by SJ Dickie and Ali Senior
Boston, MA
Across the United States, cities are breaking records for highest temperatures on record, with no sign of cooling down. In 2022, the Secretary General of the United Nations declared that the climate crisis had passed the “point of no return” at which the damage to the environment is considered irreversible. Today, even the most stubborn skeptics can’t ignore the climbing temperatures and ever-more-frequent natural disasters. Wildfires on the West Coast are destroying forests and homes; stronger and more frequent storms leave communities without power, like in Columbus in July; and most recently, the Northeast has experienced extreme flooding due to hurricanes Debby and Beryl.
Workers’ Lives On The Line
Many workers lack crucial access to air conditioning in life-threatening heat. Last year, members of the Independent Socialist Group fought alongside UPS workers for a better contract. A key demand: air conditioning in all delivery trucks. Drivers pass out, crash, and die due to heat stroke. UPS refused to make these necessary installations to their delivery vehicles, only agreeing in the new contract to put them in trucks bought after January 2024, claiming a lack of funding while bragging of record profits.
As climate conditions worsen, environmental migration becomes more common. Workers abroad flee communities decimated by floods, famine, and drought to seek stability in the US. Capitalist politicians scapegoat migrants by alleging they “steal” jobs and resources. In reality, corporations are the ones outsourcing jobs abroad, laying off workers and paying them the lowest possible wages, replacing full-time positions with part-time ones, skirting labor laws by illegally hiring immigrant children in meat-processing factories and sawmills, where workers get injured and even die. There is more than enough wealth to meet the needs of all workers, and no need for a scarcity of good jobs, if not for the interests of a greedy minority.
The Rich Agree: Let It Burn
Corporate media pushes the myth of individual responsibility – but reusing grocery bags and sorting our recycling has only a limited impact, which pales in comparison to the massive damage perpetuated by corporations. Since 2016, only 56 companies have been responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. In reality, the blame falls on the ruling class who undemocratically decide what is made in society and how.
When Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States in 2016, he promised a “business-friendly,” deregulatory approach to the climate crisis. He pushed an executive order that for each new regulation put in place, two must be eliminated, and his administration increased production and use of fossil fuels. In 2020, many voters hoped that Joe Biden would change this trajectory, but his promises to “believe science” and work to end climate change have proven empty.
Biden has approved more oil-drilling drilling permits than Trump. He also waived twenty-six federal laws to continue construction of Trump’s border wall; most of these laws related to environmental conservation. Corporate politicians make big moves swiftly where oppressive immigration policy is concerned, yet when it comes to climate change, they stall and make excuses. Corporate politicians are loyal to corporations, and corporations pursue profits – regardless of the long-term impacts on our planet, and our health.
The Way Forward Is Left
The working class need not feel hopeless when it comes to climate change. Standing together, workers could eclipse the influence of the capitalist class. A necessary first step to facing the climate crisis is to politically organize the working class through a party of our own. We can help lay the basis for one by backing independent left candidates in elections who are committed to climate justice. ISG supports both the Jill Stein and Cornel West campaigns for this reason (read more pg. 6). We also urge those supporting the campaigns and others seeing the need for independent left politics to continue to organize past election day.
Ultimately, workers must take housing, agriculture, and energy production under public ownership, with democratic planning, that can implement environmentally-sustainable systems. Rebuilding our communities after climate disasters will need planning controlled by working people in the affected areas. Capitalism is not designed for any sort of economic planning centered on the working class instead of profit-taking by the rich. This is why ISG fights for socialism. As a crucial step towards this, the working class needs to build political independence to organize against capitalism and imperialism which value profit over people and planet. Unions can play a large role by ending endorsements of corporate parties that exacerbate the climate crisis and by helping build a workers’ party that can fight for safe working and living conditions.
Further, we need a global mass socialist movement: the climate crisis spans borders, so its solutions must, too. Together we can end the dangerous future ahead of us to fight for a just, eco-socialist world that benefits us all.
Photo credit: Street Lab
Independent Socialist Group 