Asad Rehman's Remarkable Transition from Antiracism Activism in Burnley to Leading a Major Environmental Charity

Every weekday morning, children from Asian families in this Lancashire town would assemble prior to going to school. This was the seventies, an era when far-right groups were actively organizing, and these youngsters were the sons and daughters of immigrant laborers who had moved to Britain ten years before to address employment gaps.

One of these children was the young Asad, who had relocated to the northern town with his family from Pakistan when he was four. “We traveled as one,” he remembers, “because it was dangerous to walk alone. Younger children in the middle, older children forming a perimeter, because we’d be attacked on the way.”

Things were no better at school. Students would give fascist salutes and yell abusive language at them. Some exchanged extremist publications publicly in corridors. Minority children “every day, when the lunch bell rang, we would barricade ourselves into a classroom, due to the risk of assault.”

“So I started talking to everybody,” he notes. Collectively, they decided to defy the teachers who had failed to protect them by jointly deciding not to attend. “and we will say that the reason was the schools were unsafe for us.” It was Rehman’s initial experience of organising. Participating in wider antiracism movements that were formed across the country, it defined his political outlook.

“We took steps to safeguard our community helping me understand that crucial insight remaining with me: our strength multiplies as a united group rather than individually. Groups are necessary to organise you and you need a vision to hold you together.”

In the past few months, he took on the role of chief executive of the green organization Friends of the Earth. Historically, the poster child of climate breakdown was the iconic bear in a thawing landscape. Now, discussing the climate crisis without mentioning inequality and discrimination has become highly inappropriate. He has stood at the forefront of this transformation.

“I accepted this position given the enormous challenge out there,” he explained to reporters on the sidelines an environmental protest near government offices recently. “These issues are linked of climate, social injustice, of financial structures that have been rigged elite interests. At its core about fairness.

“And there is only one organisation prioritizing equity – ecological equity and environmental equality – that’s Friends of the Earth.”

Having 250,000 supporters and 233 local action groups, This environmental network (operates separately in Scotland) represents Britain's largest green activist community. Recently, it allocated significant funds on campaigns ranging from judicial reviews on official regulations to local campaigns changing municipal practices in public spaces.

However, the organization has – albeit undeservedly – gained a profile as a less radical organisation versus other groups. Focusing on awareness campaigns than road blockades and occupations.

The selection of a stalwartly class-conscious campaigner with his background could be a strategic move to redefine itself.

This isn't the beginning he collaborated with the network.

Following university, he maintained campaigning for racial justice, working with an anti-racism group at a time while extremist groups had influence in east London.

“We organized protests, supporting victims, deeply connected locally,” he recalls. “I gained experience in grassroots activism.”

Yet seeking more with simply reactively countering public discrimination and government policies together with peers, sought to place antiracism on a human rights level. Which guided him to the human rights organization, during ten years he partnered with international campaigners to push for a fundamental shift regarding the interpretation of freedoms. “At that time, the organization didn't focus on inequality matters. they concentrated solely on political freedoms,” he notes.

Towards the close of the nineties, Rehman’s work at the organization had brought him into contact to various international social justice organisations. During that period they had coalesced into the counter-globalisation movement against neoliberalism. The insights he gained from these connections would affect his ongoing activism.

“I was going meeting campaigners, and everybody you spoke to mentioned how bad climate was, unsustainable practices, creating refugees,” he explains. “And I was like! Everything we have fought for through activism is going to be unravelled because of environmental collapse. This issue we're facing, known as global warming – however it wasn't being discussed with urgency.”

This led Rehman to his first job at the environmental charity in 2006. Then, the majority of green groups framed climate change as a distant threat.

“The organization stood out as the sole green group that then officially broke away from other green organizations. helping establish creating environmental justice campaigning,” he states.

He focused to bring the voices from global south nations during negotiations. This approach wasn't make him popular. Once, he recalls, after a meeting involving ministers with activist organizations, an official contacted his boss insisting he stop his “climate Taliban”. He didn't reveal the individual's identity.

“There was a sense: ‘Why does he challenge conventions?’ You know, green issues are important, there's common ground. [But] I saw it as addressing inequality, a fight for human rights … fundamentally political.”

Fairness perspectives were increasingly becoming accepted within green movements. However, the opposite was also happening. rights-based campaigns engaging with sustainability concerns.

This led to the anti-poverty campaign the trade union-backed {