> From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Boucher's entire article
> A VISION OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE is becoming increasingly prominent in
> leftist thought. . . .
Thanks for uploading this splendid article, though
obviously you and others don't see it that way.
The depiction of environmental problems as one of
imminent crisis, or of certain limited damage (such
as the loss of a species) as costly beyond reckoning
propitiates an environmental movement which will
necessarily and logically place such concerns before
the mundane preoccupations of the working class
with jobs and income. Thus the ecological prescriptions
of the ruling class will be accepted, even while viewed as
second best next to some unattainable red-green
nirvana. So the environmentalists will (and do)
tend to be anti-worker and workers, listening to
equations of environmentalism with leftism, will
(and have) turn right. We will end up with a marxism
devoid of workers, beyond the occasional cheerleading
for infrequent, albeit important labor actions like the UPS
strike. The "left" will redefine as bourgeois greenies
and we happy few PEN-L oddballs. Then we're really
screwed, and so is the ecology.
We've been here before. Out of frustration with the
lack of any crisis or insurgency among the U.S. working
class, some people -- the Weather underground being
the most extreme example -- lost whatever grip they
may have had on class. In the face of an infernal calm,
in terms of the amoral workings of capitalism, we
cast about for signs of economic collapse and now
ecological catastrophe.
As (if) the labor movement develops, it should become
more environmentally conscious. But you can't get
there from here, here being environmentalism as a
movement. Green will never run into red.
Imagining heroic deeds and epochal victories in a
crisis is easy. More difficult is infusing such spirit
and goals into the routine of everyday life and its
struggles.
Cheers,
MBS
"Save the planet. Kill yourself."
-- bumper sticker sold in WDC
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Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute
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Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views
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