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Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won
Climate destruction is a problem of political power. We have the resources for a green transition, but how can we neutralize the influence of Exxon and Shell? Abolishing Fossil Fuels argues that the climate movement has started to turn the tide against fossil fuels, just too gradually. The movement’s partial victories show us how the industry can be further undermined and eventually abolished. Activists have been most successful when they’ve targeted the industry’s the banks, insurers, and big investors that finance its operations, the companies and universities that purchase fossil fuels, and the regulators and judges who make life-and-death rulings about pipelines, power plants, and drilling sites. This approach has jeopardized investor confidence in fossil fuels, leading the industry to lash out in increasingly desperate ways. The fossil fuel industry’s financial and legal enablers are also its Achilles heel. The most powerful movements in US history succeeded in similar ways. The book also includes an in-depth analysis of four classic the abolition of slavery, battles for workers’ rights in the 1930s, Black freedom struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, and the fight for clean air. Those movements inflicted costs on economic elites through strikes, boycotts, and other mass disruption. They forced some sectors of the ruling class to confront others, which paved the way for victory. Electing and pressuring politicians was rarely the movements’ primary focus. Rather, gains in the electoral and legislative realms were usually the byproducts of great upsurges in the fields, factories, and streets. Those historic movements show that it’s very possible to defeat capitalist sectors that may seem invulnerable. They also show us how it can be done. They offer lessons for building a multiracial, working-class climate movement that can win a global green transition that’s both rapid and equitable.
264 pages, Paperback
Published May 14, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 9, 2024
everyone should read this. young draws on theory and history to make a compelling argument: movements can win by prioritizing campaigns that disrupt the flow of profit (e.g. divestments, boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience). electoral strategies such as running in elections and appealing to politicians are important, but throughout history, movements have won primarily by targeting unelected elites (planters, merchants, bosses, banks corporations, boards of trustees), playing them against each other, and threatening their source of wealth (and power). another crucial points that young makes is that these movements were almost always initiated by a minority who did not wait for public opinion to align to their demands. for example, the civil rights movement did not wait for southern whites before boycotting, sitting in, and striking - it was precisely the disruptive actions of a minority that helped shift public opinion against jim crow. this book has given me a lot of much-needed hope after this week's election outcome THAT WE CAN WIN IF WE'RE STRATEGICALLY DISRUPTIVE.
by the way, read this fantastic article by the author which summarizes the gist of the book's argument https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
by the way, read this fantastic article by the author which summarizes the gist of the book's argument https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
February 1, 2025
Along with many people, I increasingly despair over the chances of humanity coming together to avert the climate and ecological catastrophe now bearing down upon us.
No matter how many COP UN conferences are held, no matter how strongly scientists warn of the apocalyptic consequences of humanity not seeking to reverse, or at least slow, the worst effects of global warming, we seem incapable of acting effectively.
Achieving meaningful change through the majoritarian electoral systems of democracies appears impossible, so captured are mainstream political parties by the fossil fuel industry and so cowed are they by cynical media moguls intent on sowing confusion and division on the issue.
In this radical manifesto, history teacher Kevin A. Young argues that if we are to secure effective and faster change to avoid mass extinction we will need to work outside the moribund theatre of mainstream politics and target the industry's enablers.
These people include the banks, insurers, fund managers, regulators, universities, corporations and others who can confront the likes of Exxon Mobil, Shell and Woodside Petroleum. Politicians have already been bought, but the industry's financial and legal enablers are its achilles heel.
"The divergence between mass opinion and policy reflects the fact that politicians are not the key decision makers," Young writes. "They are primarily conduits for those who held real power. (This means) elections are at best a weak and indirect means for getting what we need."
"The movement must directly confront the polluters, the financial institutions that enable them, and all the employers that make decisions about investment, employment, production, and consumption in our economy."
Reflecting the subtitle of the book, 'Lessons from Movements that Won', Young goes back into history to show how changes that had once seemed insurmountable were achieved by movements rapidly neutralizing the power of entrenched elites and forcing large-scale change.
Four historical US movements are analysed to find lessons for the climate movement today - the abolitionists who ended slavery, the labour market reforms of the US New Deal of the 1930s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the campaigns against air pollution in the 60s and 70s.
"Because the key question is one of political power, not technology, today's climate movement can learn from all past movements that have confronted and defeated capitalists," Young writes.
For example, US slavery was eradicated partly because the abolitionists managed to exploit a split between northern industrialists and southern slaveholders. In other cases, as well, change was achieved via localised disruption that took advantage of tensions between rival elites.
We can see such an opportunity in Australia now as an utterly cynical conservative opposition party posits the use of nuclear energy - not as a way to meet climate targets but to slow and derail the transition from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, a large part of the banking, insurance and funds management industry is committed to substantial change. Superannuation funds and their members are demanding a greater focus on sustainability.
Everyone can see that by ensuring fossil fuels remain society's primary energy source, the industry and the politicians it funds retain their structural power of obstruction. But as Young argues, the answer here is not to try and tackle these issues through mainstream party policies but to work instead on exploiting and increasing divisions within the capitalist class.
For instance, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlighted, the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold on the economy confers power on unreliable oil-producing states and threatens to unleash massive refugee flows (something that is happening already). Sovereign risk is increasing and politicians, unable to restrain inflation partly due to an over-reliance on oil and gas, are sitting ducks for a massive public backlash.
For now, we're in a boiling frog situation, with the costs of staying on the same course not immediately obvious to the powerbrokers. And that means the job of those of us demanding a faster transition is to make the costs of not doing so much starker to decision-makers.
This book should be mandatory reading for anyone who is frustrated and disenchanged with the political system and looking for a way to break the suicidal deadlock we have reached.
No matter how many COP UN conferences are held, no matter how strongly scientists warn of the apocalyptic consequences of humanity not seeking to reverse, or at least slow, the worst effects of global warming, we seem incapable of acting effectively.
Achieving meaningful change through the majoritarian electoral systems of democracies appears impossible, so captured are mainstream political parties by the fossil fuel industry and so cowed are they by cynical media moguls intent on sowing confusion and division on the issue.
In this radical manifesto, history teacher Kevin A. Young argues that if we are to secure effective and faster change to avoid mass extinction we will need to work outside the moribund theatre of mainstream politics and target the industry's enablers.
These people include the banks, insurers, fund managers, regulators, universities, corporations and others who can confront the likes of Exxon Mobil, Shell and Woodside Petroleum. Politicians have already been bought, but the industry's financial and legal enablers are its achilles heel.
"The divergence between mass opinion and policy reflects the fact that politicians are not the key decision makers," Young writes. "They are primarily conduits for those who held real power. (This means) elections are at best a weak and indirect means for getting what we need."
"The movement must directly confront the polluters, the financial institutions that enable them, and all the employers that make decisions about investment, employment, production, and consumption in our economy."
Reflecting the subtitle of the book, 'Lessons from Movements that Won', Young goes back into history to show how changes that had once seemed insurmountable were achieved by movements rapidly neutralizing the power of entrenched elites and forcing large-scale change.
Four historical US movements are analysed to find lessons for the climate movement today - the abolitionists who ended slavery, the labour market reforms of the US New Deal of the 1930s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the campaigns against air pollution in the 60s and 70s.
"Because the key question is one of political power, not technology, today's climate movement can learn from all past movements that have confronted and defeated capitalists," Young writes.
For example, US slavery was eradicated partly because the abolitionists managed to exploit a split between northern industrialists and southern slaveholders. In other cases, as well, change was achieved via localised disruption that took advantage of tensions between rival elites.
We can see such an opportunity in Australia now as an utterly cynical conservative opposition party posits the use of nuclear energy - not as a way to meet climate targets but to slow and derail the transition from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, a large part of the banking, insurance and funds management industry is committed to substantial change. Superannuation funds and their members are demanding a greater focus on sustainability.
Everyone can see that by ensuring fossil fuels remain society's primary energy source, the industry and the politicians it funds retain their structural power of obstruction. But as Young argues, the answer here is not to try and tackle these issues through mainstream party policies but to work instead on exploiting and increasing divisions within the capitalist class.
For instance, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlighted, the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold on the economy confers power on unreliable oil-producing states and threatens to unleash massive refugee flows (something that is happening already). Sovereign risk is increasing and politicians, unable to restrain inflation partly due to an over-reliance on oil and gas, are sitting ducks for a massive public backlash.
For now, we're in a boiling frog situation, with the costs of staying on the same course not immediately obvious to the powerbrokers. And that means the job of those of us demanding a faster transition is to make the costs of not doing so much starker to decision-makers.
This book should be mandatory reading for anyone who is frustrated and disenchanged with the political system and looking for a way to break the suicidal deadlock we have reached.
August 31, 2025
Thorough history of US social movements and how they won their demands. Argues a compelling case for why the climate justice movement must partner with labor movements to win.
Discussing climate change and the struggle for climate justice often leaves me hopeless; however, this book is a reminder that we still have a fight to win, and that fight is winnable.
Discussing climate change and the struggle for climate justice often leaves me hopeless; however, this book is a reminder that we still have a fight to win, and that fight is winnable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews