As I stated in my article on Edward Abbey in last weekend’s CounterPunch, there are tensions between Marxism and ecological thought over the role of capitalist development. In the nineteenth century, there was a tendency to regard the bourgeoisie as a revolutionary class. The Communist Manifesto, includes “the subjection of nature’s forces to man” as part of capitalism’s forced march toward civilization. So when both FDR and Stalin viewed massive hydroelectric dams as necessary for social progress, it was logical for Communists to celebrate their creation even though they came at huge costs to the environment.
Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of ‘thirty-three, For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me, He said, “Roll along, Columbia, you can ramble to the sea, But river, while you’re rambling, you can do some work for me.” Now in Washington and Oregon you can hear the factories hum, Making chrome and making manganese and light aluminum, And there roars the flying fortress now to fight for Uncle Sam, Spawned upon the King Columbia by the big Grand Coulee Dam. Woody Guthrie, “Grand Coulee Dam” full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/05/23/christian-parenti-william-cronon-and-the-abbeyist-agenda/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
