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We Have a Choice: Socialism or Extinction

Sept.25: Over 3,200 demonstrations against climate destruction took place worldwide, including in Bangladesh (above).

The capitalist system doesn’t just hamper our ability to recover from disaster; it is the principle cause. Capitalism thrives on toxic growth and expansion. So as to not be taken over by their rivals, corporations must forever seek out new sources of profit. The U.S. and other imperialist militaries are used for this purpose. On behalf of the owners of monopoly corporations, the military is dispatched to other countries to rob, dominate, and control resources such as oil and to establish new markets. In the process, the U.S. military emits more greenhouse gasses than most countries, making the Pentagon a top cause of global warming.

Anyone can observe the exponential increase of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere since the rise of industrial capitalism. Atmospheric carbon dioxide was at 285 ppm (parts per million) in 1850. Before now, in 800,000 years of earth’s history, atmospheric carbon dioxide had not surpassed 300 ppm. It is now greater than 410 ppm. This sharp increase is the reason for the rise in global temperatures and for the amplified environmental catastrophes across the world.

The acceleration of climate change will only increase the intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires. U.S. coasts have been slammed by Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, Sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Laura over just the past two decades.

Production for profit (instead of planned production) has put the future of human life in jeopardy, as Louisianans know all too well. Oil companies such as Shell, BP, and ExxonMobil are allowed by the state and federal government to scour the landscape for profits, destroying habitats and displacing people from their homes. Sea level rise as well as canal digging by the oil companies have caused Louisiana to lose one football field of land every hour. The culprit oil companies who pay next to nothing in taxes get off scot free.

Take away the incentive to hoard obscene amounts of wealth, and workers can easily meet all the needs and desires of society by producing according to a plan. More than ever, humanity needs a plan to deal with the disasters that the capitalists have left us to deal with. It’s time the working class takes the driver’s seat; the future of the world depends on it.

OXFAM REPORT SHOWS THE 1% ARE KILLING US AND THE PLANET

A September report by Oxfam concludes that, over the past quarter century, the world’s richest 1% has produced double the carbon emissions of the bottom 50% (over 3 billion people). Biden himself has already promised this wealthy, donor class that, “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change” if he’s elected. In other words, keep your mansions, luxury bunkers, and piles of cash while the world’s people flee water and flame.

The world can’t wait for the rich to grow a conscience. It’s time to rise up!

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Sunrise New Orleans Brings Climate Strike to City Hall

Dec. 6: Jesse Perkins, a resident of Gordon Plaza, addresses students participating in a Climate Strike organized by Sunrise New Orleans. Students demanded that the city fully fund the relocation of all residents of Gordon Plaza, a housing development built on toxic soil.

By Nath Clarke

On December 6, 2019, 200 people gathered at City Hall for a Climate Strike organized by Sunrise New Orleans. They demanded that Mayor Latoya Cantrell and the City Council:

  1. Champion the Green New Deal
  2. Fully fund the relocation of Gordon Plaza residents
  3. Stop the construction of the fracked gas plant in New Orleans East
  4. Commit to 100% renewable energy

Students of all ages spoke on the urgency of organizing in the face of the current climate crisis. Reverend Gregory Manning, a pastor at the Broadmoor Community Church, talked about environmental racism—and how people of color often are on the front lines of the fight against coastal erosion. Jesse Perkins (pictured at right), a resident of Gordon Plaza who’s been leading their fight for fully funded relocation spoke as well. Gordon Plaza is a Black, working-class neighborhood in the Upper Ninth Ward built on a Superfund site. For over 30 years, the residents have been organizing for the right to live on soil that won’t kill them.

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1.4 Million Students Hold Global Strike to Demand Climate Change Action Now!

Thousands of middle and high school students walked out of class in Sydney, Australia, kicking off a day of global youth-led protests demanding action on climate change.

By Nathalie Clarke

While capitalist politicians and billionaires twiddle their thumbs and hoard more wealth stolen off the backs of the working-class, students across the world are organizing and protesting elites’ inaction in the face of global climate change. On March 15th, an estimated 1.4 million students from across the world—from Nigeria to New Orleans—walked out of their schools. These internationally coordinated protests—the largest in 16 years—were organized entirely by the students themselves, and took place in 120 countries, 2,000 cities, and on every single continent including Antarctica.

Because our society prioritizes profit over the health and well-being of humans and our planet, species are going extinct at an unparalleled rate, and an estimated 210 million people have been displaced by rising sea levels and climate change-related disasters. Many of the students carried signs and banners directly connected the current ecological crisis with capitalism with slogans such as “Capitalism is killing the planet; kill capitalism;” or “Profit or future.”

Proposals such as the “Green New Deal,” are of great interest to many youth, but we cannot count on Congress to enact anything useful without a mass struggle—and certainly not without a militant struggle against US military spending and imperialist war. While we fight to push back to ultimately to save the planet, the humans and all species, we must rid ourselves of the capitalist system we live under. The super-rich extract every last resource from every human, animal, and plant on Earth in order to fill their pockets and maximize their profits. There’s no compromising with their greed.

March 15: Students from Lusher Middle and High School walked out of school to protest politicians’ inaction on climate change.

These student walkouts illustrate how powerful mass mobilizations of people can be. What if every single lab technician in a refinery or half the workers on the oil rigs across the Gulf South walked out of their jobs and demanded jobs in clean renewable energy? Our planet does not belong to the elites who poison our water, soil, and air. The planet belongs to us, those who have nothing to sell except our labor, those of us who toil in fields, and offices, and kitchens, and restaurants. When we are truly united—one band, one sound, despite our many differences—we win. We just need to wake up and see our power.

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Only the Organized Working Class Can Stop Climate Change

By Casey Resto

In early October, the UN issued a special report updating specific aspects of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment of 2014. The results suggest a centuries-long expansion in detrimental economic and environmental effects on humanity. Lower income individuals will be the most severely impacted as we’re the ones least able to afford what insurance companies deem “Acts of God.”

While international agreements require governments to pledge a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, only an organization of the workers of the world will have the power to meet the severity of the crisis.

The United States’ decision not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and recently, to withdraw from the Paris Agreement show that a government will ignore eventual and irreversible consequences for humanity if it’s set up to maintain the rule of the rich over everyone else. We, the majority, will be the ones working in hotter and nastier weather.

Natural disasters have occurred at alarming rates: in 2018 alone, the U.S. was battered by Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael, floods displaced more than a million people in Kerala, India and Typhoon Mangkhut destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the Philippines and China, to name just a few examples.

These catastrophes destroy the environment and its inhabitants, but the effects of these losses are experienced unevenly depending on how a society is organized. Under capitalism, we workers and oppressed take the brunt of the hit. In capitalist society we see incarcerated workers in California fighting deadly wildfires for less than $2 a day. We see North Carolina’s state government refuse to evacuate prisoners in the midst of Hurricane Florence (a category 4 at the time). Over and over we see the cruelty of capitalism.

Low income communities are affected as city boards refuse to update their infrastructure to deal with the worsening effects of climate change. New Orleans residents are still feeling the costs of the August 2017 floods. The Sewerage and Water Board’s failure to do their job caused many damages to homes and cars.

These are not unique cases. As the environment worsens, so do our working conditions, our wages and our ability to afford stable living situations that can withstand the drastic changes to our climate. The destruction of the environment and its irreversible effects are an inevitable consequence of imperialism, materialism, and militarism. Capitalism’s persistent and eager need to consume, colonize and destroy in the name of money will only continue to devastate and ravage the world we live in, all for the pleasure of the bourgeoisie. 

We cannot take a passive approach to climate change. Laws take years to enact, and the 2014 IPCC assessment claims that even if global emissions were to stop within the next 24 hours, damages are already locked in for centuries. Those at the top won’t give up their greed. Our only option is to organize and make revolution.