In a recent statement, the climate campaigning organisation Just Stop Oil (JSO) announced that they are “hanging up the hi vis” and putting an end to the soup-throwing, paint-splattering, road-blocking direct action that they have become known for.
The reason given is that their sole demand – the end of all new fossil fuel licenses by 2030 – has now become government policy under Starmer.
But with 2024 being the hottest year on record, weather systems collapsing, and wildfires, hurricanes, and floods raging on every continent, many – including climate activists themselves – will be wondering whether this miniscule reform is worth the paper it’s written on.
It remains to be seen what JSO is going to do next. They say we “need a different approach”, and that they are “creating a new strategy” to build a “new resistance”.
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One of JSO’s imprisoned leaders recently wrote in the Guardian that “it is time to consider a new design for a mass movement capable of confronting the many intersecting crises that we face” (our emphasis).
Most notably, JSO has declared: “As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world…nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.”
As communists, we couldn’t agree more!
Alongside all of this, Youth Demand – a young, radical off-shoot from JSO, with a focus on pro-Palestine activism – has recently launched a campaign to “shut down London”, with a series of direct action protests against the genocide in Gaza and the climate crisis.
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This has drawn the attention of right-wing rags like the Daily Mail, who have penned bizarre headlines like “How ‘Just Stop Oil 2.0’ will ruin your summer: Now Youth Demand plot to bring London to a standstill as orange-clad eco zealots end reign of terror on hard-working Brits”.
This publicity – plus the shocking state repression Youth Demand faced last month and is continuing to face – has drawn the solidarity and attention of thousands of young people and activists.
Clear perspective
We welcome the initiatives and determination of comrades in Youth Demand, with whom the RCP is undertaking joint activity. And we look with interest at the ongoing developments within JSO.
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A section of climate activists are clearly and correctly drawing the conclusion that a sharper political programme is needed – extending beyond just the environment, to wider questions like imperialism, wealth inequality, and the political power of the billionaires.
As communists, we believe that the starting point of any party or movement should be clear ideas and perspectives. Our understanding of the world determines our aims and strategy: what we are fighting for – and how we fight for it.
As communists, our ideological bedrock is a materialist analysis of the capitalist system. We are morally outraged by the evils of capitalism, yes. But alongside our moral rejection, we seek a deeper insight into why these evils exist, where they come from, and how we can fight them.
We think that the fundamental problem in society – linking together the climate crisis with genocide, imperialism, exploitation, and repression – is the fact that the capitalist system has long outlived its purpose. It has entered into an organic crisis; a permanent state of chaos.
In the past period, although capitalism had periods of downturn and recession, they were followed by periods of upswing and growth. Throughout this boom-and-bust cycle, the system retained a relative degree of stability, as living standards generally increased over time.
But since the global crisis of 2008, the entire system has been plunged into chaos. In reality, capitalism never recovered from this shock – even after massive state handouts to the bankers, deep austerity measures, and attacks on the working class.
In the past, the capitalists were able to expand world trade. Globalisation led to high levels of productivity, economic growth, and the flow of cheap commodities around the world.
But now, this process has gone into reverse. We see protectionist trade wars, economic nationalism, and the return of militarism and imperialist warmongering.
The burden for all of this will be put onto the shoulders of the working class, in the form of wage cuts, unemployment, austerity, and higher prices.
This all confirms what Marxists have long stated: that the twin constraints of private property and the nation state mean that the capitalist class is no longer able to develop the productive forces, raise living standards, and take society forward.
These objective, material contradictions – which are not simply the result of the greed and caprice of politicians and the rich, but are baked into the system – are the root cause of all the irrationality and chaos we see around us.
This is the fundamental reason why the imperialists are scrambling to rearm themselves and carve up the globe. This is why the bankers and bosses are carrying out attacks on workers and youth. And this is why Starmer’s government is beefing up police powers and ramping up repression.
On the path we are currently on, this crisis-ridden system will continue to drag us deeper into barbarism – or even extinction as a species.
We therefore need a perspective and a programme that sets its sights not simply at winning this-or-that ‘realistic’ reform or concession, but at overthrowing the capitalist system entirely, and replacing it with an entirely new system based upon the democratic planning of the economy.
Class approach
Throughout history, we can observe that all major progressive changes in society – from workers’ rights, to the NHS and the welfare state, to women’s suffrage – are the product of class struggles.
Class struggle is not simply a case of ‘the people’ vs ‘the system’, but specifically the working class vs the capitalist class.
For communists, class is not an identity-based or cultural label. It has a precise, scientific definition, denoting the relations that certain groups or layers within society have to the means of production – the factories, offices, shops, farms, and so on.
The role that members of a certain class play in production has a fundamental bearing on their economic and political interests, and moulds their entire outlook on society and politics.
For example, the capitalist class doesn’t wreck the planet, wage imperialist wars, and attack wages and conditions just because they are morally bad people, nor because they have incorrect ideas – although both of these things are definitely true!
They are compelled to do these things by the logic of the capitalist system, which relies upon the continual extraction of profits from exploiting workers and plundering the earth’s natural resources.
In this respect, Marx stated, the capitalists act as “capital personified”.
There is therefore no way that we can morally appeal to these people to be less exploitative and imperialistic, or more climate conscious. Their entire position in society – their prestige, their power, their privileges – relies upon exploitation and plunder.
Furthermore, the interests of the workers and capitalists are fundamentally irreconcilable. The source of the capitalists’ profits is the surplus labour of the working class.
In short, workers produce more value than what they receive back in the form of wages. This is what Marx meant when he said that workers, as a class, are exploited by the capitalists. And this exploitation is what keeps the capitalist system running.
This has a direct bearing on the kind of demands that we put forward to curb wealth inequality.
One of Youth Demand’s main demands, alongside calling for an arms embargo on Israel, is for the government to “make the rich pay”; “to raise £1 trillion by 2030 from the super rich and fossil fuel elite to pay damages to communities and countries harmed by fossil fuel burning”.
This demand echoes the demand for a wealth tax, or the slogan of ‘tax the rich’, which others on the left have raised.
We certainly agree that the billionaires should be the ones paying for the crisis. But a wealth tax would not tackle the root of the problem: the inherent exploitation of the capitalist system.
Such a measure would, even in an ideal scenario, only bring a temporary reprieve – until the wealth started flowing back to the top once again.
The more likely outcome, however, is that it would be impotent. The bosses would just squirrel away their riches in offshore accounts, and even move entire companies abroad to avoid paying taxes.
In either case, Starmer’s government will never carry out such a measure, because it is a sworn defender of the “super rich and fossil fuel elites”. Nor will it carry out a trade embargo on Israel, because British imperialism is a committed ally of the Zionist regime.
In fact, no government would be able to carry out such measures by using the institutions of the British state, which has been crafted and perfected over centuries precisely to defend the interests of the super-rich minority against the interests of the majority.
The first step of building a mass movement must be to adopt clear and unambiguous aims; to explain what can and can’t be achieved within the limits of capitalism and the bourgeois state.
That’s why we call for the working class to expropriate the rich, which means seizing their wealth altogether.
Instead of just redistributing wealth, we call for the nationalisation of the top companies and banks, without compensation, and for these economic levers to be placed under the democratic control of the working class.
And we believe that to achieve all of this, the current capitalist state must be smashed, and replaced with a workers’ state, based upon genuine democracy – that is, masses of ordinary people participating in the running of society.
This might seem less ‘realistic’. But on the basis of a proper study of capitalism and history, it becomes clear that this is the only path towards achieving our aims. And it is our duty to tell the truth; to state these aims openly and clearly.
As Marx and Engels boldly declared in the Communist Manifesto:
“The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win!”
Raising consciousness
As communists, we believe that the task of overthrowing capitalism must be carried out by the working class. This is not because we fetishise or worship the working class, but because of the objective role it plays in capitalist society.
Only the working class – because of its essential role in production and distribution – has the power to bring society to a standstill; and to begin planning the economy rationally and democratically, without the need for bosses and billionaires.
Importantly, the working class’ position in society means that it has the potential and strength to take militant collective action: strikes, pickets, protests – in a word, methods of mass struggle.
What’s more, the working class has the least to lose and the most to gain from taking the path of revolutionary struggle.
By definition, the working class is dispossessed of everything but its ability to sell (to the capitalists) its own labour-power; its ability to work. It has no interest in accommodating itself to the status quo, unlike other classes in society.
All of these things are what give the working class its revolutionary capacity, willingness, and power to transform society.
But despite this objective strength and potential, what is lacking is an organisation that can harness and channel this power; that can unite and lead the working class in a determined mass struggle to overthrow the capitalist system and its guardians.
This is why we, as communists, raise the need for mass action over the methods of small-scale direct action pursued by JSO and Youth Demand.
The former makes the working class conscious of its interests, its strength, and its ability to transform society, while the latter substitutes the actions of a small layer of activists for the class as a whole.
We aren’t opposed to disruption. In fact, one of the main reasons why strikes and pickets are so effective is precisely because they paralyse the functioning of capitalism within a given workplace or area; because they hit the bosses in the pockets and disrupt their flow of profits.
In the process, meanwhile, workers gain a sense of the power they possess; of their collective strength; of class consciousness.
The same can be said for other forms of mass direct action like workers’ boycotts and workplace occupations.
The same cannot be said, however, of individualistic, isolated, and small-scale direct action like roadblocks and swarms.
Small stunts and disruptions can certainly grab the media’s attention. But they don’t strengthen the working class, or make it conscious and confident of its ability to transform society.
Unfortunately, by remaining isolated and individualised, these kinds of methods also make it easier for the state to step in and repress militant activists, which is what we are seeing today.
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By contrast, the police and courts would find it impossible to completely clamp down on a widespread mass movement of thousands, even with all their newly-beefed up powers.
Furthermore, since the disruption in question usually affects ordinary people more than it does the people in charge, a focus on these tactics allows the media to demonise activists, divide the movement, and turn layers of workers against their class brothers and sisters (even when they might agree with the cause and aims at stake).
The courage and sacrifice of members of Youth Demand and JSO – who risk arrest and imprisonment for their activism – is unquestionable.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that these methods are at best ineffective, and at worst counter-productive. We think that this determination and energy would be tenfold more effective if it was applied towards building a broader, class-based struggle.
Revolutionary party
What do we, the Revolutionary Communist Party, propose as an alternative strategy?
Already, tens of thousands of the most radical workers and young people are learning from experience that capitalism is a dead-end, and that a revolution against the billionaires is what’s needed.
A recent poll by Channel 4, for example, revealed that 47 percent of young people think that “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution”.
The problem is that no political leadership exists to express this feeling clearly. So instead of these radicalised layers being fused together into a fighting organisation that can agitate for change, people feel isolated, and their energy tends to dissipate.
The most pressing task of activists is therefore not to raise ‘awareness’, but to raise class consciousness.
Most people can see that the world is screwed. What they need is an understanding of who is responsible, and a clear perspective for how we can fight for change.
This means that the main job of an activist is to put forward a clear, class-based programme – one that can link the day-to-day problems that ordinary people face to the need to overthrow capitalism and imperialism.
We must then carry this programme out into every corner of society – in universities and colleges, in workplaces, on picket lines, within social movements, and on the streets.
To carry this out requires politically educating, training, and organising the most advanced, far-sighted section of workers and young people. It means basing ourselves upon Marxism, which is the clearest, most scientific set of ideas that we have to make sense of the world.
This is the reason that we launched the RCP last year, as part of the launch of the Revolutionary Communist International.
With capitalism’s crises intensifying, and state repression only set to increase in the coming period, it is vital that all thinking activists seriously discuss questions of perspectives, strategy, and tactics. To strengthen our movement, we need clarity on where we are going.
We believe that the only path to ending climate catastrophe, genocide, and exploitation is through fighting for a communist society.
We look forward to discussing these ideas with all those wishing to fight for our future.
