The following article is an opinion piece by a Socialist Republican and environmentalist.
In recent days, Extinction Rebellion has mobilised thousands of people around the world to take to the streets on the pretext of defending the environment. Hundreds of genuine activists and young people have rallied to the call, loudly demanding change.
But through a closer analysis of the class forces at work within the movement, it is clear its organisers are part and parcel of the capitalist system, the very that system responsible for destroying our planet.
Founded in England in May 2018, Extinction Rebellion quickly spread to many of the major cities around the world. Describing itself as a pressure group committed to non violent direct action, the stated aim of XR is to put pressure on governments through lobbying, to act in defence of the Environment.
This tells us in black and white that XR is tied to the current system, believing a more ethical capitalism could save the environment. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues at stake.
The class interests of XR are further demonstrated by the words of its founder Roger Hallam. During the movements training sessions, Hallam goes to great pains to state the movement wants nothing to do with ‘obstuctive left wing’ activists or Socialism.
As James Connolly said, Governments in capitalist societies are but committees of the rich to manage the interests of the capitalist class. From this we understand that capitalist governments exist to defend private property, Private Industry and private profit, with little concern for the destruction of our world generated in the pursuit of greed and profit.
No amount of polite lobbying of capitalist governments is ever going to change the system or save the planet.
Therefore, XR has lost before it has even begun. By putting its faith in reform rather then understanding the need for revolution, XR demonstrates its class motivation and its aliegence to the capitalist system. XR is then, about building Green Capitalism.
In Ireland, this months ‘Rebellion Week’ has brought the class nature of XR into even sharper focus. The presence of a number of trotskyite organisers in key positions within XR is enough to raise alarm bells. It suggests that the new movement is little more than the usual posturing between various factions of the establishment in the run up to the next free state election, in the hope to win the votes of those concerned about environmental issues.
XR then is not so much about the environment, but more so about building a constituency to elect more oppurtunist parasites to capitalist parliaments.
The class nature of the movement was demonstrated beyond any doubt during a confrontation with the forces of the reactionary state, when XR ‘Rebels’ began singing to Gardaí, telling them that they love them. The tired old trot mantra of the Free State Police being ‘Workers in Uniform’ was screeched by organisers in attempts to quell any sentiment of genuine resistance. This incident, exposes XR as a tool of the establishment. The actions of Gardai during the Shell 2 Sea resistance demonstrated exactly where the Free state stands on Environmentalism.
The police in capitalist states are the front line in defending the capitalist system, private property, industry and profit, those vultures most culpable in the destruction of our Earth.
It is a fundamental reality that there can be no accord between those who genuinely want to save the earth and the forces of the reactionary state.
It is clear however that there are many genuine people involved in XR. We appeal to those activists to examine how their revolutionary and just goal to defend the earth, is severely limited by the reformist straight jacket of XR and attempts at lobbying within the capitalist system.
Even the most basic investigation of XR will discover that it is fundamentally pro capitalist in its outlook and ultimately committed to wait for capitalist reform, then take the kind of action actually necessary to save our planet.
Working Class and progressive activists within the XR movement should reject its bourgeois leadership and instead reoriantate the movement away from the dead end of reformism and towards the only action that can save the earth, Socialist Revolution.
Only Socialism can save the planet. Only the working class can destroy the systems of industrial Capitalism and Imperialism and end environmental destruction.
The movement to save the earth must be under working class and revolutionary leadership and must be a central plank of the anti capitalist anti Imperialist movement for Socialism.
Reformism will not stop our world being destroyed, only Socialist revolution can save the Earth.
Begging the capitalist system for crumbs is a dead end strategy. The solution is for the working class and revolutionary activists to get organised to defend our Earth and to take the Struggle directly to the doors of those responsible for the destruction of our planet.
Save the Earth- Fight for Socialism