[D66] In defense of Greta Thunberg

[A.OUT]

Posted on October 10, 2019

Defenders of capitalism, joined by some on the left, are attacking the
young woman who has become the symbol of a mass movement. Our place is
by her side.

First published by Contremps, October 1, 2019. Translation by Climate &
Capitalism.
http://www.contretemps.eu/defense-greta-thunberg/

Daniel Tanuro is a socialist and ecology  activist in Belgium. He is the
author of Green Capitalism: Why It Can’t Work (Fernwood, 2014)

On 11-10-19 12:59, A.OUT wrote:
> Hands off Greta Thunberg!
> By
> climateandcapitalism.com
> 6 min
> View Original
> 
> Defenders of capitalism, joined by some on the left, are attacking the
> young woman who has become the symbol of a mass movement. Our place is
> by her side.
> 
> IN DEFENSE OF GRETA THUNBERG
> 
> by Daniel Tanuro
> 
> The young Swedish woman Greta Thunberg has faced an exceptional
> outpouring of hatred, expressed as the most vile macho attacks, the most
> sordid insinuations about her mental health, the lowest calumnies about
> her autonomy, and even barely veiled death threats.[1]
> 
> You don’t have to look far to find the source of these ever-growing
> waves of hatred. They flow from the national-populist, climate denying,
> sexist, racist and antisemitic extreme right-wing, which is spreading
> like a cancer, especially since Trump’s election, Brexit, and the
> successes of the German AfD, the French FN/RN and the Italian Lega,
> among others. The photoshop montages showing Greta alongside financier
> Georges Soros or a fighter of the Islamic State clearly show the
> antisemitic or Islamophobic intentions of these circles.
> 
> The links of the extreme right with fossil capital are proven, in
> particular through the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE),
> which collaborates with the Heartland Institute, a US climate denying
> think tank funded by the oil sector and the violently climate denying
> Koch Group, the most powerful private company in the US, active in the
> fossil fuel sector and chemicals.
> 
> If we dig a little deeper, we find in the campaign against Greta
> Thunberg the whole galaxy of collaborators in reactionary think tanks
> and other climate denying “institutes” funded by Exxon and Chevron.
> Notably the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) from which Myron
> Ebell, a member of the Trump transition team at the head of the EPA,
> Breitbart News, etc., came.
> 
> The main themes of the attacks on Greta Thunberg are the same on both
> sides of the Atlantic: that she should go back to school to learn what
> she doesn’t know; that she is a puppet in the hands of Al Gore and green
> capitalism; that those who pull the strings are using a disabled child
> to impose an emotional dictatorship; that her call for a strike is
> totalitarianism; that the poor girl is a fanatic, a sick woman, etc.[2]
> Most of these elements were present in the comments made by Jordan
> Bardella (FN/RN) during Greta’s visit to the French National Assembly.
> 
> But climate denial does not explain it all, far from it. Hatred against
> Greta Thunberg is all the more vicious because the target is a woman, a
> young woman. A young woman who is not afraid to accept herself as she
> is, with, as she herself says, her different personality. [3]
> 
> A brave, determined, intelligent, sensitive young woman who knows what
> she’s talking about. A young woman who expresses herself very clearly,
> in the name of youth, in the name of the future, and does not hesitate
> to face the powerful with cheerful insolence. In a word: a witch.
> 
> When it comes to attacking women, what some call the “tradition of
> liberty” often makes France, unfortunately, the place where the most
> pestilential unpleasant smells are released. Those from Bernard Pivot
> exceed everything.[4] Given this character’s academic distinctions, this
> is an opportunity to recall a historical phrase: “Sir, you’re just a
> piece of shit in a silk stocking.” He brings to mind this political
> reality: sexism and machismo always build a bridge to the far right.
> 
> At first, the representatives of capital focused on co-opting Greta
> Thunberg and, using her to neutralize the youth. Hence the invitations
> to Davos, the European Parliament, the National Assembly and many other
> official venues. Since she called for the unity of all against the
> threat, in the name of science, politicians thought they would put her
> in their pockets and show her that they were doing their best, etc.
> 
> But Greta Thunberg wasn’t fooled. In the European Parliament, after
> Juncker kissed her on the hand(!), she said: “We know that most
> politicians don’t want to talk to us. Good. We don’t want to talk to
> them either.”
> 
> It is important to tell the whole truth and the truth, in this case, is
> that a significant part of the left and the ecological community are
> howling with the wolves. Under the most diverse pretexts: “Greta is not
> anti-capitalist,” “Greta is not against growth,” “Greta is a star,” “It
> is not by chance that she is invited here or there,” “Greta plays the
> green capitalism game,” etc. Not to mention the purveyors of cheap
> psychiatry.
> 
> What they don’t mention is the real source of their anger: they are
> outraged at being shown up by a fifteen-year-old girl, out of nowhere,
> who has done more in one year to change the climate (no pun intended)
> than many activist organizations in thirty years.
> 
> Today, there is no doubt about it: after Greta’s performance at the UN,
> the rulers are changing their tactics. She pilloried them all without
> hesitation (“How dare you? You only talk about money!”) and her message
> had maximum impact worldwide. After the summit failed, she again called
> for strikes. As a result, the attempts to co-opt her are over. They
> aren’t smiling now.
> 
> The turning point is clearly visible in France: Macron blames Greta
> Thunberg for “antagonizing our societies,” advises young people to act
> as “citizens” rather than strike, or to go to Poland to demonstrate
> against the climate denier Duda. As for LVMH’s CEO, Bernard Arnault, he
> led the attack by blaming the young Swedish woman for “demoralizing
> youth” (same argument as Bardella) by denying the bright prospects of
> green capitalism. “How dare he?” Does this individual believe that the
> fortune he has made in the luxury industry for the rich “gives hope” to
> anyone?
> 
> Incredible as it may seem, given the context, powerful people are
> concerned, even worried. They fear a total break between youth and the
> old world. Their world. That of politics in the service of the rich, of
> competition between nations, of capitalism that destroys nature and life.
> 
> They fear that the global youth movement, as it grows, will involve
> other layers: peasants, exploited people, indigenous people whose
> forests are sacked, the oppressed in general. Impossible? Who knows? Who
> knows? The call of the Greta generation resonates deeply, because the
> 99% do not like the idea that our children’s world will be worse than ours.
> 
> Since the youth refuse to fall into line, the the 1% who are responsible
> for the disaster will use all possible methods against the symbol of the
> movement, Greta Thunberg. The media that carried her to the top will
> drag her through the mud, the politicians who tried to use her will hand
> her to the executioner for witchcraft, and the far right will offer to
> do the job.
> 
> The hatred against this young woman is an expression of the struggle of
> the dominators to maintain their domination. Their fight is against
> youth and women, of course. But it also against employees, peasants,
> racialized people, indigenous peoples, different people, and the living
> in general. This is the class struggle in the Anthropocene.
> 
> Whatever Greta Thunberg’s limitations, our place is at her side, in the
> struggle she has constantly promoted and which it is now a matter of
> democratically organizing. It is the place of both the left and of any
> ecology worthy of the name.
> 
> Hands off Greta Thunberg!
> 
> Notes
> 
> [1] “Recreational boating accidents occur in August”: for example, the
> British businessman, Trump’s ally and Farage funder Arron Banks,
> commented on the fact that Greta Thunberg was sailing across the
> Atlantic to attend the United Nations Climate Change Summit.
> 
> [2] For an anthology of the insults heard in the French media, read
> Samuel Gontier’s article, Haro sur Greta Thunberg, la démoniaque vestale
> hitléro-maoïste.
> 
> [3] It should be recalled that the Austrian psychiatrist Asperger, who
> gave his name to the syndrome, was a Nazi. Responsible for the murder of
> disabled children, Asperger had developed a test to determine which ones
> to save because he thought their abilities could be useful….
> 
> [4] He is the author of this tweet: “In my generation, boys were looking
> for little Swedish girls who had the reputation of being less uptight
> than little French girls. I can imagine our astonishment, our fear, if
> we had approached a Greta Thunberg.”
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