New Book: The Global Fight for Climate Justice
June 11, 2009
Resistance Books announces a new book from the editor of Climate and Capitalism. Please post and distribute this announcement widely.
New Book Announcement
THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR
CLIMATE JUSTICE
Editor: Ian Angus
Publisher: Resistance Books (London)
ISBN: 978-0-902869-87-5
Publication Date: July 2009
Trade paperback: 6” x 9” (15cm x 23cm)
284 pages
“Essential reading for everyone who is serious about confronting the climate emergency.”-Emma Murphy, co-editor, Green Left Weekly
As capitalism continues with business as usual, climate change is fast expanding the gap between rich and poor between and within nations, and imposing unparalleled suffering on those least able to protect themselves.
In THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE, anticapitalist activists from five continents offer radical answers to the most important questions of our time:
* Why is capitalism destroying the conditions that make life on Earth possible?
* How can we stop the destruction before it is too late?
In 46 essays on topics ranging from the food crisis to carbon trading to perspectives from indigenous peoples, they make a compelling case that saving the world from climate catastrophe will require much more than tinkering with technology or taxes. Only radical social change can prevent irreversible damage to the earth and civilization.
EDITED BY IAN ANGUS
Ian Angus, who wrote several of the articles in this book and selected the others from a wide range of authors and movements, is one of the world’s best-known ecosocialist activists. He is editor of the online journal Climate and Capitalism, which has been described as “the most reliable single source of information and strategic insights for climate justice.” Ian is also Associate Editor of Socialist Voice, an Advisory Editor of Socialist Resistance, and a founding member of the Ecosocialist International Network. He lives in Ontario, Canada.
Advance Praise
“The most reliable single source of information and strategic insights for climate justice is Climate and Capitalism, the website Ian Angus edits, and it is a tribute to the movement’s development that demand has arisen for this book.”—Patrick Bond, director of Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
“Essential reading for everyone who is serious about confronting the climate emergency.” —Emma Murphy, co-editor, Green Left Weekly
"We need to move beyond capitalism to an ecosocialist system. Creating such a future will demand intense political struggle. This book is an essential tool for that struggle, and I commend it to all who are serious about creating a liveable future for humanity." —Derek Wall, former Principal Male speaker, Green Party of England and Wales
“At last, an absolutely indispensable guide to the debate on climate change, a sourcebook that makes the case for anti-capitalist action as the only effective way to stop global warming. Of course the powers-that-be don’t agree — after all, who else is responsible for the current crisis? But we all need The Global Fight for Climate Justice if we are to fight for a liveable world.” —Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature and founding member of the Ecosocialist International Network
“A wonderful collection of articles from across the word by climate change activists. From governmental leaders such as Evo Morales to trade unionists like Tony Kearns this book will inform, excite and energise those who see the need to fight both the impact of climate change and the political systems that have produced it.” —Jane Kelly, editor (with Sheila Malone) Ecosocialism or Barbarism
“‘Socialism or Barbarism’ is no longer (if it ever was) an abstract theoretical proposition. This comprehensive collection of essays focused upon the climate and food crises, the responses of capital and socialist alternatives, draws upon both global social movements and leading advocates of an alternative to barbarism to demonstrate that the choice before us is an immediate one, not one to be put off to the future.” —Michael A. Lebowitz, author of Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century and Beyond CAPITAL: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class.
About the Authors
Ian Angus, one of the world’s best-known ecosocialist activists, is editor of the online journal Climate and Capitalism.
Hugo Blanco has been a leader of the indigenous peasant movement in Peru since the Land or Death uprising in the 1960s. He publishes the newspaper La Lucha IndÃgena.
Patrick Bond is director of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His most recent book is Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation.
Simon Butler writes for Green Left Weekly and maintains Climate Change Social Change, an ecosocialist blog.
Fidel Castro led the Cuban revolution and was the Cuba’s head of state from 1960 until he retired in 2007.
Nicole Colson writes for Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the US-based International Socialist Organization.
Kamala Emanuel is a climate activist and a member of the Socialist Alliance in Perth, Australia.
John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and the author of many books, including Marx’s Ecology (2000) and The Ecological Revolution (2009).
Robb Johnson is a UK-based singer-songwriter.
Tony Kearns is Senior Deputy General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union in the U.K.
Joel Kovel is the author of The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? and a founding member of the Ecosocialist International Network.
Juan Esteban Lazo Hernandez is Vice-President of Cuba’s Council of State and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Larry Lohmann is the author of Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatization and Power.
Michael Löwy, who co-wrote the first Ecosocialist Manifesto in 2001, is a supporter of the Fourth International in France.
José Ramón Machado Ventura, who fought with Fidel Castro in the guerrilla war in the 1950s, is first vice president of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers .
Liam Mac Uaid is an editor of Socialist Resistance magazine.
Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is the first indigenous head of state in Latin America.
Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle are Executive Director and Co-Director/Strategist of Global Justice Ecology Project.
Andrew Simms is the author of Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations, and policy director of the UK-based New Economics Foundation.
Kevin Smith is the author of The Carbon Neutral Myth: Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins.
Sean Thompson is a supporter of Green Left, the anti-capitalist current in the Green Party of England and Wales.
Terry Townsend is a member of Socialist Alliance and Managing Editor of Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal.
David Travis works with sustainable agriculture, community economics and alternative land tenure systems. He is currently developing a perennial agriculture project in North Carolina, USA.
Daniel Tanuro, a certified agriculturalist and ecosocialist environmentalist, is a supporter of the Fourth International in Belgium.
Derek Wall is a founder of the Ecosocialist International Network and a former principal speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales.
Chris Williams is a physics and chemistry teacher in New York City. He writes for International Socialist Review.
Table of Contents
*
Red and Green (Robb Johnson)
*
Foreword (Derek Wall)
*
Introduction (Ian Angus)
1: Climate Emergency
*
Introduction
*
Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (Fidel Castro)
*
Some Impacts of Global Warming (Climate & Capitalism)
*
It’s Happening Now (Climate & Capitalism)
*
Climate Wrongs and Human Rights (Oxfam)
*
If Socialism Fails: The Spectre of 21st Century Barbarism (Ian Angus)
2: Starving The Poor
*
Introduction
*
World Hunger, Agribusiness. Food Sovereignty (Ian Angus)
*
A New International Order is Needed (Esteban Lazo Hernandez)
*
The Food Crisis is Systemic and Structural (José Ramón Machado)
*
Peasants and Small Farmers Can Feed the World (La VÃa Campesina)
*
Our Heritage as Food Producers is Critical to the Future of Humanity (Nyeleni Forum)
*
The Rich Do Not Know Hunger (Fidel Castro)
3: False Explanations, False Solutions
*
Introduction
*
Too Many People? (Simon Butler)
*
The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons (Ian Angus)
*
Magic Bullet #1: The Ethanol Scam (Nicole Colson)
*
Magic Bullet #2: Carbon Capture and Storage (Ian Angus)
*
A New War on the Planet? (John Bellamy Foster)
4: The Green Capitalism Fantasy
*
Introduction
*
The Failures of Green Economics (Joel Kovel)
*
Sustainable Capitalism? (David Travis)
*
The Limits of Green Keynesianism (Sean Thompson)
*
Capitalism’s Anti-ecology Treadmill (Terry Townsend)
5: Privatizing The Atmosphere
*
Introduction
*
Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading (Durban Group)
*
Cap and Trade Schemes (Chris Williams)
*
The Obscenity of Carbon Trading (Kevin Smith)
*
Why Carbon Markets Can’t Save the World (Andrew Simms)
*
Six Arguments Against Carbon Trading (Larry Lohmann)
6: Voices From the Global South
*
Introduction
*
Respect Mother Earth! (Evo Morales)
*
A New Era is Beginning (Cochabamba Statement)
*
We Demand Full and Effective Participation (Bali Statement)
*
Mother Earth is in Crisis (Anchorage Statement)
*
Two Statements by Climate Justice Now!
*
Statement at the 2009 Americas Summit (ALBA)
*
Rich Nations Must Pay Their Ecological Debt (Bolivia)
*
To Save Humanity We Must Return to Our Roots (Hugo Blanco)
7: Building a Climate Emergency Movement
*
Introduction
*
Only Political Activism and Class Struggle Can Save the Planet (Patrick Bond)
*
Crisis, Challenge and Mass Action (Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle )
*
How Can We Build an Effective Movement? (Kamala Emanuel)
*
Workers and Climate Change (Green Left Weekly)
*
The Three Decisive Social Forces that Can Stop Climate Change (Socialist Resistance)
*
Climate Change is a Trade Union Issue (Tony Kearns)
*
Class Struggle and Ecology (Liam Mac Uaid)
8: Ecosocialist Responses to Capitalist Ecocide
*
Introduction
*
Making the Greens Redder and the Reds Greener (Ian Angus)
*
For a Society of Good Ancestors (Ian Angus)
*
Climate Change Charter (Socialist Alliance)
*
The Belem Ecosocialist Declaration (Ecosocialist International Network)
*
Climate Crisis: 21st Century Socialists Must Be Ecosocialists (Daniel Tanuro/Fourth International)
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