Anti-imperialist ecology: in Tindouf, Greta Thunberg supports the self-determination of the Sahrawis
On 6 January 2025, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg visited Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf to publicly show her support and denounce colonization.
“The inhabitants of Western Sahara have the right to self-determination, freedom and dignity. These rights have been violently denied. The world watches in silence so I want to add my voice to those who call for the liberation of Western Sahara.”
After a journey of more than 2,000 kilometers on the road or at sea, Greta Thunberg, the figure of the climate movement, reached the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf in western Algeria. According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2018, the sea of tents hosted approximately 173,000 people who had taken refuge after the “green march.” Greta was accompanied by Benjamin Ladraa and Sanna Ghotbi, known for having made a 48,000-kilometer journey by bike to highlight the situation in Western Sahara and denounce its colonization by Morocco.
"I learn a lot more about the current occupation and the repression, violence, pillage and exploitation of natural resources that the Sahrawi people have had to endure"
The Swedish activist not only affirms her support for the Sahrawi people, but also denounces the pillage of natural resources that constitutes one of the strategic issues surrounding Western Sahara. The [occupied country] contains many phosphate resources that are particularly important for Morocco, which is one of the largest exporters and producers in the world.
Significant research was carried out by Total until 2015 and then by the Israeli company Ratio Petroleum, to estimate oil reserves. A colonization, thus, is maintained for the interests of the polluting industries of the imperialist countries.
The struggle of the Sahrawi people is also linked to ecology by the fact that the region is already suffering the damage of global warming. In October 2024, over two days, more than a year`s worth of rain fell in the southeast of Morocco. In 2008, a historic flood caused immense damage in the Ghardaia region of Algeria. 24,000 homes were affected. Major floods also affected the Tindouf camps in 2006 and 2015, further increasing the precariousness as nearly 50,000 people found themselves homeless.
Global warming caused by the capitalist system is leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of climate phenomena previously considered historic, the damage of which is increased tenfold by the precariousness of populations kept under a colonial yoke, as we have recently seen in Mayotte.
For an anti-imperialist ecology
Greta Thunberg`s anti-imperialist commitment had already led her for over a year to support the Palestinian people and to declare on 12 December 2023: "No climate justice in occupied land." She had also been targeted by the repression that affected the entire Palestine movement since she was arrested by the police twice in the same week for actions denouncing the genocide and the links between Israeli universities and those of Stockholm and Copenhagen. "No one is free until everyone is free" declared the activist during her visit to the Tindouf camps a few days ago.
Through her positions and her unwavering support for the right to self-determination of peoples who suffer colonization, Greta Thunberg shows the way for the entire environmental movement. Anti-imperialist activists, environmental activists and the workers` movement must work together to overthrow capitalism, which is at the root of the current ecological catastrophe, and in doing so, must support the peoples colonized and oppressed by colonization.
Photo: Greta Thunberg at the Sahrawi Solidarity Summit in Tindouf, Algeria. Source: Video capture on X account @A2x_be.
