This is the last in a series of four brief selections of my writing published on Luna17 and Counterfire this year.
These posts are all directly concerned with left-wing books, with the exception of my fairly lengthy article on revolutionary organisation. A number of them are reviews, but there's also a short introduction to chapter one of Lenin's 'The State and Revolution' and an article examining some key ideas in David Harvey's 'The Enigma of Capital'.
* If you live in (or are ever visiting) north-east England, I strongly recommend visiting Durham's People's Bookshop, a radical bookshop which opened in June. It is, as it happens, where I bought my copies of 'Chavs' and 'The Enigma of Capital'.
'Can we solve the daunting problem of climate change within a capitalist system? This is no academic question - a wealth of scientific evidence points to the potentially catastrophic scale of climate change.
There remains a huge gulf between what needs to be done to stop climate change wreaking destruction and the solutions offered by political and business leaders. While seemingly everyone proclaims their ‘green’ credentials - except of course the ‘climate sceptics’ who deny climate change - the dominant solutions are superficial, trapped within the logic of the very system that has generated such terrible problems in the first place.
Ecology and Socialism, by US-based environmental activist and science academic Chris Williams, scrutinises the mainstream arguments and offers a more radical alternative, as indicated by its subtitle: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis. Derek Wall, an activist in the Green Left current of the UK’s Green Party, is similarly concerned with outlining an alternative to capitalist remedies. His book, The Rise of the Green Left: Inside the Worldwide Ecosocialist Movement, locates the causes of climate change in the unchecked expansion of the global capitalist economy and outlines a manifesto for change.'
The new promotional video for 10:10, the very respectable and mainstream environmental group, has generated a fair amount of online reaction and discussion in the last day or two. It is perhaps the worst campaign video I've ever seen. Here it is:
It's already been pulled from 10:10's website, but purely - judging by this half-baked apology- on the grounds of its style offending people. There's no hint of grasping that it's so bad because the politics stink. The problems of form derive from errors in content.
The basic failure here is its perpetuating of the myth that reducing carbon emissions is primarily a matter of individual responsibility, thus depoliticising the whole issue of climate change as well as misrepresenting the reality of what drives it. There's no sense that some forces in society - the aviation industry, say, or oil mutinationals - might perhaps be disproportionately responsible.
We aren't all equally responsible for causing climate change. We aren't all equal in suffering the effects, now or in the future. And we don't share responsibility equally for stalling the destruction of our climate.
There is no indication that we may, in our millions, need to pressure the rich and powerful - and our elected representatives who tend to buckle to their interests - to deliver serious social and political action to avert environmental catastrophe.
What I find especially nauseating is that in a number of the examples it's the higher-status individual - teacher, boss - who is enlightened about climate change while its their 'inferiors' - pupils, workers - who are ignorant and irresponsible. It is deeply snobbish and reinforces the mistaken idea that the elite is already 'on board' with tackling climate change, but now ordinary people need to be similarly convinced.
Not only does it turn climate change into an individual responsibility issue, it reduces it to being simply about awareness. If only people understand the need to reduce their carbon footprint they will do so - and if they don't then they are backward, irrational, selfish. It's as if Richard Dawkins, not Richard Curtis, wrote and directed it.
This is moralistic and judgemental, but it's also missing the point: corporations and governments know about the effects of climate change, and know what can be done in response, but the profit-seeking, competitive logic of the system acts as a massive pressure against them reducing emissions. They aren't willing to pursue actions or policies which conflict with economic interests. They put profit before people or planet.
The deep political conservatism is what gives rise to the appalling smugness and contempt: it's so self-satisfied ('we are enlightended, we do our bit') and scornful ('some people just won't do their bit, the idiots'). This is likely to repel most people, propping up the right-wing climate deniers' steretype of environmentalists as moralising and superior.
In fact it is a gift to the Right, an inexcusable own-goal. We shouldn't defend this patronising silliness, but instead articulate a better political case for climate action - and devise creative methods for persuasively conveying that case to millions of people.
Yes, it is ordinary people who can save our planet, but not in the ways envisaged by 10:10. Collective social and political action, not individual 'solutions', is what we urgently need.
The New Yorker has a revealing feature article on the billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, who allegedly provide the right-wing libertarian Tea Party movement with a lot of its funding.
'The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products.
Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.”
The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.'
The National Climate March is part of a Global Day of Action on climate, on the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Cancun, Mexico
Challenge the government to take the action we need to meet the climate threat.
Provisional plan:
12. noon Assemble at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, for Zero Carbon March
2.00 pm Climate Emergency Rally in Parliament Square
March ( amble, stroll, jog, run, skip, dance ) with us for climate action and climate justice:
A Zero Carbon Britain by 2030
A Green Energy Revolution and….. One Million Climate Jobs Now !
Ten per cent cuts within the next year
End Domestic Flights
Moratorium on Agrofuel use
55 mph speed limit and scrap the roads programme
Good video from Climate Camp, next to the Royal Bank of Scotland Global HQ in Edinburgh, helping build the climate justice movement. Video by you and I films.
It's not the first time activists have made the links between RBS and environmental destruction - also see this video.
These two local events (in Newcastle) may not quite achieve the aims implied in the headline, but they should at least be a step in the right direction.
Organised by Tyne and Wear Left Unity Building Left Unity Speaker: Stephen Hall, Wigan People's Alliance
Gateshead Civic Centre (Saltwell Room) 7-9.p.m. All Welcome
Where Next after Copenhagen?
Star and Shadow, Newcastle Wednesday 3 March, 7.30pm
Reel News return to the Star and Shadow to show their new film about social and environmental protests at the Copenhagen Climate Talks.
On 3 March Reel News return to the Star and Shadow in Newcastle, to show their new film about the protests at the Copenhagen climate summit. It follows a similar event in north London, which was supported by a wide range of campaign groups and organisations.
A call has been issued 'for a Red/Green coalition to help build support for this event'. As well as a successful film event there's the potential for this to strengthen a currently fragmented climate movement in Tyneside for the longer term. The direction of the movement after the breakthrough Copenhagen protests is currently the vital issue for campaigners. Individuals and organisations should contact Roger at coxxxxy@hotmail.com if they can help publicise the event or can offer support in any way.
Where next after Copenhagen? Wednesday 3 March, 7.30pm Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, responded to the failure of the UN Copenhagen summit by calling an alternative - and far more radical - summit on climate change and capitalism. The summit of social movements is scheduled for 22 April. What should anti-capitalists and climate activists be talking about, in the run up to the summit and at the event itself?
These articles - most of them reflections on Copenhagen or its implications for the climate movement - are all a useful basis for thinking and talking about the issues.
Naomi Klein remains one of the anti-capitalist movement's best and most perceptive writers. Her assessment of Copenhagen is HERE. Jonathan Neale wrote two reflections on Copenhagen: the first is about the political leaders' failures, while the second discusses the way forward for the global climate movement. Finally, Anna Chen takes on the myth that Copenhagen's deadlock is all China's fault HERE.
The UN's Copenhagen summit on climate change was essentially a failure. This stems in large part from the tension between entrenched economic interests and the kind of action required to radically combat climate change. The scope of action needed is in conflict with a capitalist system geared towards the pursuit of profit, no matter what the costs to people or planet. Political leaders - including our own in Britain - are, furthermore, reluctant to go down the road of massive state intervention, even though this is precisely what is urgently needed.
The failure of world leaders, despite pressure for a deal from the largest climate demonstrations yet seen, opens more of a gap between the political elite and the movements over the politics of climate change. It exposes as implausible the notion that we're essentially 'all in it together', on the same side and wanting the same things. Campaigners will now increasingly come into conflict with the leaders who have disappointed their hopes and ignored their pleas. There's likely to be some demoralisation, but it seems there's also widespread anger and a determination to take the climate movement forward.
Three things, it seems to me, are especially vital now.
1. The large-scale, highly-coordinated international protests are important, and must continue. Climate change is the ultimate global problem; the climate movement must have a high level of organisation across national boundaries. These events inspire millions, galvanise media and public attention, and build pressure on the politicians. There were similar protests at summits between Seattle a decade ago and the mid-Noughties, but this phenomenon then went into sharp decline. We may now be seeing a revival of such international mobilisations.
2. This may seem paradoxical, after my first point, but it's also inceasingly important to root the movement in every locality. The Copenhagen protests combined with the big London events the previous weekend illustrated the scale of mobilisation that is now possible here. This will only be developed if there are local groups, bringing together a wide range of activists and supporters, in every area. The big events give impetus to such local development; the local groups, in turn, enable future national and international mobilisations to be far larger.
3. As Jonathan Neale argues, the 'One Million Green Jobs' initiaitve should be central to campaigning. It links climate change with organising a response to the economic crisis, in particular rising unemployment, and puts the emphasis on large-scale government action rather than personal lifestyle choices. This will require a massive movement from below - it isn't going to come about from asking nicely. It opens the door to much greater participation in climate campaigns by the trade unions, but should be seen as much more than just a union issue. It offers the prospect of a big, sustained protest movement that connects the strength of the organised working class with other forces.
EXTRA: links to articles, courtesy of Derek Wall, by Derek himself HERE, Daniel Tanuro HERE, and Klimaforum HERE.
Campaign Against Climate Change has helpfully provided 'an outline of some of the things that are happening in Copenhagen on Saturday (our Global Day of Action), what will be happening here in the UK, and just a taster of what people are doing all over the world to call for climate action'.
'In Copenhagen there will be a day of demonstrations on Saturday 12th December. Friends of the Earth International are organising a “Flood for Climate Justice” starting at 10am, gathering at Halmtorvet [near the Klimaforum09 venue]. A colourful procession moving as a human flood will march through the streets of Copenhagen to Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) where there will be a street theatre act.
In Copenhagen in the afternoon, a coalition of climate organisations will gather for a mass demonstration. The march will start at Christiansborg Slotsplads at 1pm, and will reach the Bella Centre (the UN Summit Venue) for an assembly at around 5 pm. See HERE for more info.
'Our Global Day of Action will see protests of many forms all over the world. India is expected to see 50,000 people demonstrating on the streets of New Delhi, with actions happening in 15 other countries, including a candle-lit vigil on Kanyakumari Beach in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. 10,000 people are expected to join in “Walks against Warming” in different locations across Australia.
In Tanzania there will be a mass bike ride as well as a Demonstration in Morogoro, while in city of Osasco, Brazil, the will be a parade with floats and drummers attended by students, workers and environmentalists. See what else is happening around the rest of the world, from Dakar to Djakarta and Buenos Aries to Istanbul, on the Global Day of Action site HERE.'
As well as the demonstrations in Copenhagen itself, and the actions elsewhere, there are protests and events lined up in the UK, especially in London. Campaign Against Climate Change provides details of three of the most important:
'During the second week of Copenhagen, from Monday 14th - Thursday 17th Dec, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition will be organising 'flying pickets' at the embassies of countries that are blocking progress in the UNFCCC talks. Each day the country identified by Climate Action Network (CAN) as 'Fossil of the Day' will be targeted.
Camp for Climate Action have set up in Trafalgar Square and aim to stay there for the duration of the talks. You can go and support them by pitching a tent and staying or by simply taking visit and taking their minds off the cold. More info HERE.
For those all over the country: Avaaz are heading a mass phone-in to Gordon Brown ahead of the meeting of European leaders this Thursday and Friday to decide the offers they will be taking to Copenhagen. Help flood the PM’s phone line with demands for European leaders to offer 30-40% cuts by 2020 and put forward sufficient finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries at the talk.More info HERE.'
Leftwing Labour MP John McDonnell made an eloquent anti-capitalist speech on Saturday, as part of the demonstrations in London demanding action on climate change. Campaign Against Climate Change, who organised the rally addressed by McDonnell, reported: 'We had a loud and lively crowd taking radical demands for UK action to the biggest demonstration on climate change this country has ever seen. We had a great day hearing rousing speeches, excellent music by Sieze the Day and joining in the 50,000 strong blue Wave march to Parliament organised by Stop Climate Chaos.'
Videos of the speeches can be seen HERE. As the organisers record: 'John McDonnell MP, who has signed our EDM 189 outlining our climate emergency demands, championed the active opposition in his constituency to the proposed expansion at Heathrow, while Simon Hughes MP spoke of the link between the climate and economic crises. Bolivian Ambassador Maria Souviron gave a voice to the global south and declared the UKs responsibility and moral obligation to lead the way in climate action. Chris Baugh represented the links between the environmental and labour movement in our call for green jobs, while Ellie Hopkins celebrated the growing youth climate movement. Seize the Day opened up the rally with a fantastic set of their inspiring songs getting everyone in the mood for a day of action.'
An estimated 50,000 people took part in the Stop Climate Chaos London demonstrations, with at least 8000 marching in Glasgow. There were also sizeable protests in places like Brussels, Paris and Berlin, but internationally it's this Saturday - the global day of action - that will be really significant. The mass protests in Copenhagen itself will be complemented by demonstrations in many different countries. There are 'events all around the world with 10,000 expected in ‘Walks against Warming’ in Australia, up to 50,000 expected on the streets of New Delhi, 20,000 at a concert in Utrecht and a host of other events from Dakar to Djakarta and from Buenos Aires to Istanbul.'
This is from one of the most interesting and intelligent blog posts I've read in a long time, reflecting on yesterday's climate protests (pictured), mental health, political alienation and more:
'My generation, overwhelmingly, faces a choice between becoming politically active or becoming massively despondent, 'going crazy' with frustration at a world that has turned out so much harder and crueler than we thought it would be even when we'd grown up enough to realise that politicians and business leaders would repeatedly and inevitably let us down.'
The Climate Emergency Rally is one of several major events organised for next Saturday (5 December), in the run up to the big Copenhagen climate talks. The rally organisers invite supporters to 'challenge the government to take emergency action on climate change'.
The rally starts at noon at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park in central London. Speakers include Michael Meacher MP, Simon Hughes MP, John McDonnell MP, Caroline Lucas MEP, Maria Sauveron (Bolivian ambassador) and Chris Baugh (Public and Commercial Services Union). Musical interludes will be provided by Seize the Day.
Protestors from a wide range of organisations and backgrounds are gearing up for the biggest UK demonstration on climate so far. “The Wave” is the centrepiece of the day's activities, with demonstrators leaving Grosvenor Square at 1pm to surround parliament at around 3pm. The Climate Emergency Rally precedes “The Wave”; rally-goers will feed into it as it leaves Grosvenor Square.
Demands from Campaign Against Climate Change include banning domestic flights, a million new green jobs by the end of next year, and an end to agrofuel use. The campaign declares: 'We want to make sure there is no chance that the Government will ‘spin’ the climate demo as simply in support of their position at the Copenhagen Talks – whilst we want to demand a fair and effective international agreement we also want to demand much more action on climate from the UK government, here at home'.
The Campaign against Climate Change is promoting the NATIONAL CLIMATE MARCH, taking place on Saturday 5th December. It could well be this country's biggest demo about climate change so far.
Campaign groups are calling 'for urgent climate action and climate justice' - the demo, in London, is significantly timed for the Saturday before the critically important Copenhagen Climate Talks.
There are three major events being advertised for the day. Firstly, the Climate Emergency Bike Ride, assembling at 10.00 am at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, finishing at the Climate Emergency Rally. This is the second key event and is at noon at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park. The rally will demand a declaration of a Climate Emergency plus 10% cuts and a million green jobs by end 2010. It will also specicially call for: banning of domestic flights, a 55 mph speed limit and scrapping of the roads programme, and an end to agrofuel use.
The final, and most important, event is known as The Wave, the intention being for thousands to descend on Parliament and surround it. The lead-up march leaves Grosvenor Square at 1.15 pm to surround Parliament at 3.00 pm.
As part of a National Day of Action - Thursday 17 September - in support of Vestas Workers... Protest March and Rally Assemble Civic Centre, Newcastle, at 4.30pm, and march to Department of Energy offices at Gallowgate
The day of action is supported locally by RMT, Unite (Tyneside Engineering), Workers Climate Action North East, Campaign against Climate Change and Tyneside Socialist Forum. Speakers include a National Grid striker and representatives of the PCS and RMT unions. Supporters are asked to wear red or green. Banners and placards are welcome.
Camapigners will be leafleting Newcastle Civic Centre on Tuesday 15 and Thursday 17 at 8am, and also leafleting Haymarket Metro on Wednesday 16 at 4.45pm. There'll be banner and placard making outside Northumbria University's students union on Tuesday 15, from noon til 2pm.
A truly inspired video, I'm sure you will agree. I'm posting it as much because I think it's an excellent model for activists' use of video as I am out of sympathy with the message and cause. I like the notion of videos designed to promote events in advance, especially when they're as well-made as this one.
On 28 March 35,000 people marched 'for jobs, justice and climate' in central London. Put People First, the coalition of organisations responsible, is now gearing up for the G20 Finance Ministers' visit to London on Friday 4 September. Details of events for the day are HERE.
While these activities won't be on the scale as the demo earlier in the year, they represent a chance to bring trade unionists, movement activists and the left together in united protest - demanding action is taken to alleviate the impact of economic crisis.
Plans are also being made for the G20's return visit to these shores in November, though on that occasion St Andrews is the location (fine for us Geordies - it's nearer than London). Protests and a 'G20 Alternatives' conference are in the pipeline - I'll confirm details when I have them, but the weekend of 7/8 November is the main focus.
The idea will be to bring together a number of big issues - hopefully the 'war on terror' will be one of them, as its exclusion from the official slogans in March was an unfortunate weakness. If Stop the War and peace groups can be more involved, and help build a good turnout, that will surely strengthen everyone.
All of these events will in turn build towards what should be this country's biggest climate change protest yet. The 5 December national demo co-incides with the UN talks in Copenhagen and will be part of a global wave of action. The date is also, interestingly, very close to the 10th anniversary of one of the anti-capitalist movement's great landmarks: the protests at Seattle's WTO summit.
As far as I'm aware, nothing is currently arranged to mark the occasion. This seems a shame, as its precisely the Seattle mobilisation's combination of unity, radicalism and militancy that we need now more than ever. Learning the lessons of our movement's history can serve us in a new era of deep capitalist crisis.
As I've mentioned previously, this autumn will see two major opportunities for anti-war and anti-G20 protest in quick succession in Scotland. Those of us in the North East of England will be mobilising for the demonstrations too.
G20 Finance Ministers - Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his equivalents in the other major economies of the world - will gather to discuss the global economic crisis in St Andrews. They will be joined, so I gather, by the governors of their respective countries' central banks. This is an important summit for our ruling elites - and we can expect little in the way of new solutions.
Just one week later the Nato Defence Ministers will be heading to Scotland - this time to Edinburgh, principally to talk about the occupation of Afghanistan they bear responsibility for. They will be greeted by thousands of anti-war protestors angry at the continuing tragedy of that country.
These demonstrations provide a rare chance to tie together the big issues facing us all. Put People First - the coalition of unions and NGOs behind a major London demo in March - is mobilising against the G20, as well as Scottish TUC and Stop the War. This will no doubt feed into the following weekend's anti-war protest and broaden its politcal scope. Crucially, the day after the demo there's a chance to bring it all together with a counter-summit covering war, climate change and recession.
This is the latest information,from Scottish Stop the War, about the anti-Nato mobilisation (I'll post further details - about these events and the previous weekend's activities - when available):
Saturday 14th November: Stop the War Scotland has called a demonstration in Edinburgh. The demo is supported by UK Stop the War, SCND and British CND. The slogans are 'No to Nato', 'Troops Out of Afghanistan', 'Scrap Trident' and 'Jobs not Bombs'.
Sunday 15th November: Alternative summit - in Edinburgh - with venue to be confirmed. The themes are imperialism and war/ climate change / jobs and the economy.
If you would like to get involved in the organising groups for either the demo or the alternative summit please contact scotlandstopwar@hotmail.co.uk
