For a sustainable socialist world

Driving the message home.

The environment is constantly in the news and has become a major political issue. And rightly so, because a serious crisis really does exist. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat have all become contaminated to a greater or lesser extent. Ecology - the branch of biology that studies the relationships of living organisms to their environment - is important, as it is concerned with explaining exactly what has been happening and what is likely to happen if present trends continue. If it's not global warming and climate change, there is concern over future energy resources and rain forest depletion. The list of problems seems never-ending with the increasing human impact making serious inroads on finite resources. Hardly a day goes by when politicians, economists, environmentalists and the scientific community are not voicing their opinions and offering various explanations for the continual global degradation. The planet is now under threat of a worsening, dangerous environment for human and other forms of life. Without exception none of the solutions query the root cause of global environmental destruction. Consequently, all of the solutions are pro-market and pro-profit and the degradation continues unresolved. What is needed is an alternative solution outside of the capitalist mind-set and one that takes into consideration the ownership and control of our productive processes; in short the social ownership of the means of life. Only then will we be able to address solutions which will not only benefit all of humanity but also the global environment.

We live in a social system predicated on endless expansion. The blind, unplanned drive to accumulate that is the hallmark of capitalist production – the profit motive – has created the problem of climate change, not individuals profligate natures or overpopulation. There can be no such thing as sustainable or environmentally friendly capitalism. If the argument has been that it is capitalism that has caused the ecological crisis then the solution must be single and particular: get rid of the cause. Things won't change without a system change. Competing capitalist states cannot plan and coordinate on the global level required and that such planning could only realistically come about through a completely different way of organising production – one based not on making a profit but meeting human need. Only a society not driven by the profit motive would benefit both people and nature positively. Nothing short of totally re-modelling the world on a social, political, technological, cultural and infrastructural level within a fully democratic process carried out by those who will be affected by those decisions, with no nation states or borders and therefore no resource wars.

 Research on increasing environmental degradation has painted an alarming picture of the likely future if the profit system continues to hold sway. Voices claiming that the proper use of market forces will solve the problem can still be heard, but as time goes on the emerging facts of what is happening serve only to contradict those voices. The motor of capitalism is profit for the minority capitalist class to add to their capital, or capital accumulation. Environmental concerns, if considered at all, always come a poor second. The waste of human and other resources used in the market system is prodigious, adding to the problems and standing in the way of their solution. Earth Summits, conferences and treaties over the past decades show a consistent record of failure, unjustifiably high hopes and pitifully poor results. The Green Party and other environmental bodies propose reforms of capitalism that haven’t worked or have made very little real difference in the past. Socialists can see no reason why it should be any different in the future. There exists a vital need for a revolution that is both based on socialist principles of common ownership and production solely for needs, and environmental principles of conserving - not destroying - the wealth and amenities of the planet.

Production under socialism needs to be both co-ordinated and de-centralised. If we remove the agents for profit (corporations and governments of the capitalist system) and engage in honest democracy of the people, by the people and for the people, decisions can be made to halt damaging practices and implement methods of farming, fishing, mining, extraction, energy production, manufacturing etc. that do no harm to either man or environment. Safe working practices will be the norm. Resources can be protected and used carefully when incentive for their rape and pillage is gone. Energy usage can be reduced drastically in 1001 ways using alternative energies, building using integral insulation and energy conservation techniques, vastly reducing transport as work and societal practices change, stopping air freight of “luxury” and unnecessary goods, producing and manufacturing locally wherever feasible, etc. Local communities could have the final say on resources in their area with the possibility that sometimes the resource will be deemed off-limits and so remain untouched, and if no one is prepared to work mining or drilling to extract a particular resource then an alternative will need to be found.

There is the need for a revolt from below in support of social and ecological transformation, pointing beyond the existing system. The transition to socialism and the transition to an ecological society are one. Anyone who has heard our socialist case will know, the ‘abundance’ referred to has never referred to the open-ended consumerism encouraged by the advertisers but has rather as its target a stable and more satisfying way of life in which the scramble to get things is no longer central. With material survival removed from the casino of the marketplace by the abolition of commodity production we can expect that individuals will calm down their acquisitive desires and pursue more satisfying activities.