On Sunday August 21, as many as 400,000 people converged in New York City for the People’s Climate March. People came from around the world to demand an immediate end to climate change and governmental inaction in defense of the planet and its people.
Numerous organizations from labor unions to faith-based and activist groups were present, attesting to the growing diversity of a unified fight-back movement. Leading the march were contingents of Indigenous peoples from around the world who are perhaps the first and most-effected by climate change as sea-level rise, shifting weather patterns and species decline destroy the land and resources on which they depend.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation also sent a strong contingent to the march armed with signs and banners condemning capitalism as the driving force behind climate change. They led the surrounding crowd with chants such as “Corporations looted and then they polluted, cap-it-alism must be uprooted,” and distributed special print editions of Liberation Newspaper advocating for socialism as the only way forward for the planet and its people.
As scientists around the world have joined in unanimous agreement that irreversible climate change has already begun, immediate and coordinated action is needed to mitigate its onset and allow societies time to prepare and adapt. However, as the world’s political leaders continually fail to take definitive measure to curb the burning of fossil fuels, emissions of greenhouse gases have only continued to rise to unprecedented levels.
The hypocrisy and ignorance of inaction as we approach total planetary disaster can only be explained by the irrationality of the capitalist system. Corporations remain tied to profit and seem intent on pulling the last drop of oil or coal from the ground despite the consequences. They would rather use their immense profits to guarantee more profits by lobbying politicians to continue to look the other way rather than addressing the catastrophic effects of their destructive practices. The failure of the Obama administration to stop ongoing construction of the notorious Keystone XL pipeline exposes this alliance between corporations and politicians and the inability for people to win lasting change from a capitalist system.
What is needed is system change. What is needed is socialism. A socialist government would make protecting the future of its planet and people the highest priority and would put an end to the burning of fossil fuels and other environmentally destructive practices. A socialist government would act now to reorganize production along environmentally-sound practices and build a sustainable future for all people.
September 21 has gone down as the largest mobilization for the climate in history, and the movement is only growing. But we are running out of time, and our problems are only growing worse. Climate change is the symptom, capitalism is the disease and the cure is socialism. The answer is clear and the time is now. Join us in building the revolution! Join the PSL in fighting for a future!
