Convergent Forces, Convergent Crises

Following the recent Extinction Rebellion protest in Trinity, Lean Tolentino reports on the current wave of water protests and the need to develop a vibrant climate movement willing to counter the capitalist system.

What is most notable about the various crises we face is the extent to which they are connected. When a pensioner can’t afford heating, that is simultaneously an economic and climate issue. When workers in Cork protest restructuring of the water sector we once again see a convergence of climate and economic concerns. On account of this convergence, there is a need for us to use a pluralistic lens to understand and counter the current situation facing working people - connecting these interlocking crises and pushing for systemic change over individual reforms.

Those who have been involved in organising likely recall the water charges protests - a campaign that served as the political awakening of an entire generation. . Through fighting back, the working class revolted against austerity and the policies of Fine Gael - eventually forcing the government to scrap their plans.  This victory served as a rallying call for the organised left, showing the ways in which we can fight back against the neoliberal establishment. However, a current wave of protests around the question of the water sector’s restructuring haven’t captured as much attention.

These protests are important on account of our relative vulnerability to climate change - with it being outlined in a Notre Dame Global Adaption Initiative report that Ireland is highly vulnerable to climate change - particularly Ireland’s water infrastructure. Ireland’s dams have less than 1/5th the amount of water per capita of the European average. Anyone in Dublin knows how fragile the pipes are, tending to burst often during the winter.

Recently I had to give a speech on the issue for the Extinction Rebellion organised protest over COP27. A contingent of us from People Before Profit came to the protest, and I was at the meeting directly beforehand, where we discussed the details of the protest. Something that was particularly highlighted was the international aspect of climate change. Speakers proposed talking about the current military conflict in the Democratic Republic Of The Congo, and the imprisonment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah in Egypt.

The climate movement has clearly moved further and further towards a position of internationalism and anti-capitalism. There was a strong sentiment in general that there has to be appropriate redress to those countries in the global South that are suffering massively from the climate crisis. We even hear figures like Greta Thunberg describe capitalism as “a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression, and genocide [...] to accumulate wealth”.” As a result of these interlocking crises we’ve seen a shift in consciousness and the opening of new, previously neglected spaces for the organised left.

The protest started on Trinity campus, and moved through Grafton Street towards the Dáil. On campus we put a timer for just six minutes before 12pm. We laid on the ground while a poem was recited. The mass of bodies on the ground was supposed to represent the loss of life as a result of the current crisis - raising questions of strategy There’s a need for creative and symbolic acts in any protest movement - drawing people’s attentions to the struggles we face. However, while these actions are good at getting messages across, it is also important that protests do not devolve into being repetitive rituals without substance - with this shift often leading to activist burnout

Members of Extinction Rebellion, Scientists Rebellion, Animal Liberation, Fridays For Future, Not Here Not Anywhere and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Intiative Treaty gave speeches at the protest. Topics included fast fashion, water infrastructure, modern agriculture and marine bio-diversity. One speaker talked about how fast fashion is destroying the environment, and how our obsession with branded clothes is something that should be deeply challenged. The way these companies work is on a monetary level, yes, but also on a psychological and mental level. To become class conscious one also has to challenge the indoctrination we face on an everyday basis.

There was an air of radicalism - each and every speaker stated quite clearly that there is a deep need for “radical change” or “system change”.

But it is important that we understand what “system change” entails. “System Change” means a ruthless criticism, and destruction of the current capitalist order. It is a system that displaces indigenuous people in the mountains of the Cordilleras, that isolates the Dalits in Telangana, that recruits children in the DRC into a massive mining industry, or leaves old pensioners in Ireland with brown water, unable to cover insulation. It is a social, political, cultural, economic, and even geographical system.

What we are witnessing today is a convergence of different forces and groups in society in a way that we have not seen since the 60s and 70s throughout the world. This presents new opportunities, and they have to be seized upon. For us to be sucessful in overthrowing capitalism, there is a need for socialist movements to be living and modern - adapting and learning from active struggle. There is also a need for this movement to be explicitly ecosocialist in its demands - outlining how climate change is rooted in capitalism and the need to go beyond it. However, the correct policies alone will not create this living movement - with the need for such a movement to expand in numerous ways in order to tackle the current issues facing working people.. As we face this current Winter, whether we can develop a real, living movement is a major question. There is a need for us to tap into the energy captured during the initial wave of water charges protests - using this energy to create a movement capable of challenging the coming climate crisis.