Kumi Naidoo: How Activism Can Win Bigger and Faster
Kumi Naidoo’s path to being an internationally renowned activist started early. At the age of 15, he organized school boycotts against the apartheid educational system in South Africa. His courageous actions made him a target for the security police, leading to his exile in the United Kingdom, where he remained until 1990. Upon his return to South Africa, Naidoo played a pivotal role in the legalization of the African National Congress in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
As former chief of both Amnesty International and Greenpeace International, Naidoo is uniquely qualified to talk about pressuring governments and companies to protect human rights and our environment. Now he’s a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, where he’s focusing on how activism can win bigger and faster.
- What are the tensions between speed and justice when it comes to moving away from fossil fuels?
- With climate protests growing increasingly confrontational, are those tactics galvanizing or repelling people?
- How are climate-fueled disasters and migration fueling anti-democratic forces around the world?
Join Climate One co-host Greg Dalton in a live conversation with scholar/activist Kumi Naidoo on how the international drive away from fossil fuels relates to human rights and economic justice.
The program includes a presentation by Alex Ajose Nixon, a spoken word poet, dancer and high school student. She began writing at the age of 9 after being introduced to a poetry unit at school. She was originally inspired by the works of Tupac Shakur to bridge activism with art. Her work is centered in bringing awareness to social justice issues, whether it be through dance, spoken word poetry or other kinds of performance.
See more Climate One programs at The Commonwealth Club of California.
The Commonwealth Club of California
110 The Embarcadero
Taube Family Auditorium
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
Kumi Naidoo
Social and Climate Justice Activist
Alex Ajose Nixon
Spoken Word Poet; Dancer
Greg Dalton
Founder and Co-host, Climate One
