"Arise ye prisoners of starvation, Arise ye wretched of the earth."

The global strike for the planet on the 20^th September inspires hope in the people and the youth the world over. It says the future is ours. This day of action may be the portent of a new world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. A world of abundance. It is the promise of the real brotherhood of mankind when young and old march shoulder to shoulder, in solidarity, black, brown and white for climate justice.

The Socialist Party tries to point out that present society is not providing for people because of its economic imperatives and that we can change those by political action which will then permit people access to a better life, a better well-being both physically and mentally and so associates itself with the steady-state, zero-growth model of economy for a socialist society, explaining that we envisage an anti-consumerism trend to prevail and expect a drop in consumption levels but with the important caveat that there will be an initial phase of higher production to raise people to a decent standard of living. We say this sustainable future can come about because with socialism there will be little need for conspicuous consumption and public ostentatiousness to show status.

Socialism will provide a democratic forum which no one has today other than the capitalists, who will have disappeared. Local and regional factors will also apply, with democracy working at a local as well as a global level. We don`t see anything being compulsory. Coercion is not compatible with socialism (albeit unless it`s the coercion initially necessary in dispossessing the capitalist class.)

Socialism is all about aspiring to live in togetherness with our fellow human beings and from that will arise living in harmony with the planet, whether a wild forest or a tamed farm. The liberation of mankind through a real socialist society would be the liberation of the whole planet, the animal world, the plants, the forests, the seas and the World's natural resources from the hands of the capitalists. Our vision of a future socialist society, one without racism, ageism, sexism, and speciesism, a world that does not inflict unnecessary cruelty on non-humans which emotionally damages the human within us all. 

It is idle utopian blueprinting to suggest certain trends that already are developing today within capitalism will grow exponentially within socialism. We aren't advancing scenarios that are not rooted in real life with everybody, for instance, having personal helicopters or whatever, but simply stating the obvious that in a sharing system we will also share public transport which will be only better. Socialists are not on some crusade to proselytise a particular life-style such as veganism but as socialists, we envisage a rational well-planned society that will endeavour to be sustainable as far as possible which leads certain conclusions, that there will be a change of tastes and a different menu in socialism. Socialism should be a world of humane humans, not one catering for carnivores with carving knives.  We seek respect for life and it will begin with our own species but it will shift to others.  The Socialist Party's case is that these changes cannot and will not be permitted by capitalism.

No climate research report or scientific warning, no political summit statement nor new technological innovation has altered the upward trajectory of carbon emissions. Some think we are already too far down the path of environmental destruction to stem its progress, much less reverse it. For decades, ecologists have called attention to the world's most pressing environmental problems. Yet the problems remain unresolved. Capitalism is a blind process of profit accumulation. Capitalism without growth is impossible, so it’s the capitalist need for profit that is responsible for the poisoning of the planet and its people. The functionaries of capitalism, for all their hot air on how to protect the planet, they are never going to challenge the thing they most believe in. They will still be making speeches while the world fries and dies.

 Regardless of all the platitudes and palliative proposals to the World's environmental emergency, the 20^th of September mass actions draws attention to the capitalist system and all its forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination which have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk. It challenges the core belief that sustains the global capitalist order: namely, the idea that we can organise our economy around the goal of perpetual growth and profit accumulation (if capitalism doesn't report "growth" then it's in "recession"). 

The Global Climate Strike hopefully helps lead us towards real solutions to the urgent global ecological crises that face us. If not climate change will wreak its havoc on us by constraining our access to the basics of life: vital resources that include food, water, land, and energy. This will be devastating. the future effects of climate change to predict the following with reasonable confidence. Rising sea levels will flood many coastal areas, destroying large cities, critical infrastructure (including roads, railroads, ports, airports, pipelines, refineries, and power plants), and prime agricultural land. Diminished rainfall and prolonged droughts will turn once-verdant croplands into dust bowls, reducing food output and turning millions into “climate refugees.” More severe storms and intense heat waves will kill crops, trigger forest fires, cause floods, and destroy critical infrastructure. No one can predict how much food, land, water, and energy will be lost as a result of this onslaught. But the consequences are obvious. We are now heading directly to-wards a world of chaos.

We need to look not at the technical questions such as how energy is generated or the methods on how crops are grown, important though these of course are. Rather, we need to examine the economic basis of society and see the implications of the ways in which production as a whole is organised and of how priorities are considered.