Among
the most serious problems facing society today is that of CO2
pollution and its environmental destruction. Air pollution, toxic
landfills, tainted and toxic drinking water, industrial pollutants
and plastics in our rivers and oceans, toxic or cancer-producing
pesticides, unhealthy hormones and antibiotics in food —the list of
bad news on the environment is seemingly unending. Each of these
environmental problems represents a serious menace in its own right.
Firm and decisive action against all forms of those environment
problems is long overdue. The laws that have been enacted and
regulatory agencies that have been established have at every turn
been subverted by the very corporations and firms responsible for the
pollution, and by the class of capitalists that owns them. The
regulations themselves have been watered down; agencies aren't funded
adequately to act on them and are frequently corrupted by corporate
interests; enforcement of even inadequate regulations has been poor,
raising the question of whether the laws and regulations were ever
in-tended to be anything more than window dressing. Capitalist-class
rule over the economy explains why government regulation is so
ineffective: under capitalism, government itself is essentially a
tool of the capitalist class. Politicians may be elected
“democratically,” but because they are financed, supported and
decisively influenced by the economic power of the capitalist
class,
To understand why regulation hasn't worked and what kind of action will work to end this worsening ecological nightmare, it must be understood that the environmental crisis is fundamentally an economic and class issue. Its cause lies in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Methods exist or can readily be developed to safely neutralise, recycle or contain carbon emissions. Less polluting forms of transportation and energy can be built. Adequate supplies of food can be grown without deadly pesticides. The problem is that, under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make these kinds of decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and controls the industries and services—the capitalist class. And the capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve, first and foremost, one goal—that of maximising profit for themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins.
To understand why regulation hasn't worked and what kind of action will work to end this worsening ecological nightmare, it must be understood that the environmental crisis is fundamentally an economic and class issue. Its cause lies in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Methods exist or can readily be developed to safely neutralise, recycle or contain carbon emissions. Less polluting forms of transportation and energy can be built. Adequate supplies of food can be grown without deadly pesticides. The problem is that, under capitalism, the majority of people have no power to make these kinds of decisions about production. Under the capitalist system, production decisions are made by the small, wealthy minority that owns and controls the industries and services—the capitalist class. And the capitalists who make up that class make their decisions to serve, first and foremost, one goal—that of maximising profit for themselves. That is where the environmental crisis begins.
The
Socialist Party declares that the continued calls for sacrifice on
the part of the working class stem not from the empirical need to
conserve natural resources, but rather from the fact that profit
motivation precludes the possibility of conservation through
restructuring industrial practices, and limits our ability to produce
such resources. The Socialist Party is opposed to production as
currently practiced under capitalism, where profit considerations are
ranked above considerations of safety and sustainability. Whenever
and wherever possible, we shall encourage environmentalists to go
beyond the narrow scope of their current activity, and work towards
the socialist reconstruction of society.
Climate
activists expect
the outmoded, profit-motivated, competitive and class-divided
capitalist system that has created the mess we are in to get us out
of it. Change is to be made within the framework of the existing
capitalist system. Ignored is the waste and destruction of raw
materials and natural resources by the anarchy of capitalist
production—its unplanned, senseless duplication of effort in a mad,
competitive drive by each capitalist to “capture” the market.
Never mentioned is the manner in which every corporation is trying to
exploit the existing circumstances to destroy its competition and
entrench itself more solidly as one of the few that control the
overwhelming proportion of the nation’s resources and wealth. Rarely
a word said about the incredible waste and destruction, not only of
finite resources, but of human life itself, through capitalist wars
and continuous preparations for ever more destructive wars. The issue
confronting the workers is not the climate crisis. The real issue is,
shall we continue to tinker with those effects of global warming or
shall we get rid of their cause—the capitalist system and replace
it with socialism—a system of common ownership, democratic
management and planned production for use.
The
issue, literally, is survival. The harm and damage already done to
all of us and to our environment by capitalism’s existence is now
beyond exact calculation. If it is not abolished and replaced with a
viable socialist cooperative commonwealth by the politically and
industrially organised working class, it will destroy itself. And
there is the distinct possibility that it may destroy humanity and
the world in the process. That can happen, but it need not happen.
And it won’t happen if all who realise the need for a socialist
reconstruction of society join with us to appeal to our proletarian
brothers and sisters of every race, of every colour, of every creed,
to organise their latent political and industrial might as a class to
accomplish the revolutionary change to socialism and thus guarantee
the future safety and well-being of humanity. The Socialist Party
thus seeks to transform society into one based on new social
relationships that will allow the worker-majority to become the
master of technology, rather than vice versa. Workers today continue
to live under the shadow of ecological disaster, but in a socialist
society workers could enjoy a material abundance without in any way
compromising their health or the planet's. As the manifold social
problems of capitalism increasingly threaten the lives and well-being
of workers, it becomes more and more imperative that they recognise
the need to organise politically and economically to take control of
the economy, abolish class-divided capitalism and administer
production through their own democratic bodies. The capitalist system
carries in its wake environmental degradation and destruction.
Despite
clear evidence of devastating climate change will have in the future
our rulers refuses to take timely action to deal with the problem
because such action will adversely affect capitalist profits and
economic growth. There is no time to delay. Capitalism requires
profit and economic growth to survive. Capitalists want their profits
now. The future has little meaning in a profit-driven society.
Environmental reforms and regulation are not the answer. Capitalists
evade even those feeble efforts. If the future is not to be plagued
with catastrophes predicted related to global warming, the political
and economic system of capitalism must end.
The
Socialist Party urges fellow-workers to organise to abolish
capitalism and institute production for use. Workers must realise
their latent economic and political power as operators of the
industries and services and begin to integrate into one movement with
the goal of building a new society with completely different motives
for production—satisfing human needs and wants instead of
profit—and to organise their own political party to challenge the
political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change
at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether.
The new society they must aim for must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organisations based in their communities and workplaces. In such a society, the people themselves would make decisions and will administer the economy. Such a society—a social democracy—is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power in the hands of the workers, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to reducing carbon emissions, employing the renewable resources we now have available and develop new ones, and clean up the damage already done.
It is up to the majority of people who actually produce society’s goods and services and daily operate its industries, to end this crisis. The action workers must take is to realise their latent economic and political power is by creating one movement with the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production — human needs and wants instead of profit—and to organise their own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether. The new society they must aim for must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and society itself would control them democratically through the people's own organisations. Such a society—a socialist industrial democracy—is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis.
The new society they must aim for must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and the workers themselves would control them democratically through their own organisations based in their communities and workplaces. In such a society, the people themselves would make decisions and will administer the economy. Such a society—a social democracy—is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis. By placing the economic decision-making power in the hands of the workers, by eliminating capitalist control and the profit motive in favour of a system in which workers produce to meet their own needs and wants, the necessary resources and labour could be devoted to reducing carbon emissions, employing the renewable resources we now have available and develop new ones, and clean up the damage already done.
It is up to the majority of people who actually produce society’s goods and services and daily operate its industries, to end this crisis. The action workers must take is to realise their latent economic and political power is by creating one movement with the goal of building a new society with completely different motives for production — human needs and wants instead of profit—and to organise their own political party to challenge the political power of the capitalists, express their mandate for change at the ballot box and dismantle the state altogether. The new society they must aim for must be one in which society itself, not a wealthy few, would own the industries and services, and society itself would control them democratically through the people's own organisations. Such a society—a socialist industrial democracy—is what is needed to solve the environmental crisis.
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