Fightback ‘climate crisis’ issue released

Fightback (Aotearoa / New Zealand) is an ecosocialist, socialist-feminist group that publishes a regular magazine. In 2015, Fightback stepped back from our monthly printing schedule towards less regular, themed issues; an issue on the Housing Crisis; on the fight for Secure Hours and a Living Wage; a successful crowdfunded issue dedicated to paid writing by Women and Gender Minorities; an issue dedicated to Internationalism, and finally this issue, on the Climate Crisis.

The 2015 UN Climate Change Conference will be held from November 30th to December 11th in Paris. As argued in the following pages (see particularly Change Everything: Climate Justice Post-Paris, p17-18), these talks are unlikely to change anything. Any commitments are likely to be non-binding, framed by the market logic that produced the climate crisis, and to benefit the global rich at the expense of the global poor.

NGO 350.org has nonetheless initiated a global People’s Climate March in advance of the talks. Fightback is a partner in the Aotearoa / New Zealand section of this march, to be held on November 28th in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and smaller centres across the country (see http://www.peoplesclimatemarch.org.nz/events). We participate to promote radical solutions that go beyond pressure on existing powers (necessary but inadequate), towards asserting the power of self-organised communities.

Our first article, by Bronwen Beechey, explains the theory and practice of ecosocialism (p4-7). Two international articles cover ecological struggles: a reprinted article from Green Left Weekly reports on a recent climate change conference held in Bolivia (p8-9), and Jojo, a Fightback correspondent based in Germany, outlines actions against coal mining (p10-11). Daphne Lawless reviews Naomi Klein’s recent book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, and relates Klein’s argument to Aotearoa / New Zealand (pX-X). Michelle Ducat (Oil Free Wellington) outlines the limits of the Paris talks, and Oil Free Wellington’s plans for education and direct action in December (p17-18). The issue concludes with a poem by Tam Vosper (p19).

Fightback is a small organisation, with no funding from the state or big business. If you would like to support our work, and are not a current subscriber to the magazine, please consider subscribing at https://fightback.org.nz/subscribe

If you would like a print copy of the Climate Crisis issue, please contact your nearest branch.