Remember, as you read this, the anthropogenic climate change movement has nothing to do with politics, especially far, far left politics. It certainly has nothing to do with getting rid of Capitalism. It’s all about Science!
As the left wakes up to climate injustice, we must not fall into ‘green colonialism’
The mainstream transatlantic left has been acting different lately. Having been subsumed into third-way politics for several decades, it seems we are growing back some teeth in our bite on the big systemic issues of today. From Labour calling for a national climate emergency, to prominent Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declaring capitalism “irredeemableâ€Â – we are slowly unzipping ourselves from the straitjacket of incrementalist politics. The left has a new centre, and it’s not messing about.
It is nonetheless critical to ground these struggles in their long history. Indeed, many post-independence struggles in the global south have been struggles against capitalism and the political and ecological injustices it produces. Take climate change. We are finally seeing something of a start to the kind of mass mobilisation and political will needed to rise to the challenge. Most importantly, Labour’s successful call to declare a national climate emergency marks a well overdue shift from the idea we can solve this by changing individual behaviours, in which climate change becomes the responsibility of working-class people who just need to behave themselves – eat less meat, use fewer plastic bags, have fewer kids. If real action follows, the move signifies promising recognition that this crisis requires rapid, large-scale political action and systemic change – and it is the companies and institutions responsible for the crisis that need to pay.
However, alongside the hope, we also need to acknowledge we are miles away from where we need to be. While our political leadership has continually acted as if rising global inequality and conflict is merely bad management of an otherwise rational system, communities in the global south and indigenous populations have been giving their blood, sweat and tears to resist an economic system that puts profit above people and planet. Whether it’s Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was murdered in his struggle to break the political bond between Shell and the Nigerian government, or the 1977 Egyptian bread riots, in which hundreds were killed resisting the IMF-mandated neoliberalisation of the economy, the connection between capitalism as a system and its injustices is something the global majority is well-versed in.
This isn’t limited to popular movements – governments across Latin America and the Pacific Islands have harboured an organised resistance to the manifold ways in which global capitalism poses an existential threat to the lives and livelihoods of millions. Many of these efforts have not only been ignored, but actively sabotaged by US and European state leaders. This history of resistance does not emerge from some kind mystic internal knowledge held by black and brown people. It is down to the material fact of white supremacy, which means the brutalities of neoliberalism have been felt in their most extreme by what we call “developing countriesâ€. The IPCC report declaring us to be in “decade zero†was not a shock in Dominica, where a single hurricane set back development by a generation. Or in Pakistan, where the 2015 heatwave claimed 2,000 lives. 1.5C might seem like new science to us, but the chant “1.5C to stay alive†has been screamed from across the global south for years.
It’s great how they merge ‘climate change’ fanaticism with hatred of capitalism, eh?
This means understanding that any “Green New Deal†or “green industrial revolution†cannot be bound within our nation’s borders, or prioritise the wellbeing of westerners over black and brown lives in the rest of the world. As we make these moves towards climate emergency, it is important that progressives do not internalise the colonial principles that got us in this mess, either by simply ignoring the global historical context of resistance to emergency issues, or even actively arguing we should under-develop “Bombayâ€Â to deliver growth in Wigan. Indeed, the industrial revolution was financed and sustained by the blood money and infrastructure of slavery and colonialism; a “green†version of this is no better.
By centring ourselves in the resistance to neoliberal capitalism and ecological crisis, we will likely repeat the mistakes of the past. A “green colonialism†or “socialist imperialism†is no victory worth claiming, and it is the default left position if we do not actively fight for a different vision. We must come into this space not as self-appointed leaders, but figures of solidarity. We are the last to join the party – let’s not behave once again like the world’s policeman and have it shut down before it’s even begun.
So, the “Green” movement is pretty awful? Is that what I’m reading? Because there really aren’t any policy proposals, other than dismantling international energy companies and strange stuff. Just Modern Socialist word salad and gripes.
