Saturday, November 28, 2009

Québec: For Ecosocialist Independence

By Marc Bonhomme.

To avert an ecological crisis, the United Nations says, a country like Canada must, by 2020, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from their 1990 level, and by 90%by 2050. Quebec’s emissions in 2007 (the latest statistics) were 5% above the 1990 level, and Canada’s 20%.

■ A turnabout like this must go far beyond changes in individuals’ behaviour, which in any case are quite limited by the social structures. (How can one do without a car when one lives in a suburban bungalow – the only way a family can be adequately housed at a price that is affordable even if the bank has us by the throat and the public transit system is more than deficient?)

■ Fundamental changes in the way we live, eat, commute and work require the active collaboration of the proletariat, which can only be achieved if the necessary ecological revolution is not carried out on the backs of the workers as it is under “green capitalism”. And this involves mobilizing the working class through participative democracy.

The ecological revolution, if it is to succeed, must be combined with a revolution in social justice and democracy which in any event is a goal in itself. This combination is called ECOSOCIALISM.

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