Red and Green Unite

‘Accumulate, accumulate, is the Moses and the Prophets’ - Marx

The ecological crisis is here and now, not in some far-off future.  We all know the global environmental crisis is worsening. We all stand upon the cusp of total annihilation – a global breakdown of such magnitude that the very existence of our species is a possibility. What is the cause of this change?  The fundamental cause is the capitalist system. Over the past years there has been very little to inspire optimism in socialists or environmentalists. Some environmental movements and parties have become complicit in maintaining the status quo. People don’t see an economic alternative, and the ‘left’ are often on the right.

 However, eco-socialism is the idea that to solve the ecological crisis you have to challenge capitalism. We share the inspiration of Joel Kovel who said in a speech to Occupy Wall Street:

“An association of free people will take care of nature because they see themselves as part of nature. They will struggle for a new world based on a new kind of production that gives nature intrinsic value. They will develop the tools for overcoming and healing the cancer of accumulation and the ecological crisis it generates. Such a society will be in harmony with nature and not nature’s enemy. I would call it “ecosocialism,” and I hope you will join in its building.”

Building a strong, independent socialist movement is the hard work that lies before us. A socialist party needs to build a mass base of dues-paying members in order to hire the organisers and staff they need to seriously challenge the parties of capital. A socialist movement will have to sink deep roots in a diverse range of communities. There are no shortcuts to this project. The thing that often strikes us is how many socialists, generally disillusioned by politicians, are politically unaffiliated but looking for an organisation to be a part of. The only reason that socialists should be active in the Socialist Party is because they believe that it has the potential to play a part in building the mass movement of working people which is the only agency capable of rebuilding society.

However, we need to explicitly develop clear aims and objectives that can assist the formation of new democratic forms of common ownership, control and planning. It is necessary to transform the mode of production and living. The present political system does not take into account the needs of the people, and that they are not invited to participate in decision-making.

Many involved in the environmentalist movement and in particular the Green Party are clearly sincere in their opposition to capitalism and their desire for a better world, but they seem to have no real conception of what "socialism" might mean. "Socialism" for too many is a mere catch-all word for good causes in general but not as the viable vision of the democratic economic and social transformation of society. 

The Green Party can be described as the American labor activist Eugene Debs once put it, “…A middle class party, by whatever name, would still be a capitalist party, for while it might champion ‘little interests’ against ‘big interests,’ with a sop to labor, it would still stand for the capitalist system and the perpetuation of wage slavery…”

It is essential to challenge the “common sense” that economic growth equals social progress. Economic growth is measured at present by an increase in output (or income or expenditure), so by definition if activity increases the economy grows.  Economic ‘activity’ is not about directly meeting human needs but is something abstract, buying and selling and financial transactions are examples of such activity. So in theory there is no link between abstract economic activity and resource use.  However for capitalism to expand, we have to produce and consume more; if we could do better on less, the economic system of capitalism would go into reverse.  So while in a rational system we could use fewer resources, capitalism expands when we use more. The whole world has to be shaken down for profit.  Thus a rainforest is more ‘economically valuable’ if it is exploited for palm oil or bauxite than if it is conserved.  Everything tends to be turned into commodities that can be bought and sold, a process which tends to degrade ecosystems.

The Lima climate talks produced a statement, adopted by everybody, simply because it carries no obligation. It is a gentlemen’s agreement, where it is supposed that the world is inhabited only by gentlemen, including the energy corporations. For the sake of an agreement, not one solution has been found and instead every country is left with the task of deciding its own cuts in pollution according to its own criteria, based on criteria established by national governments on the basis of their domestic politics – not on what scientists have been indicating as absolutely necessary.  Everybody is aware that this is most certainly a disaster for the planet. The interests of humankind are not part of the equation. Humankind is supposed to be parcelled among 196 countries, and so is the planet. It is irrational to expect all the countries producing energy, like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, Iran or Ecuador, Nigeria or Qatar, whose governments are interested in using oil exports to keep afloat will sacrifice their self-interest.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is moving to eliminate any regulatory burden for industry, mining, power projects, and so on with a high-level committee assigned to rewrite India’s environmental law system under which business owners themselves will monitor the pollution generated by their projects, and they will monitor their own compliance! Small coal mines have a one-time permission to expand without any hearing; and there is no longer any need for the approval of tribal villages for forest projects. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar boasted: ”We have decided to decentralise decision making. Ninety percent of the files won’t come to me anymore”. And he said that he was not phasing out important environmental protections, just “those which, in the name of caring for nature, were stopping progress.” He also plans to devolve power to state regulators, which environmental expert say is akin to relinquishing any national integrated policy.

Capitalism is based on continuous expansion. Instead of “production for production’s sake” our economy should be geared towards meeting real human and social needs, something which is compatible with a reduction of material production (and fossil fuel use). Only a socialist transformation will allow us to solve the ecological rift between nature and humankind.

The trouble with parties built on single issue politics like environmentalism, is that lot of people with vastly different political stances may agree on that one issue, meaning that when they come other principles beyond that single issue, and sometimes even in how they handle that issue, there are massive divisions and conflicts. Unless the Greens call for the abolition of capital as a necessary condition for the solution of ecological problems then it is not socialist. At best it can be described as utopian-reformist as from our understandings, the Green Party has plans and ideas about working within the framework of the capitalist mode of production regarding their green policies. They lack an articulated idea about post-capitalism. The Green Party is not anti-capitalist, it just believes in highly regulated capitalism and it naively thinks to implement the reforms the party advocates that this can be done by a mixture of electoral politics and non-violent direct action unaware that it  would require a revolution, the abolition of capitalism to achieve them. The biggest challenge for eco-socialists is convincing Green Party members and the wider green movement that sustainability and social justice can only be achieved in a society based on the common ownership, and a multiplicity of democratic forms of control, of the means of production. If socialism isn’t the answer, then it’s likely there is no answer.

The questions are yet to be answered: does humanity have the capacity that will ensure the maintenance of our species? Can each one of us consummate the radical transformation of consciousness that will spawn a new narrative throughout the world? Or will the human race descend into collective barbarity and primitivism? Human destiny will unfold according to our ability to implement a political awakening, to struggle for the only pragmatic solution, the only realistic alternative. People, all over the world, have very different priorities from corporations and industry but they also have much less political clout. Moments of unusual unrest provide opportunities to break through attitudes of indifference and to highlight social and political injustices. Ultimately, actions speak louder and than words. Actions that underline the urgency, the life-and-death reality of issues the deepening climate crisis, are the most effective and quickest way to bring about substantive change. We can make a new world if we’re willing to undertake the kinds of action called for, actions that become a major component of social activism in this crucial and decisive decade.

Reds and Greens unite! We not only have a world to win, but a planet to save!

“Socialism without ecological concern will still wreck the planet, while ecological concern without a socialist analysis of capitalism will fail to save it” – Michael Lowy