Building Inclusive Movements

From Diversity to Justice

French environmental movements increasingly recognize that diversity alone insufficient without addressing power inequalities. Having people of color on panels means little if white middle-class perspectives dominate strategy. Including working-class voices requires examining meeting cultures that exclude those working multiple jobs.

Organizations experiment with concrete practices: rotating meeting locations between neighborhoods, providing childcare and meal, translating materials into multiple languages, ensuring wheelchair accessibility. Some reserve speaking time for those traditionally marginalized. These efforts face resistance from those comfortable with existing dynamics.

Intersectional Organizing

Intersectional environmentalism in France faces particular challenges given republican resistance to recognizing group identities. Yet practical organizing increasingly requires acknowledging how environmental issues affect different populations differently.

The collective Décolonial Écologie explicitly addresses race and colonialism in environmental movements. They organize "toxic tours" of environmental racism in Paris, create spaces for activists of color, and challenge green nationalism excluding immigrants from environmental citizenship.

Youth movements especially embrace intersectionality, seeing connections between struggles as strategic necessity rather than ideological choice. They understand climate justice requires addressing all systems of domination simultaneously.