A Marxist view of the environmental destruction
The IWU-FI in the face of the capitalist environmental destruction
We present a work approved at the Seventh World Congress of the IWU–FI, in December 2020. A Marxist vision of the capitalist environmental crisis that goes from the antecedents from the teachers of Marxism to the present day.
The world is suffering one of the most serious crises in history. Not only are poverty, exploitation, hunger and even the lack of drinking water growing for billions of people but we are also suffering from massive diseases, such as Covid-19. The cause of this calamity is the capitalist-imperialist system, an irrational, unjust system and at the service of the capitalists. The breeding ground for new diseases is growing misery, overcrowding and climate change. Covid-19 revealed the debacle of capitalism and destruction, for example, of state public health.
Part of this debacle is climate change and the advance of environmental destruction. Scientific reports show that by 2050 the planet could be uninhabitable if CO2 emissions are not stopped. This is the abyss where capitalism leads us, as a minority of billionaires and their multinationals continue to multiply their gigantic profits. Only the overthrow of the capitalist-imperialist system, the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, and socialist governments of the workers can rationally plan the world economy to take care of nature and the human being as part of it. On this path of struggle, the forecast of scientists, towards the limit of the year 2050, does not mean that it is inexorable. The struggles can win partial gains and changes in energy and environmental policies. They will not be substantive changes but the struggles can counteract the pace of the environmental crisis. The fight is open and we are not collapsists.
Since 2018, the movement against environmental pollution and global warming has become massive, led by a youth current centred in Europe but spread worldwide. It is a progressive movement that tends to clash with multinationals and capitalist governments responsible for the pollution and the lack of solutions. On this path of struggle, the forecast of scientists, towards the 2050 deadline, does not mean that it is inexorable. The struggles can obtain achievements and partial modifications in energy and environmental policies. They will not be fundamental changes but the struggles can counteract the rhythm of the environmental crisis. The struggle is open and we are not collapsists.
We consider ourselves part of this movement and we support the just demands and we do everything possible to achieve the broadest unity of action for them, without any kind of sectarianism. We are the socialist revolutionary sector of this broad movement in defence of life on the planet. The IWU-FI supports and encourages all popular and youth struggles in defence of natural resources and that confront the plundering and depredation of nature.
We raise a program to promote mobilisation seeking the broadest unity of action in defence of the environment but also denouncing the plundering of wealth by imperialism and multinationals. Our perspective is uniting these struggles with those of the working class and popular sectors of the world to impose a fundamental change: governments of the workers and socialism. The dilemma is Socialism or Catastrophe.
