IN THIS ISSUE:

• “Workers and Unions Have the Capacity to Stop Shipments to Israel” – by Erica Caines

• Middle East: For an Immediate Halt to the Escalation Toward All-Out Conflict! – Statement of the Workers Party of France

• World Climate Conference (COP28): Profits Above All Else (Part 1)

• World Climate Conference (COP28) Agreement Solves Nothing (Part 2)

• The “Anthropocene Era”: A Political Concept that Fails to Identify Those Responsible for the Ecological Crisis

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“Workers and Unions Have the Capacity to Stop Shipments to Israel”

By Erica Caines

Introduction

[Note: A previous issue of the IWC Newsletter published an appeal from activists in labor and Black organizations in the U.S. calling on the leaders of the trade unions to demand a halt to all military and financial aid to the state of Israel. Erica Caines is an activist with the Ujima People’s Progress Party, a Black working-class political organization in the state of Maryland, whose leaders are endorsers of this appeal. This article is reprinted from IWC Newsletter No. 245, January 4, 2024. — IWC Newsletter Editors]

“It’s important to reach out to the unions. There have been a lot of calls for ‘Palestine solidarity strikes,’ but the unions have never been involved: it’s a missed opportunity.”

 A few weeks after October 7, activists gathered near shipyards to halt cargo shipments to Israel for at least a few hours. This has an impact, because we have to get back to the material aspect of things: Why does the United States support Israel? This is due to Israel’s strategic position and the need for the United States to maintain its position in the region. If Israel falls, the United States no longer has a bridgehead in the region and will not be able to maintain its hegemony.

 That’s why the US is stepping up its support for Israel. We know that certain decisions have been taken concerning Gaza in order to gain access to pipelines, particularly the ones that the United States wants to use.

 If we can block exports, it will have financial consequences, it can have a real impact. Take the example of Yemen: a coalition of multinationals is being set up to prevent Yemen from stopping cargoes crossing the Red Sea.

 This is why workers and trade unions need to be involved: they have the capacity to stop these shipments. And this is precisely where the strength of the workers would be felt. I can’t remember when the cause of Palestine has ever received such support in the United States, among all categories of the population. Yet the government continues to support Israel, doesn’t it?

Let workers and their unions mobilize, so that there are no more boats carrying weapons, no more airplanes carrying weapons, no more anything at all; that will have an impact.”

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Middle East: For an Immediate Halt to the Escalation Toward All-Out Conflict!

[Statement of the Workers Party of France (PT), Formerly the Democratic Independent Workers Party / POID]

We – workers and young people, in France and around the world – are horrified to see the current war escalation, which, starting from the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, could lead the world into an all-out war.

Who is responsible? First and foremost: the State of Israel and the Netanyahu government.

The Workers Party reaffirms what it stated on October 7, 2023: Any worker and any young person committed to peace can only deplore the murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians. But this cannot justify the genocide of the Palestinian people being committed by the State of Israel in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 children – women and men, mostly civilians – have already been murdered, and nearly 100,000 wounded.

There can be no justification for the siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, which threatens the survivors – who are being deprived of water, food and healthcare – with deaths from starvation and epidemics.

There can be no justification for the extremist logic of the Israeli government, which is organizing a “second Nakba” in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, aiming to expel the Palestinian people from their land.

What makes this war being waged by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people possible?

It’s the support the State of Israel is receiving from the major powers, starting with U.S. imperialism under the leadership of Biden; without this military and financial support, Netanyahu would be forced to stop waging this war. The same applies to the support he is receiving from the European Union and all the governments of the major powers.

And the same is true of Emmanuel Macron, who is issuing statement after statement hypocritically expressing concern about the fate of civilians in Gaza, but who is maintaining all diplomatic, political, economic and commercial links with the State of Israel.

Today, the State of Israel is ramping things up to a new level.

It is attempting to drag the whole of humankind into an all-out war, a deliberate march towards a world war that dare not speak its name.

On December 25, 2023, an Israeli strike in Damascus (Syria) assassinated a senior Iranian military leader.

On January 2, 2024, an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Lebanon) assassinated several Palestinian Hamas leaders in territory controlled by the Lebanese Hezbollah.

This escalation must be stopped at all costs, as it is leading straight to a global conflict whose devastating consequences will be paid for by the peoples, all the peoples, for the sole benefit of the multinationals and capitalist speculators.

Let us repeat this point: None of Netanyahu’s actions would be possible without the support of U.S. imperialism, the European Union and the governments of the major powers, including Macron’s government, and the impunity that they all guarantee him through the UN.

Workers and young people in France and around the world want peace. They do not want an all-out conflict. They want an immediate end to the genocidal war against the Palestinian people, an end to the butchery in Ukraine, and an end to the wars ravaging Africa.

Workers and young people know that behind these wars – whatever the pretext – lie the interests of the big capitalist multinationals that are plundering the peoples’ wealth. They know that war “abroad” is always a pretext for striking at social gains and democratic rights “at home.”

The Workers Party believes that it is the responsibility of the labor movement, and, more specifically, the responsibility of the leaders of its organizations, to call on workers and young people to mobilize:for an immediate end to the massacres in the Gaza Strip;

• for the immediate lifting of the blockade;

• for an immediate halt to the escalation towards an all-out conflict, fueled by Netanyahu, and

• to demand that the Macron government immediately ceases all financial and military aid to Israel and severs all diplomatic, political, economic and commercial relations with the State of Israel!

This is the only way today to stop those who want to drag humankind into barbarism.

Montreuil, January 4 @ 7.00pm

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  COP28 held in Dubai

World Climate Conference (COP28): Profits Above All Else (Part 1)

“The last few decades have shown that a large proportion of voluntary commitments have had no effect.” This is the initial assessment made by Le Monde (December 5) on the fifth day of COP28, as the speeches by the official representatives drew to a close and negotiations began on a final agreement scheduled for December 12. In other words, this 28^th edition of the COP is heading the same way as the previous ones.

Initially, this conference was supposed to implement the Paris Agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the main culprits of which are known to be the production, distribution and consumption of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil).

COP28 is being held in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s 8th largest oil producer. What is more, it is being chaired by the CEO of ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), which holds the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves. One might as well have a drug baron chairing a conference on the dealing of cocaine!

It is evident that the major oil and gas producers are in the driver’s seat. This is not a novelty. An article published on the France Info website points out that, “for 26 years, oil-producing countries have managed to prevent fossil fuels from being explicitly mentioned in the texts adopted at the end of the COPs, even though they are the main cause of global warming.“

Year after year, representatives of the oil and gas sector have been increasingly present at the COPs to weigh in on the debates. According to Novethic (an NGO), their influence has grown from 636 representatives at COP27 to 2,456 at COP28!

The stakes are high: Since the issue of fossil fuels cannot be avoided at COP28, it will be necessary to make an “environment-friendly” case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or even limiting the use of fossil fuels … while preserving the core of the profit-making machine.

This discourse is simply the one imposed by the main capitalist power: the United States. In 2022, Biden pushed through the Inflation Reduction Act, a plan to provide $500-billion worth of subsidies, loans and tax cuts designed to establish the U.S. as a world leader in decarbonation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions … all within a controlled framework, that of defending the general interests of capitalism and the more specific interests of the United States.[1]

Indeed, the “philosophy” of this plan is not to move away from gas and oil, but to reduce CO2 emissions without reducing the use of hydrocarbons. It is even about promoting gas as a replacement for coal. When Macron spoke at COP28, he echoed this speech, sidestepping the question of hydrocarbons and calling on the G7 countries to phase out coal by 2030 in order to “set an example“ for ”emerging countries“– particularly China.

So what can we expect from this COP? Who can believe in the willingness and ability of the states present at this conference – a combination of dictatorships and “democracies” committed to the defense of capitalist interests and ever-increasing war and arms budgets – to save the planet from climate disruption?

Who can believe it in the aftermath of this COP, controlled by the profit interests of the oil and gas multinationals, first and foremost those of the United States?

— by Pierre Cise

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The Organizer Endnote:

[1] The facts bely the political rhetoric of Biden and other U.S. capitalist leaders. Buried near the end of the 725-page Inflation Reduction Act is the poison-pill that promises fast-track for massive oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska before any new solar or wind projects would be permitted on public lands or waters.

The Center for Biological Diversity report “Outpolluting Progress” released prior to COP28 discloses that potential carbon emissions from the 17 fossil fuel projects approved by the Biden administration so far “are larger than the projected emissions reductions from the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies.” The United States today is among the top five oil exporting countries and surpassed Qatar and Australia in 2023 to become the world’s largest exporter of LNG (liquid natural gas). See: Outpolluting Progress https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/climate_law_institute/pdfs/Out-Polluting-Progress-Report-2023.pdf

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World Climate Conference (COP28) Agreement Solves Nothing (Part 2)

“The COP28 agreement, which was just adopted, is a victory for multilateralism and climate diplomacy.” Such words were repeated by world leaders gathered in early December in Dubai at the conclusion of the 28^th World Climate Conference (COP28). Dubai, an oil-producing country, hosted the conference, which was chaired by the CEO of the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company, and was largely “worked” by the oil and gas lobby.

But what exactly was decided?

The final agreement, adopted unanimously by the countries present at the conference, affirms their commitment to “transition energy systems away from fossil fuels in a fair, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this crucial decade, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with scientific recommendations.”

“Transition? It’s a travesty to say that we’re moving towards a reduction in the use of fossil fuels when there are no intermediate deadlines or targeted figures — only the reaffirmation that we must achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. [see box]

 That’s not all. To “transition,” the agreement calls for the use of “transition fuels” – primarily natural gas, which thus loses its fossil-fuel status, much to the delight of the United States, the world’s leading producer of shale gas. Nuclear power is even recognized as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, with global capacity set to triple by 2030. This is a market on which the multinationals have already pounced!

As for the “fair, orderly and equitable” transition, it aims to help “developing” countries to implement it. To this end, a fund has been set up, the sums of which have already been disbursed and pledged to be disbursed represent no more than the equivalent of 0.01% of the world’s military expenditures!

In the end, this agreement is not binding, so everyone will do as they please as long as capitalist interests are preserved. And the fact that the next COP will be held in a year’s time in Baku, in the Azerbaijan of mafia dictator Aliev, a country whose economy is 90% dependent on gas and oil, does not augur well for solutions to greenhouse gas emissions and the climate disruption they cause.

— by Pierre Cise

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What Is Carbon Neutrality?

Carbon neutrality does not mean halting greenhouse gas emissions. It means offsetting them by absorbing them in “carbon sinks” obtained by expanding forests, producing hydrogen or using techniques such as carbon capture. These techniques are still poorly mastered, sometimes with negative environmental impacts, and above all very costly in terms of capitalist profitability.

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The “Anthropocene Era”: A Political Concept that Fails to Identify Those Responsible for the Ecological Crisis

The media, governments and some scientists have popularized what they call the “Anthropocene Era” to describe the period during which humanity as a whole is responsible for the ecological crisis — a crisis which, since the middle of the 20th century, has combined global warming, biodiversity erosion, and pollution of ecosystems.

This neologism characterizes humanity’s modern era as a force surpassing geophysical forces that is responsible for catastrophes on Earth.

Global warming has been measured since 1950. The causal relationship between the intensification of the greenhouse effect by emissions linked to the use of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) and the rise in average global surface temperature has been refined thanks to increasingly sophisticated physical and numerical models. The recognition of this causality since 2010 is therefore based on an increased level of understanding in the scientific community.

For some, the “Anthropocene Era” began in 1784, the date of James Watt’s patent on the steam engine, a symbol of the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. For others, it began around 1950 and refers to the current era of great acceleration, when many indicators of material and energy flows are exploding.

The term “Anthropocene Era” poses a difficulty – not of a scientific nature but of a political one: Was it humanity as a whole that decided in the 18th century to use the energy provided by the coal-steam pair and then, at the beginning of the 20th century, to use oil?

According to a report by the British organization Carbon Disclosure Project published in 2017, 100 companies worldwide are responsible for 52% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution, and 71% of emissions since 1988. A report published in 2019 by Oxfam revealed that the richest 1% generated as much carbon emissions as the poorest two-thirds of humanity (5 billion people).

The use of fossil fuels is in fact the result of undemocratic decisions by capitalists, with the help of their governments. Of the 8 billion people on Earth, the majority still have no access to the fossil fuel economy!

The idea that humanity, regardless of social class, is responsible for global warming is therefore a mystification.

Global warming, the erosion of biodiversity and the pollution of ecosystems are all consequences of the capitalist mode of production. The capitalist mode of production is just one of the ways in which society is organized, in which the material activity of humanity is carried out using and transforming nature’s resources. In the capitalist mode of

capitalist mode of production, this activity is carried out not to meet human needs, but to maximize the profits of a small minority.

The dominant media and political presentation of the contemporary environmental crisis overlooks the political, social and economic conditions of its emergence. Responsibility is attributed to the human species! There are no longer any social classes! It’s an ideological trap that blames the victims of capitalist exploitation.

The notion of an “Anthropocene Era” sounds the alarm, but it does not point the finger at those responsible. The capitalist mode of production, antagonistic social classes, the State and imperialist wars … all are concealed. This notion can therefore only lead to “apolitical” or “neutral” proposals of a purely technological nature – proposals that do not call into question the dominant order.

—  Hervé Chuberre

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