A MANIFESTO OF ECOLOGICAL COMMUNISM. (2021)

[Swedish Communist Party: IN ENGLISH ]



***

[English translation of selected excerpts from the 2021 Swedish Communist Party Environmental Programme, a manifesto of 21st Century Ecological Communism: ]

INTRODUCTION:

"...The world today faces a climate and environmental crisis that will have incalculable, catastrophic consequences for humanity for generations to come. First and foremost is global warming and a runaway greenhouse effect, which will not stop at the 2 degree temperature increase target agreed in the 2016 Paris Agreement. Temperatures are threatening to rise to much higher levels, making warming at worst self-propelled and unstoppable. This means that over the next 100 years, violent and deadly weather events such as hurricanes and forest fires will become increasingly common, large areas of land will be submerged, and new frontiers for harmful life forms and the spread of disease will emerge. We will also suffer desertification and crop failure, climate refugees will increasingly be driven into urban slums around the world. Animal species will become extinct at a staggering rate and ecosystems will be changed forever. It is also about an agriculture that, with its large-scale production and its need for pesticides, is poisoning our world and our food, a way of farming that ultimately renders the soil sterile and unusable, while contributing to the greenhouse effect and depriving the peasant population, mainly in the Third World, of their means of survival. The problem is the consumption of natural resources as if there were no tomorrow, fossil fuels being pumped and dug out of the earth, leaving behind scarred landscapes, fossil water being consumed with no thought for what will happen when it is no longer available. It is also about science not being given the opportunity to develop solutions. It is about a profit-driven interest in stimulating senseless overproduction and equally senseless overconsumption in order to keep the wheels of production turning and to silence those who might protest."

"...The problem is that capitalism has outlived itself and this confronts the population of humanity with a fateful choice: socialism or barbarism?"

"...The Communist Party of Sweden is unquestionably on the side of socialism - a socialism that must take responsibility for stopping the devastation of the earth, building production that is environmentally sound in the broadest sense and giving the working population of the world the opportunity to create a sustainable and healthy life. A socialism that creates space for research and experimentation that can lead us away from the abyss of catastrophe, a socialism that stands for a thinking, dialectical development, that takes into account and helps the development of new knowledge. It is a great task, a crucial task. Working people must not only take the lead and power over production, they must not only abolish class society and build a socially just society - they must also take responsibility for ensuring that the earth can continue to be a home for humanity for centuries to come. Never has it been more important to have a communist party that can lead that struggle: there is today a great awareness and a deep concern about the climate, and the party's task is to put this in context, to link the climate threat to capitalism and to make the environmental struggle revolutionary."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT AND EMISSIONS

 "...After more than 150 years of industrialisation, deforestation and large-scale agriculture, we are now experiencing the highest levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for three million years. Since the days of the Industrial Revolution, the amount has been steadily increasing and along with it the average global temperature..."

"...About two thirds of greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide and come largely from burning what are known as fossil fuels - fuels made from millions of years of old deposits that cannot be renewed for periods of time relevant to humans. When the fuel is burned, carbon from dead plants and animals that formed these deposits is released, forms compounds with oxygen from the air, and returns again as carbon dioxide in the air. Examples include crude oil pumped from the ground or extracted from oil-bearing shale by fracking to be made into petrol, diesel, heating oil, oil used to power industries, power stations and much more. Natural gas stored in rock dumps or lignite mined in mines are also such fossil fuels..."

"...Our extraction and burning of fossil fuels has, in a few hundred years, sent carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere that ancient plants had accumulated over millions of years. This is something our nature cannot cope with - because that's what it does if emissions are balanced by corresponding uptake. Plants, as I said, need carbon dioxide and take it out of the air: forests work really well that way, because the trees stay around for a long time with all their carbon sequestered. But forests are shrinking fast, and instead of forests you get, at best, other plants, which release their carbon much more easily: there are crops, for example, which of course also take up carbon - but where does it go when large parts of the plants are burned or left to rot after harvest?.."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT

"...Sea water is rising because shelf ice is melting. Some glaciers have provided meltwater to large agricultural areas for centuries or thousands of years, which has been crucial. When they have melted and do not re-form because of the warmer climate, drought and famine set in, a risk scenario particularly in Asian areas that depend on water from the Himalayas and in some parts of South America..."

"...Both floods and droughts generate enormous disasters: millions upon millions of people will flee to the cities, where slums will swell into a boiling hearth of disease and misery; cultures will perish forever without a trace; infrastructures worth billions will be destroyed; land will literally disappear; and gigantic areas will be turned into desert..."

"...The reduction in arable land and crop yields as the weather becomes more extreme obviously poses problems for food security, while current production methods are not sustainable in the long term in themselves and have their own built-in disaster mechanisms..."

WHERE ARE EMISSIONS GENERATED ?

"...Around three quarters of total greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuels outside the agriculture and forestry sector. If agricultural and forestry machinery is included, the result is even higher. Global warming or the greenhouse effect is primarily an industrial problem in the broadest sense. To the extent that agriculture is industrialised, as it is in much of the world, Global Warming is of course also an agricultural problem...."

"...The largest single source of emissions, about a third, is in the electricity and heat production sector - including the production of energy used in industrial production and in infrastructure in general. Transport and direct combustion in industry follow close behind. All these sectors are growing strongly..."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

GREEN SOLUTIONS IN THE DEBATE

"...CCS - carbon capture and storage - is a technology for capturing, separating and storing carbon dioxide. The technology can be used both in the combustion of fossil products and in the combustion of renewable raw materials. Basically, what it does is compress the carbon dioxide and store it in rock formations. The technology has been tested in a few places and we do not yet know how well it will work on a large scale. The risks include the use of chemicals in various CCS techniques to capture the carbon dioxide - and these chemicals can in turn cause emissions of greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide. It can damage the bedrock, it can leak carbon dioxide that is directly dangerous to people and the environment nearby, and it is energy-intensive to do it all..."

"Another problematic area, seen as a solution by some and as a major danger by others, is nuclear power, which generates vast amounts of energy. Nuclear power also emits very little greenhouse gases compared to other energy sources. As the risks associated with nuclear power are highly debated, they are also difficult to determine objectively. Many reports have established correlations between nuclear power plants and abnormal levels of cancer outbreaks, while other reports dismiss the link. Others warn of the constant risk of meltdown and radiation as an inevitable consequence of nuclear power. The disposal of radioactive waste is also problematic, as radiation from the fuel in a typical nuclear power plant is directly lethal and must decay for about 100,000 years before it is completely neutralised. How do you warn future generations 100 000 years ahead, with all the linguistic and cultural differences that will develop, about where we store deadly material? Nuclear power also provides the means to build nuclear weapons, and nuclear power plants themselves are potential targets for terrorists. It is therefore not a safe form of energy production in a war-torn, imperialist world."

"...A new form of energy is fusion power, which is currently at the experimental stage. Fusion involves the fusion of light atomic nuclei, and the waste is not as highly radioactive as in traditional nuclear power plants. In addition, decay is much faster and can at best be over in about a hundred years. The risk of reactor accidents is also very low. Fusion power would give the world almost unlimited energy - if research and experimental facilities can manage the extremely high temperatures involved, we might be able to start using it in fifty years' time. It is easy to see that until then we will have to find other solutions, but that fusion power must be a high priority research area..."


You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

TRANSPORT OVERHAUL

"...In the ever-growing transport sector, there is talk of efficiency and improvements in vehicle performance, integrated urban planning, public transport-friendly buildings and densified cities that facilitate cycling and walking, and high-speed trains that reduce the need for air travel over short distances..."

"...It also discusses how industrial end-use energy efficiency could be improved by upgrading and spreading the use of best available technologies, especially to countries where they are not used, and through innovation, such as substitutes for emission-intensive products like cement..."

"...The above measures are necessary and well understood - they are strategies that could be developed. But just as the public debate can talk about a general reduction in demand for products and services in the industrial sector (e.g. by sharing products and services between different users) as a solution, there is an elephant in the room that must never be mentioned - the capitalist mode of production. Because the fact is that all these potential solutions can only be implemented under capitalism if they are profitable, if they generate profit..."

"...In discussing industry and transport, one must also be aware of the enormous proportion of goods transport generated by industry: imports and exports of consumer and industrial goods are increasing at a breakneck pace. People are also transported. The world is becoming more and more urbanised, and in big cities people have to be transported to their jobs. The debate is centred on the co-location of residential areas and workplaces, reducing the distances travelled and the huge areas of asphalt paved in cities. Of course, there is talk of good and functioning public transport..."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

POSSIBILITIES OF SOCIALISM

"...In the heated debate on ecological lifestyles, it is important for communists to constantly point to the functioning of capitalism, its drive towards consumption, its skewed distribution of society's resources and the non-existent decision-making power of working people over production. But it is also important to live an ecological lifestyle as best we can - because in a future socialism we will define key concepts like standards, quality of life and access to resources differently. It is important to show that different definitions matter, not just in words. In other words, it's important that communists set an example: taking the tote bag to the store won't change reality, nor will reducing car use or meat consumption - but it shows that a new world won't make inhumane demands on the individual. The more privileged you are, the more important this is for our credibility..."

"The solution lies above all in daring to question the type and quantity of production. In a socialist economy, one must question both mass production and mass transport of useless things, from small plastic toys to mobile phone shells of a thousand different kinds, and on to fashion clothes and electronics that cannot be repaired when they break down. We must dare to discuss what constitutes quality - is it that all schoolchildren have computers? Or is it that they have more teachers? Why does everything always have to be bought new, while last year's stuff goes into the landfill - shouldn't we stop being consumer cattle for capital? Creating a planned economy with the best possible technology and forward-looking research, building a common sustainable production and consumption with completely new definitions of quality and a good life will allow us to reduce the impact on the climate to manageable levels."

"We want people to live lives that are fulfilling, creative, happy - and this requires a material base that must be available to all. In that material base, it is utterly insane not to include a world that is at all liveable, without environmental disasters. The senseless production that prevents this must end. The senseless transport that prevents this must end. The capitalist ideology of consumption must end. Instead, we must come to a common understanding of what is a good standard and what is possible. We who live in developed consumer societies may have to retreat more than we wish from personal consumption at times."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

AGRICULTURE, MEAT AND WATER

"It's not just emissions that threaten our environment with climate change. Linked to them is large-scale, commercial agriculture, which under capitalism is a huge problem in itself and will explode in the future in a hungry world. This type of farming threatens, first, the possibility of farming at all on large areas of land that are continually being depleted - the necessary top soil layer is being eroded away, water resources are being depleted and both artificial fertilisers and insecticides seem to be leading to the disappearance of natural micro-organisms and small animals from the soil. After a while, the soil becomes "dead" and no longer receptive to ever-so-much added chemicals. Secondly, existing ecosystems are wiped out by monocultures that spread unchecked, leading to incalculable environmental consequences. And there is also research to suggest that the over-exploited soil is producing food that is less nutritious than before, leaving people malnourished of vital nutrients. This leads to disease, as do the pesticides used. On top of all this, agriculture is also responsible for a large proportion of all carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and the water vapour that evaporates from huge areas of land becomes a powerful greenhouse gas. At the same time, large-scale farming is incapable of acting as an effective carbon sink."

"Transport is an environmental problem for the entire food industry, but is particularly evident in meat production. Animal feed has to be transported from the meadows where it is grown to factories where it is packaged and then on to the farms where the animals are located. Animals must also be transported from the farm to the slaughterhouse and the meat to the grocery store, while the load needs to be refrigerated during the journey. If emissions from livestock farming include, for example, the transport of feed and slaughtered meat, or the production and use of chemical fertilisers to grow feed crops - which is not usually done - agriculture and the food industry appear to be by far the biggest contributor to the environmental problems we face today."

"Water is part of a cycle. Consequently, when we talk about water consumption, we mean that water that is clean, fresh and useful is consumed, but it does not disappear. It becomes something else: polluted water or salt water, for example. We are talking about green water, which rains down on the world and is consumed by plants and animals directly. This water can become groundwater or run off as surface water. Groundwater and surface water count as blue water, which can be used for irrigation, production and consumption, and here lies one of the big problems: blue water increasingly runs off from degraded soils, or from giant paved urban areas, and eventually ends up in the sea where it becomes salt water."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

PERMACULTURE IN CUBA

"Organic farming and permaculture were pioneered in Cuba when help from the Soviet Union was no longer available and the US blockade stopped the oil supply. In 1993, a solidarity group from Australia came to Cuba with a new concept: permaculture. They set up a demonstration project with the help of a grant from the Cuban government, and now it serves as a school for growers from all over the country and the world. Here, organic farming is seen as part of a whole that includes construction, energy and water supply, water purification, etc. Permaculture basically means farming in cycles, with different co-cultivated crops that both protect each other and make farm management easier. Harvesting of different crops is almost always going on, and farming is much more manual and less dependent on machinery and fuel than both modern large-scale farming and 'conventional' organic farming."

"Small-scale local farming or permaculture is not an automatic, simple solution, but also depends on other social functions. For example, a shorter working day makes it possible to focus on environmentally friendly farming. Eliminating unemployment and the devastating efficiency of capitalism also means that people can work in a more environmentally friendly way, even if it takes longer. Therefore, socialism is a basic prerequisite for the development of agriculture and livestock farming that does not destroy the environment. Over time, building up a well-thought-out permaculture in suitable areas of an urban or rural setting can eventually be very easy - it requires a different way of thinking, using the intrinsic qualities of plants and flexibly harvesting what has matured. Such farming requires no artificial fertilisers (biological products such as natural fertilisers can be used), no pesticides and no compacting harvesting machinery - it also produces relatively high yields. But it is not an easy green-wave solution. Its implementation requires planning, long-term vision and education."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

CAPITALIST ECOLOGICAL FAILURE:

"Globally, 2.14 billion tonnes of waste are produced every year. The composition of this waste is difficult to determine as it varies greatly between countries, between rural and urban areas and changes over time. In general, more developed and urbanised countries tend to generate more waste and to have more electronic and difficult-tohandle waste products, while low-income countries have higher proportions of organic waste. This is partly because more developed countries produce more electronic products than low-income countries, but also because waste sorting systems are better and more widespread in developed countries, which changes the composition. After something is thrown away and becomes waste, a process begins that will determine where it ends up. In a developed waste management system, waste is first sent to transport stations where it is compacted and temporarily stored. After the waste is compacted, sorting begins. Materials that can be reused are partly recycled, combustible materials are incinerated to reduce space requirements and to convert the waste into thermal energy, biodegradable materials are sent to facilities where useful substances are extracted and the energy in the waste is harnessed."

"Some countries offer to accept large quantities of waste from other countries in return for payment. Usually this involves difficult-to-handle waste such as electronics, plastics or radioactive and toxic waste. The developed countries that have the financial means to pay to send their waste away are also the ones that generate the most difficult to handle waste. Developing countries are in need of the financial assistance but lack the resources to manage the waste without damaging the local environment, which also contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. This means that the market that emerges where developed countries pay for developing countries to deal with their waste has extremely negative consequences for the climate. Corrupt states or private investors receive large sums of money to take care of the waste, but are unable to manage it, causing great damage to already vulnerable countries and areas. Over the last 50 years, this type of waste export has been increasing all the time as it is cheaper for rich countries to pay poor countries to act as landfills than it is to manage the waste themselves."

"One of capitalism's most dangerous wastes deserves its own section. It is microplastics, which are increasing at an alarming rate. Their emergence is linked to other environmental problems such as transport, fertilisers, increased water run-off into the sea and over-consumption of unnecessary gadgets. Plastics take thousands of years to decompose and linger while other waste is broken down or reused. Many of the world's garbage heaps are therefore largely made of plastic. Every year, the amount of plastic in our oceans increases by around 8 million tonnes. The gigantic collection of garbage floating around in the Pacific Ocean, known as the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch', is three times the size of France and is 99% plastic."

You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021

ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIALISM  IS THE SOLUTION

"The solution is a different, socialist society - and that society may well mean getting by on less chocolate and coffee. But there is a huge difference between an individual having to choose between hundreds of options and getting it right, and there being a collective, socially decided and implemented plan for the choice of production and consumption. In that society, we will also have the money and time to develop alternatives, because research can be expensive and so can creative experiments: perhaps greenhouses can be run in an environmentally friendly way in Sweden to provide us with a little extra luxury foods? Perhaps fresh, locally produced, organic produce can compensate for sprayed tea leaves and avocados, if we can learn from Cuba's permaculture and adapt it to our latitudes. Can we recycle and repurpose textiles that have already been produced once and create new and beautiful things - this is something that enthusiasts are already doing on a small scale, so why not in a planned and larger scale? Finally, what we are saying is not that we should ignore the environmental struggle and fight for socialism, and once we have done that we will tackle the environment, because on the way there we also have to concern ourselves with the water footprint and ecological production - but always with socialism as the ultimate goal. The way forward is organising the fight for the environment as a fight for the working class and all working people, a fight for a world to live in. The fight is about putting the struggle for different environmental goals in context - showing that capitalism can never overcome environmental problems. To make the environmental struggle revolutionary, as we wrote in the introduction."

"The Communist Party of Sweden fights for a socialist society with a sustainable, environmentally planned economy - a society where solving environmental problems is a priority - not profit at the expense of the lives and health of future generations. Research and experimentation must be carried out without profit - new energy sources, permaculture and solutions for recycling and reuse must be tried and explored regardless of cost - all working people must have the opportunity to participate in the formulation of workable environmental strategies in energy production, industry and agriculture."



You can purchase a copy of the entire pamphlet here: SKP Miljöprogram 2021


*** 



© Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti 2021, 2022, 2023.

Excerpts translated from Swedish to English with assistance from www.DeepL.com/Translator.

Profreading of English machine translation by Manuel X.