In a new video released today, seventeen leading racial justice activists, environmentalists, trade unionists, feminists, artists, and academics from around the world call for solidarity to build a more just and dignified world and defeat the racism and other injustices exposed by COVID-19.
The video was created by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which advocates for freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people.
It highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted oppressed communities worldwide. Leading activists join together in the video to oppose the racism, authoritarianism, warfare, denial of human rights, and disaster capitalism that have made COVID-19 so devastating and have heightened repression globally, including against the powerful Black Lives Matter protests taking place in the United States now. To counter these oppressive forces, they unite their voices in a call to #SpreadSolidarity and fight for racial, economic, gender, Indigenous, social, and climate justice.
The leaders featured in the video are social justice activist and academic Angela Davis; Afro-feminist Desirée Bela-Lobedde from Spain; leader of Brazil’s Association of Indigenous People Sônia Guajajara; Palestinian American scholar and human rights attorney Noura Erakat; educator and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement Patrisse Cullors; former South African government Minister and apartheid era ANC leader Ronnie Kasrils; leader of the All India Progressive Women’s Association Kavita Krishnan; Egyptian human rights activist Mohammad Ghannam; journalist and youth activist Janna Jihad from Palestine; Antonio Lisboa of Brazil’s federation of workers’ unions CUT; Erika Mendes from Friends of the Earth, Mozambique; Lucia Ortiz from Friends of the Earth, Brazil; LGBTQIA+ activist and human rights film festival director Hyun Lego Park from South Korea; BDS activist Yousef Shamsah from Kuwait; and Franco Uda of Italy’s Social Promotion Agency ARCI.
Palestinian artists and activists Remi Kanazi and Rafeef Ziadah narrate the video, which is set to a soundtrack by Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore.
The video emphasizes that justice will require putting people before profits and realigning priorities everywhere. It calls for divesting from the military-security complex and investing in health, education, climate protection, dignified jobs, and true human security.
Apoorva PG, South Asia Coordinator for the BDS National Committee, said:
As Black Americans and other distressed communities worldwide mobilize to end racism and repression, this video aims to help envision and work to realize justice, dignity, and rights for all. We believe the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice is intertwined with the global justice struggles of other oppressed communities. The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates these intersections and provides an opportunity for global mobilization in support of racial, Indigenous, social, economic, gender, and climate justice.