By Geillis Duncan
This pamphlet explores the concept of ecosocialism. i.e. a socialism that puts environmentalism at the centre of the working class struggle. Secondly it takes up some of the debates amongst left wing environmentalists, and finally how rs21 propose ecosocialist organising in Britain in the coming years.
However, the author makes clear on page 6 that the aim is ‘not to “lay down a line”, nor create a plan or a programme, but to encourage you to get involved in the development of a worker-led ecosocialist movement’.
The pamphlet successfully describes the planetary devastation caused by climate change, but cautions against the notion of an ‘apocalyptic’ sudden end to the earth as we know it. The struggle, Woody says, will last for decades in a gradually worsening situation and involves a fight to stop capitalist exploitation of people and the environment.
Technology will not solve this on its own and capitalism will only turn to green solutions if they are profitable. Woody uses the notion of ‘metabolic rift and shift’ (basically the growing destructive contradictions within capitalism) to explain how the profit system cannot solve the climate crisis.
To solve this we must organise workers in struggle and win them to socialist ideas, fighting to destroy capitalism and at the same time helping workers fight for a ‘just transition’ to decent jobs which will meet human needs without harming the environment.
Woody is also good at explaining how international capitalism, based primarily in the Northern hemisphere, exploits the Global South, arguing that developed nations should pay their debts to poorer countries. However he does not call for a cancellation of all debts owed by poorer countries, which would make a real difference.
He is rightly critical of the Green New Deal as mostly window-dressing, ensuring big business makes a profit from the transition. Similarly he is critical of the union bureaucracies which often do not encourage workers to organise for retraining in non-polluting industries. ‘We need trade unionists willing to engage in political education around the issue of climate to push workers beyond simple economic demands.’
The pamphlet is also useful in its criticisms of direct action against banks, airports and fossil fuel companies. While direct action is brave, sometimes dangerous and now severely punished with harsh prison sentences, such actions often leave workers on the sidelines. He is, however, in favour of targeting British financial institutions. There is a lot of useful material about migration, borders and colonialism.
However, despite all the perfectly correct critique of capitalism as the cause of human and natural exploitation, the conclusions are somewhat vague. Woody tells us that a relevant idea is the ‘merger thesis’, which turns out to be that revolutionaries need to bring together Marxism and the workers’ movement. Well, of course!! This is obvious to anyone who has read anything about Marxism or socialism.
While there is much in the pamphlet that is thoughtful and accurate, it is weak in terms of how revolutionary socialists need to have a holistic view of capitalism, its exploitation of workers and nature, social oppression, national liberation struggles, anti-imperialist struggles, etc. and translate this into a coherent plan of what to do and how to do it.
Because these things are all linked, we need a programme that guides us with demands (e.g. share work with no loss of pay for companies threatening redundancies), tactics (like the united front for example) and strategies (e.g. how to orientate to reformist parties and trade unions).
That Woody is aware of many of these issues is clear, but without a programme, tactics, demands and new forms of organisation, the good intentions and thoughtful ideas in this pamphlet lack a cutting edge. This is characteristic of rs21’s reluctance to take revolutionary positions and fight for them in the movement, something we encourage the comrades to challenge and overcome.
