In the final chapters of his book Marxism in the Age of Ecological Catastrophe: Theory and Praxis , Brazilian economist Eduardo Sá Barreto discusses these questions in relation to the life and death issue of climate crises. In what follows, I outline his views on strategies and tactics of the revolutionary party and the minimum programme required to avoid the collapse of ecosystems and possibly human society. In all cases, unless otherwise noted, key ideas and quotations are from Sá Barreto’s book.

Strategies, Tactics & Leninist Ecology

Elsewhere on this website we have discussed the failure of organisations based on spontaneity and ‘horizontal organisation’ to move beyond the politics of street protest and social media organising. In this century, millions of people around the world have taken to the streets in protests with progressive aims. None has succeeded. We are living in times of increasing political volatility in which “the pillars of capitalism (but also those of society in general) will be shaken violently” with a possibility of societal breakdown. While the right has been preparing for the coming crises, the left is disproportionately ill-prepared.

 As the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci noted, what is required is a cohesive force capable of intervening at decisive moments, and intentional and diligent processes. Catalysing revolution cannot be achieved by spontaneous reactions to events, important though these may be.

As Gramsci notes, the essential task is to dedicate the party to systematically and patiently building up this force, developing it, making it “increasingly homogeneous, compact, and self-aware”. (Prison Notebooks Vol 3)

In relation to planet-threatening climate crises, the left cannot afford to miss the boat: “the left cannot give in to the slow and bumpy pace and direction of spontaneity” (Sá Barreto)

On the basis of this commitment to disciplined party organisation and to revolution, the Party has two main tasks: to build the conditions for revolutionary change and to be adequately prepared when they (suddenly) present themselves: to build capacity for intervention in the present based our understanding that a revolution is required.

Ecological-Leninism

Taking a phrase from the Marxist writer Andreas Malm, Sá Barreto outlines the basic concepts of “Ecological-Leninism”. What does he mean by this?

Although signs of climate change increasingly impinge on our everyday lives, we as a Party need to understand that ‘the logic of capital’ is the cause of climate change symptoms. Reformist struggles don’t work and “are chronically incapable of achieving even the limited results they aim for”. The structural drive of capitalism to grow or die is so great that small advances are quickly neutralised by “the expansive impetus of the system as a whole”. For example, since 1990 EU27 domestic greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 37% while over the same period global emissions have risen by 65% and continue to rise. The reforms introduced by the EU have displaced the pollution, mostly to poorer countries, not ended it.

As a result, the Leninist Party must seize any opportunity to take State power and force it in the direction of “the kind of meticulous planning that will be required in the very near future” The revolution is placed on the agenda by the destructive power of capital. Climate change forces revolutionary politics onto those who are not blind-sided by the lure of unworkable reforms.

Revolutionary Politics in Face of the Ecological Crisis

If the logic of capital is necessarily ecologically disastrous, then “any policy proposed, even at a tactical level, needs to be consistent with this understanding.” Capital is unable to concede even small steps in the right direction, if they undermine its expansionist logic. “Before anything else, therefore, it is essential to explicitly reject conceptions of tactics and strategy that lead us down dead ends.”

Tactics and Strategies

Sá Barreto notes there are two main approaches to tactics and strategies for left-wing parties. The temporal approach differentiates between immediate short-term tactics and long-term strategies. A related approach based on what is possible differentiates between tactics aimed at the possibly successful outcomes and strategies which are desirable but not yet possible. This approach presents the party with what seem to be to be two dissociated objectives, with tactics aimed at the “urgencies of everyday life” and strategy relegated to “a dream of the future”.

Sá Baretto argues for a different approach in which tactics must be subordinated to strategy: the tactical question at all times is, “what can I (or do I have to) do today in the service of [revolutionary] strategy?”.

“If tactics are consciously subordinated to strategy, even urgent struggles are different in nature and, therefore, require qualitatively different reflection and engagement.”

Social democrats and even some Marxist environmentalists aim for piece-meal victories at the expense of revolutionary strategy in the hope that these urgent struggles will eventually foment a revolutionary political consciousness. So, for these thinkers a sustainable transition aims to buy time by guaranteeing the conditions of life within the capitalist system, so that ultimately a revolution may be unleashed. However, since the expansionist core of the system is the problem we seek to eradicate, this is a delusional strategy.

Transition Programmes & Minimum Demands

So, from a revolutionary ‘Ecological-Leninist’ perspective, how do we transition to a new system? For Sá Barreto “the task is to strain the present to its breaking point”. Revolution in turn opens up possibilities for an effective transition. “An ecosocialist transition program must outline a path for building a revolution that leads to an ecosocialist direction.”

Some transitional demands are achievable within capitalist system. For example, in the post-war UK the creation of the National Health Service largely de-commodified health services within an otherwise capitalist economy. However, central to ecosocialist transition is the urgent need to carry out an energy transition capable of decarbonising our productive activities. This necessity is irreconcilable with capitalist relations.

From his perspective, the Ecological-Leninist transitional program involves the Party in struggles rooted in terms of present urgencies but with “the conscious intention of tearing the fabric of capitalist society to its breaking point”.

Minimum and Maximum Programmes

What is necessary today? And what is possible? Sometimes the immediately necessary thing is also possible. For example, if there were the political will, integrated secular education could be introduced in N. Ireland over the next few months, with substantial savings to the executive.

A change in energy systems is necessary but, unlike integrated education, it is not possible in the current system. In other words, the minimum possible within the capitalist system falls short of what is required. If the minimum necessary is required to guarantee the survival of humanity and global eco-systems, then falling short is not an option. “The necessary actions are irreconcilable with the primary needs of capital”

Capital not humanity is responsible for global degradation, is unable to solve the climate crises. In contrast, humanity needs to make energy transition, reduce material demands of planet, eliminate destructive and wasteful production, etc

Energy transition is the most urgent requirement, but it is not possible in the current system. Therefore, revolution is the minimum programme, and all tactics must be subordinated to revolutionary strategy.

August 12th 2026