Climate Change as Class Struggle in America: Matthew Huber and the Challenges Confronting the Ecological Left

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I undertake an evaluation of Matthew Huber’s important book, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. The book provides an opportunity for engaging in spirited debate and constructive discussions on how the Left should mobilize to combat the global climate crisis. As such, it is a clarion call for engaging the American working class in the climate struggle, an especially critical task given the results of the 2024 election. Huber is laser focused on capital’s pursuit of profit as the source of the climate crisis. Here he challenges the notion of a “diffuse climate responsibility” spread among consumers, especially the wealthy, as the primary driver of climate change. He instead argues that the leading source of greenhouse gases pouring into the atmosphere stem from industrial capital. In this vein, Huber attempts to shift the focus away from reducing personal consumption to politicizing what Karl Marx once termed “the hidden abode of production.” As a result, we are left with a climate politics of consuming less, which alienates the aspirations of the working class to consume more in order to raise their standards of living and to have a better life. The challenge is to theoretically and politically replace this view with a socialist vision centered around the material interests of the working class. I agree, but argue that Huber discounts the radical possibilities of the climate change/climate justice movements and to be key allies of the American working class.