On June 26 Jim Devine wrote:
> On 6/25/07, Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
> > and not deceive themselves with the belief
> > that popular movements can force capitalist regimes to deal with
> > problems which are inherently unmangageable under capitalism.
>
> "inherently"? I'm sure that the US cappos can afford to cut hydocarbon
> emissions -- by making workers pay. and/or by moving in the direction
> of a more centrally-planned capitalism.
>
> --
> Jim Devine / "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or
> calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin
I deal with these issues in my article:
"The coming of the environmental crisis, the failure of the free market,
and the fear of a carbon dictatorship"
The intro to the article says in part:
...The environmental crisis calls urgently for the direct regulation of
production. What source of energy is used for manufacturing and
transportation, whether a forest is cut down or preserved, whether the oceans
are overfished, and whether raw materials are economized or wasted, can no
longer be left to the whims of the capitalists and the bottom lines of their
corporations. This, however, goes against the "invisible hand" of the free
market, which cares nothing about long-run costs and benefits to humanity,
but focuses only on short-run profits and the immediate expansion of
capitalist wealth. ... So preserving a livable environment will require
greater and greater violations of the free market, and it can only be carried
out truly effectively in a socialist economy which eliminates the private
ownership of the means of production. Thus no matter what environmentalists
may imagine now, the struggle over the environment will eventually provide a
powerful impetus for the socialist organization of the working masses.
But the environmental crisis is upon us now, while capitalism still
exists. Major steps will have to be taken soon, while the present capitalist
ruling classes are still in power. As the failure of carbon emission markets
to solve the problem becomes evident, they may take steps to implement carbon
taxes; and as the failure of carbon taxes becomes evident, they will have to
move to some type of regulation of production. True, the capitalists will
likely wait until their hands are forced by a series of spectacular
environmental disasters, and by then the situation will be quite desperate.
But the time is coming closer when the capitalists will have to abandon neo-
liberal orthodoxy, and move towards a regulated capitalism.
But this will not mean that the capitalist governments will have become
socialist. Neo-liberal market fundamentalism is not the only form of
capitalism: capitalism has always oscillated back and forth between periods
of greater and lesser regulation, and even now different capitalist countries
have varying amounts of regulation and social programs. ... Capitalist
planning will seek to have the masses pay for the continued profits of the
corporations in the name of planning, just as now it makes the masses pay in
the name of the free market. It will be up to the masses to fight to ensure
that not only does the planning truly address the environmental problems, but
that the well-being of the masses is protected.
So workers and environmental activists must not only press for government
action to deal with the environmental crisis, but... they must expose the
inadequacy of all solutions that shrink from transgressing against the
private property rights of the corporations and the rich. They should not be
satisfied simply with the emergency government planning that the capitalists
will eventually be forced to introduce, and must instead bring to the fore
that there are different types of planning -- planning that puts the overall
interests of humanity and of its working class majority to the fore, and
planning that preserves the privileged positions of the corporations and the
rich as its first principle. This is important not only in the interest of
the welfare of the masses, but also if the environmental crisis is to be
properly dealt with. It is impossible to have a planet that is half starved,
and half environmentally clean, a planet filled with urban slums on its
surface but with pure, pristine forests, oceans, and atmosphere. Only when
their efforts to save the environment also ensure their own welfare can the
masses be fully mobilized behind environmental planning. And only with the
participation of the working masses can the huge tasks required to save the
environment be successfully accomplished, and only their participation will
provide the oversight over the economy that will ensure that environmental
planning is really carried out.
The full article is available at
www.communistvoice.org/39cKyoto.html
and its subject matter can be seen from its subheads:
*The environmental crisis is upon us*
New Orleans, a sign of things to come
*Failure of the free market*
The Montreal Protocol and the protection of the ozone layer
The Kyoto Protocol and the fiasco of carbon trading
The failed balance-sheet of the Kyoto Protocol
The carbon tax -- another attempt at a market solution
The record of energy deregulation
A comparison of Soviet planning to carbon trading and carbon taxes
*Democratic planning and the direct regulation of production*
Major changes throughout the economy
Material balances, not "true cost pricing"
Large-scale production
Mass participation
Planning for mass welfare
The issue of ownership
No lasting progress if there is fear of moving towards socialism
*War-style environmentalism*
Tim Flannery's nightmare -- the "carbon dictatorship"
--Joseph Green
