I’m not going to attempt to summarize this interesting dialogue in Turbulence 5, between Frieder Otto Wolf, who advocates ‘hijacking’ the Green New Deal proposals, to create space for more radical social change; and Tadzio Mueller of Climate Justice Action, who rejects such an approach, stressing the direct relationship between capitalism and climate destruction.

It’s a recommended read.

Here’s the abstract:

“A Green New Deal is on everybody’s lips at the moment. Barack Obama has endorsed a very general version of it, the United Nations are keen, as are numerous Green parties around the world. In the words of the ‘Green New Deal Group’, an influential grouping of heterodox economists, Greens and debt-relief campaigners, such a ‘deal’ promises to solve the ‘triple crunch’ of energy, climate and economic crises. Frieder Otto Wolf, an eco-socialist and early member of the German Green Party, argues that the challenge for the global movements is to hijack the Green New Deal, rather than reject it. Tadzio Mueller, an editor of Turbulence, and involved in the Climate Justice Action network, begs to differ. He looks instead to an emerging movement for ‘climate justice’. Turbulence sat the two of them down for a chat, and kicked off the debate by suggesting that a Green New Deal might actually offer a weak looking global left a great opportunity.”