The need for a working-class trend within the environmental movement

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For a working class trend within the environmental movement,
with a program opposed to the market measures of establishment environmentalism

Presentation by Joseph Green at the panel on “Capital, History and Environmental Politics”
at the Platypus Convention, April 6, 2013

Excerpts:

One reason that so little has been achieved on the environmental front, is that the working class movement is still in crisis. The class struggle and the environmental movement are linked. The corporations aren't going to do what's right out of the goodness of their hearts, and the working masses are the only class force which can consistently fight them.

As of yet, there isn't a mass working class trend within the environmental movement of this country, that is, a trend which doesn't just have some working class support, but has an environmental program which stands for serious measures of direct regulation and control as opposed to the market-based measures of the establishment environmentalists, and which calls for radical change in the present privatized government apparatus. Building such a trend is not an easy matter. But we can't just wait for the revolution to solve the environmental problems, that would let the world be devastated before our eyes without a struggle. And neither is it realistic to think that global warming can be averted hand-in-hand with neo-liberalism and in harmony with the growth of financial capital. ... we need ... an environmental program that is fundamentally different from that of bourgeois environmentalism. ...

Some left trends are skeptical of any action now, and simply preach that environmental problems will be solved under their ideal form of society. That's sitting on one's hands, useless utopianism. ... There are also more militant environmentalists who have built an important movement of protest, and have even criticized certain market-based measures; these are valuable steps, but even this militant section of the movement has backed other market measures and generally has no critique of such major establishment environmental figures as Al Gore. The left-wing of the environmental movement still hasn't fully separated from establishment environmentalism. ...

Moreover, a large part of the environmental movement has or seeks bourgeois support and funding. A few years ago, the Corporate Responsibility Project did a chart of the relationship of environmental groups active in Pennsylvania with the polluters. I have reproduced this chart as a hand-out ... [it] shows that problem isn't simply the puppet groups of the corporations, but that the bourgeoisie has influence on what seem to be serious environmental groups. [The chart is reproduced in the article "Not all that glitters is green" at http://www.communistvoice.org/45cClassTrends.html] ...

The environmental groups that have made their peace with market fundamentalism may still talk about allying with the working class. This is often done with the promise of "green jobs". The idea is that one can promise subsidies to the bourgeoisie for green projects, call it "green jobs" to the workers, and unite with the pro-capitalist labor leaders. This is sort of the idea of the BlueGreen Alliance of certain environmental groups and trade unions. But this is not what building a truly working class movement environmental movement means.

A working-class class environmental movement would be one that brings the class struggle into the environmental movement. It would demand that environmental and economic planning include planning for mass welfare as an independent goal, alongside that of protecting the environment. It would mean seeking mass influence in government planning and environmental decisions and in oversight of corporate compliance with environmental regulations, and it would denounce the presently-privatized government apparatus. ...

We cannot put off environmental demands until revolution, but neither can there be any hope that market-based measures will be effective, and that subsidizing green business initiatives and readjusting prices will suffice. Environmental progress requires the imposition of regulation and planning. Moreover, if it is to be effective, this cannot be planning carried out by neo-liberal privatized bodies, or even by the old-style government bodies. There needs to be some measure of mass oversight, or else the corporations will defy environmental regulations, and the planning will consist of squeezing the masses. ...

No doubt working-class victories can only be partial under capitalism. And as long as capitalism exists, planning can only be partial, and government bodies will always be subject to regulatory capture. But constant struggle over environmental and regulatory backsliding will be one of the factors leading eventually to a new revolutionary consciousness in the working class. ... The multiple crises of the present are the harbinger of a new period of change; there is nothing so unrealistic as thinking that things will simply proceed as they have in the past. <>

Full text at http://www.communistvoice.org/48cEnviro ... Panel.html.