On the last Saturday of every month, the youth-led climate reparations movement, Global Majority VS, decorates the streets of Brixton, London, with a sound system, banners and arts and crafts aimed to radically connect with the local community. Their movement functions not as a noun but as a verb, with physicality deeply linking to the history of racialised people's oppression and resistance. 

The Global Majority Resistance Jam has become a regular part of Brixton's culture since last Autumn. Organised by the Global Majority VS campaign, the event, like their mission, is set on linking up local diasporic communities with an international network of resistance of Global Majority peoples.

Global Majority is a term to override tired descriptors, such as "BAME", which centre coloniality and put people outside of whiteness as a sub-tiered "minority". "Global Majority" is resistance in itself, combatting the old order, with the argument that Black, Brown and other colonised people are the majority. The name, subsequently, was adopted by a campaign that seeks to unite the colonised in the Global South and the diaspora. They posit: "Our communities are opposing the genocide and ecocide and terrorism financed and supported by countries like the UK whose 'leading' role, past and present, in global imperialism continues to violate the lands and rights of our peoples across the world."

Last year, the Global Majority VS campaign, fronted by 24-year-old Adetola Onamade, 23-year-old Jerry Amokwandoh and 21-year-old Marina Tricks, faced the British government in court over human rights violations, invoking Article two (the right to life) Article Eight (the right to family life) and Article Fourteen (the right to not be discriminated against) of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Despite their efforts, the case was thrown out, and the appeal for judicial review was not accepted. This was based on the perceived grounds that there was not enough substantial evidence, as well as a reluctance to view climate injustice as an issue affecting diaspora communities in the UK, both at home and through their ties to the Global South. During the court case, the government lawyer dismissed the prosecution, saying, “Nobody’s rights are being violated in South London in 2021.”

Following this troubling statement by the government, Global Majority VS is currently re-strategising, with a potential aim of taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The group will also continue working on the ground in local London communities. “The legal case was always seen as the action, but it was never the standalone event”, Adetola, a co-founder of Global Majority VS, shares with AMAKA. “The extra-legal work has to continue regardless of the legal case continuing.”

She continues:

“Since launching the campaign in 2019, and filing our case in 2020, so much has happened to highlight how serious the climate situation is across the world. However, it hasn’t resulted in the level of action in our communities here that we would have hoped for. That’s not to say that people aren’t preparing, but that the window for action is closing, and we need to get a lot more prepared in the UK, especially considering that the UK finances 15% of global carbon emissions through the City of London.We need to take the ongoing ecocide and genocide more seriously.”

The Global Majority Resistance jam is one of the group’s ongoing actions. Organised mostly by African heritage people, but also of other Global Majority groups such as those from Abya Yala (an indigenous moniker for Latinx America), the jam has featured various art forms such as spoken word, rap, singing, DJ-ing, African drumming, arts and crafts, banners and audiovisual storytelling. All of these different mediums are blended with a political message, one that speaks to the multifaceted community’s experiences in Brixton. Art by Global South creators decorates the scene of each event. 

No Fronting, Just Feels: AMAKA Talks Love, Honesty, and Pretence with No Fronting Collective

One of the things that has been present in a past jam is a map projection detailing which parts of London could be flooded within the next decade, a stark reminder of our current situation. On this, Adetola says, “people like to talk about the 1.5 degree celsius temperature rise, but now we’re seeing that we could be there by 2030.”

The location of the jam is also pertinent. Taking place on Brixton station road, outside the Brixton Recreation Centre, they stand within the mix between long-standing small African and Caribbean businesses and newer establishments like Pop Brixton, which work to serve predominantly white, middle-class transplants.

“One reason why we’re there is that Brixton Rec has been an important space for African-Caribbean people for years. However, Lambeth council now wants to privatise it”, says Adetola. This could mean that people who have no ties to Brixton could get their hands on the building and market it in line with the other gentrification projects in the area, as seen in the Fight The Tower campaign (previously known as Save Nour).

The jam is guerilla-style, taking place without permission from the council. On this, Adetola says: “When we take up space on the steps of Brixton Rec, we are literally contesting space with the council, and in our eyes, enacting the Lambeth Reparations motion which the council has failed to popularise.”

Brixton has long been a place of Black resistance, of sound system culture, of the British Black Panthers, the Black squatting movement, the Brixton riots, the Brixton Black Women’s Group, and much more. The Global Majority Resistance jam plans to learn from and continue this legacy. 

Sistermatic: An Ode to London's Long-Lost Pioneering Sound System and Collective Run by and for Black Queer Women

Continuing this legacy is the jam’s resident Critical Youth Sound System, a system built by people of colour which features DJs from across the Global South diaspora who channel their reparatory message through song. OranJooyce is one of these resident DJs; they began mixing last year after being compelled to begin practising the craft for a long time.

On their involvement with the project, OranJooyce tells AMAKA, “I went to the first jam as a DJ and began talking to people and hearing the stories told by African heritage people, and I thought it was a good place for our communities to speak.”

They continue: “People should have the opportunity to express themselves through music because it opens up further dialogue to talk about our culture, the history of our ancestors because we are surrounded by whiteness, but with music, you have the opportunity to escape from it.”

Oranjooyce’s drive has led them to be involved with another Global Majority VS project that teaches young people in Brixton how to DJ, as well as explaining the cultural significance of African heritage music and Soundsystem culture.

“Music in our communities is often associated with bad habits, but with the workshop, we let the youth play with our heritage music and open up conversations with them about our cultural history so that we can positively reappropriate our sound”, says Oranjooyce. 

The last Resistance Jam took place on the 30th of April, coinciding with Peace Lotus day, which commemorates the end of the Vietnam war. On this day, Brixton Station Road was filled with family-friendly arts and crafts workshops, free and discounted food, ancestral medicine workshops, film screenings, talks, music, and much more from international solidarity networks, as well as local activists.