We are at an early stage in our project to apply Marxist Crisis Theory to Global Warming and the need to constrain CO2 emissions. The following tentative outline of a possible discussion paper and the work needed to complete it has, however, been prepared:
Part 1 – Global Warming, understanding and response
| Topic | Useful sources already examined | Drafting underway |
| Realisation in 19th Century that the global climate has been different in the past.
Milankovitch Cycles |
Some – more needed | |
| History of the discovery of global warming | https://history.aip.org/climate/summary.htm | |
| History of the international response to this understanding, culminating in the Paris Agreement, COP21. | https://history.aip.org/climate/summary.htm | |
| The responses of China and Cuba | China’s New Era and What it Means CPB, Pamphlet by Kenny Coyle.
The Governance of China by Xi JinPing. A Redder Shade of Green by Ian Angus, Monthly Review Press. |
|
| The scientific assessment of where we are now and where it will take us | Some – more needed. | |
| What a 3%+ world will look like physically | Six Degrees – our future on a hot planet Mark Lynus, Fourth Estate. More needed. |
Part 2 – Global warming from a Marxist Perspective
| Topic | Useful sources already examined | Drafting underway |
| Historical Materialism – class struggle and consequences of constraints to the growth of productive forces | Communist Manifesto
Preface to Critique of Political Economy |
Yes |
| Capitalism, TRPF and Crisis | Capital vols 1&3. Limits to Capital by David Harvey | Yes |
| Catastrophism? | A Redder Shade of Green by Ian Angus, Monthly Review Press.
Four Futures by Peter Frase. Verso Books. |
Yes |
Part 3 – What is to be Done?
| Topic | Useful sources already examined | |
| The responses needed from the Labour Movement | To be drafted in the light of Parts 1 and 2 | |
| Socialist Revolution | To be drafted in the light of Parts 1 and 2 |
The Communist University in South London (CUiSL) started as a Marxist discussion group but it now undertakes collaborative research. It is sponsored by the Croydon Branch of the Communist Party and meets on a monthly basis at Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD but as part of its ambition to be an open and free university it welcomes everyone willing to participate. If you are sympathetic to this project and would like to contribute to it, or if you would simply like to be kept informed about our progress, please e-mail me at cuisl@communist-party.org.uk
Communist University in South London 