**Welcome to Episode #250! This represents 250 straight weeks of work on this podcast. We couldn’t have managed without our diligent team: Steve Grumbine, host and head honcho, Andy Kennedy, audio engineer, editor and producer, Virginia Cotts, Julie Alberding, Jonathan Kadmon, Commie John Siener, and Tim O’Neill, who create show notes, art, transcripts, and a whole section of extra information and links to resources.
We have now added a bonus event, Macro ‘n Chill, a weekly Zoom meeting where the community can gather, listen, and discuss the episode. To find us, go to the RP Events Calendar on Real Progressives’ website, realprogressives.org/rp-events-calendar. Click the upcoming Tuesday where you’ll find information and the registration link. The event is usually posted on Saturday after the newest episode is released. If it's not there, check back later. See you next Tuesday!**
This week’s episode is the second half of Steve’s interview with Hamza Hamouchene about his book, Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region.
Steve and Hamza agree on the importance of reckoning with the realities of the current capitalist imperialist system, which has proven to be a failure in addressing the most crucial needs of people and planet. Hamza argues that alternative visions for a better world already exist – he himself is an eco-socialist – but the challenge lies in implementing them and building the necessary alliances and coalitions of working people, both at the national and global levels.
The conversation also delves into the specificities of the Arab region, which has elements of authoritarian and military dictatorships due to its subordinate insertion into the global capitalist economy and its role as a key nodal point in global fossil fuel regimes. Hamza highlights the need for a just energy transition that takes into account the control and ownership of fossil fuel resources and the potential for green renewable energies.
Hamza calls for diversifying tactics and strategies, organizing and building power to challenge imperialism and the decarbonization by dispossession.
Dr. Hamza Hamouchene is a London-based Algerian researcher-activist, commentator, and a founding member of Algeria Solidarity Campaign (ASC), Environmental Justice North Africa (EJNA) and the North African Food Sovereignty Network (Siyada). He is currently the Arab region Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute (TNI). His work is focused on issues of extractivism, resources, land and food sovereignty as well as climate, environmental, and energy justice in the Arab region.
@BenToumert on Twitter
