Version imprimableWe are facing a multidimensional systemic crisis of capitalism, the roots of which can be traced back to:
– An explosion of social inequalities within and between countries, as a result of the neoliberal headlong rush and a growing crisis of the representative systems and traditional parties that have managed political life all over the world,
– The return of old and new fascisms, of religious fundamentalisms,
– An aggravation of geopolitical tensions in a context of hegemonic disorder and the resurgence of aggressive imperialisms,
– Climate chaos, desertification and the accelerated collapse of biodiversity, with increasing repercussions on the economy (inflation, destruction of infrastructure and so on) and on daily life.
I will focus on this point.
The exponential growth of military investment poses a growing threat to the climate. This sector is of course dominated by the imperialist powers. If NATO member countries achieve the military alliance’s target of 5% investment in the military by 2035 – which they are doing – the result in terms of carbon footprint would be the emission of more than 500 million additional tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere. This prospect is totally incompatible with the drastic reduction in emissions needed in the face of the crisis.
The comparison between the financial investments represented by this 5% target and the climate “commitments” of these countries reveals the total duplicity of the states. The necessary spending could thus finance 200 times the 100 billion “loss and damage” fund promised by the imperialist powers to the countries of the “South” at COP27. A derisory sum, which they have never raised in its entirety until now, and which they have partly paid out in the form of loans, thus aggravating the plundering of the “South” by the debt.
These few figures show that military funding is undoubtedly the most polluting investment there is. While the acceleration of the climate crisis requires a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, an ecology that is equal to the challenges requires resolute opposition to all military spending.
Militarism is one of the main causes of overstepping planetary boundaries, and first and foremost of climate change. The world’s largest army, that of the United States, consumed as much fossil fuel in 2019 as a country like Portugal, this time counting both the production of weapons and the military interventions and strategic operations that result from them.
However, it is not only in a direct way that the military-industrial complex has contributed to the ecological catastrophe, but also indirectly, because of the role that the armies have played in the expansion of fossil fuels from which they essentially derive their power. The driving role of Western military industries, linked to their imperialisms – first and foremost those of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century and the United States in the twentieth century – in the development of fossil fuels within the civilian sectors. Finally, we should recall the major role of the military industry in the invention and development of ecocidal agricultural technologies, extractivism and polluting chemical processes and compounds.
The link between the development of militarism and the expansion of capital (and thus of the ecological crisis) is particularly clear in the extractive industries. The fierce competition between the imperialist powers is generated by the extractivist policies pursued both by the still dominant imperialism – that of the United States, which has put fossil fuels back at the centre of its concerns – and by China, which is showing an unusual voracity in the appropriation of strategic resources in Africa and Latin America.
Extractivist logic is the hidden engine of contemporary capitalism. On the one hand, it is based on an exploitation of resources that cares neither for their renewal nor for its negative repercussions (pollution, poverty) and, on the other hand, on the monopolistic control of these same resources.
In this context, socio-environmental disasters have strong repercussions on global geopolitics.
The catastrophe that is currently unfolding is unprecedented. In addition to the scourges of war, colonialism, exploitation, racism, authoritarianism and all forms of oppression, a new scourge has been added, which aggravates them all: the capital-accelerated destruction of the natural environment on which the survival of humanity depends.
The fight against the giants of extractivism and fossil fuels necessarily involves questioning the military activities that allow their progress.
As long as capitalism persists, and in particular disaster capitalism, imperialist wars will be inevitable. No doubt since the financial crisis of 2008, and even more so since the global turning point of the 2020s, with its succession of global disasters forming an explosive cocktail, including: the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the genocidal war in Palestine, the United States’ waging of the trade war, the interventions in Venezuela and then in Iran, the inhumane tightening of the embargo against Cuba, all accompanied by the development of generative artificial intelligence, which is also a factor of militarization.
But then, if war is inevitable, should we not resign ourselves? The movement in support of the Palestinian people is one of the first steps in the necessary convergences between the movements to confront the ongoing barbarism. It has shown us a way forward, namely the need to build a movement against war and militarism in open and plural forms, an internationalist movement capable of restoring hope and identifying an alternative path.
Ecosocialism constitutes, from this point of view, a union and a vital synthesis of the different struggles: the struggles against environmental disasters, for the protection of human beings, for the development of common goods and against privatizations, the anti-racist struggles and for freedom of movement, against the big high-tech companies, for the liberation and self-determination of peoples, against imperialism and colonialism, in order to propose a revolutionary, radically democratic project, which feeds on the contribution of feminist, ecological, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and LGBTIQ+ struggles.
It is for these reasons that we have drafted, as the Fourth International, an ecosocialist manifesto, because we are convinced that the process of ecosocialist revolution is more necessary than ever. The socialist progress that is the basis of our proposals requires a profound refoundation, nourished by a pluralist evaluation of experiences and by the great movements of struggle against all forms of domination and oppression
Ecosocialism can contribute to the rise of an international movement: since global ecological, economic and social crises know no borders, the fight against the systemic forces that cause these crises must also be international.
By becoming aware of the close link between war, the exploitation of labour and the exploitation of the environment, ecosocialism becomes essential as much to oppose imperialisms as to reformist “market ecology” and “productivist" logic. By adopting a new, strongly democratic model of planning, society can take control of the means of production and its own destiny; imposing shorter working hours and privileging genuine needs over consumerism can facilitate the primacy of “being” over “having,” as well as the acquisition of a deeper sense of freedom for all. There is no other way out to achieve real systemic change. The ruling class must be expropriated and its political power overthrown.
4 July 2026
