“Climate action not war” is the theme of the Ecosocialism 2024 conference to be held over June 28–30 in Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia, for good reason.
It will take place less than two months after 380 (77%) of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global temperatures will reach at least 2.5°C degrees above pre-industrial levels, a catastrophic degree of heating.
And it takes place amid a new global arms race.
Two weeks before the latest warning about global heating, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute revealed that global military spending last year surged to US$2.4 trillion.
Hot wars are raging in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, among other countries, and governments around the world are on a war propaganda offensive.
These two issues are deeply intertwined. Ecosocialism 2024 will bring together ecosocialist activists from across the Indo-Pacific and beyond to share experiences in building struggles.
Some of the keynote speakers are:
Leila Khaled, iconic Palestinian revolutionary activist, member of the national committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a representative on the Palestine National Council. Her contribution is critical amidst the terrible ongoing genocide in Gaza, but Zionist organisations campaigned successfully for the Australian government to deny her a visa, against a broad range of public objections. She will address the conference via videolink.
Ammar Ali Jan, Pakistani historian, activist, youth leader and academic. He is general secretary of the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party and a member of the Council of Advisors of the Progressive International.
Salim Vally, South African human rights activist and Professor and Director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg.
These are just three of many more international speakers. The full list and the agenda can be seen at ecosocialism.org.au. Ticket holders who cannot attend in person can access the livestream to key sessions.
Green Left is proud to be a key sponsor of the conference alongside the Socialist Alliance, Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Resistance Books Australia and Queer Liberation Boorloo.
There will be a rich exchange of experiences and ideas between activists from the Indo-Pacific region, in particular, and ties of people-to-people solidarity will be forged, renewed and strengthened.
It builds, in no small part, on ongoing solidarity links GL has relied on since its launch in 1991. Every issue is filled with articles from different parts of the world that share stories and perspectives you won’t find in the so-called mainstream media.
We’ve managed to make and develop the links that make this conference and the media project possible because our approach has always been collaborative and open-minded.
GL is sharply aware that Australia is one of a handful of the world’s richest countries now desperately trying to keep their global economic and military domination.
These same rich countries have contributed the most to the climate crisis, but it will be the poorest countries that will suffer the most as we roll into a more unliveable climate.
According to a recent World Economic Forum study:
• The global cost of climate change damage is estimated to be between US$1.7 trillion to $3.1 trillion a year by 2050. This includes the cost of damage to infrastructure, property, agriculture and human health.
• This cost is expected to rise over time as the impacts of climate change become more severe.
• The poorest countries are at greatest risk from the economic impacts of climate change.
Meanwhile, rich Australia — even under a Labor government — is giving the go-ahead to massive new fossil fuel projects run by some of the biggest multinational companies which intend to export most of it and, in the process, fuel the climate emergency.
If Woodside’s Burrup Hub in Western Australia is approved it would be the southern hemisphere’s largest gas carbon bomb because it will emit more than 13 times Australia’s annual total emissions over its lifetime.
Ecosocialist activists in the climate rogue state Australia have a special duty to work with activists in the Global South.
If you agree with us, we ask you to consider two things:
- Buy a ticket to Ecosocialism 2024. If you cannot attend in person, you can still participate. A ticket gives you a link to access the plenaries and many workshops; and
- Promote the conference and GL to your friends, colleagues and family. Our campaign for more GL supporterships is ongoing.