Preemptive Surrender is a Failed Strategy
But the only one "progressives" have
You don’t win by giving up the fight before it even begins. The north didn’t win the Civil War by surrendering after losing the opening battle of Bull Run. Instead they settled in for a long fought war. This strategy of fighting a little then surrendering is one that has been tried by progressives over and over again. It always fails. The Inflation Reduction Act is just the latest example of this.
On July 29, 2022, over 350 climate organizations signed on to a letter that stated:
Any approval of new fossil fuel projects or fast-tracking of fossil fuel permitting is incompatible with climate leadership. Oil, gas and coal production are the core drivers of the climate and extinction crises. There can be no new fossil fuel leases, exports, or infrastructure if we have any hope of preventing ever-worsening climate crises, catastrophic floods, deadly wildfires, and more–all of which are ripping across the country as we speak. We are out of time. Therefore, we’re calling on you to fulfill your promise to lead on climate, starting with denying approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, rejecting all new federal fossil fuel leases onshore, in the Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska, and everywhere else, and preventing any fast-tracked permits for fossil fuel projects.
These included the Sunrise Movement and many of their local branches.
Yet they immediately got behind the bill.
As I wrote in my last post, this bill is not just flawed, it’s a huge giveaway to oil and gas.
On Friday, August 12, Sunrise Movement sent out a fundraising email claiming the IRA as a victory. In it, they say:
In 2017 when our movement launched, climate was a bottom tier issue, politically toxic and ignored by the establishment. A few short years later, Congress has now delivered a climate and jobs plan that invests hundreds of billions of dollars into the green economy. That’s the power of movements.
Today, it’s clear that young people – and supporters like you – have organized the impossible into existence.
We sat in Speaker Pelosi’s office with AOC in 2018 to make climate a political priority. We pushed until 23 out of 25 Democratic presidential candidates endorsed the Green New Deal in 2020. We helped inspire record youth turnout after helping Biden write the most ambitious climate plan any presidential nominee has ever ran on. And in 2021, we never let lawmakers forget they had an obligation to deliver climate legislation. Without the movement for the GND, there would be no IRA.
As far as we’ve come, our job is not done today. The IRA is not the Green New Deal – it abandons too many communities fighting on the frontlines of fossil fuel pollution, and it is full of too many giveaways to the fossil fuel industry to put us on the path of decarbonization.
This is what a strategy of preemptive surrender looks like. Bernie did the same thing with this bill and with his promise to endorse the winner of the 2020 primaries. You cannot fight if you admit beforehand that you will surrender on all the issues.
Sunrise Movement is proud of helping write Biden’s climate plan - which was insufficient then and was never acted on at all. That isn’t something to be proud of. They say this isn’t the Green New Deal, which is obvious. The Green New Deal committed $16.3 trillion to climate spending. The IRA commits $369 billion. That makes it about 2.2% of the Green New Deal as far as funding goes. And as Green New Deal itself did not go far enough in truly addressing the climate crisis, are we really supposed to believe that 2.2% of it is going to do anything significant?
As long as organizations like Sunrise Movement and 350.org and politicians like Bernie Sanders and the squad are willing to preemptively surrender and support bad bills like the IRA, there can be little hope for progress. The people must break from these failed strategies and demand more.
Instead of claiming victory in what is clearly a defeat, we should be uncompromising in the battle for the future of the human race. Climate change is an existential crisis brought about by the capitalist system. The only solution to this problem must come from revolutionary change in economic conditions - the adoption of a socialist program. The working class has to wake up and throw off the alien class ideas of the bourgeoisie. Science has said that we cannot wait - the time to end the dominance of fossil fuels and capitalist extractive technologies is now.
As Comrade Rosa Luxemburg said:
In this hour, socialism is the only salvation for humanity.
Without socialism, there is no hope for the future. Only the victory of the working class over their capitalist overlords can create a better future for all!
We just need to vote harder! If we get out there and support Democrats like Manchin and Sinema, one day things will get better, at least for the fossil fuel industry. Right?
The real situation is so very much worse that most people cannot bear to consider the truth.
The Democratic Party is where progressive ideas go to die. The streets are where they will come alive and grow.