Social movements and progressives worldwide today can learn a great deal from what Moses Mayekiso said in 1984 when, in a short period of time, 25,000 South African metalworkers had come out on strike during the apartheid period, which, together with others, he followed through by building the NUMSA as an enduring national organization.¹ Organizing such a show of resistance landed him and four others in jail for treason under South Africa’s then draconian Internal Security Act. In the current polycrisis, we are seeing our democratic space increasingly narrowing, globally.

Unity is important because we know that we are weak. Many new movements in both the Global North and South rightly understand the need for equity and solidarity. However, many do not see that to achieve our desired outcomes, tilting the balance of forces in society on both national and global levels is essential. The resolution of conflicts will be greatly determined by wider power structures within the world economy and systems. For that, we need unity, and there is still a lot of work to be done. How do we address the global imperative of building a strong and enduring global resistance against very powerful forces that are wrecking our lives and the planet and at the same time constituting another world if we are divided?

On the positive side, climate change is the galvanizing issue of this generation and rightly so, as we have a generational and existential crisis. This is important, as we have had a very polarized atmosphere in recent years as a result of Trump’s presidency in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK, which let incompetent, cruel, and racist people in and outside governments out of the woodwork. Russia’s occupation of Ukraine paralyzed and seriously divided the Left and progressive social movements globally to a certain extent, too, as many failed to respond to a complicated and nuanced situation wherein it is important to criticize Putin’s imperialist move and at the same time denounce the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On the other hand, however, successive global conferences repeatedly ask the same questions, and the answers continue to elude us: Why is it very difficult to build global social movement unity and go beyond issue-based campaigns? We have a good analysis of the problems, so why can’t we simply go behind common positions to solve our problems? Is the NGOization of our movements to blame for this, with too many competing issues?

Building Unity and Going Beyond Campaigns

There is now a global consensus that climate change is a global problem requiring global solutions based on justice and solidarity. After battling climate change denialism funded by big corporate money for decades, many are now seeing climate change as the biggest challenge of our time and demanding that governments address the climate emergency. There is also an increasing sense of frustration that the UN and our governments are not getting us any closer to reducing climate-changing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

In all decision-making summits, wealthier nations are successful at producing inaction, obstructions, and delay tactics to avoid actions commensurate to the challenges we are facing. Transnational corporations and their lobbyists are increasingly writing the rules and are operating with impunity as all important needs for living (food, energy, transportation, health care and medicines, technology and information) are more and more controlled by monopolists, leading to speculation and inflation.²

We criticize “new forms of colonialism,” where countries in the Global South are forced to invest in fossil fuel projects to repay debts. There is a technology gap due to domination of the field by Global North countries, which needs to be addressed for technologies to be accessible to developing countries. We are facing nuclear annihilation with increasing possibility of a third world war. These easily overwhelm the victories won by social movements and campaigners.

To build unities strong enough to build alternatives, let us identify social movement strengths and areas for improvement:

1. Many movements and campaigners are good at analysis or at diagnosing problems and who benefits in the crises, but are losing sight of geopolitics and could not broaden beyond mobilizing around specific sectors or issues.

2. Some movements understand that there are conflicts, with two fundamental dimensions:

(a) The danger of inter-state conflicts and rising tensions: Rich countries that continue to dominate economically are also continuing to prevent the poor countries from meeting their aspirations to live well and prosper.

(b) Inter-class conflicts: In these conflicts, the interests and aspirations of the poor majority, the marginalized, women, etc., are not in the top priority.

Some see class without geopolitics while others see geopolitics without class tensions.

Broadening unity and outreach

At the time of this writing, the Yasunidos just won the referendum in Ecuador to stop oil extraction in the Yasuni National Park in the Amazon by 59% to 41%.³ The people of Ecuador also voted to stop mining in Choco Andino. These are two significant and historic votes to protect the environment not just for Ecuador but also for the planet. The indigenous communities in Ecuador have tirelessly campaigned for more than a decade, and that effort built the widespread support across the country that delivered the vote. It makes Ecuador a global trailblazer, (ed: in sharp contrast to the escalating violence currently plaguing the country). In recent history, South Africans also put, through a constitutional referendum that there is a right to say “no” to destructive extractivism and other big (mal)development projects.

The key elements from these experiences are tireless campaigning, educating, and organizing to build unity. Influencers from social movements and progressive groups may get thousands of likes and tweets, some with tens of thousands of followers even. However, this alone does not ensure the hard, daily demand of organizing. In the end, votes are still won by organized people and coalitions that go to polls despite threats to their lives to get good leaders or their issues in key policies. Let us remember that the UN and multilateralism are in a bad shape now because of the leaders that get elected in the North and South.

There is also a specific sector that remains invisible to many movements, especially in the Global North—migrants. Most conferences and peoples’ assemblies still exclude organized migrants by design, neglect, or simple lack of connection. We cannot talk about social justice without taking care that we go beyond “citizens” and include non-citizens, namely migrants. Migrants are not just concerned about migrant issues. After all, they were squeezed out from their place of origin by the current global economic order, war, persecutions, and increasingly climate change.

1. Terry Bell, Comrade Moss: A Political Journey (London: National Union of Journalist Book Branch, 1990).
2. Niall Glynn and Nick Dearden, Monopoly Capitalism: What Is It and How Do We Fight It? (London: Global Justice Now, 2023), https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resource/monopoly-capitalism-what-is-it-and-how-do-we-fight-it/.
3. See the election results at https://elecciones2023.cne.gob.ec/Consultas/yasuni.