The tipping point

Scientists these days are deeply concerned that the climate changes caused by global warming could reach a “tipping point” beyond which disastrous consequences would be irreversible. It is a scary prospect but one that cannot be predicted with any kind of pinpoint accuracy, just as an earthquake cannot be pinned down to happen on a particular date. However, the movements of the earth’s crust that cause a quake can be measured and that a quake will happen within a certain broader time period can be predicted with great accuracy.

Knowing an earthquake is coming is not limited to the physical sciences. Social systems have their tipping points, too.

From the point of view of humanity, a social earthquake that sweeps away outmoded relations of production and property is a much cheerier prospect than environmental tipping points that could alter our ecosystem in ways that would put enormous stress on any human society. Let us hope that the social transformation comes while there is still time to undo the damage to the environment of the last 200 years.

What has caused this damage? Unbridled and unplanned growth of the means of production driven by the profit motive. Oh yes, we are always being promised that the next growth spurt of capitalism will end hunger, poverty, war, etc. But it never happens. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That’s the nature of this system. Take the new, highly profitable industry of ethanol production. It was supposed to be the answer to global warming, but it is having the same damaging effect. It is deepening world hunger by causing food prices to rise.

Not that long ago, before capitalism became a global system, there were many societies that met their needs in a sustainable manner. The big difference is that people were not farming, hunting or raising livestock primarily to sell and make a profit, as happens with production today.

What are the chances that the working class, the vast majority in modern society, can eradicate the system of capitalism and set up one that is based on meeting human needs, but at a much higher level of science and technology than in pre-capitalist days?

Obviously, it takes a huge struggle to get rid of a parasitic ruling class that has, over centuries, used its wealth and influence to shape all contemporary social institutions to serve its needs. But revolutions do happen. In fact, they are as inevitable as earthquakes.

Of course, everyone wants to know, when will the tipping points occur? When will all the day-to-day injustices—the hail of police bullets that killed Sean Bell, the unbelievably racist callousness that condemned so many to die in New Orleans after Katrina, the mounting evictions for unpayable mortgages, the rising toll in money and blood of imperialist wars, the layoffs and cutbacks and poverty wages—when will it all bring about a new mood of struggle on a massive scale, in the same way that racist violence and segregation led to the upsurge of the Civil Rights movement?

Scientists shouldn’t wait until tipping points occur to plan their response. The same is true for the progressive movement. Revolutionary politics are every bit as valid at a time like this as when the battle of the classes and the struggle of oppressed peoples for national liberation have become red hot.

In fact, now is the time to consider carefully how to build a revolutionary movement while at the same time fighting like hell to roll back all the attacks coming down against the working class and the oppressed.