#Flint2Palestine
Veolia North America and people in Flint agreed recently to a $25 million settlement for damages suffered in the water contamination crisis that began in 2014. This is a welcome victory, in a long and enduring struggle. It is also a powerful reminder of the role Veolia has played in the struggles for justice in Palestine.
Over the last decade, Veolia has embodied the connections between Palestine and Black liberation in the US. It has also demonstrated the effectiveness of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement as a nonviolent, direct-action strategy to challenge Zionism and Israel.
As the Israeli government refuses to consider a cease fire and continues an inhuman stranglehold on Gaza, resistance in the US is being energized by African American activists, scholars, faith leaders, community organizers and political leaders. This Black-Palestinian alliance is deepening global anti-colonial struggles and bringing new energy and imagination to our efforts to create a more just world. It is also frightening the structures of power who are attempting to disrupt these alliances. These relationships have a long history of mutual support, but the “Ferguson moment” that included Palestinians in the midst of their own uprisings, sending advice, encouragement and support to people on the streets, marked an intensification and strengthening of these ties.
Veolia NA played a part in this connection. Veolia NA is a subsidiary of a global corporation that played a major role in the development of infrastructure in Israel. It was central to transportation, waste removal, and water service. Its transportation lines served the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and maintained an apartheid rail and road system.
Veolia also was moving to take over municipal water systems in the US, especially in poorer urban areas. In August of 2014, when Michael Brown was murdered, people in St. Louis had been organizing against a contract for Veolia to manage the local water system. One of the main objections to the privatization process was that it would enrich a corporation that was actively violating human rights in Palestine. The campaign to “Dump Veolia” was a success, forcing their withdrawal in October 2013. Solidarity among environmental justice activists, BDS, community organizers, and faith leaders played a central role in this victory. Similar efforts were taking place in other cities.
By the fall of 2014 efforts to connect these struggles intensified. Kristian Davis Bailey gives a thoughtful account of a conference organized by students at Tufts called Beyond Solidarity: Resisting Racism and Colonialism from the US to Palestine. In a workshop on “Water Rights from Hawaii to Detroit to Palestine,” Detroiters pointed to Veolia as a common point of struggle. Tawana Petty, of Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management and the People’s Water Board reflected on the conference and concluded:
“Listening to the BDS stories solidified my view that the people have the final say. I returned home with a strengthened resolve to bridge the gaps between organizers across borders while building towards self-determination and creating alternatives for my community and communities who are on the ground building towards a just society in Palestine, Hawaii, South Africa, Ferguson, India, and beyond.”
At a time when the path forward toward justice and peace seems so difficult and when we face such violence and cruelty, the struggle against Veolia reminds us of the power of people organizing to support human rights and dignity over profits. It also affirms the power of the BDS movement. In 2015 Veolia announced the sale of its last remaining business interest in Palestinian land. The struggles in Flint, Gaza, Detroit, Ferguson around the world affirm our capacity to connect and create new ways of bringing justice to life.