Branch Meeting: Socialism and Ecologism

Stoke SP this evening heard from Sister M, a guest speaker from the Green Party speaking on the relationship between environmentalism and socialism.

Her starting point were some of the criticisms she has encountered in the burgeoning field of green political theory from a 'conventional' left-wing standpoint. These critiques suggests greens are pessimistic about our species' ability to extricate itself from the mess it has created, and suggesting the development of 'green' markets and consumerism strengthens bourgeois class relations. M acknowledged there was some truth to these positions and advanced some of her own.

First, environmentalist movements in the West give the impression of being stocked with affluent white activists. They tend to be motivated by so-called 'post-material' concerns and rural-centric in their political focus. The second problem is the anti-humanism implicit in some branches of the environmental movement. The very name of Earth First! suggests people come second. The exploitation of nature takes primacy over the exploitation of workers and peasants. From this can flow a green colonialism: to make wealthy Westerners feel better, their environmental conscience can be salved by funding nature reserves in the 3rd world. But it is not unknown for people to be forcibly moved off the land to make way for these parks, leading to all kinds of tensions and conflict. Hand in hand with anti-humanism goes a implicit authoritarianism. It may well be true Green parties are not the tightest political entities, but some strands of green politics rest on definitions of the 'interests' of nature articulated independently of the role our species has had shaping and constituting it. Nature here is a reified thing that only experts can know and advise upon.

Fourthly the mainstream of green politics does not attack capitalism enough and is often complicit in green washing the system. It is happy to push environmentally friendly consumption, implying markets are part of the solution, rather than the root of the problem. Fifthly as a product of the 'new social movements' to have emerged in the sixties and seventies, greens as a whole eschew traditional left-right labeling and resist explicit alignments with any class base. One outgrowth of this is a haphazard approach to collective action and greater emphasis on individual agency. M summed this up as 'you can change yourself if you can't change the world'. Finally green politics can lend itself to conservative conclusions. The romanticism and nostalgia of winding the clock back to pre-industrial ages glosses over the inequalities and class relationships bound up with that period.

However, not all is reactionary in the environmentalist garden. M drew attention to the 'ecologist' tendency in green political theory as an example of moves to overcome the problematic positions of the past. She defined this ecologist moment as a "green ideology encompassing views that reorder socio-political life and adjust relations with the non-human world". It talks about limits to rapacious capitalist growth, ascribes value to the planet and avoids deep green pitfalls by emphasising the rights of generations not yet born.

Ecologism connects with socialism on the grounds that capitalism is inherently wasteful and dehumanising. It recognises environmental degradation weighs disproportionately on the poor and that poverty itself places strains on local ecosystems. For example, the turning of workers and peasants to poaching and deforestation to make ends meet in the 3rd world is well documented. It follows from this that environmental crisis and control over the planet's resources are inextricably linked - ecologism needs socialism, and socialism needs ecologism.

In the discussion, J reiterated many of the points about environmental destruction being driven by capital's thirst for profits. Part of the problem, she thought, was how capitalism presented the acquisition of goods as the only way to live. This is an impoverished view of humanity; there's more to life than piling up on the lastest must-haves. E suggested one plus to have come out of the green movement is a challenge to this lifestyle. It has helped articulate an anti-consumerism by redefining what counts as wealth and making more of 'quality of life' issues. She also suggested a link between expanding markets and population growth: capital demands ever widening pools of labour it can suck into the production process, and the poverty the majority of the global working class and peasantry find themselves in paradoxically encourages more children.

Picking up on this, L asked if lifestyle change and green consumerism was at least a step in the right direction? M replied the problem is 'low impact' lifestyles at present are the preserves of the affluent. You need money to buy organically grown fair trade produce. A added another problem with green reforms of capitalism is that not only will the system resist anything it is uncomfortable with, there is a danger it will dispense with them completely once the economic climate turns harsh. For example, if recession threatens the growth of supermarket profits, the pressure will be on to bury their conspicuous philanthropic environmentalism to ensure the main shareholders keep their nice dividends.

For P, suggested another problem of consumer politicking is the danger of making its proponents look preachy and unattractive. He cited a story about a debate that took place between the SP and another left group in the old Lewisham Socialist Alliance. This group wanted to set up LSA pickets in front of local McDonald's outlets to enforce a consumer boycott. Our comrades were opposed because it overlooked the fact that for some workers, McDonalds is the only place cheap and convenient enough for them to eat out. Trying to prevent people from entering would have alienated customers and staff from the LSA and the causes it was trying to promote. Unfortunately, P believed this is the road some green activism has gone down.

But what to do now? It's all very well counterposing our green, socialist alternative to capitalism but what can socialists do now to offer practical ways out of the crisis? E suggested a scheme whereby firms have to pay for the damage their activities cause. On food, A recommended an interlinked series of demands around wages, improved food education and the democratic control of food production to overcome shortages and cut out the profiteers. P also drew attention to the green wash schemes many companies and institutions operate. They may not be as thorough-going as we'd like, but they present an opening for holding them to account and an opportunity to demand more. But ultimately saving the planet depends on organising for it.