At 06:12 AM 27/05/99 +0000, Patrick B. wrote: > >Bill is right on with his argument on Harvey's agenda and >approach... except perhaps this last line which suggests we >can't find a site of praxis in linking our worlds and >thought processes with those of working-class and poor >constituencies. Pen-L is a possible resource here (and I think Michael P. often expresses his desire for it to become more so). I wrote this because Louis P. is right that even the best stuff by Marxist academics has little impact on socialists outside the academy (worse, the same is probably more true vice versa). This is why I remind myself to not *confuse* the two worlds. While I appreciate the general political discussion on Pen-L, and I am probably contradicting myself, I'd prefer that Pen-L was more specialist-economic-theoretical on the one hand and more concrete-campaign-resource oriented on the other. Bill Burgess >Right now, I am terribly behind schedule with lots of >deadlines and the fuss associated with the SA election next >Wednesday, so can't say anything original. But this debate >is very inspiring. When it emerged last year and Louis was >raving against "brown Marxists" I was moved to try to >grapple with some city-country contradictions, to conclude >a long chapter on a dam struggle my township comrades >recruited me into (we lost... particularly against a World >Bank that put a sleazy reformist face forward). The dam is >in Lesotho, and as you may have heard, it justified the SA >army's invasion of that wee country last September following >a coup against an unpopular government. The Lesotho water >(from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, or LHWP) >flows across a huge mountain range in order to satiate the >gardening and swimming-pool thirst of the most hedonistic >upper-class consumers on earth, my (white) neighbours in >Johannesburg, a megalopolis (also known as Gauteng Province) >without a river or other natural ground water source. I came >to the conclusion that "there should be no geographical or >locational grounds for Johannesburg to continue as South >Africa's economic heartland over coming decades and >centuries." Is this "urbicide"? Maybe. But look around this >city and you'll agree there is very little compelling >argument for its existence. This is the last bit of the >chapter (it too does babble on a bit...): > >*** > >Cronon (1991, 385) concluded his famous study of Chicago's >ecological footprint: > > To do right by nature and people in the country, one > has to do right by them in the city as well for the > two seem always to find in each other their mirror > image. In that sense, every city is nature's > metropolis, and every piece of countryside is its > rural hinterland. We fool ourselves if we think we > can choose between them, for the green lake and the > orange cloud are creatures of the same landscape. > Each is our responsibility. We can only take them > together and, in making the journey between them, > find a way of life that does justice to them both. > >But the questionable and expensive extension of >Johannesburg's footprint up the mountains of Lesotho, when >Gauteng township residents still suffered from a lack of >access to water, is not the end of the matter. Environmental >politics, Harvey (1996, 400-401) insists, must also > > deal in the material and institutional issues of how > to organise production and distribution in general, > how to confront the realities of global power > politics and how to displace the hegemonic powers of > capitalism not simply with dispersed, autonomous, > localised, and essentially communitarian solutions > (apologists for which can be found on both right and > left ends of the political spectrum), but with a > rather more complex politics that recognises how > environmental and social justice must be sought by > a rational ordering of activities at different > scales. The reinsertion of "rational ordering" > indicates that such a movement will have no option, > as it broadens out from its militant particularist > base, but to reclaim for itself a noncoopted and > nonperverted version of the theses of ecological > modernisation. On the one hand that means subsuming > the highly geographically differentiated desire for > cultural autonomy and dispersion, for the > proliferation of tradition and difference within a > more global politics, but on the other hand making > the quest for environmental and social justice > central rather than peripheral concerns. > For that to happen, the environmental justice > movement has to radicalise the ecological > modernisation discourse. > >This radicalisation does not only entail the kinds of >technical critiques of World Bank cost-benefit analyses and >Inspection Panel mandates established in the LHWP case. The >rational ordering of South Africa's space economy must also >be considered as one of the starting points for future >attacks on the irrational expansion of bulk water mainly for >the benefit of Gauteng's large-scale farmers, corporations >and wealthy consumers. Harvey (1996, 392) remarks, > > If biocentric thinking is correct and the boundary > between human activity and ecosystemic activities > must be collapsed, then this means not only that > ecological processes have to be incorporated into > our understanding of social life: it also means > that flows of money and of commodities and the > transformative actions of human beings (in the > building of urban systems, for example) have to be > understood as fundamentally ecological processes. > The environmental justice movement, with its > emphasis upon marginalised and impoverished > populations exposed to hazardous ecological > circumstances, freely acknowledges these > connections. Many of the issues with which it is > confronted are specifically urban in character. > Consequently, the principles it has enunciated > include the mandate to address environmental justice > in the city by the cleaning up and rebuilding of > urban environments. > >This line of thinking takes us further than debates over new >supplies of Lesotho water to Gauteng versus demand-side >management. We have arrived at a position where it is only >honest to address the urban ecological discourse established >a century and a half ago in Marx and Engels' Communist >Manifesto, particularly the call there for a "gradual >abolition of all the distinction between town and country by >a more equable distribution of the populace over the >country." This does not mean forced ruralisation, of course, >nor a return to discredited bantustan decentralisation >schemes attempted by the apartheid regime during the 1970s >and 1980s (Bond, 1999a, Chapter One)--instead, a more >reasonable approach to long-term geographic planning based >not on historical accidents associated with mineral >discoveries but on more sustainable ecological and socio- >economic rationales. > Johannesburg was born, after all, in 1886 merely because >of the discovery of gold, that centuries-old relic of >faithlessness in the value of money. With more industrial >substitutes for gold and--in the wake of dramatic financial >market turbulence since the mid-1990s--a declining luxury >consumption market for gold jewellery, not to mention the >difficulties of achieving profitable yields from deep mining >operations or the offensive ecological (especially water >despoilation) and labour-related circumstances (health, >safety and migrancy) associated with South African gold >mining, there should be no geographical or locational >grounds for Johannesburg to continue as South Africa's >economic heartland over coming decades and centuries. >Agglomerations of industry, particularly the outdated >overcapacity that characterises uncompetitive Gauteng >manufacturing, offer little basis for economic strength in >a more flexible era based increasingly on the South African >government's strategy (albeit a failure thus far) to promote >export-oriented growth. It should be logical for >Johannesburg to gradually decline, much like a Detroit or >other rustbelt towns. > Indeed if Johannesburg's decline is to be met by the >construction of a more humane system of production, it will >require not only transcending the near-exhausted (but >politically still excessively potent) "Minerals-Energy >Complex" (Fine and Rustomjee, 1996) that has proven so >ecologically and economically self-destructive (for a case >study of the residual power of big mining-metals capital and >the consequences for environmental injustice in Port >Elizabeth, see Hosking and Bond, 1999). Instead, advise Fine >and Rustomjee (1996, 252), "We place considerable emphasis >upon a state programme of public expenditure to provide >social and economic infrastructure. This forms part of a >strategy to provide for basic needs. The problem of how to >finance such a programme is less acute than the formation of >the political, social and institutional capacity to carry it >out." > At one point recently, South Africa promised a far >greater degree of political capacity to shift production >systems not only sectorally into more "sustainable," >redistributive systems (such as using relatively- >decommodified, basic-needs infrastructure as the basis for >kick-starting more balanced economic development)(Bond, >1999a, Chapters Three-Five), but also geographically. As the >African National Congress Reconstruction and Development >Programme mandated in 1994, "Macro-economic policies must >take into consideration their effect upon the geographic >distribution of economic activity. Additional strategies >must address the excessive growth of the largest urban >centres, the skewed distribution of population within rural >areas, the role of small and medium-sized towns, and the >future of declining towns and regions, and the apartheid >dumping grounds" (ANC/Alliance, 1994, Section 4.3.4). >Amongst many other RDP promises, this was immediately broken >in government's 1995 Urban Development Strategy (Ministry of >Reconstruction and Development, 1995, 9; see Bond, 1999a, >Chapter 13, for a detailed critique): > > The country's largest cities are not excessively > large by international standards, and the rates of > growth of the various tiers also appear to be > normal. Hence there appears to be little reason to > favour policies which may artificially induce or > restrain growth in a particular centre, region or > tier... The growth rate is sufficiently normal to > suggest that effective urban management is possible > and there is, therefore, no justification for > interventionist policies which attempt to prevent > urbanisation. > >Indeed, because "South Africa's cities are more than ever >strategic sites in a transnationalised production system" >(Ministry of Reconstruction and Development, 1995, 41), the >debate has to be joined by a wider questioning of South >Africa's insertion in the international division of labour >(Marais, 1998; Bond, 1999b). > Harvey (1996, 402) concludes his analysis of >environmental justice discourses by noting that "There is a >long and arduous road to travel to take the environmental >justice movement beyond the phase of rhetorical flourishes, >media successes, and symbolic politics, into a world of >strong coherent political organising and practical >revolutionary action." That too might be the key lesson to >be learnt from the experience of Alexandra residents' >protest against the neoliberal South African state's >prioritisation of "development," including the awesome >distributional bias towards big corporations and wealthy >(mainly white) consumers, by virtue of the state's merely >token strategies deployed thus far to redirect water use. In >view of the failure of reformist, technicist critiques of >the LHWP advanced to date via the World Bank Inspection >Panel--necessary as they are, yet clearly insufficient to >foster real momentum for change, or to more decisively >generate the alliances required for a broader (brown-green, >urban-rural) critique of environmental injustice--the only >alternative left are practical but no less revolutionary, >anti-capitalist analysis, demands and organising. > >(Citation: forthcoming, in "The Political Economy of Dam >Building and Household Water Supply in South Africa: >Contesting the Effects of the Lesotho Highlands Water >Project on Johannesburg Township Residents," in D.McDonald >(Ed), Environmental Justice in South Africa, Cape Town, >Oxford University Press.) > >Patrick Bond >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * phone: 2711-614-8088 >home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa >work: University of the Witwatersrand >Graduate School of Public and Development Management >PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729 > > >
