When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa falls within the 15 biggest polluters in the world. But there is also a class dimension when it comes to pinning down which sections of society are responsible for air pollution – the major polluters in South Africa are the ruling class (capitalists, politicians and top state bureaucrats) and their state and corporations (including state corporations), continuing an economy based on cheap black labour, mining and externalising costs. State-backed”empowerment” firms — for Afrikaners from 1948, and blacks from 1994 — are deeply involved.

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Jared Sacks on the civil society/NGO exploitation of grassroots organizations at the United Nations COP 17 meeting on global warming in Durban. ... read full story / add a comment

ANC supporters dressed in the COP17 volunteers' tracksuits tossed stones and water bottles at members of civil society organisations that were marching in protest against climate change, the corporate-funded lack of progress at COP17 and other green issues in Durban on Saturday. ... read full story / add a comment

The civil society march on the COP 17 was attacked by ANC Youth League thugs. This report is from a largely Trotskyist organisation but the eyewitness account of the 'green bombers' of the ANC Youth League attacking the march is important. Other more libertarian orientated organizations have long suffered the same fate in Durban. ... read full story / add a comment

Climate change is one of the main issues facing the world at this moment. We all know that when things go wrong, like when there is an earthquake or a flood, or a drought, poor people are most vulnerable. And usually the response to these disasters is a second disaster for poor people. For instance in Sri Lanka the so-called ‘development’ after the Tsunami forcibly removed fisherfolk from their coastal land to give it to developers to build hotels. Sometimes the attempts to prevent disaster are also a disaster for the poor. In South Africa when it is acknowledged that we as a country are using too much electricity it is not the big companies or the rich that have the police and the security guards kick down their doors to disconnect them. In some other countries in Africa poor rural people are being forced off their land so that it can be used for bio-fuels. Maybe this will slow down climate change but why must it be the poor people in Africa that must pay the price for this? They are not the ones that caused the problem. The ones that caused this problem are the rich, especially in America and in Europe. ... read full story / add a comment

"The war of each against all is not the law of nature. Mutual aid is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle"
Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid ... read full story / add a comment