The dramatic collapse of the talks at
the Climate Summit in Copenhagen serves to highlight one thing: the
capitalist governments of the world cannot solve burning issues, such
as damage to the environment provoked by the anarchy of the market. The
thirst for profit is in direct contradiction to the interests of the
working people of the world. Social revolution on a global scale is the
only real answer to the problem.
100,000 strong Global Day of Action for Climate demonstration was
taking place on December 12 in Copenhagen. Photo by Greenpeace/Lauri
Myllyvirta.The UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen has ended
in a complete mess. The Danish presidency of the conference has simply
given up and thrown in the towel. This, however, should not come as a
surprise. No other outcome was possible to begin with. Capitalism by
its very nature is incapable of dealing with a global problem such as
this, especially if we consider the enormous conflicting interests
between the capitalists on a world scale and the colossal burden of the
present economic crisis. Delegates at the summit on Friday described
the situation as “confusing” and “desperate”.
The poor countries demanded that the advanced capitalist countries
donate 5 percent of GDP to climate protection measures. The problem is
that the advanced capitalist countries have spent huge resources on
saving their collapsing banking systems, and as a consequence are now
heavily burdened with debt. As a result, in all countries, they are
struggling hard to cut back on public spending. The world crisis of
capitalism does not even allow them to maintain the levels of spending
of yesterday – so how can they set aside resources for climate-friendly
measures?
Let us be clear on this question. The resources, the wealth, the
human resources, the science and technology do exist to combat the
polluting effects of capitalism on this planet we live on. The problem
is that these resources are used to the advantage of the rich, who are
not prepared to see cuts in their profits. The truth is, as Hugo Chávez
said in his speech, that “capitalism is a destructive development model
that is putting an end to life, and that threatens to put a definitive
end to the human species.”
Capitalist crisis
All the advanced capitalist countries are in a mess. They may have
avoided a 1929-style collapse… for now. But the price for this is
huge deficits in all countries. Take for example Germany. The German
Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, according to the Financial Times,
on Wednesday remarked that reining in the soaring budget deficit would
“not be achieved with the conventional instruments”. In other words: in
order to pull German capitalism out of this crisis, they will have to
wage a vicious class war against the working class. The capitalists in
Germany and other countries will seek to brutally cut back on state
pensions, free health care, free education as well as all other
elements that make for a semi-civilized society. How can they be
expected to worry about climate change and catastrophes in poor
countries? The truth is that these problems will never be solved under
capitalism.
Evo Morales from Bolivia firmly placed the blame for climate problems
on capitalism: “The real cause of climate change is the capitalist
system. If we want to save the earth then we must end that economic
model. Capitalism wants to address climate change with carbon markets.
We denounce those markets and the countries which [promote them]. It’s
time to stop making money from the disgrace that they have
perpetrated.” Hugo Chávez in his speech condemned the capitalist system
and said that the only alternative is socialism. He added that “if the
climate were a bank, they would have bailed it out already”.
It is the enormous accumulation of contradictions flowing from this
situation that eventually led the Danish presidency of the conference
simply give up and then to declare that there would be no real
agreement at the summit. The leaders from the advanced capitalist
countries had miscalculated the whole situation. They thought that they
could make the usual deal that would make no difference at all, while
presenting it as a big step forward. But they didn’t even manage to do
this. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday:
“Any agreement is expected, at best, to envision emissions-cutting
targets for rich nations and billions in help for poor countries, but
to fall well short of the goal of a legally binding pact. The political
deal would still be seen by many as a setback, following two years of
intense negotiations to agree on deeper reductions in the emissions of
carbon dioxide and other gases largely blamed for global warming.”
The summit in Copenhagen also made the headlines around the world
for the police repression in the streets. On 12 December, a human flood
moved through Copenhagen. This 100,000 strong demonstration was a
protest against the fact that capitalism is destroying the planet. The
police repression of protestors in this march – as well as against
other demonstrations – has been reported all over the world. Those who
thought of the Scandinavian countries as nice, peaceful, harmonious
societies have no to think again after they saw the scenes of hundreds
of youth rounded up and tied up like animals.
December, the police made 133 so-called “pre-emptive arrests”, but then
they only charged four people for anything, proving that they were all
arbitrary arrests of innocent protestors. These are clearly
police-state methods with one purpose in mind: to strike fear into the
youth and the working class in order to get them to bow their heads and
accept the attacks on living standards and other capitalist policies.
The police have even distributed post-cards to all school students of
14-15 years of age in Copenhagen, warning them not to participate in
demonstrations.
In his speech at the summit, Chávez condemned the repression,
applauded the demonstrators and highlighted one slogan, namely “Don’t
change the climate – change the system”. He stressed that the only
alternative to capitalism is the socialist transformation of society:
“Our revolution seeks justice for all people. This path is socialism.
Capitalism is the road to hell. History calls us to struggle.”
The US-China conflict
The United States have demanded that China agree to cut its
emissions and accepts “a broader agreement that covers the
‘transparency’ of China’s measures to limit heat-trapping gases,” as
the Wall Street Journal put it. What does this mean? It is in
fact merely a very flimsily veiled protectionist step on the part of US
imperialism. It means that the US is insisting that China must stop
flooding the world market with cheap goods that put American
capitalists out of business. Furthermore, they also want China to open
its doors to espionage! Of course, the Chinese leaders are not eager to
sign such an agreement – on the contrary, they have maintained that
their “voluntary emissions target” is “non-negotiable”.
diplomatic clash between China and the US has, of course, nothing to do
with CO2 emissions and climate change but everything to do with profits
and the protection of markets. This is also why they can’t reach a real
agreement. They can issue a political statement with a lot of fine
words but with very few concrete promises – and these promises will be
broken anyway. That is how capitalist diplomacy works.
The present economic crisis has in fact further aggravated the
threat of protectionism. Governments everywhere are trying to export
unemployment by the means of tariffs on imported goods and subsidizing
their own capitalists at home. The different capitalist powers are
desperately trying to conquer the markets of their competitors, while
protecting their own. This is reflected in the antagonisms between
countries such as China and the US, but also between other capitalist
powers, even between the EU and the USA for example.
Need for a plan
While the United States and the European Union allocate US$4100
billion to save the bankers, they offer peanuts for programs on climate
change. While the US spends US$3.6 billion per month on killing poor
people in Afghanistan, 12 percent of the American population depends on
food stamps to survive. The total income of the 500 richest people in
the world is greater than the 450 million poorest living on two dollars
a day. Capitalism in the 21st century means horror without
end for the vast majority of the planet’s population. The continued
existence of capitalism is a mortal threat to millions of people around
the world.
At a public meeting with more than 3000 people in Copenhagen,
organized by various trade unions, political organizations and
solidarity campaigns, including Hands off Venezuela, President Hugo
Chávez correctly pointed out that a socialist revolution is the only
solution to the problems of humanity. He stressed the need for a
worldwide revolution and repeated his proposal for the Fifth
International as an instrument for this purpose. What is essential is
that these words be translated into deeds. If Chavez acted on these
words in Venezuela and began the process of socialist transformation in
Venezuela by expropriating the property of the local oligarchy and of
the imperialists, it would mark the beginning of the all-Latin American
revolution, which in turn would give a huge impetus to the class
struggle throughout the whole world.
The fact is that a solution to climate problems, poverty, disease,
illiteracy, unemployment, wars and hunger, will never be achieved on a
capitalist basis, much less by the hypocrisy of bourgeois diplomacy.
The continued existence of capitalism will simply aggravate these
problems in the coming period. Capitalism cannot be reformed from
within; it must be overthrown by the conscious action of the working
class. It is only the working class – the class that represents the
future – that can bring about real change and a socialist
transformation in society, by fighting for revolutionary Marxism within
the labour movement in all countries.
The failure of the Copenhagen summit is an indication of the sever
crisis we are experiencing. But it will also serve a purpose: to open
the eyes of many workers and youth who may have had illusions that such
summits could begin to the tackle the serious problems we face. The
failure of the summit strengthens those like the Marxists who argue
that if we want to really save the planet we must remove the economic
system that is at the root of all the problems, capitalism itself.
