Climate activism and ecological Leninism

In 2010 and the years immediately following, there was a remarkable worldwide upsurge in direct political action. In
the UK, this energy was largely sublimated into the ill-fated effort to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister. However,
climate activism is one area in which direct action has in fact intensified in the last decade in the UK, with groups suchas Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil engaging in spectacular interventions, most significantly road obstructions and, in the case of the latter group, performative actions involving paint as a projectile. At the same time, despite the failure of the left to attain state power in any significant Western economy, Andreas Malm has convincingly put forth the argument that what is necessary is so-called ‘ecological Leninism,’ wherein every opportunity must be taken to wrest the state in the direction of preventing climate catastrophe.

Now, popular opposition to the direct action of climate activists is often dispelled by the left on the grounds that
the crisis which we face is so acute. However, if what is required is indeed ‘ecological Leninism,’ it is hard to imagine how this crisis could be substantively addressed without popular support. In this paper, I want to interrogate this seeming circularity, and ask whether the voluntarist actionism of climate activists has its limits, and if different tactics are in fact necessary.