A World to Win

In February the CWO were invited to participate in a discussion at Sussex University on the question, “Do you have to be red to be green”. The discussion was called by the student ”Environmental Society” and “Socialist Students Society”.

Speaking on the issue were representatives of the “Green Party”, the “Brighton and Hove Transition Towns Movement” ⁽¹⁾, the “Socialist Party” ⁽²⁾, the CWO and a student who had written a dissertation on the impending environmental catastrophe.

None of the invited speakers produced a defence of the view that capitalism could be reformed to become green. The notion of a “green capitalism” which is the policy of the Green Party was only mentioned in passing. There thus appeared to be general agreement that capitalism was, in theory at least, incompatible with sustainability and in consequence was incapable of saving the planet from disaster. From this agreement it appeared to follow that only those who sought the overthrow of capitalism could be green, or, in the terms of the debate, one had to be “red” to be “green.” It was clear, however, that being “red” was differently understood by the speakers and participants from the floor. The CWO argued that being “red” meant fighting for socialist relations of production on a global scale. This meant constructing a system where production was for human need as opposed to the present system which produces solely for profit. Under communist relations of production the defining relationship of capitalism, that of wage labour, would be ended. Such a system had nothing in common with what existed in Russia which was a system of state capitalism. The Socialist Party, however, spoke as if supporting nationalisation and democratic control of capitalism, i.e., a form of state capitalism constituted being “red.” In addition to the differences in regard to what constituted being “red” it also became clear, as the discussion developed, that the theoretical view that capitalism was incapable of solving the ecological catastrophe was not accepted in practice.

Many of those present still saw the priority as fighting to get capitalism to reform and become green. The discussion did, however, bring up a number of interesting questions which we were unable to fully respond to in the meeting and to which we will return below. First we wish to restate, what we said in the discussion and have written in previous editions of Revolutionary Perspectives ⁽³⁾, in regard to capitalism’s fundamental inability to exist in harmony with nature, and its tendency to produce environmental crises which it is unable to solve.

Capitalism Generates Environmental Disaster

Under capitalist relations of production the purpose of production is the generation of profit. Through its separation of the workers from the means of production capitalist society has created a class who are obliged to sell their labour power to those who own or control the means of production.

The sale of labour power through the system of wage labour creates the basis for exploitation and the generation of profit.

Profit represents unpaid labour extracted from the working class and it is solely for the generation of profit that the capitalist class undertakes production. The system contains many contradictions which lead to economic crises, to imperialism and to war. Ecological disaster is only one of many disasters generated by the contradictions of this system. The primary problem for capitalism is located in the tendency for the rate of profit to fall as the productivity of labour increases. Under capitalism the increasing productivity of labour is not a benefit to humanity, as would have been the case under previous economic systems, but a threat, since profits, which are derived from surplus labour extracted from the working class, tend to decrease as less labour is involved in production.

Increased productivity of labour means that the element of profit contained in each commodity tends to decrease relative to the value of the commodity. To counter this tendency, capitalists are always trying to increase the volume of production and it is for this reason that there is a continually struggle to increase the numbers of commodities sold. This results in capitalism’s desperate struggle for growth.

All the global economies measure their success in terms of growth. Capitalism has to expand or die. However, continual growth means quite simply that the capitalist system cannot exist in harmony with nature. Even at present with growth rates of around 3%, which are low by historical standards, the global economy will double in size every 25 years or so. This means that the resources used up also have to be doubled. The exponential use of the earth’s resources can be illustrated through the consideration of almost any commodity.

Global steel production, for example, which is itself a measure of economic activity, has increased in the period since World War II as shown in the Table:

During the entire period the average annual growth rate was 3.4% but during the period 1950 to 1970 the growth rate was almost 6%. In a period of 56 years, production of steel has increased by a factor of 6.5.

The consumption of oil, a more relevant example for global warming, was 64.8mbd (million barrels per day) in 1980, by 2006 it had risen to 84.7 mbd and by 2030 it is predicted to rise to 116mbd. During the last 25 years, the use of oil has risen by 1% annually producing an increase of 31% and is predicted to increase by 37% over the next 25 years. Other energy predictions for the future are equally stark. By 2030, gas consumption and coal consumption are predicted to increase by 65% and 74% respectively. World energy consumption as a whole is expected to rise by 60% ⁽⁴⁾. How, one might ask, can emissions of carbon dioxide be reduced given these figures?

What needs to be stated loud and clear is that the forces behind capitalism’s drive for growth come from the workings of capitalism itself, not from the immorality of the capitalist class. The forces behind capitalism’s need for continual and unending expansion are material forces, they are not ideological ones.

Once this is understood, one can see how utterly hopeless it is to try to persuade the capitalist class to change its behaviour, to get them to see the error of their ways, to consider the good of mankind and so forth.

Their behaviour is determined by the workings of the capitalist system. Their behaviour expresses the needs of the capitalist system, which demands profit, capital accumulation and therefore growth.

Capitalists will only tackle environmental issues when they see them as a threat to their profits or they see green technology as a source of profit itself. The Stern Report, for example, recommends that global warming should be dealt with because, in the longer term, it will reduce profits and limit growth. It also sees clean energy has the potential to generate profits for the capitalists who gain a head start in producing the technology. These are the reasons given for tackling the greenhouse effect!

Competition Undermines Global Solutions under Capitalism

Global competition between capitalists, national states or groups of states, makes capitalism unable to tackle global problems like these. The fiasco of the Kyoto Treaty simply illustrates this. Nation states, such as the US, won’t sign up to limiting emissions if it is going to reduce the competitiveness of US capital. Under Kyoto protocol global emissions were supposed to reduce by 5% between 1990 and 2012 and instead they have increased by about 20%. The attempt to start the process of a successor treaty at Bali immediately ran up against the familiar problems which undermined Kyoto with the US refusing to subscribe to any targets for cuts in emissions.

One Disaster after Another

Climate change is only the latest of the ecological disasters capitalism has created.

Before this we had acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and local poisoning of rivers and lakes. It was reported in February that there are now two areas in the Pacific Ocean each the size of the US which are now a soup of plastic and other indestructible garbage ⁽⁵⁾. This plastic is entering the food chain poisoning fish and birds etc.

Capitalism is not in balance with nature. It treats the world as a resource to be exploited mercilessly for profit. As soon as it reduces one environmental disaster it generates another. Ecological catastrophe is a symptom of what is wrong with capitalism; it is just another reason why capitalism must be replaced by a more advanced system of production.

Those greens who hope to solve the ecological problems by reforming capitalism are simply deceiving themselves. What we are seeing today are the effects of the inner working of capitalism itself and these effects cannot be eliminated without removing their causes. As the situation becomes ever more desperate some, in the green movement are beginning to realise that it is capitalism which stands in the way of any solution.

Yet despite this they are re-doubling their efforts for reform, calling for zero emissions by 2050. The environmental campaigner Monbiot even calls for a mobilisation similar to that undertaken by the state in conditions of war.6 This, of course, is just whistling in the dark.

Since it is capitalism which is leading the world to ruin, the green movement needs to give its propaganda and mobilisations an anti-capitalist orientation so that they can become part of a more general movement for the destruction of capitalism.

Virtual Growth

During the discussion some interesting issues were raised which we will try to answer below. One of these was the issue of virtual growth. Why, a questioner asked, was it not possible in the so-called “post industrial” economies to have a knowledgebased economy with growth which did not use up energy and raw materials.

The world economy is more of a global economy than it has been at any time in capitalism’s history. The knowledge economy, like the financial sector, is not a separate economy floating above the production of commodities and the exploitation of wage labour, rather it is based on it. When a knowledge company like Microsoft makes a fortune out of its software this fortune does not come from nowhere. The capitalist class uses these programmes to increase productivity of production by speeding up such things as calculations, computer-aided design, process control, document production, accounting, filing and retrieval of information, etc. The surplus labour from the exploitation of workers involved in these sectors passes to the software manufacturers. The so-called “virtual” economy connects with the world of industrial production and expansion of the virtual economy demands expansion of the industrial economy. The myths surrounding the knowledge economy disappear as soon as the capitalist economy is viewed as a single entity. Surplus value extracted from workers worldwide is distributed amongst the capitalist class as a whole. The knowledge economy, like the financial sector, is simply staking a claim to this surplus which may come from exploitation of workers in China, in Brazil, in Europe or where ever. Real growth in industrial production somewhere in the world is required to sustain these sectors.

If capitalism were to really cease to grow massive economic convulsions would follow. Without a revolutionary response to such a crisis from the world’s workers, such convulsions would lead to a new series of wars.

The Only Realistic Alternative

A number of speakers from the floor said that to talk of the overthrow of capitalism was not realistic. Some speakers considered that the working class was happy with capitalism while others argued that the crisis of global warming was not going to wait for revolution. We had only about 15 years until the world reached a tipping point after which temperatures would rise independently of human action. This would lead to extinction of the species Homo sapiens.

As we have argued above, workers as a class are exploited under capitalist relations of production. It is therefore not really sensible to talk of workers as a class being happy with capitalism any more than slaves are happy with slavery. The massive strikes we have seen in recent years, in countries with new working classes, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, and South Africa, show that the newly created working class in these countries is responding to capitalist exploitation in precisely the way workers in the central countries have responded in the past. In addition, there have been strikes in the central countries over pensions and erosion of benefits such as those in France over the CPE employment contract. We expect the resistance of the working class to continue because the capitalist class is continually forced to attack the living standards of workers to combat falling profit rates. The continuation of the class struggle in itself shows that the working class is not happy with capitalism.

Although this does not mean that the working class is conscious of its revolutionary, interests it indicates that it could develop such a consciousness.

To expect capitalism to resolve the issue of global warming is what is unrealistic. We have shown that the forces driving capitalism to produce global ruin areOnce this is understood, one can see how utterly hopeless it is to try to persuade the capitalist class to change its behaviour, to get them to see the error of their ways, to consider the good of mankind and so forth.

Their behaviour is determined by the workings of the capitalist system. Their behaviour expresses the needs of the capitalist system, which demands profit, capital accumulation and therefore growth.

Capitalists will only tackle environmental issues when they see them as a threat to their profits or they see green technology as a source of profit itself. The Stern Report, for example, recommends that global warming should be dealt with because, in the longer term, it will reduce profits and limit growth. It also sees clean energy has the potential to generate profits for the capitalists who gain a head start in producing the technology. These are the reasons given for tackling the greenhouse effect!

Competition Undermines Global Solutions under Capitalism

Global competition between capitalists, national states or groups of states, makes capitalism unable to tackle global problems like these. The fiasco of the Kyoto Treaty simply illustrates this. Nation states, such as the US, won’t sign up to limiting emissions if it is going to reduce the competitiveness of US capital. Under Kyoto protocol global emissions were supposed to reduce by 5% between 1990 and 2012 and instead they have increased by about 20%. The attempt to start the process of a successor treaty at Bali immediately ran up against the familiar problems which undermined Kyoto with the US refusing to subscribe to any targets for cuts in emissions.

One Disaster after Another

Climate change is only the latest of the ecological disasters capitalism has created.

Before this we had acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and local poisoning of rivers and lakes. It was reported in February that there are now two areas in the Pacific Ocean each the size of the US which are now a soup of plastic and other indestructible garbage5. This plastic is entering the food chain poisoning fish and birds etc.

Capitalism is not in balance with nature. It treats the world as a resource to be exploited mercilessly for profit. As soon as it reduces one environmental disaster it generates another. Ecological catastrophe is a symptom of what is wrong with capitalism; it is just another reason why capitalism must be replaced by a more advanced system of production.

Those greens who hope to solve the ecological problems by reforming capitalism are simply deceiving themselves. What we are seeing today are the effects of the inner working of capitalism itself and these effects cannot be eliminated without removing their causes. As the situation becomes ever more desperate some, in the green movement are beginning to realise that it is capitalism which stands in the way of any solution.

Yet despite this they are re-doubling their efforts for reform, calling for zero emissions by 2050. The environmental campaigner Monbiot even calls for a mobilisation similar to that undertaken by the state in conditions of war. ⁽⁶⁾ This, of course, is just whistling in the dark.

Since it is capitalism which is leading the world to ruin, the green movement needs to give its propaganda and mobilisations an anti-capitalist orientation so that they can become part of a more general movement for the destruction of capitalism.

Virtual Growth

During the discussion some interesting issues were raised which we will try to answer below. One of these was the issue of virtual growth. Why, a questioner asked, was it not possible in the so-called “post industrial” economies to have a knowledgebased economy with growth which did not use up energy and raw materials.

The world economy is more of a global economy than it has been at any time in capitalism’s history. The knowledge economy, like the financial sector, is not a separate economy floating above the production of commodities and the exploitation of wage labour, rather it is based on it. When a knowledge company like Microsoft makes a fortune out of its software this fortune does not come from nowhere. The capitalist class uses these programmes to increase productivity of production by speeding up such things as calculations, computer-aided design, process control, document production, accounting, filing and retrieval of information, etc. The surplus labour from the exploitation of workers involved in these sectors passes to the software manufacturers. The so-called “virtual” economy connects with the world of industrial production and expansion of the virtual economy demands expansion of the industrial economy. The myths surrounding the knowledge economy disappear as soon as the capitalist economy is viewed as a single entity. Surplus value extracted from workers worldwide is distributed amongst the capitalist class as a whole. The knowledge economy, like the financial sector, is simply staking a claim to this surplus which may come from exploitation of workers in China, in Brazil, in Europe or where ever. Real growth in industrial production somewhere in the world is required to sustain these sectors.

If capitalism were to really cease to grow massive economic convulsions would follow. Without a revolutionary response to such a crisis from the world’s workers, such convulsions would lead to a new series of wars.

The Only Realistic Alternative

A number of speakers from the floor said that to talk of the overthrow of capitalism was not realistic. Some speakers considered that the working class was happy with capitalism while others argued that the crisis of global warming was not going to wait for revolution. We had only about 15 years until the world reached a tipping point after which temperatures would rise independently of human action. This would lead to extinction of the species Homo sapiens.

As we have argued above, workers as a class are exploited under capitalist relations of production. It is therefore not really sensible to talk of workers as a class being happy with capitalism any more than slaves are happy with slavery. The massive strikes we have seen in recent years, in countries with new working classes, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, and South Africa, show that the newly created working class in these countries is responding to capitalist exploitation in precisely the way workers in the central countries have responded in the past. In addition, there have been strikes in the central countries over pensions and erosion of benefits such as those in France over the CPE employment contract. We expect the resistance of the working class to continue because the capitalist class is continually forced to attack the living standards of workers to combat falling profit rates. The continuation of the class struggle in itself shows that the working class is not happy with capitalism.

Although this does not mean that the working class is conscious of its revolutionary, interests it indicates that it could develop such a consciousness.

To expect capitalism to resolve the issue of global warming is what is unrealistic. We have shown that the forces driving capitalism to produce global ruin are generated by the system 24 hours per day every day. While the prospect of revolution may appear unrealistic today, to work for this is, in fact, the only realistic alternative. It is the only way to avoid the catastrophe into which we are heading.

This is not to say that pressure should not be brought to bear on the capitalist class and their governments and organising bodies. This pressure, however, needs to be given a communist direction and at every turn it needs to be pointed out that the problems we are facing spring from capitalism as a system and it is capitalism which needs to be replaced.

As the crisis of global warming develops a whole chain of consequences will follow.

Water shortages will affect areas irrigated by rivers dependent on winter snows.

Arable land areas will shrink and sea levels will rise, making low lying areas of the earth uninhabitable. As a consequence the capitalist class will launch a desperate struggle for scarce resources such as oil, water, arable land, etc. Present wars in the Middle East and Darfur are the harbingers of what is to come. At the same time there is likely to be a massive increase in the class struggle as the most deprived of the earth see they are being denied the wealth they have produced and turned into cannon fodder. As the real divisions in society, which are divisions of class, become more evident, history will not stand still. The spectre of a new mode of production will arise out of these struggles and wars. Our task, as revolutionaries, is to turn this spectre into a programme that meets real needs of the working class which are those of mankind as a whole. A movement and a programme through which capitalism can be overthrown are desperately needed. The building of a revolutionary movement, therefore remains the key task of the present time. It is through this, rather than attempting to get capitalism to become green, that the future catastrophe can be avoided.

Communist Society and the World’s Resources

A speaker from the floor asked whether communist society would not exploit the world’s resources in a similar way to capitalist society.

It is, of course, true that human beings are only able to survive through their relationship with nature. From huntergather societies to the present, capitalist society humanity has got what it needs to survive from nature. Its primary needs of food, shelter, clothing and energy always have to be met, and in the more developed societies secondary needs for raw materials to make tools, utensils and later machinery appear. To satisfy these needs it will always be necessary to exploit nature to some degree. Iron, copper and other minerals cannot be used without exploiting the finite resources of the earth.

The difference between the present situation and future communist society is that under communist society such exploitation can be controlled and limited by human beings. It can be planned, whereas under capitalism it is out of control.

The reason capitalism is unable to effectively plan its exploitation of nature is the reason that has been given above; it produces for profit and capitalists are in continual competition with each other.

Capitalist production is anarchic and cannot be planned. Regulation of capitalism is through crises in which masses of capital are devalued or destroyed. The crises of capitalism are essential to the regulation of capitalism but are outside the control of those running the system. In addition, whole swathes of the capitalist economy are entirely unproductive and represent waste production or the destruction of useful work. The entire financial sector falls into this bracket, as do insurance, advertising, armaments production, military spending and a host of others. Over a third of the jobs in the developed economies consist of recycling values produced by the global working class and distributing the surplus amongst the global capitalist class.

A further significant reason why capitalist society cannot collectively address exploitation of resources is that it is a society divided into classes. As has been explained above, in capitalism the working class is separated from the means of production. Because of this, their labour and the products of their labour are owned by others. The surplus labour extracted from their work is converted into capital which is used to further exploit them. As Marx says, workers are continually creating the chains which enslave them. Under these circumstances the primary concern of workers is to fight against their exploitation and protect their class interests. The demand for workers to reduce their consumption is one which the capitalist class continually makes. During the last three decades they have enforced this by wage cuts implemented in a host of ways.

The object of reducing working class consumption is, of course, increasing profitability of capital. The demand that workers must now reduce their living standards to combat global warming will simply appear as the latest justification for what the capitalist class is trying to do anyway. In a society where the fundamental dynamic force is that of struggle between classes, the idea of workers and their exploiters uniting to fight climate change is completely utopian.

Under communism, on the other hand, classes will be eliminated and for the first time in human history it will be possible to collectively plan the future of humanity.

Human beings will have a common interest and will be able to work towards achieving it. The alienation and unhappiness of the present society will be ended and the mass of humanity will be draw into the running of the new society through participation in democratic workers’ councils. With the abolition of capitalist society all its absurdities, its waste, its cruelty will be ended. Communist society will draw in the abilities of all and produce for the needs of all. It will be able to balance these needs with sustainability. It will then be possible to roll back and repair the dreadful damage capitalism has inflicted on the planet in the few centuries during which it has been dominant system of production.

(1) The Brighton & Hove Transition Towns Movement is an organisation which aims to produce a city wide response to the issues of global warming and peak oil by making life style changes, such as use of renewable materials, recycling, reduction of energy consumption. etc.

(2) The “Socialist Party” is the reincarnation of the Militant Tendency who, for several decades, tried to reform the Labour Party by joining it. They should not be confused with the ex SPGB “Socialist Party”.

(3) See “Socialism or Ruin”, Revolutionary Perspectives 40.

(4) Figures from Financial Times, 22nd May 2007.

(5) Reported in Independent, 5th February 2008.

(6) See, for example, G Monbiot, “What is progress?”, 4th July 2007, where he speaks of a mobilisation similar to that of the Atlantic powers during the second World War. monbiot.com .