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The Climate Crisis South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives

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The Climate Crisis South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives DEMOCRATIC MARXISM DEMOCRATIC MARXISM SERIES Series Editor: Vishwas Satgar The crisis of Marxism in the late twentieth century was the crisis of orthodox and van- guardist Marxism associated mainly with hierarchical communist parties, and 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, as well as within authoritarian national liberation movements in Africa and in China. With the deepening crises of capitalism, a new democratic Marxism (or democratic his- torical 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 parts of 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 cur- rents 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 con- stituting a transformative subject of historical change. This series seeks to elaborate the social theorising and politics of democratic Marxism. Published in the series and available: Michelle Williams and Vishwas Satgar (eds). 2013. Marxisms in the 21st Century: Crisis, Critique and Struggle. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Vishwas Satgar (ed.), 2015. Capitalism’s Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. The Climate Crisis South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives Edited by Vishwas Satgar Published in South Africa by: Wits University Press 1 Jan Smuts Avenue Johannesburg 2001 www.witspress.co.za Compilation © Vishwas Satgar 2018 Chapters © Individual contributors 2018 Published edition © Wits University Press 2018 First published 2018 http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/22018020541 978-1-77614-054-1 (Print) 978-1-77614-207-1 (Web PDF) 978-1-77614-208-8 (EPUB) 978-1-77614-330-6 (Open Access PDF) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978. This book is freely available through the OAPEN library (www.oapen.org) under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/). The publication of this volume was made possible by funding from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and through a grant received from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Project manager: Inga Norenius Copy editor: Lee Smith Proofreader: Inga Norenius Indexer: Margaret Ramsay Cover: Hothouse, South Africa FM.indd 4 02-08-2018 16:44:16 CONTENTS TABLES AND BOX vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS x CHAPTER 1: The Climate Crisis and Systemic Alternatives 1 Vishwas Satgar PART ONE: THE CLIMATE CRISIS AS CAPITALIST CRISIS 29 CHAPTER 2: The Limits of Capitalist Solutions to the Climate Crisis 30 Dorothy Grace Guerrero CHAPTER 3: The Anthropocene and Imperial Ecocide: Prospects for Just Transitions 47 Vishwas Satgar PART TWO: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN THE WORLD 69 CHAPTER 4: The Employment Crisis, Just Transition and the Universal Basic Income Grant 70 Hein Marais CHAPTER 5: The Rights of Mother Earth 107 Pablo Sólon CHAPTER 6: Buen Vivir: An Alternative Perspective from the Peoples of the Global South to the Crisis of Capitalist Modernity 131 Alberto Acosta and Mateo Martínez Abarca CHAPTER 7: Challenging the Growth Paradigm: Marx, Buddha and the Pursuit of ‘Happiness’ 148 Devan Pillay CHAPTER 8: Ubuntu and the Struggle for an African Eco-Socialist Alternative 168 Christelle Terreblanche CHAPTER 9: The Climate Crisis and the Struggle for African Food Sovereignty 190 Nnimmo Bassey PART THREE: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA 209 CHAPTER 10: The Climate Crisis and a ‘Just Transition’ in South Africa: An Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective 210 Jacklyn Cock CHAPTER 11: Energy, Labour and Democracy in South Africa 231 Michelle Williams CHAPTER 12: Capital, Climate and the Politics of Nuclear Procurement in South Africa 252 David Fig CHAPTER 13: Climate Jobs at Two Minutes to Midnight 272 Brian Ashley CHAPTER 14: Deepening the Just Transition through Food Sovereignty and the Solidarity Economy 293 Andrew Bennie and Athish Satgoor CHAPTER 15: Eco-Capitalist Crises in the ‘Blue Economy’: Operation Phakisa’s Small, Slow Failures 314 Desné Masie and Patrick Bond CONCLUSION: Vishwas Satgar 338 CONTRIBUTORS 343 INDEX 347 TABLES AND BOX Tables Table 12.1 Potential nuclear vendors in the South African new build procurement 263 Table 13.1 Job estimates 281 Table 13.2 Total annual emissions in million tons of CO2e 282 Table 13.3 Jobs in the REI4P 285 Table 13.4 Average number of new energy jobs each year 286 Table 13.5 Contribution of different modes of transport to emissions, 2000–2010 287 Table 13.6 Commuter use of different modes of transport 288 Table 13.7 Estimated number of jobs created each year by expanding the public transport system 289 Box Box 5.1 Thomas Berry’s Ten Principles of Earth Jurisprudence 119 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his volume owes a special debt to the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation T(RLF). Without the support given by the RLF it would have been impossible to hold a contributors’ workshop in South Africa and to ensure the manuscript was prepared for publication. In addition, the support given by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences has enabled us to publish this volume as a digital book as well. We are also grateful for the support given by Athish Satgoor and Andrew Bennie, organisers at the Co-operative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC), who played a central role in organising the work- shop convened with contributors and activists from various social movements and community organisations. Wits University graciously provided a venue for the contributors’ workshop. Special thanks also go to Alexia Daoussis, who assisted with a language and citation edit. For translation of the chapter on buen vivir from Spanish to English, we appreciate the efforts of Janine Schall-Emden for the final edit and the efforts of Natalia Cabanillas and Laura Efron for the first attempt at translation. Jane Cherry has been an outstanding editorial assis- tant and has contributed immensely to preparing the manuscript for Wits University Press. Moreover, it is important to acknowledge the feedback given on the manuscript by Nomaswazi Mthombeni and Professor Michelle Williams. Finally, our sincerest appreciation to the team at Wits University Press, particularly Veronica Klipp, Roshan Cader and Corina van der Spoel, for supporting this volume and the Democratic Marxism Series. ix ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ACB African Centre for Biodiversity AFSA Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa ANC African National Congress ARIPO African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa CO2 carbon dioxide CO2e carbon dioxide equivalent COP Conference of the Parties Cosatu Congress of South African Trade Unions EIA Environmental Impact Assessment FDI foreign direct investment GDP gross domestic product GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution GHG greenhouse gas GMO genetically modified organism IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change MEC minerals–energy complex MPRDA Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act NAFN New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition NDP National Development Plan Necsa South African Nuclear Energy Corporation NRWDI National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute NUM National Union of Mineworkers Numsa National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa ppm parts per million REDD reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation REI4P Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme SAFSC South African Food Sovereignty Campaign SAP structural adjustment programme SDCEA South Durban Community Environmental Alliance SEM Solidarity Economy Movement UBIG universal basic income grant UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNFCCC UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UPOV International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants x CHAPTER 1 THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND SYSTEMIC ALTERNATIVES Vishwas Satgar limate change is the most serious challenge we face as a species. Despite Cnumerous warnings – scientific studies, United Nations (UN) declara- tions, books, movies, progressive media reporting – global leadership has failed humanity. After more than twenty years of multilateral negotiations, we have not developed the solutions
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