Nonprofit organizations of all orientations are under attack, with threats of withholding funding, for their association with Palestine solidarity activities. Climate justice organizations have not been spared in this wave of Zionist repression.
While the emissions reduction efficacy of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is still in question, it’s less debatable that the “historic climate law” has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to certain climate and environmental justice organizations (CEJ). Many in the U.S. climate community herald this development as CEJ groups have been historically underfunded and markedly less resourced than historically white-led environmental organizations, commonly referred to as “Big Green.” According to a 2020 report by researcher Michael Thomas, environmental justice organizations received between $25 and $50 million in 2020 which represented less than one percent of all environmental giving. As such, it’s reasonable to conclude that many Big Greens and the larger environmental philanthropic apparatus are relieved that the IRA acts as an obfuscation of the legacy wealth and income inequality situation of the larger environmental nonprofit ecosystem – a legacy that is demonstrably driven by white “supremacy” ideology and abject classism.
Oscar Wilde once said, “when the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers” – this notion is being vindicated as it’s clear that the federal government has just declared war on CEJ organizations and, potentially, the entire ecosystem of nonprofit organizations for accepting large amounts of IRA funding.
Earlier this month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s (House E and C) Republican staff released a report which they claim demonstrates cronyism between certain organizations and the Biden/Harris administration based on funds distributed by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Justice Programs, established by the IRA. The report itself is a subjective exercise littered with questionable analysis and elements of climate denialism – at one point, the report even questions whether some communities are disproportionately impacted by pollution and even the idea of environmental justice altogether. For instance, Page 7 of the report declares, “While a generally applied, cross-cutting definition of the term “environmental justice” does not exist in federal statute, this term often refers to what some environmental activists espouse to be the perceived disproportionate impacts of environmental pollution across certain populations or demographics.”
The idea of “perceived disproportionate impacts” has, of course, been refuted decades ago with the 1987 release of the United Church of Christ’s epochal work, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States . And since that report’s release a compendium of studies and analysis rooted in objective science dismisses the notion that environmental racism is a perception rather than a lived reality for far too many Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor white communities nationwide. Nonetheless, the House E and C report must not be taken lightly as it represents a clear and present danger for individual CEJ groups as well as the entire practice of climate and environmental justice.
The report specifically targets leading and celebrated CEJ organizations including Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) , West Harlem Environmental Action, Incorporated, commonly known as WE ACT for Environmental Justice , and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice who have either received or were set to receive federal dollars for their programming through the IRA. In addition to their respective missions, it’s important to note that all three groups are led by Black and Indigenous women who are CEJ experts and scholars. And for all of the dubious claims of wasteful spending on and by these groups in the House E and C report, some of the most damning evidence it relies on was provided by direct testimony offered by the Inspector General of the EPA, Sean O’Donnell.
Last March, while testifying before the House E and C’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Mr. O’Donnell noted that the IRA created new programs, which are more vulnerable to “inefficiencies and errors” than existing programs. In written testimony, he went on to conclude, “The pace of this spending, when conducted by newly created programs and received by new recipients, significantly increases the vulnerability of all parties to fraud and creates the potential for errors or inefficiencies in execution.” This is not an innocuous statement, and it would be fair to infer that Mr. O’Donnell seems to believe that CEJ organizations are not equipped or competent enough to abide by rules and compliance associated with federal grants – one has to wonder what’s behind this belief, but really we don’t as it’s clearly informed by white “supremacy” ideology and classism.
Why Michael Regan, EPA Administrator, did not immediately address or assuage Mr. O’Donnell’s concerns is a head scratcher – but what followed is a clear indication that this oversight in concert with the House E and C report, as well as HR 9495 legislation that recently passed the House that could eliminate the 501C(3) status for numerous nonprofits, and a larger effort to crack down on support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people by the zionist industrial apparatus, are all having a massive effect on CEJ organizations’ ability to fund themselves and expand their work.
Last week, Politico reported that the EPA may withhold funding from groups like CJA due to their outspoken solidarity with Palestinians and calls for an end to the genocide/ethnic cleansing being carried out by the ethnostate of Israel. While the EPA declined to confirm that CJA’s stance on Palestine is the ultimate reason why the $50 Million they were previously awarded is on hold, during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, Administrator Regan confirmed, “that group [CJA] has not received one dime from EPA.” This statement came after noted transphobe, Representative Nancy Mace, accused CJA of “antisemitism” and asked Regan if “eradicating Israel was the official position of Biden’s EPA.” And this was not the first time that CEJ groups standing with Palestine have been subjected to a growing antisemitism hypochondria epidemic. Last May, Senator Shelley Moore Capito declared “[CJA is] anti-American, and they’re certainly anti-Israel and antisemitic.”
While Regan, the second Black person to head the EPA, is not much more than a puppet whose strings are pulled by the alabaster puppet masters that direct the actions of the Biden/Harris administration, his silence on the issue of withholding funding for CEJ organizations, thus far, is very audible and very telling. And we have to ask ourselves why members of the federal government are more concerned about federal spending on environmental justice than they are with spending to facilitate a genocide and ethnic cleansing pogroms in Palestine and a winless, fossil fueled war in Eastern Europe – we, of course, know the answer(s).
White “supremacy” becomes apoplectic when non-white folk experience any semblance of socioeconomic edification. We’ve seen this since the whitelash to the Reconstruction era, which between 1860 and 1900 saw the racial wealth gap decrease from a ratio of 56: 1, to 11:1 . The restoration of a white supremacist economic order in the form of Jim and Jane Crow and white supremacist terrorism quickly changed the 40-year trend. It can be argued, with warrant, that the actions of the federal government – both in Congress and via federal agencies – against CEJ groups seem to mimic a history that may not be repeating itself but is certainly rhyming as Mark Twain reminds us. Moreover, the fact that solidarity with Palestine is being utilized as a reason to withhold funds and potentially, soon, to strip nonprofits of their current tax status proves three incontrovertible facts:
- The pernicious influence of the zionist industrial apparatus on the federal government;
- The zionist industrial apparatus is flexing in an effort to ossify support and solidarity with Palestinians; and
- zionism is a white supremacist and colonial ideology that has nothing to do with the Jewish faith.
Do recent events as well as a general fear of the zionist industrial apparatus explain why so many climate groups and anointed climate imprimaturs have remained silent on Palestine? Because with the election season now behind us, including the ignominious defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrat party, that far too many of these groups and individuals are aligned with, there should be no reason to not speak out against genocide and call on President Biden to do all in his power to end it. The silence of these groups and individuals has not prevented the growing witch hunt against CEJ groups, nor nonprofits writ large – silence, in fact, seems to have even exacerbated it. And it should be noted that the same groups most vulnerable to these attacks are the same groups working for and accountable to communities most vulnerable to the worsening climate crisis. This is not a coincidence, it’s an elucidation of the fact that the root causes of the climate crisis intersect with the foundational premise of zionism; white “supremacy,” patriarchy, and colonization.
The U.S. climate community and the entire nonprofit ecosystem must understand, and quickly, that a chilling effect on free speech is bad news for a rapidly warming planet and extremely pernicious for frontline communities and CEJ groups. Thus far, we have not seen solidarity efforts for groups like CJA, We Act, and Deep South Center for EJ by many of the larger nonprofits in the climate/environmental sector, nor the larger nonprofit industrial complex. This needs to change expeditiously, for If there’s anything we should take from the imperialist aggressor, NATO, it’s Article 5 of the coalition’s charter – an attack against one shall be considered an attack against all.
The climate community and the nonprofit sector must know that the recent actions of the federal government are not just about the impacts they’re having on individual organizations, but the larger message these actions are sending to everyone. This will either be an all hands on deck moment or the moment when all of our hands start to get cut off by the zionist industrial apparatus and its agents and acolytes in the federal government.
No Compromise
No Retreat