[Pil-pc-oceania] Politics - 10-point climate action plan

[Robyn Francis]

 Deb, I forwarded your response on the SA climate action plan and received
this reply - Robyn
        ------ Forwarded Message
>  From: Deb Guildner <bocor at bigbutton.com.au>
>  Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] Politics - 10-point climate action plan
>  
>  Thanks for this,
>   
>  (Although I would not refer to it as socialism, any more than I refer to all
> green businesses as capitalism)
>  permaculture inputs to this charter appear to have been outstanding.
>   
>  In fact I think permaculture is a much more appropriate word for it!
>   
>  I have yet to see anywhere else a description of socialism as 'ecologically
> sustainable'. This is the first instance of such a definition I have yet
> encountered. (I can recall supporting green independent political candidates
> before any socialist newspaper ever printed a word about the environment, and
> before there was even a Green party as such).
> --snipped--
Hi,

I can see Deb's point about the similarity between permaculture and what is
in the Charter, however I do have to point out that she's wrong, on a couple
of grounds.

While for some it might be a question of which is a "better" term for it, it
is more correct to call it socialism (despite what some peoples' hang-ups
with the word might be), as what is argued in there is in fact the essence
of socialism, and goes back over a century (Marx's time) and more before
permaculture existed.

The other key point is that she is wrong with regards to the "green
movement" alone spear-heading the issue well before "any socialist newspaper
ever printed a word about the environment".

This is entirely untrue, but reflects the fact that socialist ideas have
been given next-to-no mainstream coverage, and have a very bad rap (on a
number of grounds) from the horror and distortion of it's principles that
took place in the Soviet Union, not to mention from the consumerist
capitalist media and government we have here.

However, from the writings of Marx and Engels (see "Marx's Ecology
<http://www.amazon.com/Marxs-Ecology-Materialism-John-Foster/dp/1583670122>
" by John Bellamy Foster  through to the modern day, socialists have been at
the forefront of the environmental movement. Those movements alluded to in
the 60's and 70's were full of socialists, along with other parts of
society, usually playing key roles.

Here in Australia, at least, the paper Direct Action (of the Socialist
Workers Party - now called Green Left Weekly <http://www.greenleft.org.au/>
,  and the organisation is called the Democratic Socialist Perspective, and
is part of the Socialist Alliance) was publishing articles on the looming
environmental disaster more than 30 years ago (including its first and
second issues in 1970), and that same organisation was an active part of the
Nuclear Disarmament Party  and other enviro-groups in the eighties, and
later the various Alliances that led to the creation of the Australian
Greens. The DSP also published a booklet "Socialism and Human Survival" in
1990. 

And, of course, which political persuasion (although of different socialist
groups) do you think led the BLF in the Green Bans?

Elsewhere (such as Denmark) there are successful Red/ Green Alliances of a
real kind (unlike the sell-out that is the German Greens - witness also the
rise of a NEW third force in Germany - a new socialist party, "The Left" -
now bigger than the Greens in members, votes and representation). And the
example of Cuba in leading the way in reafforestation, as well as the
massive support that has built up there for permaculture, provides more
proof of the "green credentials" of socialism. Honest socialism, that is,
not bureacratic dictatorship.

You might also want to check out this short piece
<http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj96/foster.htm>   by Bellamy
Foster, this <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article138>
from the "Fourth International" (one of the groups that claims the mantle of
Trotsky), and this <http://www.dsp.org.au/dsp/ECS/index.htm>  very good book
by the DSP.

The point I'm trying to make here is not that socialism is "better" than
permaculture (although I think that, on balance, it's better term). Rather,
that the two are more or less interdependent on a number of levels, and that
while socialism (or at least the rational, scientific, kind) has a lot to
learn from and could not survive without adopting permaculture, permaculture
(like the Greens, although perhaps, ironically, moreso than the Greens)
lacks the coherent strategy needed for actually changing the world in the
way that we all know is necessary.

The primary reason for this is that Permaculture is about achieving real,
practical change on the ground, while the Greens are increasingly hitching
their flag to the electoral wagon, and are moving away from their radical
roots (pun intended). Socialism argues the necessity for both of these
approaches, but recognises that effective organised, grass-roots action,
while more important - and more effective - than mere electoral votes, is
not enough without a plan to change the entire system. It is necessary to
curb and halt the action of governments and big business, who, following the
logic of capitalism, will continue to exploit the planet, at the cost of the
survival of life as we know it, in order to keep up their profit margins.

The limitations of the current Greens strategy - plus their organisational
limitations - refusing to allow socialists to organise within the Greens -
mean that socialists (who, if they really are socialists, have to be
ecologists) either have to work individually within the Greens, or organise
collectively outside.

The definition of socialism that Deb gave is actually an atrocious one, and
I wouldn't doubt that that is deliberate (on the part of the dictionary,
that is). The origin of it would appear to be a distortion of a quote from
Marx, namely - "From each according to his ability - to each according to
his need". It is, in fact, the very opposite of what the dictionary claims
to define socialism as. That is, it is the distribution of resources (not
just money) according to need, rather than work.
 
It's true, however, that we face something of a "marketing problem" -
decades of antisocialist propaganda, the cold war, and the nightmare of
Stalinism are hard to shake from people's minds, but it's a PR war that we
think is worth fighting, and one that - in some ways, at least - we are
winning. Unfortunately for those of us in Oz, most of these victories are in
Europe and Latin America (and parts of Asia - not counting China, whose
adoption of capitalism in all but name over the past few decades has led it
to the point of ecological disaster).

The climate crisis, and the growing environmental consciousness of the past
few decades, has led to a phenomenal growth of Green politics. Socialists
have been part of this process and continue to support it (Socialist
Alliance gives its preferences to the Greens, except where they preference
Liberals over Labour), but the Greens are unclear as to whether their goals
can be achieved within capitalism.

We are sure that they can't, and are  working on moving beyond capitalism to
a situation founded on humanism, democracy and sustainability. For the past
five hundred years this has been known as socialism, so we're kinda happy
with the word (for what it matters the ALP also claim to have "socialism" in
their platform, so it's a very flexible word).
 
As a matter of reference, while Socialist Alliance is called just that -
socialist, because that's who we're trying to re-unite at the moment - the
left regroupment we are trying to acheive is one where we want to see the
left of Labour, the Greens, and all people fighting for social and
environmental justice, working together in alliance to make that goal
possible. The name will probably change as the forces involved grow, but the
politics are worth having another look at. Our planet deserves it.

For a better argument of these points, check out the Climate and Capitalism
blog <http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/>   and the Green Lefts -
Left Greens blog <http://greenlefts.blogspot.com/>

regards,

Duroyan


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