Thread by @Matthuber78

I respect Malm's work a lot (he's a friend & comrade).

But here he characterizes my climate strategy as "extremely class-reductionist" &"hyper workerist."

I think this sheds some light on our different approaches to climate strategy. Quick 🧵1/n

https://twitter.com/VersoBooks/status/1728186733987090588

Malm fits in a tradition of the post-60s left in rejecting one core principle of Marxism: working class agency.

Malm explains the premise below (ie WC passivity). But I think this position depends on the below being a *permanent historical condition* 2/n

https://x.com/PoliticOfNature/status/1727721601293058327?s=20

There's a sense the WC will *never* again organize forms of political power associated with the heyday of labor parties & strong trade unions.

If true, the left must say "Farewell to the WC" & look for new "movements" (or as Michael Löwy says a "movement of movements"). 3/n

This is why Malm only speaks of strategy for "the climate movement" (as a single thing). And he thinks unions will likely only play a limited and pbly reactionary role. Thus, his call for a radical militancy grounded in sabotage (waged by 'activists'). 4/n

Malm also doesn't offer us much about where the political base might emerge for such a movement (other than those who 'discover' the science or experience climate 'harms'). He only tells us it must transform into a 'mass movement'. 5/n

He also compares the climate movement to other historical 'movements' (like abolition, women's suffrage, civil rights), without thinking much about how comparable these are in terms of confrontations w/ capital/property (abolition is the closest analog imo). 6/n

My view is diff: if solving climate requires eroding the power of capital, history shows no force in society with this potential other than the working class.

Indeed, as Adolph Reed says we can define 50 yrs of neoliberalism as: capitalism w/out a WC opposition. 7/n

Thus, I don't see us winning on climate w/out first the resurgence of WC power. This won't emerge as a single climate 'movement', but rather as a broad-based anti-austerity WC-led mvmt for economic security, public goods & investment (easy to see how climate fits in this!). 7/n

Somewhat sad that my view centering the WC (what Mike Davis called Marx's "lost theory" of "proletarian agency") gets dubbed as "extremely class reductionist" or "hyper workerist". For me, it's just Marxism. Alas, such is the state of the Marxist left! 8/n

I should say there's compelling cases to be made for Malm's view vs. mine. In 2018-2019, XR/FFF/Sunrise etc were ascendant w/ hundreds of thousands flooding the streets for climate action. Malm's pipeline book was a call to push this mvmt in a more militant direction. 8/n

Yet, as Malm admits, post-COVID, the climate mvmt feels much weaker (XR isn't doing direct action anymore?) & tight labor markets have emboldened a resurgent WC mvmt from the UK strikewave to the UAW winning climate demands via strike actions. 8/n jacobin.com/2023/09/uaw-st…

Admittedly, as many have pointed out, the labor movement is still extremely weak and the working class does indeed remain relatively unorganized and "depoliticized". As long as that is the case, my view is also open to question. 9/n

But the sad truth is: over the last 4 decades *no force* has been able to stem the power of capital. No 'movement of movements' nor the WC. We can stick to the former orientation (predominant since the '60s), or we can go back to Marxist basics & organize WC power. 10/n

Ultimately it comes down to this: do you think the climate movement just needs to 'grow' into a mass movement capable of wielding social power against capital? Or do you there is no substitute (under capitalism) for the power of the organized working class? FIN

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