Table Of ContentThe Global Fight for Climate Justice
Anticapitalist activists from around the world offer radical
answers to two of most important questions of our time:
Why is capitalism destroying the conditions that make life
on earth possible?
How can we stop the destruction before it is too late?
The Global Fight for Climate Justice makes the case that saving
the world from climate catastrophe will require much more than
tinkering with technology or taxes. Only radical social change
can prevent irreversible damage to the earth and civilization.
edited by Ian Angus
Ian Angus is editor of the online journal Climate and Capitalism,
which has been described as “the most reliable single source of
information and strategic insights for climate justice.”
He is also Associate Editor of Socialist Voice, a founding member
of the Ecosocialist International Network, and director of
ReadingfromtheLeft.com.
“We can mourn the years the locusts/capitalists have
eaten, but we must also fight like hell for the future.
This book will help us fight more intelligently.”
-Derrick O’Keefe, Canadian Dimension
“With crunch time rapidly approaching for the climate crisis,
this anthology compiled by Canadian ecosocialist Ian Angus
has arrived at the right moment. ... All these ideas have
benefited from years of discussion and practical involvement
within the broader climate emergency movement.”
-Ash Pemberton, Green Left Weekly
To my grandchildren
Abby and Sam
in the hope and conviction
that you will inherit a better world
“From the standpoint of a higher economic form of society,
private ownership of the globe by single individuals will
appear quite as absurd as private ownership of one man
by another. Even a whole society, a nation, or even all
simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not
the owners of the globe. They are only its possessors, its
beneficiaries, and they must hand it down to succeeding
generations in an improved condition” —Karl Marx
The Global Fight
for Climate Justice
Anticapitalist Responses to Global Warming
and Environmental Destruction
edited by Ian Angus
Fernwood Publishing, Canada
Resistance Books, Britain
4 The Global Fight for Climate Justice
Copyright © 2010 Ian Angus
The individual articles in this book are
copyright © by the authors and/or the original publishers
Translations are copyright © by the translators
Cover photograph copyright © 2008 by Ben Powless
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher,
except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Design: Ian Angus
Printed and bound in Canada
Published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing
32 Oceanvista Lane
Black Point, Nova Scotia, B0J 1B0
and #8 - 222 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 1Z3
www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
Published in Britain, June 2009 by Resistance Books
PO Box 62732 London SW2 9GQ Britain
socialistresistance.org
email: [email protected]
Fernwood Publishing Company Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial support
of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts
and the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture for our publishing program.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
The global fight for climate justice : anticapitalist responses to global
warming and environmental destruction / Ian Angus (ed.).
ISBN 978-1-55266-344-8
1. Anti-globalization movement. 2. Capitalism--Environmental aspects.
3. Climatic changes--Social aspects. I. Angus, Ian, 1945-
JZ1318.G56 2010 303.48’2 C2009-907508-3
The Global Fight for Climate Justice 5
Contents
Foreword (Judy Rebick) ......................................................................................7
Foreword to the British edition (Derek Wall) ....................................................9
Introduction (Ian Angus) ...................................................................................11
About the authors ..............................................................................................13
Red and Green (Robb Johnson) ........................................................................15
1: Climate Emergency
Introduction .......................................................................................................16
Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (Fidel Castro) ......................................................17
Some Impacts of Global Warming (Climate & Capitalism) .............................18
Not a Distant Prospect (Ian Angus) ..................................................................21
Climate Wrongs and Human Rights (Oxfam) ..................................................24
If Socialism Fails: The Spectre of 21st Century Barbarism (Ian Angus) .........27
2: Starving The Poor
Introduction .......................................................................................................33
World Hunger, Agribusiness, Food Sovereignty (Ian Angus) .........................34
A New International Order is Needed (Esteban Lazo Hernández) .................47
The Food Crisis is Systemic and Structural
(José Ramón Machado Ventura) ................................................................50
‘Peasants and Small Farmers Can
Feed the World’ (La Vía Campesina) ..........................................................52
‘Our Heritage as Food Producers is Critical to the
Future of Humanity’ (Nyeleni Forum) ........................................................55
‘The Rich Do Not Know Hunger’ (Fidel Castro) ...............................................58
3: False Explanations, False Solutions
Introduction .......................................................................................................60
Too Many People? (Simon Butler) ....................................................................61
The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons (Ian Angus)...................................66
Magic Bullet #1: The Ethanol Scam (Nicole Colson) ........................................77
Magic Bullet #2: Carbon Capture and Storage (Ian Angus) ............................83
A New War on the Planet? (John Bellamy Foster) ..........................................88
4: The Fantasy of Green Capitalism
Introduction .......................................................................................................90
The Failures of Green Economics (Joel Kovel) .................................................91
Sustainable Capitalism? (David Travis ) ..........................................................95
The Limits of Green Keynesianism (Sean Thompson ) ..................................101
Capitalism’s Anti-ecology Treadmill (Terry Townsend) .................................112
more...
6 The Global Fight for Climate Justice
5: Privatizing The Atmosphere
Introduction .....................................................................................................123
Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading (Durban Group) .............................124
Cap and Trade Schemes (Chris Williams) ......................................................126
The Obscenity of Carbon Trading (Kevin Smith) ...........................................130
Why Carbon Markets Can’t Save the World (Andrew Simms) ......................132
Six Arguments Against Carbon Trading (Larry Lohmann) ...........................134
6: Voices From the Global South
Introduction .....................................................................................................140
Respect Mother Earth! (Evo Morales).............................................................141
A New Era is Beginning (Cochabamba Declaration) .....................................147
We Demand Full and Effective Participation (Bali Declaration) ...................151
Mother Earth is in Crisis (Anchorage Declaration) .......................................152
Two Statements by Climate Justice Now! .......................................................156
Statement at the 2009 Americas Summit (ALBA) .........................................160
Rich Countries Must Pay Their Ecological Debt (Bolivia) .............................165
To Save Humanity We Must Return to Our Roots (Hugo Blanco) ................168
7: Building a Climate Emergency Movement
Introduction ......................................................................................................181
Only Political Activism and Class Struggle
Can Save the Planet (Patrick Bond) ..........................................................182
Crisis, Challenge and Mass Action
(Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle ) .....................................................186
How Can We Build an Effective Movement? (Kamala Emanuel) .................195
Workers and Climate Change (Green Left Weekly .........................................197
The Three Decisive Social Forces that
Can Stop Climate Change (Socialist Resistance) ......................................199
Climate Change is a Trade Union Issue (Tony Kearns) .................................201
Class Struggle and Ecology (Liam Mac Uaid) ................................................203
8: Ecosocialist Responses to Capitalist Ecocide
Introduction ....................................................................................................206
Making the Greens Redder and the Reds Greener (Ian Angus) ....................207
For a Society of Good Ancestors (Ian Angus) .................................................210
Climate Change Charter (Socialist Alliance) .................................................220
The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration
(Ecosocialist International Network) .......................................................233
Climate Crisis: 21st Century Socialists
Must Be Ecosocialists (Daniel Tanuro/Fourth International) ................239
Suggestions for further reading ......................................................................285
The Global Fight for Climate Justice 7
Foreword
Judy Rebick
The Global Fight for Climate Justice is a polemic in the best sense of the
word. It is an argument for why capitalism cannot solve the climate crisis
and why socialists and others on the Left have to get a whole lot greener. You
will rarely find a more comprehensive book on climate justice, an approach
that combines environmentalism and social justice.
Both extremely readable and valuable as a reference book, The Global
Fight for Climate Justice brings together the most important voices in the
movement for ecosocialism. But you don’t have to be a socialist to appreciate
the information and arguments contained in this comprehensive book.
What I value most in the book are the voices from the Global South and
Indigenous struggles. Too many writings on the environment ignore the
central and leading role played by Indigenous peoples across the world and
especially in South America. In one of three letters published here Bolivian
President Evo Morales says clearly,
“The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease
is the capitalist development model.... We need a profound change of direc-
tion, at the global level, so as to stop being the condemned of the earth... I
know that change in the world is much more difficult than in my country
but I have absolute confidence in human beings, in their capacity to reason,
to learn from mistakes, to rediscover their roots, and to change in order to
forge a just, diverse, inclusive, egalitarian world in harmony with nature.”
It is clear to me that Indigenous peoples are in the forefront of the battle
to save the planet from the climate crisis and in this volume you will find
documents and articles from some of the most important movements and
leaders for the Indigenous struggles. Like the ecosocialist movement, most
Indigenous groups believe that trading carbon is akin to privatizing the air
above us and reject completely these market driven solutions to climate
change.
Another strength of the collection is the number of documents from so-
cial organizations who are on the front lines of fighting the climate crisis.
From Bali to Anchorage, from Oxfam to the World Social Forum, from Fidel
Castro to British trade unionist Tony Kearns, editor Ian Angus has collected
an astonishing diversity of perspectives on the need for radical change to
stop the destruction of climate change.
The chapter entitled “Building a Climate Emergency Movement,” re-
minds us that “environmental devastation will not be stopped in conference
rooms or treaty negotiations, only mass action can make a difference.” While
8 The Global Fight for Climate Justice
I am of the view that there are many paths to building such a movement,
including building alternatives, this collection reminds us that the funda-
mental change required to turn around the climate catastrophe we are facing
needs mass action in the streets to be successful.
As in any good polemic, there are arguments that will make you think,
make you angry and make you formulate arguments against. Mostly the tone
is constructive and comradely, the information is rock solid and the argu-
ments are persuasive.
I have known Ian Angus for more years than I care to remember. Wheth-
er an activist on the far left in the 1960’s, a critic of the telecommunications
industry in the latter part of the 20th Century before most of us understood
its importance, or his leading role in the ecosocialist movement today, Ian
has always provided clear and persuasive arguments for those of us who are
less informed on the issues about which he has become passionate. The ar-
ticles he has collected in this book are an extensive review of the forces who
understand that merely tinkering with savage capitalism will not solve the
climate crisis, more fundamental change is required.
Judy Rebick is an activist, author and educator. She holds the CAW Gindin
Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University. Her latest
book is Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political (Penguin
2009). See transformingpower.ca
The Global Fight for Climate Justice 9
Foreword to the British edition
Derek Wall
This book brings together some of the most important ecosocialist activists
and thinkers on our planet. Editor Ian Angus has argued that the task of eco-
socialists is to “make greens redder and reds greener” — The Global Fight
for Climate Justice will make that task easier.
The publisher, Socialist Resistance, has worked hard to promote eco-
socialism, and while I am not a member of their organisation, I would like
to thank them for all their efforts. Their non-sectarian approach of working
with other ecosocialists is refreshing.
I am particularly pleased to see that this book includes a contribution by
my friend and comrade Hugo Blanco, who was one of Che Guevara’s con-
temporaries. Hugo led the peasant uprising in Peru in 1961, and was rescued
from execution by a huge international campaign led by Jean Paul Sartre
and Bertrand Russell. Today he publishes Lucha Indígena, a newspaper that
carries news of the fight of indigenous peoples in Latin America for freedom,
for social and environmental justice.
Indeed, all the contributors have impressive track records. Joel Kovel’s
The Enemy of Nature is one of the most important ecosocialist texts. John
Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology has revealed to a generation of revolutionary
socialists the vital importance of ecology to Marx’s thought. Larry Lohmann
has done impressive work to expose the carbon trading con. Daniel Tanuro
has been a powerful voice for promoting ecological thinking among Marxists.
Kevin Smith has researched the role of banks in devastating the environment
and is an activist with the climate camp. And I could go on …
My own introduction to ecosocialism came in the 1980s, when I joined the
Ecology Party. My ecosocialist ideas were shaped by Australian writer Alan
Roberts, whose 1979 book The Self-managing Environment is still essential
reading. He was one of the first to write about Marx’s concern with the meta-
bolic relationship between humanity and nature, the concept of “commons,”
and the way that alienation of our labour leads to destructive consumerism.
Roberts challenged the inadequacy of the solutions proposed by most envi-
ronmental writers:
There now exists a highly valuable store of information and analysis on en-
vironmental problems. On the whole, however, the recommendations in the
literature do not measure up to the level of their factual exposure and analy-
sis. Some treatments hardly go further than to suggest (often rather qui-
etly) that “something should be done.” Many others, after sketching sombre
10 The Global Fight for Climate Justice
pictures of the likely future, will startle the alert reader by the inconsistent
feebleness of the curative action they recommend: write to your MP or to
your congressman — “bring some pressure to bear.”
Climate change and other ecological problems are rooted in an economic
system that needs continual growth, even though that is often dysfunctional
for human beings.
Yet few environmentalists have faced up to the fact that capitalism is in-
compatible with ecological sustainability. In fact, the current global frame-
work for dealing with climate change is based on carbon trading schemes
that do more to benefit bankers than solve the problem.
An essential part of any real solution involves maintaining key ecosys-
tems such as the Amazon rainforest that act as carbon sinks and perform
other vital biological functions. In 2008, direct action by over 50 indigenous
groups in Peru prevented Alan Garcia’s government from making it easier for
corporations to steal their communal land in the Amazon. They won a huge
victory for planetary ecology by preventing logging, oil and gas exploration
in the Amazon. Any serious solution to ecological problems must involve
indigenous people, who have been at the radical edge of the Latin American
left and who have put socialism back on the political agenda globally.
Solutions to climate change must also involve workers. Alan Thornett, a
leading member of Socialist Resistance and a former car worker, has argued
that instead of producing cars, worker-directed alternative production plans
could produce renewable energy systems and other ecological goods.
The Cuban experience of surviving the loss of Soviet oil by introduc-
ing ecological policies such as organic permaculture and renewable energy,
shows that socialism is a precondition of ecological sustainability.
We need to move beyond capitalism to an ecosocialist system. Creating
such a future will demand intense political struggle.
This book is an essential tool for that struggle, and I commend it to all
who are serious about creating a liveable future for humanity.
Derek Wall is a founder of the Ecosocialist International Network and a
former principal speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales. He
has written six books on green politics and blogs at www.another-green-
world.blogspot.com/. His most recent book, Babylon and Beyond (Pluto
Press), examines anti-capitalist economics.
