Sunak, Lies and Planetary Rape

Rishi Sunak chose the Global Food Security Summit at Lancaster House in London to reaffirm his commitment to the government’s Rwanda scheme.

“I’m completely committed to doing what is necessary to get those flights off and that scheme up and running,” he said of the plan send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which the UK’s top judges last week ruled was illegal.

Clearly the departure of Suella Braverman did not mean the end of the far-right rhetoric.

The Global Food Security Summit was billed as an opportunity to plan how to stop food crises before they start. It would seem that in the Prime Minister’s mind that means once again scapegoating refugees and keeping up the culture war tactic of pitting working class people against each other.

The destruction of the planet by capitalism continues apace. And governments are more than just inactive in the face of climate change: they are actively retreating from their promises. According to analysis by the climate change journal, Carbon Brief, these retreats put not only the UK’s legally binding sixth carbon budget out of reach, but also its international pledge under the Paris Agreement. Indeed, the carbon emissions of the richest 10% is up to 40 times bigger than the poorest, and ignoring the divide may make ending the climate crisis impossible, according to experts.

The newly ennobled David Cameron wrote in his introduction to the food summit that “Today’s answer cannot be about rich countries ‘doing development’ to others. We need to work together as partners, shaping narratives which developing countries own and deliver.” This seems to put the blame on “tardy developing nations”, despite the vast majority of climate damage having been caused by the so-called developed countries of the global north. On the other hand, the worst effects are being felt in the global south.

This government’s idea of “partnership” is clearly victim blaming. Blaming the global south for dragging their feet, despite it being our governments who are reneging on promises. Blaming the global south for poverty after centuries of plunder by capitalist greed. And blaming refugees for fleeing war, hunger and human misery, all of which will only multiply as the climate heats up.

We reject the right-wing rhetoric which seeks to divide workers from each other by labelling some “migrants” and threatening them with expensive, illegal and racist deportment to a country deplored for human rights abuses. Our ancestors all migrated from somewhere. Our enemy comes not in small boats but in limousines.

We call out the government’s lies on both global food security and climate change. Their promises are empty and are being broken before our eyes.

We must destroy capitalism before it destroys us.

By Duncan Dundonald