Climate Crisis, The

Devan Pillay, Vishwas Satgar, Michelle Williams, Christelle Terreblanche, Pablo Sólon, Athish Satgoor, Desné Masie, Hein Marais, Dorothy Grace Guerrero, David Fig, Jacklyn Cock, Patrick Bond, Andrew Bennie, Nnimmo Bassey, Brian Ashley, Alberto Acosta, Mateo Martínez Abarca

Description

Indexed in Clarivate Analytics Book Citation Index (Web of Science Core Collection)
PART ONE: THE CLIMATE CRISIS AS CAPITALIST CRISIS
Chapter 1 The Climate Crisis and Systemic Alternatives - Vishwas Satgar
Chapter 2 The Limits of Capitalist Solutions to the Climate Crisis - Dorothy Grace Guerrero
Chapter 3 The Anthropocene and Imperial Eco-cide: Prospects for Just Transitions - Vishwas Satgar
PART TWO: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN THE WORLD
Chapter 4 The Employment Crisis, Just Transition and the Universal Basic Income Grant - Hein Marais
Chapter 5 The Rights of Mother Earth - Pablo Sólon
Chapter 6 Buen Vivir: An Alternative Perspective from the Peoples of the Global South - Alberto Acosta and Mateo Martínez Abarca
Chapter 7 Challenging the Growth Paradigm: Marx, Buddha and the Pursuit of ‘Happiness’ - Devan Pillay
Chapter 8 Ubuntu and the Struggle for an African Eco-socialist Alternative - Christelle Terreblanche
Chapter 9 The Climate Crisis and the Struggle for African Food Sovereignty - Nnimmo Bassey
PART THREE: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Chapter 10 The Climate Crisis and a ‘Just Transition’ in South Africa: An Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective - Jacklyn Cock
Chapter 11 Energy, Labour, and Democracy in South Africa - Michelle Williams
Chapter 12 Capital, Climate and the Politics of Nuclear Procurement in South Africa - David Fig
Chapter 13 Climate Jobs at Two Minutes to Midnight - Brian Ashley
Chapter 14 Deepening the Just Transition Through Food Sovereignty and the Solidarity Economy - Andrew Bennie and Athish Satgoor
Chapter 15 Eco-Capitalist Crises in the ‘Blue Economy’: Operation Phakisa’s Small, Slow Failures - Desné Masie and Patrick Bond

Sujets

• Political Economy
• Climate Change
• Global Warming
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776142088
• Langue: English

Extrait

DEMOCRATIC MARXISM SERIES
Series Editor: Vishwas Satgar
The crisis of Marxism in the late twentieth century was the crisis of orthodox and vanguardist Marxism associated mainly with hierarchical communist parties, and imposed, even as state ideology, as the ‘correct’ Marxism. The Stalinisation of the Soviet Union and its eventual collapse exposed the inherent weaknesses and authoritarian mould of vanguardist Marxism. More fundamentally, vanguardist Marxism was rendered obsolete but for its residual existence in a few parts of the world, as well as within authoritarian national liberation movements in Africa and in China.
With the deepening crises of capitalism, a new democratic Marxism (or democratic historical materialism) is coming to the fore. Such a democratic Marxism is characterised in the following ways: Its sources span non-vanguardist grassroots movements, unions, political fronts, mass parties, radical intellectuals, transnational activist networks and parts of the progressive academy; It seeks to ensure that the inherent categories of Marxism are theorised within constantly changing historical conditions to find meaning; Marxism is understood as a body of social thought that is unfinished and hence challenged by the need to explain the dynamics of a globalising capitalism and the futures of social change; It is open to other forms of anti-capitalist thought and practice, including currents within radical ecology, feminism, emancipatory utopianism and indigenous thought; It does not seek to be a monolithic and singular school of thought but engenders contending perspectives; Democracy, as part of the heritage of people's struggles, is understood as the basis for articulating alternatives to capitalism and as the primary means for constituting a transformative subject of historical change.
This series seeks to elaborate the social theorising and politics of democratic Marxism.
Published in the series and available:
Michelle Williams and Vishwas Satgar (eds). 2013. Marxisms in the 21st Century: Crisis, Critique and Struggle . Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Vishwas Satgar (ed.), 2015. Capitalism's Crises: Class Struggles in South Africa and the World . Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
SOUTH AFRICAN AND GLOBAL DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES
Edited by Vishwas Satgar
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Compilation © Vishwas Satgar 2018
Chapters © Individual contributors 2018
Published edition © Wits University Press 2018
First published 2018
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/22018020541
978-1-77614-054-1 (Print)
978-1-77614-207-1 (Web PDF)
978-1-77614-208-8 (EPUB)
978-1-77614-330-6 (Open Access PDF)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
This book is freely available through the OAPEN library ( www.oapen.org ) under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons License. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).
The publication of this volume was made possible by funding from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung and through a grant received from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Project manager: Inga Norenius
Copy editor: Lee Smith
Proofreader: Inga Norenius
Indexer: Margaret Ramsay
Cover: Hothouse, South Africa
CONTENTS
TABLES AND BOX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
CHAPTER 1: The Climate Crisis and Systemic Alternatives
Vishwas Satgar
PART ONE: THE CLIMATE CRISIS AS CAPITALIST CRISIS
CHAPTER 2: The Limits of Capitalist Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Dorothy Grace Guerrero
CHAPTER 3: The Anthropocene and Imperial Ecocide: Prospects for Just Transitions
Vishwas Satgar
PART TWO: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN THE WORLD
CHAPTER 4: The Employment Crisis, Just Transition and the Universal Basic Income Grant
Hein Marais
CHAPTER 5: The Rights of Mother Earth
Pablo Sólon
CHAPTER 6: Buen Vivir: An Alternative Perspective from the Peoples of the Global South to the Crisis of Capitalist Modernity
Alberto Acosta and Mateo Martínez Abarca
CHAPTER 7: Challenging the Growth Paradigm: Marx, Buddha and the Pursuit of ‘Happiness’
Devan Pillay
CHAPTER 8: Ubuntu and the Struggle for an African Eco-Socialist Alternative
Christelle Terreblanche
CHAPTER 9: The Climate Crisis and the Struggle for African Food Sovereignty
Nnimmo Bassey
PART THREE: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA
CHAPTER 10: The Climate Crisis and a ‘Just Transition’ in South Africa: An Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective
Jacklyn Cock
CHAPTER 11: Energy, Labour and Democracy in South Africa
Michelle Williams
CHAPTER 12: Capital, Climate and the Politics of Nuclear Procurement in South Africa
David Fig
CHAPTER 13: Climate Jobs at Two Minutes to Midnight
Brian Ashley
CHAPTER 14: Deepening the Just Transition through Food Sovereignty and the Solidarity Economy
Andrew Bennie and Athish Satgoor
CHAPTER 15: Eco-Capitalist Crises in the ‘Blue Economy’: Operation Phakisa's Small, Slow Failures
Desné Masie and Patrick Bond
CONCLUSION: Vishwas Satgar
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
TABLES AND BOX
Tables
Table 12.1 Potential nuclear vendors in the South African new build procurement
Table 13.1 Job estimates
Table 13.2 Total annual emissions in million tons of CO 2 e
Table 13.3 Jobs in the REI4P
Table 13.4 Average number of new energy jobs each year
Table 13.5 Contribution of different modes of transport to emissions, 2000–2010
Table 13.6 Commuter use of different modes of transport
Table 13.7 Estimated number of jobs created each year by expanding the public transport system
Box
Box 5.1 Thomas Berry's Ten Principles of Earth Jurisprudence
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
T his volume owes a special debt to the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLF). Without the support given by the RLF it would have been impossible to hold a contributors’ workshop in South Africa and to ensure the manuscript was prepared for publication. In addition, the support given by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences has enabled us to publish this volume as a digital book as well. We are also grateful for the support given by Athish Satgoor and Andrew Bennie, organisers at the Co-operative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC), who played a central role in organising the workshop convened with contributors and activists from various social movements and community organisations. Wits University graciously provided a venue for the contributors’ workshop. Special thanks also go to Alexia Daoussis, who assisted with a language and citation edit. For translation of the chapter on buen vivir from Spanish to English, we appreciate the efforts of Janine Schall-Emden for the final edit and the efforts of Natalia Cabanillas and Laura Efron for the first attempt at translation. Jane Cherry has been an outstanding editorial assistant and has contributed immensely to preparing the manuscript for Wits University Press. Moreover, it is important to acknowledge the feedback given on the manuscript by Nomaswazi Mthombeni and Professor Michelle Williams. Finally, our sincerest appreciation to the team at Wits University Press, particularly Veronica Klipp, Roshan Cader and Corina van der Spoel, for supporting this volume and the Democratic Marxism Series.
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
ACB
African Centre for Biodiversity
AFSA
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
ANC
African National Congress
ARIPO
African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation
BRICS
Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa
CO 2
carbon dioxide
CO 2 e
carbon dioxide equivalent
COP
Conference of the Parties
Cosatu
Congress of South African Trade Unions
EIA
Environmental Impact Assessment
FDI
foreign direct investment
GDP
gross domestic product
GEAR
Growth, Employment and Redistribution
GHG
greenhouse gas
GMO
genetically modified organism
IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
MEC
minerals–energy complex
MPRDA
Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act
NAFN
New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition
NDP
National Development Plan
Necsa
South African Nuclear Energy Corporation
NRWDI
National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute
NUM
National Union of Mineworkers
Numsa
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa
ppm
parts per million
REDD
reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
REI4P
Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme
SAFSC
South African Food Sovereignty Campaign
SAP
structural adjustment programme
SDCEA
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
SEM
Solidarity Economy Movement
UBIG
universal basic income grant
UNEP
United Nations Environment Programme
UNFCCC
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
UPOV
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
CHAPTER 1
THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND SYSTEMIC ALTERNATIVES
Vishwas Satgar
C limate change is the most serious challenge we face as a species. Despite numerous warnings – scientific studies, United Nations (UN) declarations, books, movies, progressive media reporting – global leadership has failed humanity. After more than twenty years of multilateral negotiations, we have not developed the solutions to solve the climate crisis decisively. Instead, we have continued emitting pollutants and intensively using fossil fuels and, as a result, have been recording the hottest years on the planet. The last two decades in the fight against the climate crisis have merely confirmed, at a common sense level, an Anthropocene-centred theory: as a geological force, we human