The planet is dying, or more accurately, it is being killed
and we all know it. Massive extinctions threaten to destroy the complex system
of interactions and mutual support that maintains all life on the planet,
humans included. People don't seem to be
able to do much about it. Perhaps we choose one issue and work to correct
it—the "single-issue approach"—while inevitably leaving the other
problems for other people. Many of us understand that the real, underlying
problem is a much larger one and that all the forms and types of environmental
destruction are related, that they are caused by how we humans live on the
earth. Few people are talking about the basic problem or the basic solution.
The Socialist Party is devoted to shining a light upon the realities
of capitalism. Capitalism—the pursuit of profit—is a global system; the entire
world is under its control. This relatively recent and unnatural system of
social relationships, which pits capitalists against the rest of humanity, is lurching
towards the destruction of civilization, destroying the ecological fabric of
the planet. Capitalism cannot be reformed and must be replaced. It is
impossible to humanize it; one must dismantle it, instead. We would like to see
an institution of genuine socialism, run perhaps via organs of direct social
power such as workplace and neighborhood councils. The Socialist Party opposes capitalism
and strives for its total abolition, be it ‘corporate’ capitalism, ‘free market’
capitalism, ‘crony’ capitalism, ‘Keynesian’ or ‘state’ capitalism with
government “planning” and a more “fair” wealth re-distribution, ‘green'
capitalism with its worker-owned co-ops making..... or any other version.
Please spare us talk of how “we are all equally at fault,”
“it’s just human nature,” and “we need to all come together and recognize our
common humanity,” or false hopes that the ruling elites will somehow do the
right thing. There is no one “we.” There is the vast majority of ordinary
humans on one hand, and a tiny segment of ruling elites who are psychopaths and
sociopaths, determined to keep their system going and their social power intact
no matter what, who have made and continue to make the essential decisions
which have led to the current situation of near-term extinction.
The tiny controlling elite, private or state, collectively
exploits the workers by appropriating the "surplus value" contained
in what they produce (that is, the value of their product that is in excess of
the value of their wages), and with this profit expands the system of
production, strengthening its control over them and extending it over other
people and places. The recognition that there are basically just two conditions
for all people living within capitalist social relations—that of the exploiter
and the exploited—is the foundation of Karl Marx's "class analysis"
of modem society. Everyone who works for someone else, everyone who earns a
wage or salary, is a member of the exploited "working class." Modern
sociological "class" categories such as "lower class,"
"middle class," "upper-middle class," are confusing terms
that really only describe social status or income levels within Marx's working
class. All workers are employed either to create profit or to maintain the
smooth functioning of the profit-making system for the owners or ruling class.
The level of the salaries they earn does not change the qualitative fact of
exploitation. Furthermore, all workers are expendable, even the highly paid
ones.
The satisfaction of human needs is not the purpose of the
capitalist system; rather, its sole function is to make as much profit as
possible ("maximise the creation of new capital"), to expand
continuously. This process takes the form of the accumulation of wealth by the
owners of capital ("capitalists"); the purpose of the wealth is to
acquire and maintain social control. This compulsion toward continuous growth
is clearly impossible in a world with built-in limits such as the earth—limits
to the "resources" which can be extracted and to the abuses which can
be tolerated. In short, the system is irrational, doomed not only by its own
inner contradictions but by planetary tolerances as well. The present
destruction of the earth is just the inevitable result of this irrational form
of social relations.
Some critics in the environmentalist movement claim that
modern industrial modes of production and inherently harmful forms of
technology are the problem, and that a sustainable capitalist economy could be
based on "alternative" or "appropriate" technologies. They
do not understand why modern industrialism has developed as it has, and why it
will not be abandoned willingly, for example through legislation, by those who
control it—corporations and states. The reason is profit. Only through
increasingly high-tech, industrial methods of production can capitalists
continue to maintain profitability. To abandon their earth-killing activities
is, for them, to abandon power, social control, indeed, their very identities
as "capital personified and endowed with consciousness and a will."
(Marx)
Reforms of the capitalist system have no possibility of
successfully saving the planet. The Greens' policy of "ecological
capitalism" is one of despair and delusion; the market system depends upon
environmental destruction for its very existence. All capitalist enterprises
are compelled to maximize their rates of profit and accumulation of new
capital, lest they be eliminated by their competition. Thus a
"slow-growth" form of capitalism is out of the question. A
"no-growth" form is impossible by definition; if capital is not
expanding it is not capital. And there is no room for expansion left.
The most basic change required is the shift from today's
insane production for profit to a rational system in which human productive
activity is based upon genuine needs. These real needs, however, cannot be
thought of as strictly human ones—instead, we have to have equal concern for
the "ecological needs" of the earth, of all the plants, animals and
physical components of the biosphere that together, and only together,
guarantee a secure future for each other, humans included. Global ecological
health and stability have to be the highest priority of human society. We must
become responsible "stewards of the earth."
Such a change will require a global social revolution, in
which the class structure of capitalism is replaced by a classless society of
freely associated people living responsibly and wisely. An ecologically-viable
mode of society can only be based on complete social equality. Private control
of land and social resources, the money system, and wage labour, all of which
are bases of capitalism, must be eliminated. Human activity must be guided by
an understanding of the tolerances of the ecological foundations of each city,
town, or, and social products must be freely distributed as needed. Genuine
community must be restored. We must care for each other and work together for
common ends in a non-hierarchical society without controlling elite groups.
People must be responsible for and make decisions themselves on all the matters
that affect their lives.
It is time for people who care about the earth to come
together in an effort that goes beyond mere single-issue activism.
Environmental activists who do not understand the deep, underlying root cause
of the problems they devote their efforts to solving will never recognise why
they always fail to reverse the trend toward destruction. And they will never
succeed unless they link together, not only with other environmental activists
but with other people fighting to eliminate capitalist exploitation in all of
the forms—economic, sexual, racial, or familial—which now permeate every corner
of the earth and all aspects of our daily lives. It means educating ourselves
and each other so that we all understand the true nature of the so-called
"society" we live in, and what our real, common interests are. It
means working together in a new, united, powerful attack against the interests
of the rulers we slave and die for, so that we can create a real society of
equals. Deepening our understanding of the roots of the current global crisis
and linking our struggles to those of other people will entail thinking and
acting in new ways. We need to read deeply and widely to develop this
understanding, and we need to come together in discussion groups to share it
and to forge links. We have to stop allowing (or asking) others to make
decisions for us; we need to take action ourselves. We can only act effectively
together, therefore we have to break down the isolation in which our collective
strength is lost.
Marx and many others have emphasised the terrible human
impacts of the capitalist system—poverty, misery, madness, suicide, alienation
of the individual from himself and from others—and its injustice. Calls for and
movements toward social revolution against the capitalist system have
historically been based on this moral fact of injustice—capitalism is an evil
system which benefits a few by exploiting the rest. Today there is a new reason
to destroy capitalism. If we don't destroy it, it will destroy the Earth we
(and millions of other species) live on. Recognition of the ecological need for
revolution does more than simply provide another motivation. It supplies an
element of urgency, a time limit that never existed before. We know that the
earth's ecological tolerances have built-in limits, and that we are rapidly
approaching them. Soon we will reach the point of no return. How long will it
take before the oceans are irrevocably poisoned, the soils lost, the ozone
layer gone? How much time do we have to construct a new, ecologically viable
mode of human society? One thing is certain: if we have a future, it will not
be a capitalist one.
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