The Victorian Socialists released the following statement on May 1.
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The world is facing a climate emergency and no mainstream party is proposing anywhere near the kind of radical action required to address it.
Tinkering around the edges will not work. Environmentalists have spent decades trying to find a solution to the climate crisis that does not challenge the fundamental logic of capitalism. These efforts have failed.
Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus on the need for serious climate action, and despite the millions poured into research and lobbying efforts by environmental organisations, emissions continue to rise.
“Green capitalism” is a contradiction in terms. The system is built on the competitive drive to profit — with individual companies and countries engaging in an endless scramble for resources and markets.
Nowhere has the development and growth of capitalism been unaccompanied by a rising scale of environmental destruction.
Addressing climate change requires a scale of cooperation and collective action that is impossible under the current set-up. At the very least, we need large-scale government intervention to drive a radical shift in our energy system.
The Victorian Socialists will fight to stop the Adani coalmine slated for the Galilee Basin in Queensland. But that’s just the start.
We stand for bringing the power industry back into public hands and directing all profits from the industry towards investment in renewables, with the aim of building a 100% renewable energy system by 2030.
This will create tens of thousands of jobs — many more than will be created by the further expansion of the coal and gas industries advocated by the Coalition and Labor.
The Victorian Socialists will fight to ensure that all workers from the fossil fuel industry are guaranteed secure jobs in the renewable energy sector.
Ultimately, we stand for the construction of an economy and society centred on human need, rather than big business profits. Transforming our current destructive relationship with the natural world on which we depend will be central to this change.
[For more information on the Victorian Socialists campaign click here.]