It is easy to become dispirited as a young person. A stagnant housing market and a looming ecological crisis, to take just two contemporary ills, highlight that Gen Z is inheriting an unjust world it neither created nor deserves.

Realism of the Present

Cataclysmic youth protests have recently swept South Asia, the Americas, and parts of Africa, although we see few signs of a similar trend in Europe, and there is no guarantee that the uprisings will not prove ephemeral. Meanwhile, Spain’s youth – particularly its male youth – are turning to the far-right. Their concerns, interestingly, are partly ecological. Perceived government mishandling of floods and wildfires fuel the growth of Spanish nationalism. 

As we can expect extreme weather events to intensify with climate change, we have reason to believe that this trend will persist. Worsening climate change will fuel the rise of the Right; the rise of the Right will hinder attempts to slow the rate of climate change. This cycle cannot fail to end in catastrophe.

Right-wingers, if they acknowledge climate change at all, take a dangerously pessimistic view. Escaping to outer space or a bunker in New Zealand, blaming migrants for the scarcity of resources, and militarising society against future ecologically induced disorder are the closest things they have to a climate change strategy. The Left can do better, but it means being realistic about our current situation – without compromising on an optimistic vision of the future.

This vision need not, and in fact cannot afford to be, utopian. Generation Z desperately needs a cause worth fighting for, and one that we can win. The Left can only provide this vision when it has reconciled the needs of people with the needs of the planet, affordability with sustainability.

Optimism for the Future

One of the most staggering features of ecological collapse is the truly minimal extent to which the immense majority of people, even in the wealthiest countries, can claim to benefit from it. It is not hard to imagine that capitalism – a process of infinite economic growth – might be incompatible with ecology – the system of relationships between finite planetary resources. It is harder to imagine that a system of infinite growth could fail so spectacularly to provide a housing market that provides sufficient housing.

For Gen Z, even the lowest rung of the property ladder is often far out of reach. Many of us have come to see homeownership as an unattainable goal, even a utopian one, and landlords and council tax as looming threats. This occurs while politicians repeat the slogans of an economic growth ideology that fails to meet the needs of people or planet, but which rarely fails to further enrich the already wealthy.

There is a way out. The crises of housing and climate can both be addressed – in fact, they are structurally interrelated. Poorly built and insulated houses are a significant drain on household heating budgets and a substantial contributor to excessive carbon emissions. Insulate Britain is engaged in a desperate fight to show this connection between the housing market and the fight against climate change. Their battle can be won, but they need more support.

Tenant’s rights are another key area of struggle. The price of housing is not simply the result of an insufficient supply  – thousands of houses currently stand empty, and landlords can be counted on to raise rents at every opportunity. 

Building more houses alone is not a guarantee that this problem will be fixed. In fact, the ideology of constant growth and profit is a contributing factor to the problem. Rent controls and protests against evictions and discriminatory letting practices are a more reliable way to ensure decent housing for the many. Groups like Acorn are doing admirable work on this front.

Need for Unity in struggle

In the longer term, a sustainable economy will require new sources of funding. Through campaigns like Make Them Pay, we must collectively advocate for a tax on the billionaire class. Their unearned wealth, once under public control, will become our greatest weapon in the fight against poverty and ecocide. If wealth were distributed fairly, free transportation and universal access to food and shelter would become more than realistic goals. Free public transport in particular would be a major win in the fight to reduce harmful emissions, as well as a boon to commuters, and the Fair Free London and the Just Fair campaigns are leading the charge on these fronts. 

While the Right tries to divide, the Left must seek to unite. Disarming right-wing rhetoric requires us to demonstrate that political and economic justice are inseparable from each other. Our movement must therefore be internationalist, placing solidarity with Palestine, with refugees, and with other activists around the world at the heart of everything that we do. 

The immense diversity of the working class enables us to understand that oppressions are interrelated, and to resist all the arbitrary dividing lines of the right-wing’s version of identity politics. Socially constructed racial and gender divisions must be challenged, not only with words but with practical, revolutionary actions against oppressive structures. The climate movement is increasingly sensitive toward its international responsibilities, especially regarding Palestine. Tens of thousands of Britons have also been mobilised to fight for Trans Liberation this year, and can and must be mobilised again. 

It’s All Connected!

The ultimate goal of all these measures is the creation of an eco-socialist society, where land, energy, and the means of transportation and production are collectively owned and democratically managed. This may seem a long way off, but the fight for decent and affordable housing, the wealth tax campaign, and countless other liberation struggles already being fought can become stepping stones to the full democratisation of the economy and of everyday life. 

To ensure the success of eco-socialism, the Left needs an organisation that understands the interconnectivity of these struggles and puts this at the heart of its practice. Anti-Capitalist Resistance and the Eco-Socialist Action Network are already building the foundations, but we need the momentum of resistance and the pressure on the capitalist system to grow. We can expect no changes overnight, but that is no reason to despair. Slowly but surely, we must build a new world in the shell of the old. 

If we want our movement to win, we cannot see the affordability of daily essentials as a separate issue from sustainability. To do so is to lapse into a right-wing pessimism that will harm people and planet alike. We need to be realistic, not just about the obstacles in front of us, but about the kind of future we can build. 

Now is not the time for a pessimistic, us-versus-them mindset. Collective action, not against migrants or other nations, but against the wealthy few who make life a struggle for the many, can be a momentous first step in the right direction. Now is a great time to get organised —and to join A*CR!