Maya Kaufman-Irish, Bristol South Socialist Party
The increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change are impossible to ignore. Globally we are experiencing more extreme weather: storms, wildfires, droughts and flooding. Last summer in England, during one of the hottest days on record, fires broke out in towns and cities, damaging dozens of homes and shops. The London Fire Brigade described it as its busiest day since World War Two. This cannot go on. People are standing up and demanding action against the looming crisis of climate change. It is the polluting capitalist system that is guilty of damaging our planet’s environment. To end climate crisis we need real socialist change.
Over the last year, utility companies have recorded record profits – energy and water companies made billions of pounds while ordinary people couldn’t afford to heat their homes. We avoid swimming in polluted rivers and oceans, and are subject to smoggy, unhealthy cities. Why should workers be forced to pay for a crisis we did not cause?
Capitalism doesn’t care about people, our planet or the climate. As a system it only cares about its ability to continue to make profits for the bosses. Political representatives who defend and rely on capitalism, like the Tories or the Blairites, will put profit ahead of a planet we can comfortably live on, exploiting workers, with low wages and long hours, and exploiting the planet with extractive, damaging processes. Under capitalism, the bosses will attempt to fund any moves away from fossil fuels with further attacks on the working class, either with ‘green austerity’, regressive taxes or unemployment.
A socialist society would organise production for people’s wants and needs, not what makes a profit for a few. We fight for public ownership of our utilities, services and industries. We want to nationalise under democratic workers’ control, the energy companies, the NHS, the banks, the bus and rail companies, the postal service, without compensation to the fat cats who have profited at our expense for years.
With democratic control of the economy, the working class can decide to fully fund our services, provide decent jobs and run industries for the benefit of all, not at the expense of the environment. We could plan society to fund coordinated action across the world to fight climate change and its effects. We could invest in public transport, renewable energy infrastructure and more to help avoid climate catastrophe.
