Developing Working Class Environmentalism
international |
environment |
opinion / analysis
Tuesday August 16, 2005 20:32
by Arthur J Millar - NAF
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
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.
From Unfinished Business No 1 Feb 2005
This page has not been translated into Română yet.
This page can be viewed in
English Italiano Deutsch 
make this your Anarkismo.net front page
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4We are conditioned to look only a few years into the future (Many cultures one is taught to be insane trying to plan two decades in advance), but because of the long list of enviromental issues (even the mainstream press highlight a faction a these, scary times indeed) we have no choice anymore but to take longterm action for solutions about these issues. If mankind is going to engineer his/her survival its going to be RADICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and hopefully not in a fascist way.
Enviromentalists don't drive cars
...and that's why we need working-class environmentalism.....
..and I bet they don´t use computers either. Or frigde, mobile phone, artificial clothing, tv, cooker, and so on, and so on.
Sorry, for beeing so crass. It´s just that the environmental disaster is a corollary of the systemic disaster. And thus it has to be dealt with on a systemic level, not a personal level.
It´s like, "Ok, I hate the undemocratic way workplaces is organized!", so what do I do: I go on a one man strike or just quit my job altogether. You think that changes a lot? -NO! (because the way the workplaces are organized is also a systemic characteristic.) The only thing I´ll achieve is to get rid of my wage.
It´s the same thing with the environment. We can´t just turn away from the fundamental driving forces of the capitalist system, and choose to opt out of it to clear our conscience. All one achieves with that is a more burdensome life, while the same systemic driving forces keep a steady course towards ecocide. Then I guess we could walk on the pavement -cough from the thick exhaust, while seeing the cars rush past- and we can think "At least, I am acting in an ecologically sensible way". (What a relief, huh!).
Neither is even a mere possibility of most people of the earth, who have to work -and also consume in environmental unfriendly ways- just to sustain. To be strictly honest: this is only a shortsighted and non-viable way for middle/upper-class people, to buy some false conscience.
If ecocide is to be stopped, we need to go to the roots of all (well, most anyway) the problems our society faces: the undemocratic workplace.
It´s both here we´re exploited, bored to death and continually produce environmental disasters, and it´s here the exploitation and environmental disasters can end.
Now, the oligarchy of big shareholders and the leaders who run their business for them, profits when we work more for less. If we would democratically decide over our (well, theirs) workplaces we would of course profit from working less, for more.
And while capitalists -the extreme(ist) minority- gains competitive advantages of cost cutting (by for instance choosing not to clean the gasses their factories produce), we workers -the extreme majority- would gain co-operative advantages (by for instance choosing to clean the gasses the factories produce).
My conclusion is that attempts of personal escape from this insane system is futile. While collective resistance, manifested in a movement for ultrademocratic workplaces is the only viable solution.
I find this topic important. There is indeed a greater cause for alarm on environmental matters, while this may not sound convincingly enough for majority of 1st world countries, our situation here in the far eastern side of Asia seems to head into tragedy. Our resources heavily exploited and over used by Corporations and even those who claim to be lesser-evil types of all sorts, who makes use of the raw materials to become products? This is in no way to put blame to the workers, but looking in a different way we could understand how these all works? the working people obediently acts to oil the machinery of production. If the next day we have one last piece of tree left out there and everything was used up for the consumption, convenience, salary etc of those who refuse to act to destroy the machines of slavery thats doomsday which would tell everyone all to regret the past is no use. We could no longer complain and grieve in our situation here, we want our lives back, the tribal/indigenous communities pushes further and further away from their own lands only to be caught in the crossfires between right and left wing army in the country side - the attack of wild animals against rural communities is the result of mankind's domestication. Our lack of literacy and being less develop nations makes us vulnerable to these kinds of oppression but we are still hopeful that people across the world could come together and help people of color living far and away to help save what we come to know as our home (the trees/mountains....)