Climate Justice: Solidarity Luxury? | nd-aktuell.de

The climate movement is reeling between the escalating climate crisis, state and social repression, a shift to the right and a lack of real political effectiveness. Two current book publications could provide guidance: the anthology “Public Luxury,” published by the young association Communia and the BUND-Youth, and Johannes Siegmund’s “Climate Solidarity.”

“Public luxury” seeks the good life for all in a formula that almost reverses John K. Galbraith’s famous diagnosis of US society – “public misery in the midst of private wealth”: public luxury enables private sufficiency. According to the definition of the chapter of Communia that precisely outlines the agenda, it is “unconditional (i.e. free) access to essential services and goods… Public luxury means an increase in value and deprivation of everything we really need for a good life essential, everyday areas of the market and profit logic. Social and ecological issues only become compatible through such transformation projects. It is no coincidence that the Communia plea begins with the climate crisis – it makes it clear that private luxury is no longer socially affordable, but individualized renunciation is also not a viable political perspective.

In addition to left-wing celebrities such as Nancy Fraser, George Monbiot and Eva von Redecker, the volume brings together contributions from activists from the agricultural movement, trade unions, feminist and anti-racist movements. Instead of just exploring sectors chapter by chapter, they provide theoretical and (especially colonial) historical classifications, which are always linked to the present and practice. Reflections on racism, spatial order and economic democratization depict social complexity that goes far beyond a simple praise of the public and always asks who is excluded from this public and how – for example through police harassment. The goal is a society in which, according to Fatim Selina Diaby’s elegant formula, “we share and not divide.” Nevertheless, the volume aims less at drawing theoretical boundaries than at creating enthusiasm for public luxury and stimulating concrete entry-level projects such as the de-financialization of elderly care or the public leasing of public arable land.

Where sufficiency-oriented degrowth approaches seem notoriously unattractive, public luxury emphasizes what is to be gained. Where, on the other hand, “luxury communists” indulge in high-tech, land of milk and honey fantasies that are completely out of date, the left-wing dream of luxury is here, so to speak, turned upside down. Open flanks are closed in both directions. Public luxury is what a contemporary and internationalist-oriented left can represent in a credible, offensive and hegemonic way. This is more than rhetoric: quality of life is improved so much more quickly than in private competition, simply because the struggle for self-preservation is eliminated. Eva von Redecker’s final chapter illustrates this – and somewhat downplays the radicality of this claim, compared to historical reality, as mere “serious social democracy”.

In Johannes Siegmund’s essay “Climate Solidarity,” history rages as an epic battle between good and evil, here expressed in the terms climate solidarity and climate racism. The current right recognizes that “the times are revolutionary” – and is reacting to the worsening climate crisis with further brutalization of global distribution struggles along traditional axes, directed against blacks, Muslims and indigenous people. The open violence of eco-fascist assassins and the structural violence of the bourgeois order complemented each other to perpetuate the radically unequal distribution of living conditions.

In contrast, the climate movements, as heirs of all anti-systemic social movements, stand for consistent climate solidarity. They embody Siegmund’s positive view of humanity, according to which people usually react to crisis situations with solidarity, not with everyone fighting against everyone. Siegmund’s essay presents the essence of the current climate justice movement: its global, anti-colonial aspirations and its relationship-oriented practice. At times he seems to want to create a monument to her – because she has to fail?

No, Siegmund would probably answer. His final chapter fluctuates between dark expectations of eco-fascism and almost euphoric, revolutionary expectations for the future. “We will have to inhabit a devastated, wounded and devastated world,” he writes, yet trusts in the limitless potential of solidarity. This becomes understandable against the background of Siegmund’s global and long historical perspective: for most movements on this planet, the present has always been oppressive, resistance is pure necessity. Who will lose heart in the face of a bit of authoritarian headwind? Tough love for the German climate movement, which is used to comfortable circumstances.

If, despite this global historical embedding, Siegmund can be said to have an over-optimistic view of the openness of the historical situation, it is only because he seems to generously accept the movement ideal of unity in diversity as the current state, while the real, deep divisions are once again revealing themselves in these weeks .

Placed side by side or one inside the other, these two manifestos get to the heart of the current state of the climate justice debate: global demands for justice and the will for solidarity relationships can only be realized through the appropriation of the basic supply structures, which could also have magic if organized appropriately. If in the German context the claim of global climate solidarity is a minority position, public luxury is oriented towards realistically winnable majorities – but the target horizon is essentially the same. Both complement each other more than they compete. By breaking down specific infrastructures and thus political projects, “Public Luxury” bridges the distance that seems to exist between the big picture of “climate solidarity” and the micro-level of relationship building from below that it evokes. On the other hand, the uncompromising global view of “climate solidarity” remains an important corrective to the practice of socialization struggles that have to be fought locally.

What advice can the ailing climate movement find here in times of impending collapse? Off to everyday life, suggests “public luxury”. Reflecting on your own strengths suggests “climate solidarity”. Lessons worth considering.

Communia & BUND-Jugend (ed.): Public luxury. Karl-Dietz-Verlag, 168 pages, br., 16 €.
Johannes Siegmund: Climate solidarity. Leykam, 124 pages, br., €14.50.

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