When has socialism worked? A response.

A response to my Dad, after he said to me - "When has socialism ever succeeded? And if you care about climate change, protest China and India!":


What most socialists are calling for today is a reversal of neoliberalism; we want a mixed economy, with a truly representative government, an emphasis on cooperatives, etc. We are not calling for a Soviet Union-style system. You know this. Stop being obtuse. See Finland, where they’re currently moving towards a 4 day week. Such a failure of a country! Definitely not one of the happiest in the world (sarcasm).

(But fyi - it is actually very, very easy to make the case that capitalism is a far more unsuccessful system than Soviet style socialism. What with all the genocidal colonialism, and the literal destruction of the planet for profit. No biggy).

Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world, with a history (that continues to this day) of ravaging the world via war and ecocide. For us to go green would have a huge impact, and we have a deep responsibility to do so.

You’ve been manipulated into blaming everything on countries like China that aren’t yet controlled by western capital. It’s very sad.

China has developed in a FAR less destructive manner than the west. And they are now leading the way in many ways, on the environment. Over 50% of investment in renewable energy comes from China. They’ve planted 66 billion trees. They’re on course to achieve peak emissions 10 years earlier than agreed at Paris.

All this, whilst lifting nearly a billion people from poverty (and not waging any wars!). Pretty remarkable. And fyi their emissions per capita are half that of the US.

None of this means I love their system. Ultimately, it’s all still destructive. But at least they seem to have a conscience, and an ability to act on it.

It’s utterly deranged to focus on them rather than on our own country/the US - we have been attacking/plundering the world, repressing movements for peace/sustainability, for centuries.

But this is to be expected from someone who consumes western propaganda daily.