BA, the Revolution, and the Discussion on Climate Change: "Changing this is the equivalent of getting rid of slavery…"

 April 14, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

At a panel last fall on climate change, a nationally-known environmental scientist commented on how irate he gets when people tell him "not to worry, we can count on the government to deal with climate change—after all, look what was accomplished with tobacco, a complete reversal in national government policy." His insightful rebuttal to such arguments: "Do these people have any idea what we're dealing with here? The entire modern world is based on fossil fuel. Changing this is the equivalent of getting rid of slavery, in terms of scope and scale. It lies at the heart of the economy; it's global. It's a huge moral issue."

In the Q&A, a revolutionary spoke: "The devastation being brought on by climate change stands in stark contrast to the utter puniness of the solutions that get presented. These international climate conferences amount to fiddling while the world burns. I agree with the parallel you draw between climate change and slavery. And remember, it took a civil war to get rid of slavery! I'm of the opinion that it will take a real revolution to get rid of capitalism/imperialism and establish a socialist system to begin to reverse climate change. I would like to introduce people here to a revolutionary leader and thinker, Bob Avakian, who has developed a strategy for this revolution and a re-envisioned socialist society—so that human beings could actually be able to be fit caretakers of planet." As he held up the Environmental Disaster issue of Revolution, two or three people in the crowd asked him to repeat Avakian's name, others asked for the newspaper.

The climate scientist then made hurried comments dismissing the environmental record of the revolutions in the 20^th century, and argued that strengthening the economy in the US is our best shot at reversing impending ecological disaster, if the populace wakes up and demands political change from the leaders.

The two of us who were at this event from our area BA Everywhere committee wanted to recount this experience now that we are taking the BA Everywhere campaign to many people deeply concerned about the environmental crisis. There were those in the audience who were curious and intrigued about the radical societal changes a socialist revolution would bring that could make it possible to reverse this disaster, and wanted to know about the leader we were describing who is re-envisioning this. Yet, the scientist, who had so incisively cut to the heart of the problem of the entire global economy relying on fossil fuel with his analogy to slavery, was completely hemmed in to solutions that would ultimately, and not-so-ultimately, strengthen the very dynamics driving this emergency, by ruling off the table the kind of radical societal restructuring that has a chance of solving this unfolding catastrophe. Indeed, making the objectives of spreading BA's viable conception of communist revolution and the liberating new state power, and his analysis of the liberating advances and real shortcomings of the previous revolutions, that much more critical to be engaged and debated as a major reference point throughout society.

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