At Rio+20 U.N. Summit, oppressed vs. oppressor

The oppressed countries of the world — where most people live — did not create the environmental crisis. They did not fill the air with greenhouse gases or the rivers and oceans with poison. However, they bear the brunt of its impact. Now the affluent countries, which grew wealthy and industrialized at their expense, want them to bear the cost of trying to solve the crisis.

That was the theme of a talk in New York City on May 31 by Dr. Rene Orellana, who leads the team from the Plurinational Republic of Bolivia to negotiations leading up to Rio+20, the United Nations conference on sustainable development to be held in Brazil on June 20-22.

Bolivia was once a center of the great Inca civilization, which was destroyed in 1532 by Spanish conquistadores who enslaved its people. It has a majority Native population and is the poorest country in South America.

Under Evo Morales’ government, Bolivia is now a member of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, and is playing a leading role in organizing poor countries to fight for their environmental rights.

Orellana, who is a specialist in environmental issues, spoke to a multinational group of environmental, labor and solidarity activists at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, the union headquarters of United Health Care Workers East, 1199SEIU. The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle organized the event.

Rather than a joint effort to promote the well-being of all humanity and life on earth, the Rio summit is shaping into a struggle between the wealthy imperialist states of North America and Western Europe and the Group of 77 plus China, representing the exploited countries of the world. G77 — which was founded in 1964 by 77 poor and newly independent countries — now has 143 members.

‘We’re going to Rio to fight for our rights’

The imperialist countries, which owe their vast wealth and productivity to centuries of plunder in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Oceania and Eastern Europe, are demanding that the poor countries restrict their development out of “concern” for the environment.

Orellana stressed, “We cannot accept this; 70 percent of the world’s patents are in developed countries and historically they have produced 75 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Our people live in poverty, and we have a right to develop. We have important nonrenewable resources. If we are to restrict our carbon emissions, we must have transfers of technology and finance from the wealthy countries.”

The imperialist countries, Orellana explained, “want to separate the issue of the environment from poverty and the financial crisis they have created. But the crisis has three pillars: social, financial and ecological.” He pointed out that since the last Rio summit in 1992, the number of hungry people in the world has grown from 800 million to more than 1 billion and average life expectancy, 44 years, has not increased. Global unemployment has risen astronomically.

“We are going to Rio to fight for our rights,” Orellana said. “Our countries have a right to sovereignty, the right to develop, the right to lift our people out of poverty, the right to help our people live well. The U.S. and West Europe are more concerned with market deregulation and their ‘right’ to invest and control technology. We can’t agree.”

The Group of 77 plus China are fighting for the conference to recognize the rights of Indigenous people and the peasantry, as well as the rights of Mother Earth and the concept of harmony with nature. Orellana stated that some of these things had been accepted in words by the wealthy countries but will have to be fought for in practice. He said that China is playing a positive role in supporting the demands of other oppressed countries.

Hundreds of peoples’ organizations from around the planet are planning to take part in a People’s Summit on Sustainable Development that will take place alongside the U.N. summit. Orellana emphasized that this will be an important vehicle to put pressure on the imperialist countries.

Orellana ended with a call for progressive activists — especially in the rising anticapitalist movement in the developed countries — not only to actively support the demands of the Group of 77 plus China at Rio+20 and in the global struggle for sustainable development, but also to save the planet from environmental catastrophe.