Introduction

On October 29, Raymond Lotta spoke at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on the environmental emergency. Lotta was in dialogue with scholar and Berklee professor Victor Wallis, who writes and speaks on “ecosocialism” and how to be organizing for it today. The program was organized by a group of Berklee students who recently formed a socialist club. Lotta's talk in particular sparked lively discussion and debate that focused on two big and interrelated issues. 

The first was on the historic breakthrough by Bob Avakian (BA) in developing the new communism, and the historic significance of BA's leadership for making a truly liberating revolution in today's world. Most in the audience had not deeply engaged Bob Avakian's work, and the challenge put to them set off healthy controversy. The second major issue concerned “models of social change.” Do you “reach people where they are at” and gradually bring them to higher and more radical understanding? This was the spontaneous understanding of most in the audience. Or, as Lotta was arguing, do you present people with the reality of the need and basis for revolution guided by the new communism—and apply a strategy that pivots on “fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution”? 

Below is a slightly edited text of Lotta's talk.

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The title of my talk speaks to the basic reality that the planet is in peril… and it is the capitalist-imperialist system that is driving this existential crisis. But there IS a viable and liberating way to act on the environmental emergency... to confront and address this crisis on the scale and with the urgency required. And that is to make a revolution—and to establish a new socialist system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America written by Bob Avakian. 

And there is an urgent and historic challenge before us. We are now living in a rare time in the U.S. when it is more possible to make this revolution. This is a moment of intense and sharpening infighting within the U.S. ruling class, with the Republican-fascists and war-criminal Democrats at each other's throats. The U.S. ruling class is split in a way it has not been since the Civil War. These rulers are unable to rule in the same unified way that they have for generations. The Trump fascists do not even recognize the legitimacy of the Democrats, or the “peaceful transfer” of power. There are retired top generals, clearly speaking for a section of the military, now denouncing Trump as a fascist. 

This kind of infighting, this polarization at the top and throughout society, could provide an opening to make revolution. An opportunity we cannot squander, exactly because we are facing something horrific beyond what even exists today—and not just global warming teetering towards irreversible catastrophe but the danger of the all-out imposition of fascism, even greater genocidal horrors in occupied Palestine, the growing danger of world war between nuclear-armed imperial powers. Something horrible... OR something truly emancipating, if we seize on this opening of deep and sharpening divisions within the ruling class and society overall—and dare to become part of, to contribute to, and take responsibility for the revolution guided by the new communism developed by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian. This new communism is of world-historic significance: it is a whole new framework for human emancipation.

It is THIS revolution that gives us the best and only real chance, not a guarantee but a real chance, to deal with the environmental emergency as part of forging a liberating society.

I. Background to the Climate Crisis

Many of you know some of the basic facts of the climate crisis. The last ten years were the hottest ever recorded, with 2023 the single hottest year on record for our planet. 2024 is now on track to break that heat record. The world has entered dangerous and uncharted territory—as carbon emissions from fossil fuels rise, as sea surface temperatures rise, and as the toll of human suffering mounts rapidly from more extreme heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, and floods. This past week the United Nations issued a report that the major industrialized powers are nowhere near meeting the steep reductions in carbon emissions needed to avert disastrous temperature rise. 

Here we are in 2024, many decades after the first scientific warnings of global warming. Yet fossil fuels account for 80 percent of global energy production, including in the U.S. (a proportion that has barely changed since 1990)! 

The U.S. is culprit #1. It is the largest historic emitter of carbon gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. Over the past six years, including under the watch of the so-called “climate-friendly” Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. has produced more crude oil than any nation at any time! And in the run-up to the election Kamala Harris has loudly proclaimed her support for fracking for more oil and natural gas. So while more solar and wind power has been developed, and become cheaper, oil and natural gas exploration and production have expanded massively (and profitably). 

The American “way of life” so celebrated both by the Republi-fascists and war-criminal Democrats feasts on the exploited and super-exploited labor of hundreds of millions in global supply chains of misery—and plunders raw materials and resources across the globe. Think about this: It would take five Earths to support the world's population if everyone consumed resources at the same level as the average American. Five Earths!

What is it about this capitalist-imperialist system that puts it at war with the environment? Well, it is a system that has an inner nature and logic. It is driven by the pursuit of profit and more profit by privately owned blocs of capital. They compete and must compete with each other for greater market share—based on the more efficient exploitation of human labor worldwide. And if they don't expand and invest to beat out rivals, then they risk losing out and going under. This is a system that treats nature as a “cost-free” input to be poured into production for profit... a system that also turns nature into a waste fill for the consequences of reckless production for profit—from oil spills, to atmospheric pollution, to degradation of soil. 

And competitive geopolitics are built into this system. The production of and burning of fossil fuels has been and remains foundational to the profitable functioning of the world-imperialist system. Control over oil and fossil-fuel markets, finance, and shipping is a means by which the major powers dominate economies and the world economy. Think about this: the U.S. military machine of death and destruction that enforces America's global empire is the single largest institutional consumer of oil, and the single largest institutional emitter of carbon in the world. 

The cold truth is that to seriously deal with climate change, you would need to put the fossil fuel companies out of business, seize their assets, and leave most of the fossil fuel in the ground. And for that to happen, for society to interact with nature in a sustainable way—you need to overthrow this system. You need to establish a new revolutionary state power and socialize ownership of the means of production… and forge a planned socialist economy. This is the radically different economic foundation that makes it possible to utilize society's resources consciously, collectively, and sustainably—and the system of governance that makes it possible to unleash people to go to work on the environmental emergency in the interests of world humanity, as part of creating a world without exploitation and oppression.

II. There IS an Alternative

So let me move on to some key features of the new society based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. Day 1, we start to dismantle the former global network of military bases. The new socialist state will use its strengths and resources to promote revolution throughout the world. To free humanity, and create the global foundations to deal with this global/planetary crisis. The new socialist society will put an end to the global pollution-intensive supply chains on which the current economy rests. We will begin to radically and rationally restructure systems of manufacture and transport, transitioning rapidly towards renewable energy, and away from irrational and wasteful, long-distance transport. The know-how and technology exist today to bring about such changes! But now, in the new socialist society, the barrier of private production for profit will be no more. General Motors, ExxonMobil, Chase-Morgan will be no more! 

The new socialist society will put the interests of the preservation and repair of the planet's ecosystems above its own national development. It will encourage and give scientific, technical, and organizational backing to bold international initiatives to prevent widespread collapse of coral reefs, tropical forests, and other ecosystems—and to make it possible both for scientists and non-scientists to cooperate and collaborate internationally on an unprecedented scale 

Economic and social planning in the new society will aim to connect work that is both meaningful and creative with people's sense of community, and working for the benefit of world humanity. This will not be the same “throw-away” consumer society that depends on vicious super-exploitation, including child labor, to create wasteful, “latest-model” iPhones. But none of this will mean anything unless the new socialist society imbues people with new values... to care about and become protectors and enhancers of the planet. And that has to be happening through education, the media, culture, and political and ideological struggle. 

This is what becomes possible, if and only if, we make revolution based on the new communism. 

III. A Whole New Dimension of Freedom, Dissent in the New Socialist Society

At this point, I want to read an important passage from the document, and we're handing out copies, We Need and We Demand A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System. It is from the section “A Whole New Dimension of Freedom and Rights of the People.” It says: 

As set forth in this Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, the people in this new society will not only be allowed but encouraged and enabled to fully speak their minds politically, to express themselves freely through artistic and other means, to dissent and protest with constitutional and institutionalized protection of their right to do so. They will be provided with the means for doing this, because this is an important part of creating an atmosphere where people can “breathe” and feel at ease, and where they will be inspired to join with others in grappling with what will, and what will not, contribute to the emancipating transformation of society and the world as a whole.

Now what does this passage have to do with confronting and acting on the environmental crisis? The short answer is... EVERYTHING! You see a critical element of the new communism brought forth by Bob Avakian is the importance it attaches to intellectual, scientific, and cultural ferment in socialist society—and to dissent—on a scale unseen before in any society, in any so-called capitalist democracy, or even previous socialist societies, including revolutionary China under Mao. 

You need to mobilize scientists, engineers, and other specialists to work on pressing environmental and other problems. Think about the climate scientists and urban planners, the experts in biodiversity, for instance, who have so many ideas and proposals, so much understanding, for sustainability—but who are thwarted by the dictates of profit under this system. Those fetters can be removed in the new society. At the same time, society and humanity will also require far-ranging research, new thinking, and experimentation that are not so directly related to solving immediate and urgent problems. And this experimentation must also be supported and funded by the socialist state—because it adds both to the store of knowledge and to the vitality of society. This is another expression of shattering the fetters of capitalism… and also breaking with problems of previous socialist societies. 

You need ferment, questioning, and the spirit of pursuing the truth wherever that leads—because we don't have all the answers to the environmental and other crises. This is a question of putting the search for the truth front and center. 

At the same time that you are un-chaining science, you also need to un-cloister it. The barriers keeping science the activity of a relative few must be broken. People throughout society, the formerly oppressed and cast off, must be trained in the scientific method. And this is not a one-way street. There's also the understanding that comes from the life experiences of basic people—let's say in pollution-impacted communities. 

Socialist society must be promoting all kinds of cross-pollination of experience and understanding: with scientists and experts exchanging knowledge with broad sections of society, especially the formerly oppressed who had been denied access to such knowledge—while professionals will be learning from the insights and aspirations of basic people. And you want the great debates in the sciences, in the climate and environmental movements (and I'll get to this in a second), popularized and taken up in all corners of society. 

All of this is part of breaking down social divisions in society, and enhancing the capacity of people to know and consciously change the world—and take ever-greater responsibility for society.

To keep society moving towards a communist world free of all exploitation and oppression, you need visionary, scientifically based leadership. But all aspects of society have to be debated out broadly. And the road forward is not preordained. The unresolved problems and contradictions of society—whether we're talking about the environmental emergency, or fully overcoming the legacies of racism and the oppression of women—these unresolved contradictions will give rise to controversy and struggle. And Bob Avakian has analyzed how this is a positive source of dynamism in socialist society. He has emphasized that socialism must not only allow and protect dissent but actively foster and value it. Because, again, this can unearth new understanding and reveal defects and problems in socialist society and raise people's ability to sort out what will contribute to the advance of society and what will not. 

Since we're focusing on issues of the environment, let's do a thought experiment. The question comes up. In the new socialist society set forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic, will there be a role for, will there be space for, will there be protection for groups and organizations like today's Extinction Rebellion? Will that kind of protest—and even more radical protest—be allowed under socialism? Yes! One can imagine sections of environmentally minded people who may be impatient with the pace of change and transformation, or the overall direction it's going in. Are the priorities of the socialist plan the correct ones? Are renewable energy projects too large-scale? Can we transition more rapidly to urban agricultural systems—but what of cities focused in the endangered coastal areas?

Might such debate and disagreement with state policies—and independent initiatives from below that must be fostered in the new society—come into open conflict with the socialist state—and spark mass demonstrations, disruptive sit-ins, occupations? Yes. Opposition among sections of people to various policies, and even to socialism itself, will NOT be suppressed. So long as that opposition does not take the form of sabotage and willful destruction, or form part of organized attempts to overthrow the socialist state. 

This can get very tense and wild at times, including upheavals that can seriously destabilize society (and which counter-revolutionaries might try to take advantage of). But this is part of getting at the truth of society and the world, of promoting critical thinking in socialist society, and enabling people to more deeply understand and consciously change the world. 

You need, as Bob Avakian says, to be prepared to go to the brink of losing power without going over the brink—without losing the socialist society and everything it means for world humanity. This atmosphere of ferment and dissent is crucial to getting to communism, of tapping creative energy, opening up argument and discovering new pathways forward, and working and struggling together to figure out how to build a society that truly emancipates society. And working and struggling urgently to save the planet for current and future generations. You need visionary communist leadership, a solid core, as Avakian calls it, to lead this complex process forward... and to learn from it. And you need maximum elasticity, experimentation, innovation in society. 

So these are some of the key points I want to make about the new communism and getting to a society and world in which we move beyond exploitation and oppression... and through which humanity can become fit caretakers of the planet. 

IV. We Have a Chance of a Lifetime

In closing, I want to return to where I started. These are not “normal” times. Events are accelerating. The fight between the two sections of the ruling class is intensifying through the upcoming elections. The situation in the Middle East is escalating rapidly, with Israel attacking Iran again and the threat of even wider war ratcheting up. Things have the potential to spin out of control. These are times when more can change in weeks or even days than usually takes years or decades. This  applies both to the larger situation in the world and to the thinking and actions of millions of people! 

This is a rare time when the all-the-way, liberating revolution based on the new communism is more possible. This is a time when it is necessary and possible to make big advances in connecting people with the unparalleled, real-time revolutionary leadership of Bob Avakian. Especially through the revolutionary messages that Bob Avakian is issuing—two, three times a week—@BobAvakianOfficial. A radically different and far better world is possible... through revolution. Thank you.