#opendemocracy

Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020!

Photographer of the Year; 

Seeds of Resistance by Pablo Albarenga,

In 2017, at least 207 leaders and environmentalists were killed while protecting their communities from mining, agribusiness and other projects threatening their territories. 

According to a 2018 report by Global Witness, most of these cases occurred in Brazil with 57 assassinations being recorded, of which 80% were against people defending the Amazon. 

While the statistics expose an alarming situation, they fail to provide detailed information about the stories and people behind these figures, nor about the struggles they still face. 

Despite being immersed in such a violent situation, indigenous and traditional populations refuse to abandon their land, even when it has been completely destroyed. The reason for this stoicism lies in their unique bond to their territories - this land is their life-support system, a sacred area in which hundreds of generations of their ancestors rest. 

Seeds of Resistance is a project that seeks to explore the bond between the land defenders and the territories they inhabit, in a single image. By using aerial footage, the main characters in the stories are seen from above, as though they are laying down their lives for their territory. Then, a second image is shot from a much higher altitude to show their land and reveal, where possible, the threats they face. 

After Trump’s election, millions of words were typed about how ‘blue collar’ areas had turned out to vote Republican. Yet Clinton led by 11% among voters who earn less than $50,000. Trump secured his victory by winning among those who earn $50-200,000. Much the same can be said for the far right in Italy, whose core support is in the wealthier – though now de-industrialising – north, rather than in the more impoverished south; or about Brazil, where 97% of the richest areas voted for the fascist Bolsonaro, whilst 98% of the poorest neighbourhoods voted for the Workers’ Party candidate, Haddad.

We see a similar distortion in debate about Brexit. After the vote, journalists went on endless tours of deprived areas to report on how working-class people voted Leave (which many did). However, they somehow forgot to mention that wealthy counties like Wiltshire backed Brexit, while some of the poorest areas of the UK – the western parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as Liverpool and Leicester – voted Remain. Academics who studied the class breakdown of the Brexit vote found ‘the Leave vote to be associated with middle class identification and the more neutral “no class” identification. But we find no evidence of a link with working class identification.’

This is nothing new. Ruling classes have always sought to blame bigotry on the working classes. Too often in recent times, the liberal media have been willing to champion this myth, rather than confronting the prejudice in its own ranks.

We blame the working classes for the rise of the far right when it is the more wealthier classes that tend to go along with the far right.

Adam Ramsey has conducted research in relation to the backings of Brexit during the United Kingdom’s EU in-out referendum in 2016, examining the power dynamics and wealth of the primal backing of the campaign fro the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.

The article additionally looks at Arron Banks, the missing millions and the dark money behind Vote Leave. Cambridge Analytica and SCL are also examined.

I will quote from the conclusion as it highlights that what is researched is not a new tale but rather a familiar notion...

Brexit, Trump, Orbán, Salvini, Bolsonaro and Le Pen all tap into deep social and cultural crises in their countries. But their success comes not from addressing the causes of the deep feelings of alienation produced by late capitalism, but from facilitating displacement mechanisms and from encouraging people to blame anyone but those with real power – those who have thrived in the recent crisis.

 A car burns inside the yard of a hospital in Mariupol, southern Ukraine, 9 March 2022Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo, courtesy of Al Jazeera As Israel’s assault on Palestine continues, apparent similarities with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grow. Israel’s “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip – cutting off water, electricity and food to more than two million inhabitants – echoes Russia’s intentional…

Hi everyone! So, oDR – openDemocracy’s Ukraine, Russia and wider region team – is at severe risk of closure. What can I say apart from the fundraising has not been lucky, to put it mildly. But we’re fighting: a huge last-ditch effort to turn the ship around and keep some of the best journalists, researchers and activists writing for our audience. To do that, we’ve launched a crowdfunder to…