The Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY) has been organizing for youth-led climate justice since 2023. Logo credit: ANGRY

JTA greatly values collaborations with youth who are organizing for intersectional, root transformations toward just transition. The Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY) represents one group that exemplifies this important work. ANGRY is a youth-led global alliance making waves in United Nations and many other spaces by building the collective power of youth voices from across the globe. What follows is an interview between JTA and ANGRY members about the important power building and advocacy efforts carried out by the alliance.

JTA: 

How many people or organizations are currently involved in your alliance?

ANGRY: 

The ANGRY Secretariat is made of 12 people. We’re all holding the operations of ANGRY from working groups, to regional groups, to fundraising, to administration, to membership management, to comms, to internal coordination. We organise in task forces internally, which take care of decision making, power hierarchies, team structures, and much more! There’s A LOT of behind the scenes work to explore and to imagine collective and decentralised organising structures, so that ANGRY can be strategically effective and caring towards each other. Our membership is currently as big as 45+ youth groups (grassroots groups, networks, collectives, NGOs) who are signed up as either active or supportive members.

JTA:

Where are the main spaces in which you organize?

ANGRY: 

ANGRY is an alliance of youth groups (led by or mostly comprised of people under 35 years old), which is primarily organised online through Working Groups (Just Transition, False Solutions, and Demilitarisation) and Regional Groups. We have general assemblies to build our strategies and campaigns! We also organise in person, mostly at UNFCCC conferences to help with actions, interventions and building power with other youth groups. ANGRY also works in alternative spaces, such as in Anti-COP [Conference of the Parties], climate camps, and at constituency gatherings.

JTA:

Why do you think it’s important for ANGRY to focus on youth?

ANGRY:

ANGRY is a Global South-led coalition of youth climate justice groups across the globe, driving collective action to fight for climate and social justice from a grassroots perspective. Founded in August 2023, the ANGRY network wants to be a radical support mechanism for youth climate justice groups seeking to leverage their regional and thematic activities, particularly for groups that are aligned with more radical positions and messaging, such as calling out false solutions to climate change, protecting land defenders, reimagining energy usage, rapid fossil fuel phase-out, divestment from fossil fuels, and more. We see a gap between the UNFCCC spaces, organising spaces, and constituency spaces. Youth need more support to co-create something, and, ultimately, we need to build this ourselves to really respect our need for agency rather than following what we are told to do. There is power in our own creativity, stories, and knowledge, which we build from—with deep respect for ancestral and historic movements who we learn from. That’s why we often work in collaboration with non-youth groups such as Demand Climate Justice.

JTA: 

What is the current state of meaningfully including youth in the UNFCCC and global climate treaty negotiations?

ANGRY:

Currently, there isn’t much meaningful inclusion, and it is also a question of: is the state of climate negotiations something we want to participate in and uphold? This is a question that ANGRY grapples with a lot. On the one hand, engaging in the negotiations looks like giving interventions, being able to make a submission that shapes a negotiation, and these things could be improved with more accessible approaches and guidance for youth and priority speaking slots with more time and clear paths of how our interventions will be included in shaping texts. These things help a little bit, but they don’t transform at the pace and scale needed in the interest of our communities. It isn’t about us taking formal positions in the UNFCCC but to make space for people power and people influence against lobbyists. We are a political alliance because climate change is undeniably political, so we use our power to challenge how international governmental decisions are made, understand what false solutions are promoted, and hold powerful actors accountable for inaction and greenwashing. We do not depend on the negotiations to transform systems or make real pathways of climate justice. Ultimately, solutions should be led by communities in their own contexts, enabled by systems that equitably share resources, decision-making and solution-making power with communities. But the negotiations can shift what’s blocking our communities from having the power they deserve.

JTA:

Can you describe ‘youth-washing’ and how this problem impacts your organizing work?

ANGRY:

Youth-washing is the practice of using young people and our movements to distract from or disguise practices that perpetuate (climate) injustice. Entities employing youth-washing strategies often target under-resourced individuals and groups, offering funding or other assistance to incentivise support for activities that may contradict those individuals’ and groups’ stated aims. We’ve seen this actively with carbon markets, geoengineering, and carbon offsets, often through tactics of co-opting climate justice language and also distorting false solutions to appear real and aligned with community needs. We try to tackle this problem by creating resources for popular education to prepare youth movements to recognise false solutions. When we see youth-washing happening, we try to connect and relate with those youth experiencing this harm to give perspective on the power play we witness. There is also the aspect within the movement where non-youth organisations do youth activities, led by non-youth, which can be difficult, as it takes away the importance of us leading our own spaces.

JTA:

What is ANGRY’s approach to working with aligned groups to build collective power?

ANGRY:

We stick around for the behind-the-scenes work—the planning, the meetings, the preparations. We see that upholding and nourishing the infrastructure that our movements have built is crucial for the political times we live in. Our most energetic way of building power is to co-create actions and mobilise together with groups. We’re usually there to help with some messaging or creative input or logistics support. We also try to be there in the strategy, the collective learning, and the creativity and the dreaming. We always try to think about what we are learning can be made accessible and shared with other youth groups. We try to make popular education collaboratively, drawing on the diverse skills and knowledge and practices we have as youth. We hold onto our right to dream of alternative futures and use knowledge that has been passed down.

JTA:

How can interested youth learn more about and engage with your efforts?

ANGRY:

Our Instagram page is the best way. You can follow us at @angryalliance. We have a lot of explainers on our political principles and membership processes!

Thank you to ANGRY’s Serayna Solanki for participating in this interview. JTA is honored to work with this youth-led alliance and looks forward to future collaborations!