Green transitional programme

Mark Douglas on good ideas but asks how to enact?

Manifesto for Eco-Socialist revolution – Fourth International Resistance Books

It’s good news when a new manifesto arrives, especially on EcoSocialism. They are not very common, and this 100-page A5 booklet is welcome.  However, there are too many introductory paragraphs saying the same thing: capitalism is bad.

Another problem: is this a real manifesto or a programme? I think it’s a programme after the 1938 Transitional Programme. A manifesto is aimed at an election, but which election are we talking about here? A programme is for the long term, maybe over a generation, i.e. over 25 years.

It is very good that the Fourth International has adopted thoroughgoing Eco-Socialism. It is a mark of wisdom and foresight to combine the imperative of socialist planning to tackle the climate crisis.

They say, ‘Time is pressing if we do not want to go beyond crucial tipping points’, e.g. deforestation, greenhouse gas rising emissions, desertification, ice sheet retraction, excessive nitrogen, air pollution, atmospheric heating, etc. That’s a hell of a list of world problems to tackle this century.

Chapter 5 is the ‘Eco-Socialist Alternative’, a list of new eco-socialist demands. These include:

*Socialise productive wealth to provide essential services to all people under popular democratic control.

* Expand commons and public services against privatisation and marketisation in particular water, housing, health, transport.

*Equalise wealth to deal with climate injustice and ecological degradation, radical tax reform, eliminate tax havens, and socialise bank funds.

*Nobody is Illegal! Freedom of movement and residence on Earth.

*Eliminate unnecessary and harmful economic activities. Stopping the climate and biodiversity catastrophe requires significant reduction in global energy consumption, reducing rich purchasing power, fast fashion, advertising, luxury consumption, cut the meat and dairy industry. Cut the excessive air and maritime trade by re-localising production of essentials. Slash arms production, fossil fuels and petrochemicals, personal cars, planes and boats.

*Co-existence with all life, stop the massacre of species, expand bio-diversity.

* Socialise the assets of energy multinationals, no compensation to fund the transition to a green economy, create decentralised clean energy networks under people’s control.

*Guarantee employment and training for all in the Green transition, eco-sustainable and socially useful activities. Work transfer from wasteful, harmful processes like agribusiness, big fishing, meat production with a Green jobs guarantee.

*Work less, live a good life. Reducing excessive energy consumption leads to lower work routines. Socialise many domestic work activities. Elimination of wasteful jobs leads to fewer workdays. Work quality rises.

* Reduce, Reuse, and Recycling of waste is mandatory for agri-waste, contaminated material, etc. Circulatory systems for all waste.

The programme also covers democratic self-management; cultural revolution; extension of democratic and women’s rights, education reform; agribusiness and food production; urban reform and more.

Chapter 6 covers the debate on Degrowth, which basically means industrialised countries have to shrink and poor societies to grow, the ‘Contraction and Convergence Scenario’, first promoted in the 1990s. Chapter 7 is The EcoSocialist Rupture, which argues for the convergence of mass popular movements to create an unstoppable force for social change. The main problem is that the Labour aristocracy in the west has been bought out by capitalism. There’s no mention of vanguard leadership and I have to say there is no real plan on how all this is to be realised.

My main concern is the challenge of the ‘Just Green Transition’. All industrialised societies have to transition from extractive, fossil fuel economies, especially mining, toward new, clean, green economies based on natural power, recycling and circular industry. Clause 14 covers part of this but there are millions of workers whose existing jobs will be phased out. Social and democratic planning must deal with this transition rapidly. Trade unions and workers’ research groups must step up.

‘The construction of self-organised organs of popular power is at the heart of our strategy’, the authors explain. Essentially, the Left must go Green and the Greens go Socialist.

This autumn is the CoP Climate Conference in Belém, Brazil. The combined climate, green and social movements demand real action from world organisations. There will be regular events across Britain until November. For more information https://climatejustice.uk/cop30/