In September 2019, one year ago, there were demonstrations in over 3,000 cities in 150 countries, millions of people demanding effective action against climate change. One of the largest was in New York, where the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched at the head of the demonstration, now a world symbol of youthful indignation at the lack of action by governments and the futility of the “summits” of imperialism (G8, G20) to take effective measures to stop the rise in the temperature of the planet.
The international environmentalist group Fridays for Future called for a global day of action for the climate on 25 September, the first of the year. In its call, it says: “The coming months and years will be crucial (…) If we want to minimize the risk of triggering an irreversible chain of reactions beyond human control, we need to act now. Therefore, the climate crisis mustn’t be forgotten in the shadow of the coronavirus, but to be considered a top priority instead”.
This new world day of 2020 is convened with the COVID 19 pandemic still in progress. At a time when the hurricanes in the Caribbean, with unprecedented force, and the fires of gigantic areas in California and the Amazon, show us the disastrous effects of climate change.
These disasters, in addition to COVID 19 itself, are a direct result of the decline of capitalism. A system of exploitation that measures neither environmental consequences nor human catastrophes, when it comes to maintaining or multiplying its profits. The growth of social inequality, overcrowding, the collapse of the world’s state public health systems and environmental destruction are the breeding ground for the emergence and development of old and new diseases.
The destruction of forests, as well as capitalist agro-industry, as in the case of the Chinese dictatorship and industrial pig production without health controls, together with global warming, are exposing us to new pandemics. This was even foreseen by a report to the UN by 250 scientists that was completed early last year. But the UN, as a body of imperialism, only makes “reports” while letting the USA, China and the big capitalist powers continue, with their multinationals, destroying the environment.
The current world economic crisis and a recession of 6 to 8 per cent worldwide, far from alleviating the problem of environmental pollution and depredation, as some environmentalists had predicted, is aggravating them. The capitalist governments, from the United States to China, passing through the semi-colonial countries, give carte blanche to the multinationals so that they can maintain profits, and for that they allow them to violate the insufficient environmental regulations that the States have. A very clear catastrophic example is that of the fires in the Amazon, in Brazil and Bolivia, caused both by global warming and by landowners who intentionally set fires and who are protected by governments to extend the “agricultural frontier” of capitalist agro-industry.
From the International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI) we call for the promotion of the global day of struggle on 25 September, affirming that the capitalist-imperialist system itself is responsible for the climate disaster. That the only possible way out to stop this catastrophe is to fight to end capitalism by imposing governments of the working class and popular sectors, by expropriating the multinationals and the banks without any compensation, protect workers. Governments that begin to build a socialist society where the economy and production of mining, agriculture, fishing and industry are democratically planned to serve the broad working majorities and to care for nature. Socialism or Catastrophe!
From the IWU-FI we call to mobilise on 25 September, in the form that is possible in each country. We do this by supporting the struggles against water, air, land and sea pollution; against the incendiary destruction of forests and indiscriminate logging; against the depredation of nature by the multinationals and their imperialist plundering; for a ban on open-pit mining; for the expropriation of the mining, oil and gas multinationals, of agrochemicals (Monsanto-Bayer and others) and of the capitalist agro-industry that depreciates, poisons and destroys rivers and forests.
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
18 September 2020