A Left Green New Deal: An Internationalist Blueprint

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 of all 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.

Written by Bernd Riexinger and his team in the German DIE LINKE [the left] Party, 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 based 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.

Bernd Riexinger is co-leader of the German political party DIE LINKE since 2012, has roots in Stuttgart region’s service sector union “ver.di.” Lia Becker is a strategic advisor for DIE LINKE since 2014, is co-author of Bite back! Queere Prekarität, Klasse und unteilbare Solidarität, a book about queer class-politics, forthcoming from Edition Assemblage. Katharina Dahme is the head of Riexinger’s office, is one of the founders of “Bewegungslinke,” a movement-oriented, anti-racist and ecosocialist network within DIE LINKE. Christina Kaindl is head of DIE LINKE’s Department for Program and Strategy since 2012, was co-founder and first editor in chief of the review “LuXemburg” and is a longtime coordinator of the academic review “Das Argument.”