Capitalist environmental destruction and the ecosocialist alternative

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The 17th Congress of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International will take place this month. Reso­ lutions to be discussed include, “The Capitalist Destruc­ tion of the Environment and the Ecosocialist Alterna­ tive,” prepared by the International’s Ecology Commis­ sion. We are reprinting several sections of the resolution below. The full document can be read at http://www. internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5079. Introduction 1.1. The pressure humanity exerts on the Earth Sys­ tem has been growing ever more rapidly since the 1950s. At the beginning of the 21st century, it has reached an extremely alarming level, and continues to grow in almost all areas. Thresholds are already ex­ ceeded in some areas, particularly greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere.

This increasing quantitative pressure, observable everywhere and in most fields, leads to a qualitative shift that could be abrupt (within a few decades) and largely irreversible. The Earth System would then en­ ter a new dynamic equilibrium regime, characterized by very different geophysical conditions and an even more marked decrease in its biological richness. At the least, in addition to the consequences for other living creatures, the transition to this new regime would endanger the lives of hundreds of millions of poor people, especially women, children and the el­ derly. At the most, it cannot be excluded that it con­ tributes to a collapse of our species.

1.2. The danger increases day by day, but the catas­ trophe can be averted, or at least limited and con­ tained. It is not human existence in general that is the determining cause of the threat, but the mode of production and social reproduction of this existence, which also includes its mode of distribution, con­ sumption, and cultural values.

The mode in force for about two centuries—capital­ ism—is unsustainable because competition for prof­ it, its driving force, implies a blind tendency to limit­ less quantitative growth. During the 20th century, the countries of “really existing socialism” were unable to offer an alternative to the productivist destruction of the environment, to which they also contributed in an important way.

At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity is confronted with the unprecedented obligation to con­ trol its development in all fields in order to make it compatible with the limits and the good health of the environment in which it has developed. No political project can ignore the conclusion of scientific stud­ ies on “global change.” On the contrary, every political project must be assessed first of all by taking into ac­ count the risk, the systemic responses it brings, the conformity of these responses with the fundamental requirements of human dignity, and their articulation with its program in the other areas, particularly in the social and economic sphere.

2. A deep gap between the urgency of a radical eco­ socialist alternative on the one hand and the relation­ ship of forces and the levels of consciousness on the other hand.

2.1. An entirely different relationship of human­ kind to the environment is an urgent necessity. This new relationship, based on a caring model for both humans and the environment, will not be simply the result of individual changes in behaviour. Rather it needs a structural change in the relationships be­ tween humans: the total and global eradication of capitalism as the mode of production of social exis­ tence. This total eradication is indeed the necessary condition for a rational, economical and prudent management in the exchanges of matter between hu­ manity and the rest of nature.

Sciences and technologies can facilitate this man­ agement, but only on the condition that their devel­ opment is not subjected to the dictates of capitalist profit.

2.2. Green capitalism and the Paris agreement do not allow us to get rid of the environmental destruc­ tion in general and of the dangers of climate denial in particular. The alternative can only come from a worldwide policy that satisfies real human needs. These are not determined by the market but by a democratic discussion that allows people to take their destiny in their own hands, liberated from mar­ ket alienation. This will break the impersonal logic of productivist accumulation typical of capitalism.

2.3. The key demands of this alternative are:

1) The socialization of the energy sector: this is the only way to break free of a fossil energy economy, stop nuclear energy, reduce radically the production/ consumption of energy and realize as fast as possible the transition towards a renewable, decentralized and efficient energy system according to ecological and social imperatives;

2) The socialization of the credit sector: this is es­ sential given the interweaving of the energy and fi­ nancial sectors in heavy and long-term investments and in order to have the necessary financial resources for transition investments;

3) The abolition of private ownership of natural resources (land, water, forests, wind, solar energy, geothermal energy, marine re­ sources, …) and intellectual knowledge; 4) The destruction of all stock of arms, suppression of useless (weapons etc.) or harmful prod­ ucts (petrochemicals, nuclear energy), the production of use values decided democratically in­ stead of exchange values; 5) A common and democratic management of resources at the service of real human needs, with respect for the good functioning and the capacities for renewal by the ecosystems; 6) The abolition of all forms of inequality and discrimination based on gender, race, ethnic­ ity, religion, or sexual prefer­ ences; emancipation of all the op­ pressed, particularly the emanci­ pation of women and people of color; 7) The abolition of imposed working hours for the production of commodities as an alienating category that destroys leisure time and discourages non-com­ modified human activities; 8) A lengthy-term socio-eco­ nomic policy aiming at rebalanc­ ing urban and rural populations and overcoming the opposition between town and countryside; 2.4. There is a deep gap between this ob­ jectively necessary alternative and the so­ cial relationship of forces and the current levels of consciousness. This gap can only be closed by concrete struggles of the exploited and the oppressed in the defence of their living condi­ tions and of the environment. By winning immediate demands, larger layers will radicalize and their strug­ gles will converge. They will formulate transitional demands incompatible with the capitalist logic. Conclusion: ecosocialism and revolution Absurd capitalist logic—the irrational expansion, unlimited accumulation as well as a productivism ob­ sessed by the search for profit at all costs—is respon­ sible for placing humanity at the edge of the abyss: facing climate change and ecological destruction.

Moving from the “destructive progress” of capital­ ism toward ecosocialism constitutes a historical pro­ cess, a revolutionary permanent transformation of society, culture and consciousness. This transition will not only bring us to a new world of production, to an egalitarian and democratic society, but also to an alternative way of life, a new civilization, beyond the rule of money, beyond habits of consumption artificially produced by advertising and beyond the unlimited production of useless commodities. And, as Marx has said, the Kingdom of Freedom start, with diminishing working time...

It is important to underline that such a process can­ not happen without a revolutionary transformation of social and political structures through mass action by a large majority of the population. In the develop­ ment of a socialist, feminist and ecological conscious­ ness, the collective experience of people’s struggles is the decisive factor, from local confrontations to a radical change of society.

To dream and to fight for green socialism or as some say, for solar communism, does not mean that we do not to fight for concrete and urgent reforms. Without any illusion in “green capitalism”, we must try to win time and impose on the powers in place concrete measures against the ongoing catastrophe, starting with a radical reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases.

These urgent ecological demands can favour a pro­ cess of radicalization under the condition that we re­ fuse to limit their objectives by obeying the capitalist market or accepting “competitivity.”

Each small victory, each partial advance can imme­ (continued on page 7, in “The unemployment conspiracy”)

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6 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 2018 Capitalism is unsustainable because competition for profits implies a blind tendency to limitless growth.