Mark Best, West London Socialist Party
Thousands of people angry at the destruction of the environment gathered over four days in London to take part in ‘The Big One’ series of protests and events organised by Extinction Rebellion (XR).
This protest was called as part of a shift in XR’s tactics away from ‘disruptive’ actions trying to get their members arrested towards more inclusive protests (See Socialism Today Issue 265 ‘Global Warning: XR debates tactics for climate struggle’). This included appealing, in a limited way, to trade unions to back their action, which the civil servants’ union PCS did.
The questions for many after attending these protests will be: how do we effectively fight to prevent climate catastrophe? What demands can effectively rally people to our cause? And, which force in society is capable of undertaking the change we need?
Socialist Party members on the protest put forward that, as the root of environmental destruction is the profit-driven capitalist system, we need to fight for socialist change to prevent climate change. The strike wave has shown that working-class people have the power to act collectively, to win real change and to democratically run society for the good of us all, including protecting the environment.
We fight for nationalising the banks and big business including the polluting fossil fuel companies, with no compensation paid to the fat cats. The working class could then democratically plan to produce what we want and need in a way that won’t damage the environment, and could put the required resources into infrastructure and research to shift away from the current polluting modes of production.
