The environment

Stuff about nature etc.

Ecology document (discussed at AWL Conference 2023)

Two years ago we said that we would write a pamphlet on the ecological crises. In the course of attempting that we realised there was a need for further study and discussion. We should use the conference period to discuss the controversial issues that have arisen from this study in more detail, clarify the lines of agreement and disagreement. This document is not intended as a comprehensive statement but simply an attempt to move these discussions forward. I think for a long time we only really thought about climate change as the big ecological problem. More recently we have come to see...

Discussing ecology and entropy

Expanded from the version in the printed paper. Workers’ Liberty organises a monthly Marxist ecology reading group. This month we discussed a chapter on “Entropy and ecological economics” from Marxism and Ecological Economics by Paul Burkett. Over the last three decades, Burkett and his co-thinkers have developed metabolic rift theory and played a significant role in restoring Marx as an important ecological thinker. As part of that project Burkett has engaged in critical dialogue with the ecological economists. The ecological economists emerged in the 1970s but trace their roots back to...

"Metabolism": not a metaphor

It’s taken me some time to recognise this but Paul Vernadsky and Paul Hampton have a perculiar way of describing metabolism. In the Pauls' reading, the word "metabolism" is a "metaphor". Throughout their writing they explain "metabolism" as a codeword: "[1] to define how labour mediates the relationship between society and nature [2] to describe how class societies generate metabolic rifts in the ecology of the Earth; and [3] to outline the systemic conditions of necessary for metabolic restoration." You can find this three-part explanation every time either Paul mentions metabolism (See 2022...

Union links after 21-24 April

Tens of thousands of people participated in the 22 April central London march that marked the highpoint of Extinction Rebellion’s 21-24 April, “The Big One”, a long weekend of events and protests. Workers’ Liberty was there, as were some other socialists and trade unionists, including the organised XR Trade Unionists grouping. The civil service union PCS officially backed the event. There are left-wing, class-struggle-oriented stirrings in the XR milieu, or at least on its edges. At The Big One XR Trade Unionists ran a lively and interesting “hub” with speakers, ran stalls, collected contacts...

Malm: a comedy of errors

Zack Muddle’s response to my critique of Andreas Malm (30 March 2022) is to dismiss it as “much ado about nothing”. Zack says there is “much to agree with and of value” in my articles, although does not say what is acceptable. Zack denies we have “major and profound disagreement”. Actually, there remain significant differences that cannot be glossed over. Zack’s response is – sticking with Shakespeare – a comedy of errors. The disagreement centres on Malm’s book, Fossil Capital (2016), which Zack still believes is a useful contribution to Marxist ecology. I strongly dispute that and see it as...

Curbing capitalism on the high seas

After nearly two decades of talks, the UN has agreed a treaty to protect the high seas from overfishing, shipping and extractive industry. The High Seas Treaty is the latest and potentially the most extensive curb on maritime capitalism to date. Although the treaty is very limited due to the commitment of the world’s capitalist states to the growth of fishing, mining and shipping capital, it is a significant step forward. Until recently, the seas have been treated as both inexhaustible resource tap and infinite waste dump. But this illusion is becoming difficult to sustain as the ocean...

Workers' plans to save the planet

Workers’ Liberty exists to catalyse workers’ struggle and organisation so we can replace capitalist direction of our labour by the “free association of producers”, democratically coordinated to social and environmental purpose. Part of that is workers’ plans for the ecological crisis. In recent months, North Sea offshore workers have devised a plan to shut down the oil and gas wells and use their skills and plant to build offshore wind and tidal power. This will require public ownership not only of the fossil fuel industry but also the ports and surrounding infrastructure. We work for the...

Saito: making a mess of Marxist ecology

See a reply to this in the comments . Kohei Saito’s eagerly anticipated new book, Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism (Cambridge University Press, 2023) will likely gain a wider readership. Ultimately, Saito’s book is disappointing, promising a new version of Marx, but instead reading back badly-formulated contemporary ideas. The book demonstrates that even when starting from solid premises, it is still possible to go wildly astray. Saito deservedly won many plaudits for his first book, Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism (2017) – reviewed in Solidarity 523 (30 October 2019)...

Ban private jets!

Private jets are something like ten times more carbon-emitting than normal commercial flights and fifty times more than trains. They are a significant part of the reason that half the emissions from aviation are caused by the activity of 1% of the world’s population - almost entirely the extremely wealthy. Despite European governments’ professions of concern about climate change, private jet flights taking off in Europe increased by 64% last year, with emissions from them more than doubling to over 3m tonnes of CO2. As in so many bad things, the UK leads the way. Here the number of flights...

Behind the far-right outcry on "15 minute cities"

Arson attacks on street bollards, vandalised wooden planters, a two thousand strong demonstration and a question in parliament claiming international socialist conspiracy: the mundane world of urban planning has become the unlikely rallying point for the post-Covid far right. According to the conspiracy theory, three unrelated urban planning initiatives — low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), low emission zones (LEZs) and the “15 minute city” — are part of a nefarious plan of shady elites to restrict everyone’s movement to within 15 minutes walking distance of their home. Low Traffic...

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