The day after New Year’s Day, Zarah Sultana – and representatives from several left groups – met to draw up a ‘Grassroots Left’ Political Statement for Your Party’s upcoming Central Executive Committee elections; two days later, they agreed a Candidates’ Slate.

The political statement was mainly positive, and ticked most of the boxes which should be expected from a twenty-first century socialist group – yet there was one glaring and surprising omission.

The positives

The positive result of that meeting was, first of all, that it produced a list of 15 agreed points – in itself, this was no mean achievement, given the problems which often arise when a large number of left-wing groups try to reach agreement on political priorities.    

Furthermore, those 15 points include clear commitments to oppose the far right and fascism, capitalism and imperialism in all its various forms; and to resist all forms of social oppression.

Also included in those 15 points are commitments to extend political democracy by introducing PR, and abolishing the monarchy and the House of Lords – and a positive recognition of autonomy and self-organisational rights for both Wales and Scotland.  Also positive are the statements calling for full inner-party bottom-up democracy.

The negatives

Yet there was a glaring omission. Despite two passing references to the climate crisis – correctly describing capitalism in point 1 as an “ecologically destructive system”, and calling for “an equal, fair, just and ecologically sustainable society” in point 3 – there was no developed consideration of this crucial issue, comparable to the treatment given to fascism, imperialism and oppression. 

As the world continues to heat up, the number of victims of climate-related ‘extreme weather events’ continues to climb. And the vast majority of those victims are the poor, women and working-class communities – in both the Global South and, increasingly, in the Global North: including in the UK.

To push back against the climate-denial being spread by Farage’s creeping fascist Refuk party, ecosocialists – and the left in general – need to make a strong case for a rapid, and socially-just, transition away from fossil fuels and a rapid expansion of clean, and cheaper, renewable energy.

Also vital in pushing back against Refuk is making the case that it is the working class, right now, which is being punished by fossil-fuel capitalism – whether by fuel poverty, or by excess deaths during cold spells and heatwaves.

Today’s climate realities

As regards fuel poverty, National Energy Action (NEA) using statistics released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, showed that, in 2024, the number of households living in some form of fuel poverty rose to 8.99 million (some 36.3% of all households) – this was an increase from 8.73 million (35.5%) in 2023. The NEA also pointed out that these figures were expected to increase for 2025.

One group particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty are pensioners who often struggle to heat the UK’s notoriously-leaky homes. The End Fuel Poverty Coalition, using ONS statistics, showed there were 4950 ‘excess deaths’ in 2022-23 due to cold, and that over 8 million adults currently live in cold and/or damp houses. As the British Journal of Community Nursing  has shown, around 250,000 older people have died from cold-related illnesses over the past decade, with one older person dying every seven minutes. According to them, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 more people die each winter than in other seasons — most of these are older and poorer adults. Most of this mortality rate is the result of poorly-insulated homes, leaving working-class families, and especially pensioners, exposed to the dangers of cold weather. A particularly bad year was the winter of 2014–15, when some 40,800 ‘excess’ winter deaths occurred among people aged 65 years or more, with the highest mortality rates among those aged 75 years and older.

But working-class people are not just being killed by fossil-fuel capitalism during cold spells – they are also dying from the increasing number of heatwaves resulting from global boiling. Those most at risk are, once again, working-class pensioners – but also the very young, as most people cannot afford air-conditioning. Again according to official statistics released last year, there were over 10,000 ‘excess’ deaths between 2020 and 2024 during 19 summer ‘heat episodes’: Llast summer alone, there were 1,311 heat-associated deaths during 4 such ‘heat episodes’ – the equivalent of 94 deaths per day.

For an Ecosocialist Point 16

So come on ‘Grassroots Left’, let’s have an added Point 16 – before the CEC elections take place – which is devoted to spelling out how Your Party will protect the working class from fossil fuel capitalism, and which sketches out how a just transition to renewable energy can be achieved for those working in the dirty energy sectors.

ACR has already published a contribution to a draft ecosocialist manifesto for Your Party to help make clear what is at stake and the way we can link the climate crisis to the social crisis many of us are struggling with (low wages, expensive housing, etc). I encourage everyone to read it and share it with your local YP groups!

The good news is that, so far, the government hasn’t decreed that using the term ‘ecosocialism’ indicates support for terrorism – even though it does mean the end of capitalism!!