I prepared this study guide for the Ecosocialist Reading Group of East Bay Democratic Socialists of America. These are some of the key readings for anyone who wants to understand the ecoleft’s take on the Green New Deal.
Overview of the GND
Like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal has moved swiftly from obscurity to daily mention in the mainstream media, not the least because of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s highly publicized promotion of the concept upon her arrival in Washington, D.C.
Ocasio-Cortez arrived in Washington with a specific proposal to create a congressional Select Committee on the Green New Deal with subpoena power, authority to draft legislation, and a bar to appointment of any members who have taken contributions from fossil fuel companies. AOC formally put forward her proposal as a proposed addendum to the House Rules for the 116th Congress.
Over 40 of her fellow legislators backed AOC’s proposal. Nonetheless, after assuring her reappointment as speaker of the house, Representative Nancy Pelosi announced that a special committee on climate would be appointed but without subpoena power, authority to draft legislation, or a bar on members who have received campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.
Some on the Left have declared, “I told you so,” but, by far, the main response of the climate justice movement has inclined toward declarations along the lines of “We have just begun to fight.”
But what is the Green New Deal we are we fighting for?
There is no agreed upon definition. Left journalist Kate Aronoff offers, “Like the first New Deal … the Green New Deal isn’t a specific set of policies so much as a values framework under which any number of policies can fit.”
The core readings (“Must Reads”) provide four views of the priorities to be addressed under the Green New Deal . A long list of optional readings provides additional resources for those who want to dig deeper, including some that are critical of the Green New Deal and Ocasio-Cortez’s and Richard Smith’s proposals.
Must Reads
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Proposal for a Select Committee for a Green New Deal, Ocasio2018.org (Nov 2018)
No single person has played a more prominent role in driving discussion of the Green New Deal into the public square than AOC. Her GND proposal was not a specific piece of legislation but a call for the creation of a House committee that would be empowered to develop a proposal for a GND by January 1, 2020 and legislation by March 1, 2020.
The political heart is section 6 which defines the scope of the plan for a GND and the legislation to implement it. If you are short on time, read section 6.
The Green Party, The Green New Deal (2012)
No organization owns the franchise on the Green New Deal, but the Green Party has long posted on its website a Green New Deal proposal. The Green Party’s GND platform rests on four “pillars”: an Economic Bill of Rights (which includes Medicare for All), a Green Transition; Real Financial Reform; and a Functioning Democracy.
Richard Smith, An Ecosocialist Path to Limiting Global Temperature Rise to 1.5°C, System Change Not Climate Change (Nov. 26, 2018), Real World Economics Review (forthcoming March 1, 2019).
Richard Smith is a cofounder of System Change Not Climate Change and an active member of DSA’s Ecosocialist Working Group and the New York City chapter of DSA. He is the author of Green Capitalism: The God that Failed and is working on a forthcoming book on China’s not-so-green, communist-capitalist future.
Climate Justice Alliance, A Green New Deal Must Be Rooted in a Just Transition for Workers and Communities Most Impacted by Climate Change, Press Statement (Dec 10, 2018)
The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is an alliance currently linking 68 community organizations, movement networks, and support organizations throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico to unite under Just Transition strategies. CJA’s inter-generational constituencies are rooted in Indigenous, African American, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander, and poor white communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
Optional Readings
Comments on the Green New Deal
Justine Calma, Something Old, Something New; the Green New Deal Is touching up its (grass)roots, Grist (Jan 9, 2019)
Calma reports, “Newcomers like Ocasio-Cortez may be leading the charge, but grassroots leaders who have spent years advocating for low-income families and neighborhoods of color most impacted by fossil fuels say their communities weren’t consulted when the idea first took shape.”
“For all the fanfare,” she writes, “there isn’t a package of policies that make up a Green New Deal just yet. And that’s why community-level activists are clamoring to get involved, help shape the effort, and ensure the deal leaves no one behind.”
Joint Press Release, 626 Groups Urge Congress to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, Build Green Economy (Jan 10, 2019)
The joint press release of the 626 groups supporting the Green New Deal includes this linkto the letter itself which includes a list of the 626 sponsors. “NYC DSA Ecosocialist” is on the list, but that’s about it for DSA. The New Republic has noted the absence of eight environmental organizations in an article entitled Some of the Biggest Green Groups Have Cold Feet Over the “Green New Deal” (Jan 15, 2019).
Dharna Noor, Over 600 Groups Call for a Green New Deal: an Interview with Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network (video and transcript), The Real News (Jan 10, 2019)
Tom Goldtooth of Indigenous Environmental Network says that a Green New Deal must reject corporate takeover and center indigenous and frontline communities.
Matt Huber (DSA Ecosocialist Working Group Member), Building a “Green New Deal”: Lessons from the Original New Deal, Verso Books (Nov 19, 2018)
In this article Matt Huber offers four lessons from the original New Deal that contemporary activists and policymakers must learn.
Ted Franklin (East Bay DSA member), The Green New Deal Goes Viral: What’s Next Is Up to Us, System Change Not Climate Change (Dec 6, 2018)
“By offering an ambiguous, but potentially expansive, charter for political action, the Green New Deal invites a conversation over what kind of transformation of our economy and society would enable us to meet the targets set by the scientists while getting us off the disastrous political course of Trumpism.”
Wayne Price, A Green New Deal vs. Revolutionary Socialism, Anarkismo.net (Jan 2, 2019).
Wayne Price criticizes Richard Smith’s article An Ecosocialist Path to Limiting Global Temperature Rise to 1.5°C and the Green New Deal from an anarchist perspective.
Max Ajl, Beyond the Green New Deal The Brooklyn Rail. (Nov 2, 2018)
Max Ajl calls AOC a “Teddy Kennedy-type liberal” and critiques the Green New Deal and ecosocialism from “the left.”
David Roberts, The Green New Deal, explained, Vox (Updated Jan 7, 2019)
Roberts reports regularly on climate politics for Vox. This article provides some of the background on how the GND became a political meme.
Kate Aronoff, With a Green New Deal, Here’s What the World Could Look Like for the Next Generation, The Intercept (Dec 5, 2019)
Kate Aronoff has written on the politics of climate change for Jacobin, the Intercept, In These Times, and many other publications. In this piece, she speculates on a future that would require a Green New Deal that goes far beyond the imagination of Democratic Party leaders.
Kelsey Hill, Indigenous Leaders Support a #GreenNewDeal, Lakota People’s Law Project (Dec 19, 2018)
Kelsey Hill presents an Indigenous perspective on the Green New Deal perspective and calls on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to appoint Deb Haaland, one of the first two Native women elected to Congress this past November, to the Climate Change Select Committee.
Stan Cox, The Green Growth at the Heart of the Green New Deal? It’s Malignant, Counterpunch (Jan 17, 2019)
Assuming that the Green New Deal is already a fixed set of policy proposals, Stan Cox takes an axe to the naïve assumption he attributes to Green New Dealers that energy consumption can rise according to business as usual.
Richard Heinberg, Could a Green New Deal Save Civilization?, Common Dreams (Jan 17, 2019)
Richard Heinberg, founder of the Post Carbon Institute, argues that “what’s required is not simply to provide jobs to the un- or underemployed while building large numbers of wind turbines and solar panels; we will all need to live very differently and make some sacrifices. Given the already dangerously high and increasing level of economic inequality in the country, it would make sense to ensure that sacrifices fall mostly on those who are currently well-off, while the benefits of job creation are targeted toward those who are already feeling the pinch.”
Specific Ideas and Proposals for the Green New Deal
Metro Detroit DSA, Make Detroit the engine of a green new deal, The Detroit Socialist (Jan 5, 2019)
Metro Detroit DSA calls for a takeover in response to GM’s announced closure of the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly (Poletown) plant.
Eric Ruud (East Bay DSA member), Nationalize California’s Pacific Gas & Electric, Jacobin (Nov 2018)
“California’s massive, deadly wildfires aren’t just a consequence of climate change — they’re a result of the profit model in utilities. We need to nationalize PG&E and the entire national power grid.”
Peter Gowan, A Plan to Nationalize Fossil Fuel Companies, Jacobin (Mar 2018)
“Market-based solutions can’t attack climate change. Let’s try nationalization.”
Greg Carlock, Emily Mangan, and Sean McElwee, A Green New Deal; A Progressive Vision for Environmental Sustainability and Economic Stability, Data for Progress (2018)
This version of the Green New Deal comes from Data for Progress, a new thinktank aligned with corporate-progressive Democrats (Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tammy Baldwin). The stated aim of Data for Progress is to push the Democratic Party in a “more progressive” direction.
Comic Relief
Thomas L. Friedman, A Warning from the Garden, The New York Times (Jan 19, 2007)
Yes, it’s true. Thomas Friedman did talk about a “Green New Deal” way back when. His version included “more of everything: solar, wind, hydro, ethanol, biodiesel, clean coal and nuclear power.”
