Developing Working Class Environmentalism

Just as workers want better pay, so they should want better environmental conditions. Those first exposed to the hazards of industrial production are workers. The next to be exposed are communities of the oppressed (poor workers, African-Americans, Indigenous peoples). When was the last time you saw the owners of industry living next to a chemical plant?

Developing Working Class Environmentalism

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I do not say that all things that eco-groups do are bad. But anarchists tend to follow the direction of groups that do not have the same interests as ours. Because of this we get burdened with baggage harmful to the working class and other oppressed groups. For this reason and many others, we need to develop our own form of environmentalism based on their interests.

Much environmentalist activism is based on the eurocentic idea of superiority. Groups seek to define the natural world as having values which do not exist in it. They see humans as something above or outside of the natural world this is why they come in conflict with indigenous peoples and with workers.

Humans are not outside of the environment. Rather they are part of it thus, human conditions should be as much a part of the environmental movement as anything else.

The basic cause of most environmental problems is the system of industrial greed: capitalism, both private and state. The owners of industry treat workers like they treat the rest of the environment. Our environmentalism should be based on the understanding that all things are connected.

Workers who are forced to work for wages and those who are able to work outside of the wage system come under industrial-capitalist attack for the same reason: greed. Thus, the workers struggling against the wage system controlled by capitalist industrialists, and those struggling to resist these forces, are all a part of the same struggle. All things are connected.

Often eco-groups will blame both types of workers for things the industrial rulers are responsible for; and the sacrifices these groups call for are often sacrifices the workers have to make.

Many eco-groups are more inclined to look at the effects rather than the real causes of environmental problems. They also tend to focus on pet issues rather than the environment as a whole. They will come out against something they don't like and then present some type of alternative. But often they will not look at the effects that the alternative has on the environment.

A good example of this is solar power. Many of the systems I have seen, which involve moving solar heated water from the panels into the house, use copper tubing. The largest strip mine in the U.S. is a copper mine, which by the way is on land stolen from the Western Shoshone. Anarchist environmentalism must look at the effect everything has on the environment, not just pet issues.

Something that we learn when we take a good look at all industrial production is that all of it contributes to the problem. It is not so much industrial production itself, but rather the values of industrial production: maximum profit for the owners at the expense of everything else.

Just as workers want better pay, so they should want better environmental conditions. Those first exposed to the hazards of industrial production are workers. The next to be exposed are communities of the oppressed (poor workers, African-Americans, Indigenous peoples). When was the last time you saw the owners of industry living next to a chemical plant?

Anarchist environmentalism would start at the point of production and from there struggle for earth-safe production. It would create a struggle against the owners of industry, uniting on-the-job struggles, working class community struggles and the struggles of those who are resisting being taken over by the greedy industrial system.

Given that we are a revolutionary working class organization, we will use the skills of working people to transform the capitalist industrial system into a system where the environment matters and humans are a part of it. We will base our production on the well-being of all living beings rather than the profit of a few capitalists.

This revolutionary struggle will mean that we will be opposed by the owners and that there will be affects on our day to day life. Thus, we need to stand together in solidarity, be it over a strike, the resistance of indigenous people, issues such as racism, or the hardships that change or economic devastation bring down on working class communities.

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From Unfinished Business No 1 Feb 2005