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# If You're Just "Raising Awareness", It Is Time To Think In Context And Cop On
- URL: https://aontachtmedia.ie/if-youre-just-raising-awareness-it-is-time-to-think-in-context-and-cop-on/
- Published: 2026-09-17T14:01:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-17T14:01:25.000Z
- Description: When folk start getting involved in left politics they often weathervane from struggle to struggle and do not know how to engage in anything effectively. Just Stop Oil are the quintessential synthesis of global idealism and local nihilism wrapped in class-blind imperial core thinking.
- Author: Chris Cullen
- Tags: Critical Analysis

When folk start getting involved in left politics they often weathervane from struggle to struggle and do not know how to engage in anything effectively. This is actually more true of folk who have been in “the movement” for decades. Folk get absolutely lost in the sauce wondering where their efforts should be placed and how to effect the most change. The thing is that there is a phrase that has been front and centre in organising spaces since I was a child and long before I was born that seems to have fallen out of fashion. “Think globally, act locally". Sometimes this is attributed solely to the climate movement but the thing is all movements are children of the crisis of capitalism and, further, imperialism.

So what does this mean in practice? Well when we think globally and also *act* globally we end up failing to challenge power effectively. What does that look like? A static protest in solidarity with Palestinian resistance outside of the US embassy. How does this fail to challenge power? Because even if those in the embassy could be moved by us they are beholden to US interests and cannot buck against the imperialist line. This is beating yourself bloody against a brick wall without the appropriate tools to start stripping bricks. All it does is signal your allegiances and solidarity. This is not without utility but it is just that, *signalling*. 

For the climate movement this has looked like glueing yourself to the floor, or throwing soup on pieces of art. This has been effective only in getting folk to talk about issues. But it has also polarised large swathes of the working class against the climate movement as they have correctly identified the central question of “what the fuck has making me late for work got to do with fossil fuel?” Movements like Just Stop Oil are the quintessential synthesis of global idealism and local nihilism wrapped in class-blind imperial core thinking. To say “just stop oil” in Britain means to continue and in fact accelerate the subjugation of the global south, the outsourcing of dirty and difficult work, the exporting of emissions and the “not our problem” school of maintaining industry standards in health, safety and environmental protection. All while failing to understand that new renewables can only be produced domestically when using fossil fuels. It does not address any of the power structures that have us locked into the demand for oil. It also fails to identify that British coal would be better for the environment in the long run than Spanish wind. This was written with Britain in mind, but the same is true of the Corrib gas field. When we are still beholden to the globalised petrodollar energy market we are propping up American imperialism. We know that the US military is the single worst polluter on the planet. We also understand that the climate crisis will never be addressed under American hegemony as they will not, but more importantly, cannot, do anything that stands in opposition to short term monetary gain. Those who are the most invested in the global idealism of importing uniform, cookie-cutter protest movements from the Empire without tailoring their activism to the concrete material conditions also tend to be those who are most likely to be dismissive of working class communities when it comes to contested issues such as immigration. It is a way of avoiding the task of material analysis and organising the working class, externalising it through performative virtue signalling and dissolving Communist politics through disavowal of the conditions of one’s own nation.

Every thread can be pulled to find the same conclusion. The "compatible left” have been so thoroughly infiltrated that the only actions that the majority of the left “opposition” take up are ineffective and aesthetically motivated and never challenge power effectively. The antidote to this is to go back to the original point: think globally; act locally. When addressing the climate crisis we should be pushing for community owned renewables that break the primacy of establishment energy companies. Often a constructive force is far better at confronting a destructive force than critique of the destructive force alone. When addressing the Palestinian struggle, look to unseat local politicians that are “friends of Israel”. Find layers of complicity such as the Lothian Pension Fund here in Edinburgh that materially supports the genocide via stocks held in participant arms companies. Allied Irish Banks (AIB) overseas is proceeding with a [1.2 million € contract with the Synk company](https://aontachtmedia.ie/campaign-launched-against-aibs-eur-1-2-million-israel-contract/) founded by former Unit 8,200 IOF soldiers. Kerry County Council was [targeted](https://www.independent.ie/county/kerry/tralee-news/kerry-county-council-urged-to-show-leadership-and-refuse-to-purchase-products-that-are-facilitating-genocide/a/129630716.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) by activists over their use of computer equipment on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions list. Breaking these links at a local level and grabbing hold of local and tangible wins will give genuine breath and life back to your movement. You cannot continuously recruit and mobilise for a movement that has never made material gains. Those still on the ground in Ireland would be better placed in suggesting genuinely effective modes of resistance for Palestine. I am reminded of the brave actions of those that infiltrated Shannon Airport to distrust US warplanes.

But the main thing is having a “global” view of issues. We must recognise that every single one of our issues, whether it be police brutality, climate collapse, mass immigration, corruption in football, contaminated waterways, the war in Iran, falling living standards, roads full of potholes, no NHS dentist spaces, whatever, they are all and I mean *all* a symptom of the crisis of capitalism. We must also recognise that all of these issues must be conveyed to our communities through the lens of our own material conditions. How does the war in Iran affect Fife or Dundalk? How does global warming impact Ayrshire or Skibbereen? The universal cure for all of these issues can only be the smashing of imperialism, American hegemony and the addiction to the profit motive. That is socialism. We must always keep this in mind. We must always keep analysing how our local actions knit with global systems. We must never lie to folk we engage about how effective our actions can be. We must always put things in context and keep the movements grounded. We must always always always make the point clear that any concessions we win, any momentum we build, all of it will only ever be temporary at best or impossible at worst without the smashing of the state and the building of socialism. We cannot waste our lives teaching manners to our jailers. We must utterly upend the system as it is and form a new one.

When we truly *can* act globally is when we should act globally. No movement in existence today in Britain or Ireland is powerful or organised enough to genuinely challenge much of anything. So how do you get there? By stacking wins, spreading ideology and keeping your analysis sharp. You must use all movements as a laboratory for struggle and as a training ground for your would-be comrades. In terms of what movement to be a part of? It often doesn’t matter. It could be opposing a local data centre, a community litter pick, Palestine solidarity or even a local 5-a-side league. Where there is struggle so too should there be sharp analysis and the global context to keep folk zoomed out in thought and zoomed in in action. 

The main takeaway from this must be: think globally about a worldwide socialist revolution and the destruction of imperialism, act locally on how you can build a better life for those around you, your own communities, rooted deeply in the struggles as they present in your locality, but always tied to and informed by the wider struggle towards socialism.

Think globally, act locally!