It is Time to Build Tomorrow, Today

 

Our future will be a bleak one unless we successfully make changes. It is not the fault of the frailties of  “human nature” and our consumerism or over-consumption. It is the capitalist system itself that is the cause. The capitalists sacrifice nature for the sake of plunder. 

 A constant stream of politicians and businessmen have attempted to divert us from the solution to climate change with talk about “green capitalism”. They tell us that capitalism can halt its march towards destruction. None of their answers involves replacing capitalist profit with production for real human need, or a transformation of how we live and the way we work, to make our world fundamentally more democratic and fully participatory society.

 The answers from socialists have been so marginalised we have been unable to enter the mainstream debate. When we suggest to even those progressives who should know better than a convincing ecological future must offer a credible vision of abundance, we are rebuffed as Utopian.

Socialists cannot afford to give secondary concern to the poverty and misery of billions around the world in destitution and despair that as unfortunate as it is, they will have to pay the price for a sustainable society by not having their living standards raised to the level of the developed nations.

The aim of the World Socialist Movement is to replace capitalism with a society in which common ownership of the means of production has replaced capitalist ownership. 

We say the capitalist system’s insatiable rapacious need to increase profits cannot be reformed away. If working people do not succeed in ending this system, capitalism will adapt to the new conditions climate change will bring about. But it will impose the burden on the poor people, as capitalism always does. Millions will suffer, many will die and migrants will multiply. The most barbaric forms of brutality will intensify to “manage” the problems stoked by global warming. The capitalist solution will be catastrophic for the great majority of the world’s population. In the struggle to halt ecological destruction, a war against capitalism itself must be waged and in the view of the World Socialist Parties, that should be our primary campaign.

The task ahead is to build a vision that spreads across every sector of citizens and national borders. Our overriding aim is to overcome and overthrow capitalism, to cease growth for the sake of production for profit and to end the degradation of human lives, and instead create new bonds with the environment we all live in. Only world socialism can save the planet from ecological disasters.

There is barely time left to avert imminent catastrophes

COP 26

The Poison of Profit

 

Much of the world is in crisis. It is the capitalist chicken coming home to roost. Millions of acres of forests are on fire. Massive rainfall and flooding menace millions of people. Hurricanes and tropical storms are more frequent and intensive than before thanks to global warming. Then there are the droughts, heating of the planet by carbon emissions.  The profits system has fuelled and spread environmental destruction. Don’t expect the politicians to magically fix things. The ruling class has no solutions. The capitalist class is incapable of long term rational and decent management of society.  As Marx and Engels noted in 1848, class rule societies “end either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

Consumerism is the foundation of the prevailing capitalist socio-economic system. Governments and businesses are completely invested in maintaining high levels of consumption; their profitability and continued existence depend on it. Indeed, far from prioritizing the environment and working to change societal behaviour and deter individuals from spending, huge resources are expended to persuade and encourage consumption; expand market share, develop new products and increase profits for shareholders. Governments talk a concerned environmental talk, but policies are determined by economic growth rather than any concern about CO2 emissions, pollution, or bio-diversity. And most companies, routinely demonstrate that they don’t give a damn about the environment, unless by doing so sales increase and their annual dividends rise. Inherent within capitalism is a set of values that encourage selfishness, greed and complacency. Sufficiency, cooperation and social responsibility, all essential if the environmental crisis is to be met, whilst routinely spouted by politicians and CEOs are often totally absent.  Their insatiable thirst for power and profit while the majority suffer, it has served them very well, which allows their complacency to continue.

Environmentalists cannot wait until governments and businesses judge that going “green” is more profitable or popular than the destructive status quo before they act. Only governments and businesses can make the needed large scale changes (fossil fuels to renewables, electrification of transportation networks,  green production methods etc) only governments and businesses can make the needed large scale changes (fossil fuels to renewables, electrification of transportation networks,  green production methods etc) 

A revolution in consciousness is needed, moving away from selfishness to group responsibility, from apathy to action. Business-as-usual is causing these problems. The corporations are jeopardizing the entire global ecosystem, endangering the future for all children and holding the world's people hostage. Why do we allow such anti-social - even sociopathic - behaviour? How long will it take until the majority finally begins waking up to the fact that it is the capitalist system itself that is the criminal and must be summarily dealt with? Because of the high priority, it places on short-term corporate profit maximisation, capitalism tends to exacerbate the tendency to environmental harm. Under the rules of the capitalist system corporations are compelled to maximise gains and minimise costs, or lose to the competition. They do this by privatising gains and externalising costs to the public domain. So the environment serves as a free sewer to dump corporate wastes. The profit motive pushes other considerations, such as the need to preserve a healthy environment, down the agenda. If we fail to take preventive and precautionary steps civilisation may not outlive capitalism.  We have the technology to move to renewable energy sources. But the capitalist system is detrimental to human inventiveness and innovation. If something is profitable for corporations it happens - even if it is damaging to the vast majority of people, our communities and our natural life-support system. But if something is not seen as profitable - even if it would be beneficial to the majority - then, businesses aren't interested. The deciding factor, the highest priority of capitalism, is short-term profit maximisation for the companies and their shareholders.

 

Environmental education is important but our crucial question is how to shake our fellow citizens out of their stupor and a more effective campaign to dispel capitalist illusions. We can only be truly free when we, the working-class majority, join together and democratically decide what is produced, how it is produced and how the rewards are to be allocated. Only then can we disempower the parasites who are systematically stealing the wealth labour creates and wrecking the environment we all depend upon. As workers, we need to move beyond pay issues so that we are also concerned with wresting control over technology decisions in order to enhance, not damage, environmental health.

Sooner or later - and the sooner the better - we need to start building a cooperative economic democracy that will fundamentally change this world for the better.

Talk About Cop Online

 

Take part in our online discussion meetings.

Click https://meet.jit.si/COP26SPGB to join meeting

Saturday 06 November
COP26 MEETING ON JITSI 7.30pm

Sunday 07 November
COP26 MEETING ON JITSI 7.30pm

Monday 08 November
COP26 MEETING ON JITSI 7.30pm

Tuesday 09 November
COP26 MEETING ON JITSI 7.30pm

Wednesday 10 November
COP26 MEETING ON JITSI 7.30pm

Socialist Standard No. 1407 November 2021

SS NOVEMBER 2021 PDF

• Editorial

• Pathfinders

• Letter

• Cooking the Books 1

• Bird’s Eye View

• Material World

• Nature, production and system change

• To Grow or Not to Grow?

• What Kind of System Change?

• Sharing, But Not Alike

• The Passing Labour Show

• Can we panic now, Captain Mainwaring?

• Shining Path

• Cooking the Books 2

• Proper Gander

• Book Reviews

• 50 Years Ago

• Meetings

• Green New Deal?

 

Solidarity

 

GMB Scotland said members in Glasgow city council's cleansing department would strike for a week from 00:01 on Monday.

The union accused the council of failing to give members "proper time and space" to consider an offer from local authority body Cosla.

GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour confirmed the strike was back on.

She said: "The council has failed to give our members the proper time and space to consider the 11th hour offer from Cosla, and the fact the council moved to block strike action in the Court of Session using anti-trade union legislation, means there is too much bad faith among members towards the employer.

The GMB denied workers were using the global climate conference as a bargaining chip but said staff had been "put in a corner" by Cosla despite their efforts during the pandemic and were "fed up of being disrespected and undervalued by the government".

Bin strikes back on as world leaders arrive for COP26 - BBC News

The Stink of Profit, The Stench of Capitalism

 

The  Socialist Party show that workers everywhere have an underlying common interest around which to unite. Capitalists, in contrast, cannot overcome their divisions. The Socialist Party is dedicated to overthrowing the entire capitalist system.

Nevertheless, at COP26, those who have not broken with capitalist ideas will promote:

1.  Renewable energy.

2. Energy efficiency.

3. Emissions reduction

4.  Capture carbon dioxide.

5. The use of biofuels.

6. Carbon offsetting and carbon trading.

7. Tax rewards and punitive taxes

They will tell us that capitalism has gone green and that the corporations are now environmentally accountable and answerable to government climate regulation. It is all nonsense. Corporate bosses are inveterate liars and incapable of exercising rational judgement when protecting the environment and protecting their profits clash. In the interests of businesses the latter consistently trumps the former. 

Accordingly, many measures taken by corporations ostensibly to mitigate climate change are cosmetic – they are designed to placate public opinion. Other reforms assumed to mitigate climate change, in reality, serve other vested interests. While government legislation invariably ends up toothless with ample loopholes. Soft reforms are linked with the greenwashing PR press releases, worded in language that says much and means little, sounding logical yet without logic.

 Capitalism is inherently wasteful. If we are to save the planet, we have to fundamentally change how society uses, produces and treats its resources. Do we really want to leave to our children and grandchildren a planet that is poisoned and polluted, pillaged and plundered? We cannot be duped by the deceptive rhetoric of “change” and “reform.” A vile slice of rotting pie is no pie at all. 

The idea of a  cooperative commonwealth with collective social ownership and democratic control of the economy by the people has a name: socialism. It is a concept that still deserves to be discussed. We need to construct an economic democracy where the people make the decisions at all levels. Contrary to some claims there has been no model of socialism of that sort anywhere around the world in its history.

The Socialist Party is breaking new ground toward envisioning a new society with genuine freedom. We must understand that the most important thing is our goal, ending capitalist control of the economy and political life, and its replacement by a people’s power that can protect the planet and ensure peace. Climate change and pandemic crises cross borders. We must create solidarity without frontiers. Building world socialism that consciously connects diverse resistance and unites varied struggles will be a formidable challenge, but we must face the future not with fear or despair, but with determination and a vision rooted in our socialist ideals which continue to motivate us. We must educate ourselves and each other. We must be clear in the down-to-earth, understandable language of everyday people, as we expose the lies and subterfuge of the capitalists. We must be organised and learn to encourage one another. Each one, teach one.

Capitalism, Socialism and Ecology

 There was a time when anyone who spoke of climate change would be identified as a crank and weirdo. Today it is the orthodox belief that has become the language of the Pope, Presidents and Prime Ministers. Every schoolchild understands the meaning of ecology and knows the importance of the environment. Within one generation a revolution in ideas has happened. The outcry against the destruction of the health of our planet is fully justified by the terrible facts. The air is unbreathable. The water is undrinkable. Something has to be done about global warming and carbon emissions, and of course, to a limited extent something is being done, but, importantly too little and too late and the reasons for its slowness and indecisiveness are economic, not technical. Climate summits over the last few decades show a consistent record of failure - unjustifiably high hopes and pitifully poor results sum them up. The Greens and other environmentalists propose reforms of capitalism that haven’t worked or have made very little real difference in the past. The  Socialist Party can see no reason why COP26 in Glasgow should be any different. We require to discuss the need, with respect to the ecology of the planet, 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.

 

Nature is being damaged today because the productive activity is oriented towards the accumulation of profits rather than towards the direct satisfaction of human needs. The economic mechanism of the profit system can function in no other way. Profits always take priority both over meeting needs and over protecting the environment. This is why the Earth's resources have been plundered throughout the history of capitalism without a thought for the future, why chemical fertilisers and pesticides are over-used in farming, why power stations and factories release all sorts of dangerous and noxious substances into the air and water, why road transport has replaced rail transport, why human waste is not recycled back to the land, why animals are injected with growth hormones, why goods are made not to last but with built-in obsolescence. The list of anti-ecological practices indulged under capitalism because more profitable is endless. The ecological concern is not just about protecting the environment. It is about human beings too — the way we live and the quality of our life.  With appropriate modification, modern techniques of production are quite capable of providing enough quality food, comfortable housing and decent health for every person on Earth and of doing this without damaging the environment. But the people of the world are up against a well-entrenched economic and social system based on private property, class privilege and coercive economic laws. Reforms under capitalism, however well-meaning or determined, can never solve the environmental crisis — the most they can do is to palliate some aspect of it on a precarious temporary basis. They can certainly never turn capitalism into an ecological society. 

 

With regard to the destruction and polluting of the environment, laws against this are only necessary in a society where the economic tendency is to do this since in a rationally-organised society it just would not occur to anyone involved in producing food to deliberately adulterate it. Laws against plundering and pillaging natural resources are only necessary where the tendency to do this is built-in to the economic system. It also means that such laws, besides being frequently broken, can only be palliatives, attempts to deal with effects while leaving the cause intact.

 

Political campaigners for the environment have a tactical choice to make. Either they go for more laws and restrictions to try to protect the environment or they go for a radical social change to bring about a society in which the environment wouldn’t need protecting. Try to patch up and change the spots of present-day society or work to establish a new society for the lasting and constructive solution?

 

The conclusion is clear: if the present environmental crisis is to be solved and the threat to — indeed the actual degradation of — the environment removed, then capitalism must go. It must be replaced by a socialist society. The only social framework within which human beings could live in harmony with, not at the expense of, the rest of nature is easy enough to discern: it would have to be a society which has the aim of production to satisfy human needs, not to make and accumulate profits. In short, socialism.