turn of phrase. In that one sentence, Morales says that the environment must be given legal priority over capitalist profits and the neoliberal policies that protect them. In short, he is calling for "despotic inroads on the rights of property"
Cuba's Foreign Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, also spoke to the UN on global warming in September.
He placed responsibility for global warming on directly on the imperialist powers, and rejected any suggestion that poor countries should have to forego economic growth in order to clean up the mess caused by rich countries.
How should mitigation and adaptation be financed? Cuba's representative had anti-imperialist answers:
"if only half the money that our countries must pay every year in servicing a constantly growing burdensome debt were set aside for these purposes, we would have over US$200 billion per annum.
"Another alternative would be to earmark merely the tenth of what the sole military superpower on the planet spends on wars and weapons and we would have another US$50 billion available."
Evo Morales expressed this idea in a more general way:
"I think that it is important to think about some regions, some sectors and some countries repaying what has often been called the ecological debt. If we do not think about how this ecological debt will be paid, how are we going to solve the problems of life and humanity?"
The idea behind "ecological debt" is that that the imperialist powers owe compensation for the environmental damage they have wreaked in the Third World, and for their grossly disproportionate production of greenhouse gases. It's a very profound concept that radicals in the global north need to understand and promote as widely as possible.
Major battles against ecological devastation are taking place in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The formation of the ALBA block of anti-imperialist governments in Latin America is a huge step forward for ecosocialists - -we must view them as our closest allies in the struggle to build the movement that Morales describes:
"I feel that it is important to organise an international movement to deal with the environment, a movement that will be above institutions, businesses and countries that just talk about commerce, that only think about accumulating capital. We have to organize a movement that will defend life, defend humanity, and save the earth" • IAN ANGUS is the editor of Climate and Capitalism (www.climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com ) and a member of the coordinating committee of the Ecosocialist International Network. This article is excerpted from a talk he gave to a meeting in London sponsored by Green Left and Socialist Resistance on October 10. Derek Wall Green trade union work is vital because ecological problems are largely a product of the production process. How can we fight for real action on climate change without trade union action at the point of production.
In a neo-liberal society climate change has been 'dealt' with via carbon trading, which as numerous critics have pointed out has huge potential to increase inequality, with those with wealth and power buying the right to pollute at the expenses of the poor. Carbon trading and the related notion of offset, where one flies around the world and perhaps pays some one to plant some trees, is pretty suspect on environmental grounds and open to eco fraud.
To cut CO2 effectively and equitably must involve practical, physical action. Expanding public transport, creating renewable energy, insulating millions of homes and other buildings, along with all the other necessary tasks involves the efforts of workers. Yet when in the public debate over climate change are unions ever mentioned? Who are the individuals with the knowledge to make cuts in CO2, workers of course who know how to produce more efficiently and less wastefully.
There is, however, a pretty proud history of trade union green action. There is a great account in International Viewpoint http://www.internationalviewpoi nt.org/spip.php?article94 of the work of Jack Mundy, who established the Australian Green Ban movement in the 1970s. Jack and other members of the Australian builders wokers union, refused to build projects identified by local residents as environmentally damaging, most famously preserving the Royal Botanic Gardens which Derek wall was going to make way for a car park for the Sydney Opera House.
In Britain nuclear waste dumping at sea was ended by action by the National Union of Seaman. Liverpool Dockers supported environmental activists who worked to stop timber from rainforests being imported into Britain.
Much is made of the apparent division between environmentalist and trade
Many socially and environmentally practices stop this madness create work and the dilemma of those who work in destructive industries to feed their families cannot be dismissed.
I remember reading one account of security guards at the Newbury by-pass telling protesters they would like to join them but had to get some work to feed their kids! I doubt though that such workers were unionised.
At the Swansea Spring Conference Green Party conference, Green Left and the Green Party Trade Union Group held a fringe with the secretary of the Welsh T&G although we