by theleftberlin editorial board
Once again, the G7 leaders have proclaimed a sweeping list of priorities for human and global development, and once again they have missed a critical point. The systemic healing they are seeking— namely climate, women’s empowerment, and equitable post-COVID recovery, cannot occur under the conditions of capitalism.
COVID-19, climate change, and the continuing inequality among genders are crises of capitalism, and of the relations of peoples to the capitalist mode of production. An equitable recovery calls for creating sustainable systems to elevate populations above the subsistence level. Mass profit-seeking industries dominate global trade and encourage governments in a regulatory race to the bottom. Under these conditions, the goals of the G7 will prove unreachable. Similarly, climate change and COVID, both the result of the industrial consumption of Earth’s resources in pursuit of ever-rising growth, cannot be reversed or undone by the same system that caused them.
Actions speak louder than words.
The Communiqué issued by the G7 at the end of the Carbis Bay summit contained many nice words about “the power of democracy, freedom, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.”
The fact remains that the G7 is a collection of world leaders, who from Boris Johnson to Emmanuel Macron, have watched on as the gap between rich and poor has increased in their countries, and internationally. The G7 leaders have shown through their handling of the pandemic the continuing lack of concern for marginalized groups and the working class that defines their neoliberal regimes. As the ultra-rich have profited more than ever before in human history, gains for the working class have been won in spite of these leaders. In view of this, their promises ring especially hollow.
We, the editorial board of The Left Berlin, urge the international working class to organize and demand sustainable solutions that address the underlying problem of the capitalist mode of production: a mode of production that thrives on inequality, exploitation, and human misery.
