Publication Social Movements / Organizing - Globalization - Socio-ecological Transformation - Democratic Socialism - Social Theory - Commons / Social Infrastructure - Green New Deal A Left Green New Deal: An Internationalist Blueprint

Saving the climate through socialist system change

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September 2021

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Bernd Riexinger was a trade union secretary for the service sector union Ver.di in Stuttgart, then served as co-chair of Die Linke from 2012 to 2021. During his time in party leadership, he advanced the strategy of “connective class politics” and a “connective party”.

Lia Becker has worked as a strategic advisor for Die Linke since 2014. She works on Gramscian theory, class and intersectionality, and the strategy of a Green New Deal from the left.

Katharina Dahme works as the head of Bernd Riexinger’s office at Die Linke. She is also one of the founders of the Bewegungslinke, a movement-oriented, eco-socialist network within the party.

Christina Kaindl has been the head of the Department for Programme and Strategy at Die Linke since 2012. She has published extensively on the politics of hegemony, left-wing strategy, and the rise of right-wing populism.

With the cascading effects of multiple ongoing health and economic crises, conditions are ripe for the emergence of a global progressive social project capable of moving us beyond business-as-usual and eradicating the fundamental causes of misery: namely, a global Green New Deal. But simply creating new “green jobs” within the current capitalist system is not nearly enough. If we are to take on climate change, it is imperative that we first engage in “system change”, a process rooted in socialism. Shifting beyond the American notion of the Green New Deal and adding vital internationalist dimension, A Left Green New Deal provides just such a blueprint for this worldwide undertaking.

Is a Green New Deal with a system-transforming orientation still realistic? Yes it is! With this new book, Bernd Riexinger and his team have left a programmatic legacy for the Left.

—Klaus Dörre

Written by Bernd Riexinger and his team in the German socialist party Die Linke while he was still party co-chair, A Left Green New Deal unveils the powerful opponents of a genuine, left-wing Green New Deal—corporations, the wealthy, the ultra-rich, and their political allies. But it also discloses the creation of a potent new counterforce, embodied in a left-wing mobilization strategy developed by Die Linke. This organizing model is rooted in “connective party politics”—transformative organizing practices that reach across class lines within and beyond the party. This essential book provides both a Left Green New Deal platform and the inspiration necessary to lay a path towards an alternate future.

Originally published in 2020 in German as System Change: Plädoyer für einen linken Green New Deal—Wie wir den Kampf für eine sozial- und klimagerechte Zukunft gewinnen können and translated into English by Darren Roso, A Left Green New Deal is now available in print from Monthly Review Press and free to download in PDF form here.

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