Organized Power and The Global Green New Deal
Building relationships in order to guarantee a sustainable future for all
The Green New Deal is a public policy framework born out of the need for a solution to climate chaos, declining job security, structural inequality, and crumbling public infrastructure. The Just Transition is a similar, often interchangeable concept, emphasising that this shift to environmentally friendly infrastructure not come at the cost of the livelihoods of workers, or negatively affect the world’s poorest peoples. At the moment, however, both predominantly have meaningful form as a progressive ideal rather than a concrete set of actionable policies.
This is partly because there is no single agreed-upon framework for a Green New Deal. Rather, there are numerous such models being shaped at the moment, at differing levels of efficacy, scope, and proximity to implementation. There are Green New Deal proposals at the regional and municipal level, at the national level, and at the global level. There are those that are supported by progressives, and those that are supported by conservatives. In addition, there are Green New Deals which are adequate to the crises we face, and those which are not.
In terms of adequacy, it is arguable that the closer a Green New Deal is to becoming a political reality, the less effective it will be in dealing with the problems it purports to solve. This is largely because our current political system is not only completely out of step with the obstacles that we face today, but that it is itself an obstacle. Political alienation stands alongside climate change and socio-economic inequality as one of the central systemic challenges to be overcome within Capitalism.
In fact, without addressing the obstacle of political alienation, there is a chance that we won’t be able to make headway on either climate change or inequality. A Green New Deal, then, does have the potential to completely transform global society, but only if coupled with new forms of grassroots political engagement.
The Ideal New Deal
The reason the concepts of a Just Transition and Green New Deal occupy such a prominent space in the progressive lexicon right now is because of their purported ability to solve two fundamental crises at the same time — that of inequality, and that of our rapidly changing climate. And while in practical terms most implemented Green Deals are operational purely at the municipal and regional levels, it is clear to most progressives that real solutions to the climate emergency and inequality can only be dealt with at the global level. By channeling both public and private investment into green infrastructure and energy, and focusing that investment into areas of deprivation around the world, we would not only lift millions out of poverty and raise the standard of living for people everywhere, but also mitigate the worst effects of climate change, in time halting it in its tracks. In addition, this green investment would impact systemically related issues such as the rise of far-right nationalism and the increase in forced migration, both of which are currently buttressed by inequality and climate change.
The systemic nature of Capitalism means that the right policy, backed by real political power, could have a huge global knock-on effect on a number of issues facing the left today, not just those that immediately threaten human existence. In strategic terms, this places a Global Green New Deal in a strong position: the institutional mechanisms needed to bring it fruition already exist, as does the global public and political support for a greener economy; the trick would be do to implement in a way that was actually adequate to the crises, which a number of proposed Green Deals are not. Yet this is still an easier task than attempting to overhaul the global economy as it is — this type of fundamental restructuring, an incredibly difficult task and yet a necessity in creating a better world for all of us, would itself require levels of public and institutional support that are just not present in the scale they would need to be for such a gargantuan project. However, we can begin this process through the strategic implementation of a progressive Global Green New Deal, as opposed to conceiving of a new economic model as a necessary precondition.
Even still, this implementation would take an incredible amount of global coordination, and a type of progressive global thinking that, while not totally absent in society’s institutions, would need to be much more mature in order to coordinate such a transformative project. Securing the large amount of investment capital that would be needed is one obstacle, but we must also direct this investment across political borders, so that it finds its way from the coffers of economically robust nations into those of developing nations; this progressive international investment will take more than just good faith in our current institutions: it will require their reshaping. Because ultimately, while inequality resides in every region in every nation, not every nation has the resources or capacity to deal with it. If it is not dealt with collaboratively at the international level, then it is not dealt with at all: a Green Deal that remains confined within current political borders will ultimately fall short.
The Challenge
Acquiring the financial support to fund a transformative Global Green New Deal, and shaping the institutional mechanisms to politically coordinate it appear, on the surface, to be our two primary challenges. To effectively surmount either of these challenges, however, we would need a representative political system that was responsive to the global public. As I mentioned earlier, our global political system is not only inadequate, but there is a well-documented lack of meaningful engagement in politics by the general public.
The energy of many new grassroots organisations on the left is directed towards public engagement, but often it can take the form of ‘waking people up to the problem’ through protests, demonstrations, and direct action. This type of awareness raising is in fact indicative of the general strategy of many civic organisations, which are often grounded on the false premise that ‘people aren’t changing the system because they don’t have access to all the information’.
But it is a mistake to believe that there is public inaction on issues like the climate because that people aren’t aware of the problems or don’t have access to the right forum to voice their concerns — although these are to some degree true.
The reason that modern global society is marked by a particular type of political disenfranchisement stems from the fact that the majority of people are removed from the opportunity to wield collective power.
To be clear, we do need to create new ways of getting information to people, and of setting out our narrative, and of making it convincing. Similarly, we need to engage in strategic direct actions such as demonstrations and sit-ins. And of course we need to create intentional spaces for public participation in collective decision making. But we need to do this in a way which fundamentally alters the way in which people engage in politics, and we need to do this in a sustained way. We have to move away from showcasing alternatives, and instead create meaningful connection with people, and build on those foundations.
Meaningful Political Participation
One of the most crucial components of a successful strategy needs to be organised mass participation. In reality, mass participation is not only necessary to get our policies off the drawing board, but is also an important goal in and of itself; as I mentioned earlier, political alienation is systemically linked to other crises within Capitalism.
As such, not only is a truly progressive Green New Deal impossible to implement without mass participation, but any Green New Deal that attempted to deal with climate change, inequality, forced migration, and far-right nationalism without radically transforming the global political subject would likely be doomed to fail.
Mass Participation, it should be said, is not simply voting, showing up to a demonstration, or emailing your local public representative. It includes these actions, but as part of something much deeper. Meaningful participation both stems from, and results in, organised and deliberate political activity: a realignment of the individual towards political participation with others, and away from individual actions which alone cannot amount to more than superficial change.
People must get involved, in a meaningful and organised way, to shape the movement that makes a progressive Green New Deal a reality. At the same time, this movement must shape those within it in a way which boldly transforms their politics, creating a mass political subject which has the potential to transform the world. In practice, this would mean organised communities holding their public representatives to account in ways that shift the balance of power away from a handful of elected (or unelected) officials, and into the hands of people engaged in a community of political practice. It would also mean having conversations with people that engage them in politics. It would mean listening to people: their stories, their experiences, their wants and visions.
The key term here is ‘organised’. We are looking to engage people in sustained action; to make political power part of everyday life, indeed part of the fabric of social interaction. That power does not always need to be overt — it can be manifested in intentional conversations with those around us, where we inspect the relationship between what we perceive as personal, and what we perceive as political. Through this we can uncover how politics shapes our lives in ways which we can be unaware of. Ultimately though, an understanding of how our lives are shaped by forces outside of our control will lead us into tension with those forces, and that is where more direct political action comes in.
This type of political practice currently exists around the world, and is on the rise, but right now is not enough to make a progressive Global Green New Deal real. But with careful attention to who we’re moving, and how we’re moving them, and with a real strategic vision, we can build on the pockets of organised activity around the world and unite them in a way which not only transforms the world, but also transforms people.
Building Power
A progressive Global Green New Deal has the potential to radically transform our society, in terms of both material changes, and changes in the popular political imaginary. But these changes feed off each other in the course of a sustained and organised movement. If we lead with ideas, and fail to connect them to people’s lived experiences, and fail to bring people into our organisations, we will be ineffective. Ideas are most powerful when they resonate with people’s lived experiences, wants, and needs, and people are most powerful when engaged in organised action as part of a collective political subject.
Global cooperation and international investment are, in reality, issues of political power and intent. By building a bigger political subject, being clear on our narrative of global cooperation, and then building bridges between people-powered political organisations across the globe, we can build the Global Green New Deal we need. If we rely on policy or action to speak for itself we risk losing our opportunity to chart a way out of the current global crisis. Which is not to say that we should be dismissing actually existing Green New Deals out of hand of course. On the contrary, we should be building the grassroots power to transform them.
