real world radio tunes globe into climate justice at bali
Real World Radio is a multilingual, web-based radio created under the auspices of Friends of the Earth International. First broadcast at the 2004 World Trade Organization negotiations, RWR aims to provide a space for community radio around the world to exchange coverage about sustainability and environmental issues.
RWR’s aim to spread the word about climate justice at the Bali climate change negotiations was quite strategic, given the strong presence of environmental organizations including Friends of the Earth, and social movements such as Via Campesina. The coordination of social movements at the conference was seen as fundamental to fighting climate change in the future.
Fishermen, peasants, small producers, indigenous peoples and others affected by climate change were all present in Bali, and covering the work of their movements provided exciting results for Real World Radio. RWR’s dedicated COP 13 section means anyone in the world can access interviews with spokespeople from these movements, from Carteret Islanders affected by sea level rise, to experts like Walden Bello, the renowned Philippine author, academic and analyst of Focus on the Global South.
RWR saw Via Campesina’s first appearance at such a significant climate change conference as a highlight. Farmers are at the front line of the climate crisis; yet they face a raft of “false solutions” such as palm oil plantations, that displace them from rural territories. Emphasizing the importance of sustainable agriculture within the peasant and social movement agenda was an important goal for RWR in Bali.
Among its key Bali successes, RWR counts its contribution to the continuing coordination built up among dozens of these organizations and social movements. In Bali FoEI and FoE Indonesia joined other groups as they orchestrated demonstrations, urban interventions, and alternative frameworks such as Solidarity Village for a Cool Planet.
These efforts formed an important basis for what is now an important international social movement for climate justice. However, still more consolidation of the movement is possible in the future because “Many representatives of the groups are encouraged by the same dream,” according to the RWR team, “[which] makes it possible to believe today that there are conditions for the consolidation of a world environmentalist movement, a world experience.”
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Photo credit: Real World Radio
