This year, around the world, there is a rising tide of mass demos, strikes and walkouts against climate change.
Over 70,000 people braced a cold wet Sunday, on January 27, for the largest climate march in Belgian history. There have been mounting demonstrations throughout Europe. In Germany, Switzerland, and France, working people and students are pouring into the streets to bring attention to the impending climate catastrophe and the need for a rapid transition from fossil fuels to a sustainable economy based on renewable energy. Socialist Alternative’s sister party in Belgium, the Left Socialist Party and its student wing, Active Left Students, have been energetic in the struggle on the streets and in schools.
The recent high point was the School Strike 4 Climate on March 15. This day of educational strikes against climate change was a success at the international level. There were 2,200 demos in over 120 countries. Well over one and a half million people were on the streets.
As day dawned around the world the wave of protest swept westward. Starting in Australia and New Zealand, then through countries in Asia, into Africa and Europe and onto the Americas. Young people raised their voices against the ecological catastrophe our planet is experiencing and against those responsible: the capitalists, the governments at their service and the big multinationals.
In Montreal it is estimated 150,000 marched, with most schools and universities empty. Students were on the streets not in the classrooms. There were smaller demos in cities across Canada.
In the Spanish state, the student general strike called by the Sindicato de Estudiantes in more than 30 cities was an overwhelming success. With more than one million students on strike and more than one hundred thousand young people in the streets shouting, “If the planet were a bank they would have already rescued it!”,”If they overload the planet, to the general strike!” and “Their profits are killing the planet!”, made it clear that our struggle is serious.
Climate change is the most stark representation of capitalism’s inability to promise a future for working-class youth. Decent, well-paying jobs, clean air and water, and protection from devastating natural disasters are no guarantee under this system. Young people everywhere are challenging the system and looking for any way to address the environmental disaster that has already begun. This radicalization will continue to search for expression in politics as well as the workplace as the younger generation moves into the workforce.
This generation genuinely can’t afford to be patient. Instead they are doing what they can, boldly condemning the establishment’s inaction and moving into struggle. A key lesson of the student strike is that the time has come for international activism to play a role in fighting climate change.
Our planet is the victim of a devastating aggression. The mounting climate change, the pollution of the oceans, deforestation and the loss of species are all increasing. This is not the product of some evil of humanity in abstract. It is the result of a predatory system that ignores the environmental needs of humanity.
After decades of international talks more CO2 is being released. The talks have done nothing to tackle climate change. The fossil fuel CEOs, with their iron grip on politicians, will fiercely oppose a transition to renewable energy every step of the way.
Whatever the stripes of most politicians, from Trudeau’s claims to do something to Trump’s denial, they all will not challenge the rule of big business. Trudeau even bought a pipeline trying to push it through.
The technology and knowledge exists now to deal with climate change. The barrier is the economic and political system that put profits of the few before the needs of humanity.
The excuse of big business and their politicians is that we have to choose between jobs and the environment. Yet capitalism, for many, does not provide jobs and many of the jobs that exist are low-paid and insecure.
Crucial to stopping climate change is winning workers to be part of the struggle. It is their children who will suffer the most if climate change is not stopped. Action on climate change would provide many more jobs than producing fossil fuels. The jobs would be far more rewarding than working either in the tar sands or McDonald’s.
The active involvement of unions will be indispensable in linking the movement for the climate to the broader struggles of the working class and all the oppressed. It will take a massive disruption of business as usual to address the impending ecological disaster.
While there are weaknesses in the Green New Deal, it at least addresses the real concerns of workers about jobs. To fully deliver good union jobs and have a fair transition to a fossil fuel free economy we need international planning and cooperation.
Competing capitalist companies will not do that. And as we have seen over the decades of talks, every government is more focused on its narrow short-term interests than tackling global warming.
That is why Socialist Alternative calls for taking the big fossil fuel companies into public ownership. This is the only way to end the devastation caused by their relentless drive for profit. A socialist society would be run in the interests of workers and the environment.
