenfranchised are also overwhelmingly Democratic, pro-environment, and pro-climate action voters."
Across the country, the report explains:
Republican state lawmakers are pushing what can only be described as a 'tidal wave' of restrictive voting legislation and anti-democratic state laws. These laws include: (1) the adoption of harsh voter ID requirements; (2) making voting by mail and/or early voting more difficult; (3) purging legitimate voters from the rolls; (4) limiting the number, location, and/or availability of mail ballot drop boxes in Democratic districts; (5) dramatically reducing the hours and number of polling places in low-income communities of color; and (6) making voter registration more difficult.
And the racism is part of the point:
The nastiness of these efforts is symbolized by Georgia’s criminalizing (S.B 202) the passing out of water to people waiting in long lines to vote – a situation created by the state’s intentional reductions of polling stations located in communities of color. Georgia counties with large Black populations were systematically reduced to having only one polling place, and consequently had some of the longest lines in the country.
As always, the enforcement of these voter suppression laws amplifies the racism.
The report then goes through the history of voter suppression, explaining how polluters "operate through a complex and sometimes untraceable network of foundations, trusts, institutes and advocacy groups" in order to "maintain their power structures by silencing communities who may vote against their economic interests."
Then it explores how non-fossil fuel "corporations fund organizations that advocate for voter suppression or donate to politicians that seek to curtail the right to vote," and the larger context of how "the polluter-industrial complex needs neoliberal, business-friendly politicians to remain in power. At the heart of this strategy is an effort to suppress the voting rights of Indigenous peoples, citizens residing in low-income communities of color, students, and progressive sectors of the White working class."
Finally, there are the solutions, the "various reforms" that "can be made to improve the representation of the public over corporate power" because "when we get closer to ensuring that all Americans can vote, we also get closer to action on climate change that will serve us all."