I have not been extensively involved in the Community Climate Action Network, and there are probably many others who have more to say about their experiences of socialist interventions in that network. However, from reading a report written by one of the organisers of the network, Wenny Theresia (who has not been involved in writing this piece), it is clear that there are many parallels between the entryism and interventions experienced in the Community network, and my own and others’ experiences in the student environment movement.
The Community Climate Action Network- the network of local Climate Action Groups (CAGs), first met on a national level at the Australia’s Climate Action Summit (ACAS) in early 2009. Wenny Theresia expressed concerns that the Network Facilitation Group (NFG), conceived as a mechanism for communication and sharing support, would become a decision-making space used to exert control over the grassroots climate movement. She states:
“I have particular concerns that specific groups in the climate movement, namely the Socialist Alliance and Solidarity, may come to dominate representation on the NFG, and then informally use it as a vehicle to wield influence over the rest of the movement.”
She also states:
“[I}n my experience, I have not found people in groups like Socialist Alliance and Solidarity to be completely honest and transparent about internal organisational decisions that may impact group members’ involvement in the rest of the movement.”
The report points out that larger organisations such as the Socialist Alliance have the ability to ‘assign resources’ in the movement, as the organisation sees fit. Dishonesty about internal organisational decisions that affect participation in the movement, and dominating spaces that “are or are may be promoted as ‘authoritative’ or influential’” are behaviours we have seen in many other groups including student movements, not just the grassroots climate movement.
Another behavior common to student and community climate movements was acting as a bloc to stack out a meeting and get the group to decide on the position of the bloc. An example from the community vlimate movement is that of the Socialist Alliance in the organising of the 2009 Climate Emergency rallies:
“[M]embers of Socialist Alliance, in favour of including [a demand for 100% renewable energy by 2020] were very vocal in arguing for this position, including in the national rally coordinating space where Socialist Alliance members comprised the majority of representatives to this space. Indeed in Simon Butler’s report, it is mentioned that ‘we (the Socialist Alliance) waged a successful campaign to keep [100% renewables by 2020] as the chief demand for the June 13 rallies.’”
As a solution to the domination of Socialist (or other) groups in the community climate movement, the report advocates self-facilitation, for individuals and groups, as a way to ensure that no one interest dominates a movement. This is a particularly relevant point for the Climate Action Network, which is largely comprised of Climate Action Groups, as the members of these groups are mostly not involved in other groups. Their involvement in the CAGs and the network is their main way of being involved in the climate movement. This is also the case for many members of campus environment collectives. Often, the environment collective is the only political group members are involved in, apart from state and national level student environment organising. Members may not have an outside space to debate, discuss and agree on policy and tactics before attending meetings – in fact, members may think that the meetings of these groups themselves are the space for this! But members of socialist organisations have participated quite differently, pre-caucasing and deciding on positions before attending meetings.
Autonomists, anarchists, unidentified lefties and all people who want to fight for climate justice should continue to participate in the environment movement and in open campaigning coalitions such as the Climate Action Network in good faith and with open minds (if we are not bloody exhausted by working with people who show a fundamental lack of respect for your ideas and ways of organising– if this is the case, good on you.) But we should be aware of socialist (and other) organisations’ superior resources- in terms of time and money- and their ability to ‘assign’ them to certain campaigns. There have been cases of senior activists in socialist groups being paid for their work, the main component of which appears to be intervening in and recruiting from social movements. This is particularly problematic in university environment collectives where full- and part-time students, who are often also workers, have to compete with full-time activists in a dictatorship of the most committed.
We should be aware of pre-caucasing and decision-making in outside organisations that affect movements we are involved in, and call for greater accountability and transparency. We should be aware of, and develop mechanisms to guard against, the stacking of meetings- such as strong membership processes. We should be aware of the centralisation of decision-making and power in our movements such as the example of the Network Facilitation Group in the Climate Action Network.
Facing Entryism From Socialist Organisations 