DOCSLIB.ORG

Climate and Capitalism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Climate and Capitalism Climate and Capitalism A seminar organised by Green Left + Socialist Resistance SATURDAY September 12 10.30am-5.30pm Friends Meeting House, Euston, London The speakers Ian Angus is a Canadian Volvo Cars factory in Drugs Democracy and War ecosocialist. He is the edi- Gothenburg in Sweden. He and America’s Backyard: tor of the website Climate is a campaigner and author The United States and Latin and Capitalism, a founding on the issue of alternative America from the Monroe member of the Ecosocialist production and a member Doctrine to the War on International Network and a of the Swedish section of Terror. member of its Coordinating the Fourth International. Liam MacUaid is the editor Committee. He is the editor Andy Hewett is secretary of Socialist Resistance and of the recently published of the Green Left and Green a member of the organis- book The Global Fight for Party candidate for Green- ing group of the Climate Climate Justice. which and Woolwhich in Change TU Committee. Terry Conway is an ecoso- the general election. Sheila Malone is an ecoso- cialist feminist, an activist cialist and a feminist. She is on LGBT issues, a leading co-editor of Ecosocialism member of Socialist Resist- or Barbarism published by ance and a member of the Socialist Resistance. Respect National Council. Romayne Phoenix is a Raphie de Santos is an Green Party councillor in economist a major contrib- Lewisham, a member of the utor to Socialist Resistance’s Green Left and an advisory book on the economic crisis editor of Socialist Resist- Socialists and the Capitalist ance. Recession. He is a supporter of the Scottish Socialist John Stewart is chair Party and of Socialist Resist- of Hacan Clearskies, the ance. main organisation against Heathrow expansion. He Ben Hart is an environmen- was Chair of Alarm UK, the tal consultant who became Siân Jones is secretary of the Campaign umbrella group of hundreds involved with the Camp of communities opposed for Climate Action after the against Climate Change Trade Union Group. (Siân is to Tory road-building plans Kingsnorth Camp last sum- in the 90s, and is a former mer. He has come to realise, invited but not yet con- !rmed.) Chair of Transport 2000. he says, that climate change Last October the Independ- is simply a symptom of Grace Livingstone is a ent named him as “the most deeper systemic failures in journalist on Latin American in#uential environmental society and he is inspired by a"airs. She reported for The activist in Britain”. the number of grass roots Guardian in Venezuela and organisations evolving to has also worked for the BBC Sean Thompson is a mem- challenge the status quo. World Service and written ber of the Green Left and the author of its pamphlet Lars Henriksson is a for The Observer and The New Statesman. She is the Countering the Crisis — an worker and trade union Ecosocialist Response to the activist at the Ford owned author of Inside Colombia: AGENDA Opening plenary: THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE – Romayne Phoenix and Ian Angus. First workshops THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE ECOSOCIALIST RESPONSE –Sean Thompson and Raphie de Santos GENDER, ECOLOGY AND ECOSOCIALISM – Sheila Malone and Terry Conway ALTERNATIVES TO THE MARKET – Derek Wall and Helen Ward ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTION – Lars Henriksson and Siân Jones Second workshops THE IMPACT ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH – Ian Angus, Grace Livingstone and Derek Wall DIRECT ACTION AND PREFIGURING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY– Ben Hart SUSTAINABLE CITIES –Roy Wilkes and John Stewart THE CAMPAIGN FOR GREEN JOBS – Speaker invited Closing plenary BUILDING THE FIGHT-BACK AND ORGANISING FOR COPENHAGEN – Liam MacUaid and Andy Hewett Global Recession and the extensively on ecosocial- ion Group and a supporter Threat of Climate Change. ism, anti-capitalism and of the journal Permanent He is an advisory editor of the environment. His most Revolution in which she Socialist Resistance. recent work is Babylon and writes on climate change. Beyond: The Economics Derek Wall is an econo- of Anti-Capitalist, Anti- Roy Wilkes is Chair of the mist, an ecosocialist, and Globalist and Radical Green Greater Manchester Cam- a member of the Green Movements. paign for Free Public Trans- Left. He was a principal port and secretary of the speaker of the Green Party Helen Ward is a public Campaign against Climate from 2004 – 2008. He is health doctor and epide- Change Trade Union Group one of the organisers of the miologist. She is an activist and a member of the International Ecosocialist in the Campaign Against Editorial Board of Socialist Network. He has written Climate Change Trade Un- Resistance. Book now to save 1/3 Advance: £8/£4 concession On the door: £12/£6 concession Advance booking entitles you to a £2 discount on a copy of Ian Angus’ book ‘The Global Fight for Climate Justice’. Please send me …… tickets for the Climate and Capitalism Seminar at £… and a copy of the book at £8 NAME ...........................................................Phone .............................................. ADDRESS .............................................................................................................. ..................................................................... POST CODE ..................................... email .................................................................................................................... SEND TO: Climate & Capitalism, c/o PO Box 62732, London SW2 9GQ Cheques should be made out to ‘Socialist Resistance’ For more information and updates, see www.ecosocialism.org, email: [email protected].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How the SWP's Bureaucratic Factionalism Is Wrecking Respect
    How the SWP's bureaucratic factionalism is wrecking Respect https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1330 Britain How the SWP's bureaucratic factionalism is wrecking Respect - IV Online magazine - 2007 - IV393 - October 2007 - Publication date: Wednesday 31 October 2007 Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine - All rights reserved Copyright © International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine Page 1/4 How the SWP's bureaucratic factionalism is wrecking Respect No one who supports left unity could be anything other than deeply disheartened by the turn of events inside Respect, which has created a crisis that threatens the future of the organisation. The current crisis is unnecessary and the product of the political line and methods of organisation of the Socialist Workers Party. [https://internationalviewpoint.org/IMG/jpg/respect23-2.jpg] Happier days - Respect founding conference The real meaning of the crisis, its roots and underlying dynamics are however being obscured by the SWP's propaganda offensive, an attempt to whip its own members into line and throw up a smokescreen to fool the left in Britain and internationally. How so? The crisis was started by a letter from Respect MP George Galloway to members of the National Council on August 23, a time it should be remembered that a general election seemed a short-term possibility. In his letter Galloway drew attention to organisational weaknesses of Respect, the decline of its membership and political life in general, but also to the (not unrelated) lack of accountability of the National Officers, including the Respect national Secretary John Rees. These criticisms reflected those that had been made for several years by supporters of Socialist Resistance.
    [Show full text]
  • Development & Resistance
    Development & Resistance to the Empire of Capital John Saul Realizing “developmental socialism” which, as recently as the changes seem equally necessary now – for, as Colin Leys and I 1970s, seemed a prospect worth fighting for has come, to many, have much more recently noted, “the dream of a transformative capi- to seem much less so now. True, the goal still has moral force, this talism in Africa remains just that: a dream.” This is true even if, con- encompassing the judgment that people can resolve economic fronted with an ever more ascendant globalized capitalism, the goal and political tensions and potential contradictions collectively and of a developmental socialism, key to the only genuine “develop- democratically rather than having to build centrally on competi- ment” that is really possible for Africa, seems at least as difficult to tion and the entrepreneurial greed of the few as the ultimate cen- realize as it did when Arrighi and I first wrote. tral keys to the welfare of everybody else. One cannot afford to Of course, the African case may be, globally, the most ex- be naïve, of course. Quite apart from questions of divergent class treme example of capitalist failure. Nonetheless, more generally, interests, it is also true that “human nature,” however much mis- the logic of socialism (but also the extreme difficulty of realizing shaped and distorted it may be within a world of ascendant mar- it) seems clear, at least to those who care to look. For Africa, like ket norms, will, even in the best and most propitious of times, be much of the rest of the underdeveloped world, is now “invited” pulled between the claim of individuality (and family) on the one (in fact, largely forced – by the IMF, World Bank, WTO and the hand and that of humane collectivity on the other.
    [Show full text]
  • Battle for Workers Rights in Australia by Aggie Mccallum
    Socialist Fight Issue No. 5 Winter 2010-11 Price: Concessions: 50p, Waged: £2.00 Only a United Anti-cuts Campaign based on strikes and occupations will defeat the Coalition assault Contents Page 2: Editorial: Only a United Anti-cuts Campaign based on strikes and occupations will defeat the Coalition assault. Page 5: Three days in the life of an Unemployed Workers Centre. Page 6: Ireland on the Rack: Defend the welfare state, de- fend the Republican Prisoners By AJ Byrne. Page 7: After the Irish bailout: The financial wolf pack tar- gets new victims By Nick Beams. Page 8: Ireland: The Creepy Millionaires’ Budget By Michael Taft. Page 9: Jimmy Reid: “It cannae be Lenin — he’s deid” Obitu- ary By Tony Fox. Page 12: The Jerry Hicks Campaign: Good Trot, Bad Trot and Trot in the Middle By Gerry Downing. Page 14: Obama’s America: The Furlough—Intent and Im- pact By Jake Cooper. Page 16: Mumia Abu-Jamal, on Pennsylvania's death row for 29 years By Dave Lindorfff. Page 18: Class Struggle in Zimbabwe by Ady, RIL - FI (Zimbabwe). Page 20: Trotskyist Turn in Nepal? By Rajesh Tyagi (New Wave). Page 20: Comment on the above By Ret Marut. Page 21: Women's Oppression: Two opposing views of the sex industry. Page 24: Letters pages. Page 28: Dubstep rebellion - the British banlieue comes to Millbank By Paul Mason Page 29: The Recession and Theories of Imperialism: It has to be Lenin! By Ret Marut. Page 31: Debating the Thermidor: “Me No Dirty Commie” By Gerry Downing. Page 33: Ark Tribe….Battle for Workers Rights in Australia By Aggie McCallum.
    [Show full text]
  • Putin's Useful Idiots
    Putin’s Useful Idiots: Britain’s Left, Right and Russia Russia Studies Centre Policy Paper No. 10 (2016) Dr Andrew Foxall The Henry Jackson Society October 2016 PUTIN’S USEFUL IDIOTS Executive Summary ñ Over the past five years, there has been a marked tendency for European populists, from both the left and the right of the political spectrum, to establish connections with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Those on the right have done so because Putin is seen as standing up to the European Union and/or defending “traditional values” from the corrupting influence of liberalism. Those on the left have done so in part because their admiration for Russia survived the end of the Cold War and in part out of ideological folly: they see anybody who opposes Western imperialism as a strategic bedfellow. ñ In the UK, individuals, movements, and parties on both sides of the political spectrum have deepened ties with Russia. Some individuals have praised Putin and voiced their support for Russia’s actions in Ukraine; others have travelled to Moscow and elsewhere to participate in events organised by the Kremlin or Kremlin-backed organisations; yet more have appeared on Russia’s propaganda networks. Some movements have even aligned themselves with Kremlin-backed organisations in Russia who hold views diametrically opposed to their own; this is particularly the case for left-leaning organisations in the UK, which have established ties with far-right movements in Russia. ñ In an era when marginal individuals and parties in the UK are looking for greater influence and exposure, Russia makes for a frequent point of ideological convergence, and Putin makes for a deceptive and dangerous friend.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Fight No.11
    Socialist Fight Issue No. 11 Winter 2012 Price: Concessions: 50p, Waged: £2.00 €3 Editorial: TU leaders must fight for needs budgets! No Cuts; Build the Rank and File fightback! The Counihan Homelessness Campaign In Kilburn Square fighting Brent Council’s attempt to drive the family out of Brent Contents Page 14: Plebgate, experts and the prosecution Page 25: ‘Liberation’ in Libya today, By the service, By Michael Holden. Liaison Committee of the Fourth International. Page 2: Editorial: TU leaders must fight for Page 15: Statement by the Irish Republican Page 29: Refutation of Prof. Grover Furr needs budgets! Prisoners Support Group, Letter to the Irish By Mike Ely and Socialist Fight. Page 4: 200,000 March against Austerity in Post, From Charlie Walsh. Page 32: The True Levellers or Diggers By Laur- London, By Graham Durham. Page 16: Lights and Shadows from Fifty Shades ence Humphries Page 5: The Third Grand Old Duke of York of Grey, By Aggie McCallum. Page 33: Defend the DSM of South Africa. Demo: TU leaders must fight for needs budg- Page 17: Jim Fixed it for the Ruling Class Child Page 34: Socialist Fight: For an International ets!, GRL flyer for TUC demo. Abusers, By Antonio Las Sogas & Brighid O'Duinn. Solidarity Campaign with the striking minework- Page 6: The Counihan Campaign and the Hous- Page 18: Tree planting ceremony for Terence ers of South Africa. ing Crisis By Gerry Downing. MacSwiney (1879-1920), Lord Major of Cork, By Page 35: Solidarity with Marikana Miners, By Page 7: The true role of the National Shop Stew- Austin Harney.
    [Show full text]
  • Honduras: the Threat of Foreign Military Occupation Ricardo Arturo Salgado 361
    SOCIALIST VOICE / OCTOBER 2009 / 1 Contents 360. Honduras: The Threat of Foreign Military Occupation Ricardo Arturo Salgado 361. Crucial days in Honduras Carlos Torchia 362. B.C. Government Prepares to Axe Social Programs Ian Beeching 363. Positive Developments in the European Left Ian Angus 364. Indigenous people are the vanguard of the fight to save the earth An interview with Hugo Blanco 365. CBC ‘disappears’ Venezuela and Haiti coups Roger Annis 366. Honduras: ‘Nothing will be the same again’ Federico Fuentes 367. The Caribbean and Latin America at the Rendezvous of History Melanie Newton 368. Revolutionaries and Broad Left Parties Phil Hearse ——————————————————————————————————— Socialist Voice #360, October 5, 2009 Honduras: The Threat of Foreign Military Occupation LeftViews is Socialist Voice’s forum for articles related to rebuilding the left in Canada and around the world, reflecting a wide variety of socialist opinion. In this article, an activist in the Honduran resistance meditates on the danger his country faces of a Haiti-style foreign military intervention. Ricardo Arturo Salgado is a Honduran sociologist and writer working with rural workers and fishers. He is an active member of the National Front for Resistance Against the Coup (FNRG) and resides in Tegucigalpa. by Ricardo Arturo Salgado Tegucigalpa, September 27, 2009 – The Honduras crisis has sparked great interest among thinkers of both Right and Left up and down the continent. Many people are reflecting on events, using all the analytical tools their knowledge permits. There is wide scope for speculation, mainly because – for most people – the actions of different forces have been so unexpected in character.
    [Show full text]
  • The British Left Intelligentsia and France Perceptions and Interactions 1930-1944
    ROYAL HOLLOWAY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY The British Left Intelligentsia and France Perceptions and Interactions 1930-1944 Alison Eleanor Appleby September 2013 Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Alison Appleby, confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. Signed________________________________ Date__________________________________ 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is concerned with the ways in which the non-communist British left interacted with their French counterparts during the 1930s and the Second World War and described France in their writings and broadcasts. It challenges existing accounts that have described British attitudes to France as characterised by suspicion, ill-feeling or even contempt. It draws on a range of sources, including reportage, private papers, records of left-wing societies and other publications from the period, as well as relevant articles and books. The thesis explores the attitudes of British left-wing intellectuals, trade unionists and politicians and investigates their attempts to find common ground and formulate shared aspirations. The thesis takes a broadly chronological approach, looking first at the pre-1939 period, then at three phases of war and finally at British accounts of the Liberation of France. In the 1930s, British left-wing commentators sought to explain events in France and to work with French socialists and trade unionists in international forums in their search for an appropriate response to both fascism and Soviet communism. Following the defeat of France, networks that included figures from the British left and French socialists living in London in exile developed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Capitalist Crisis and How to Beat It Dave Packer and Fred Leplat
    FromFrom BoomBoom toto Bust!Bust! TheThe capitalistcapitalist crisiscrisis andand howhow toto beatbeat it.it. A Socialist Resistance pamphlet 1 Resistance Books Ecosocialism or Barbarism A collection of important contributions to the debate on ecology and global warming, and the limits of capitalism’s ability to control the resulting destruction of the environ- ment. This reprinted second edition is essential reading for anyone getting to grips with ecosocialism . £6 Ireland’s Credit Crunch The crisis of the Irish economy coincides with the latest title from Resistance Books: Ireland’s Credit Crunch. Written by three leading members of the Fourth Interna- tional in Ireland the book outlines the roots of the crisis, and how to fight it. They discuss the roots of the current crisis, the unprecedented scale of the threat to workers in Ireland and Europe and details of the programme that workers should advance to build a real alternative to the economic famine they are facing. £6 Building Unity Against Fascism:Classic Marxist Writings This new book gathers together classic Marxist writings from the 1920s to the 1940s Leon Trotsky’s “Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It”, Maurice Spector’s detailed analysis of German fascism in power Daniel Guérin’s 1939 “Fascism and Big Business” Ted Grant’s booklet, “The Menace of Fascism” and much more £5 This is just a small selection of the many titles published by Resistance Books . To order send cheques, made out to “Resistance” to PO Box 63732, London, SW29GQ. To order online visit paypal.com and send a payment to [email protected] stating clearly the book title(s) you want .
    [Show full text]
  • Strategy, Meta-Strategy and Anti-Capitalist Activism
    Socialist Studies Études socialistes The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies Revue de la Société d’études socialistes ‘You are Here’ an interview with Dorothy E. Smith Vol. 6 No. 2 Special Section Rosa Luxemburg’s Political Economy Klaus Dörre, Peter Hudis, Ingo Schmidt, Helen Scott, Estrella Trincado, Paul LeBlanc Fall 2010 Book Reviews www.socialiststudies.com ISSN 1918-2821 Socialist Studies: the Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies 6(2) Fall 2010 Socialist Studies: the Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies, is published by the Society for Socialist Studies. The Society for Socialist Studies is an association of progressive academics, students, activists and members of the general public. Since its creation in 1966, the Society has been dedicated to providing a forum for those who promote a socialist perspective as a foundation on which to build solutions to political, economic, workplace, social, gender, ethnic, environmental and other forms of exploitation, oppression and injustice. It is unique in bringing together individuals from all walks of life and as a member of the Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences, is in a position to create links with other organizations, promote the concerns of members, and present an influential face to policy makers. As such, Socialist Studies: The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing articles on as broad an array of topics as possible from all fields of study. Typically, articles will adopt a critical perspective, which will shed light on, and offer remedies for, any form of social, economic or political injustice.
    [Show full text]
  • Capitalisms Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World
    Democratic Marxism Series Series Editor: Vishwas Satgar The crisis of Marxism in the late twentieth century was the crisis of orthodox and vanguardist Marxism associated mainly with hierarchical communist parties, and which was imposed – even as state ideology – as the ‘correct’ Marxism. The Stalinisation of the Soviet Union and its eventual collapse exposed the inherent weaknesses and authoritarian mould of vanguardist Marxism. More fundamentally, vanguardist Marxism was rendered obsolete but for its residual existence in a few parts of the world, including authoritarian national liberation movements in Africa and in China. With the deepening crises of capitalism, a new democratic Marxism (or democratic historical materialism) is coming to the fore. Such a democratic Marxism is characterised in the following ways: • Its sources span non-vanguardist grassroots movements, unions, political fronts, mass parties, radical intellectuals, trans­­­­national activist networks and the progressive academy; • It seeks to ensure that the inherent categories of Marxism are theorised within constantly changing historical conditions to find meaning; • Marxism is understood as a body of social thought that is unfinished and hence challenged by the need to explain the dynamics of a globalising capitalism and the futures of social change; • It is open to other forms of anti-capitalist thought and practice, including currents within radical ecology, feminism, emancipatory utopianism and indigenous thought; • It does not seek to be a monolithic and singular school of thought but engenders contending perspectives; • Democracy, as part of the heritage of people’s struggles, is understood as the basis for articulating alternatives to capitalism and as the primary means for constituting a transformative subject of historical change.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Democracy Wolves in the City
    Socialist Democracy socialistdemocracy.org Volume 2 no.4. October/December 2012 Solidarity Price: €1 The wolves are in the city. A new, intensified period of austerity is on its way, driving living stan- dards down and down. The workers are being Wolves attacked from every direction and the socialist move- ment is in disarray. The IMF letter to the Greek government lays out in the capitalism's vision of the future; job losses, wage and pension cuts, mass privatization and public service provision at 19th century levels. A similar letter to the Irish government shows that Ireland is on the slow city train to Athens. In the North we have mass unemploy- ment, major cuts and job losses representing only the early stages of the austerity programme. The Dublin government's promise to resolve the crisis has proved empty. Their only strategy is to obey the troika and plead for more time to pay. It is quite clear that there will be a second bailout and that austerity will continue for over a decade. Labour, elected to soften the Blueshirt offensive, actually spearhead the attacks. The Financial Stability Pact outlaws any reform. The tattered Croke Park Deal is morphing into open season on the public service and David Begg and ICTU are surrendering in advance of any struggle. Reaction has triumphed to such an extent that opinion polls record majority support for an extension of the austerity! The battle is far from over. Workers first response has been to hold firmly to traditional leaders in Labour and in the unions.
    [Show full text]
  • Visaginas, Tychy, and Nowa Huta
    SLOVO, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring 2012), 41-57. Coping with the Unwanted Past in Planned Socialist Towns: Visaginas, Tychy, and Nowa Huta RASA BALOCKAITE Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania The article examines three cases of planned socialist towns: Visaginas in Lithuania and Tychy and Nowa Huta in Poland. The planned socialist towns, products of the socialist urban planning, were known as the workers‟ towns in the workers‟ state and as the outposts of socialism. After the fall of their respective socialist regimes, however, it became necessary to redefine the identities of these towns in order to cope with the socialist past. While the issue of socialist heritage has been researched by scholars, this research addresses an existing gap in the theory – how socialist heritage is presently used in those planned socialist towns that have little other symbolic recourse available. This paper examines the content of various institutionally produced materials, such as websites, tourism brochures, photo albums, and guided tours. The research reveals different strategies used in planned socialist towns to redefine their identities: i) active forgetting of the socialist past; ii) commercialization of the socialist past via tourism; iii) ironic imitation of the West, vis-à-vis de–ideologized images of “green and young” towns; and iv) bifurcation of consciousness into private remembrance and public forgetting of the past. The article presents the findings of the research project, „Transformations of the Socialist Urban Utopias‟, funded by CERGE-EI (Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute) Foundation, Prague, Czech Republic. INTRODUCTION From 1917 to 1990, socialist authorities built many so-called planned socialist towns across the Eastern bloc, both in the USSR and in the satellite socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe.
    [Show full text]