Unprecedented Times

We cannot allow fossil-fuel corporations to hijack action against climate change

Bringing people along with Labor’s climate change policies requires local strategies that give workers a real say over the future of their jobs and communities. We cannot afford to repeat the failures of ‘top-down’ solutions which ignore the specific desires of workers on the ground. A ‘one size fits all’ approach only allows fossil-fuel billionaires to divide working class communities along geographic and industrial lines. The task for Labor is to develop a way of harmonising systemic climate policies with local decision making. 

The most recent report of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  confirms that major climate change is inevitable and irreversible. At this rate the Paris Climate Agreement’s modest proposal to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels will fail. Climate change has already contributed to the record breaking drought and heatwave which caused Australia’s Black Summer Bushfire Crisis, subsequent flooding, and record breaking species extinction. 

This year alone wildfires have devastated Greece, The United States, Russia, Turkey, India, Israel, Italy, and France (amongst other countries). Meanwhile Northern Europe and China were inundated by record breaking floods. The increased frequency and severity of these events has is causing global food shortages. Madagascar is currently suffering through the world’s first climate change famine with “catastrophic levels of hunger and food insecurity after four years without rain”.

We are only in the early stages of a prolonged environmental catastrophe which will fundamentally alter the structure of global society. The question is not ‘if’ this will happen but ‘when’ and ‘on whose terms’? As the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, second-largest exporter of coal, and the 2nd dirtiest OECD economy per capita, Australia should be at the forefront of discussions about the transition to a low-carbon global economy. Even the most aggressive climate change skeptics must agree that these industries will collapse in coming years. It is testament to the cunning of fossil-fuel lobbyists that Australian politicians are willing to drive our economy off a cliff to satisfy a select group of multinational corporations. 

A key challenge for Labor is how we prosecute the argument for bold climate policies without alienating our base. We need a concrete plan to reconfigure energy, mining, and trade policy without leaving workers out in the cold. Unfortunately, our position on these issues remain unclear. Most branch members - let alone voters - are in the dark when it comes to Labor’s climate policy. While the State Party has historically opposed coal seam gas (CSG) fracking in New South Wales (NSW), their federal counterparts have been careful to avoid being branded  ‘opponents’ of fossil-fuel industry workers. Instead, the ALP has focused on the benefits of climate action in terms of job-creation and economic growth. 

Highlighting the benefits of climate action (rather than the associated decline in coal and gas) has been a keystone feature of the ALP endorsed Hunter Jobs Alliance (HJA). The HJA coalition - including the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), and a coalition of Hunter Valley resident groups - have cleverly rekindled the NSW Labour Movement’s proud history of social movement unionism. 

The HJA’s demands for public investment and ownership of infrastructure, renewable energy , and green manufacturing offer a refreshing alternative to the dull economism of ‘market-based’ (read capital led) responses to climate change. The core of their project is to develop a working-class response to climate change which unites people in the Hunter Valley around their common economic interests. Just as fossil fuel companies pursue collective strategies to delay climate action, the HJA is pursuing a collective strategy to build an alternative economy in the Hunter. 

If there is any doubt about the intentions of fossil fuel capital consider the fact that oil giant Exxon knew about climate change as early 1977 but chose to cover it up. Later, BP hired a marketing agency to fabricate and popularise the concept of ‘personal carbon footprints’ to shift blame for climate change onto individuals. Other companies have even tried to peddle the myth that coal ‘helps the poor’ by alleviating poverty in low-income countries. These campaigns have been so successful that it is not uncommon to hear self-described environmentalists campaigning against meat eaters, fossil fuel workers, and disposable coffee cups instead of the billionaires building climate change bunkers.

Fossil fuel companies are adept at manipulating quasi-progressive ideas to hide the fact that climate change disproportionately burdens developing countries. The truth is that walking more and using plastic straws will not fundamentally alter a world in which “Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions”. Climate change is not a question of individual choice, it is a product of an economic system which privileges the profits of a tiny cohort of people over the survival of our planet. 

Bringing people along with Labor’s climate change policies requires local strategies that give workers a real say over the future of their jobs and communities. We cannot afford to repeat the failures of ‘top-down’ solutions which ignore the specific desires of workers on the ground. A ‘one size fits all’ approach only allows fossil-fuel billionaires to divide working class communities along geographic and industrial lines. The task for Labor is to develop a way of harmonising systemic climate policies with local decision making. 

Effective cooperation between disparate communities, cultures, and industries will require some patience and good-will. Trade-unionists must not reproduce the myth that climate change action is a simple question of city ‘elites’ versus the country and fossil-fuel workers. It is vital that local campaigns do not descend into a pattern of self-destructive parochialism. We cannot afford to define ourselves in terms of postcodes or the colour of our collars. Class politics is about recognising that - despite our disparate experiences of capitalism - we have a mutual interest in building a working-class environmental movement.

We should be suspicious of political leaders who frame class issues in terms of a person’s postcode or occupation. The claim that Australia’s growing urban precariat are simply ‘inner city elites’ is no different to the tired idea that fossil-fuel workers are to blame for climate change. Surely no one would argue that a minimum-wage barista sharing a four bedroom Marrickville share house is not a member of the working class? If the pandemic has taught us anything it should be that teachers, nurses, and retail workers are viciously oppressed by the structures of neoliberalism. Claims to the contrary only reinforce the divide and conquer tactics fossil-fuel billionaires use to frustrate climate action. We must not allow politicians to gate-keep class struggle by arbitrarily excluding movements from their definition of ‘the working class’. Respect and solidarity between comrades is a two way street. 

The real test for the labour movement is how we negotiate the terms of our environmental movement. If we accept that a network of local campaigns are essential to the success of climate action, then we must also come to terms with the fact that these groups won’t always see eye to eye. Clearly negotiated terms between campaigns will help to resolve inevitable disagreements without undermining the prospect of long term cooperation. Gate-keeping class struggle to silence or belittle like-minded people will only compound the divisions our movement is designed to overcome.