There Are Greens, and There Are Greens (was Were the Nazis radical environmentalists?)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Louis Proyect wrote:
>The problem with taking a history of ideas approach to these fundamentally
>political questions is that you end up in a pure Platonic world of
>contending Ideas. This is not a sound approach for Marxists, especially
>those with sterling reputations like David Harvey. The simple truth is that
>nearly every philosophical tendency has something to say about the
>environment and how to save it.
<snip>
>It is much more profitable for those of us in the Marxist tradition to
>concentrate on historical and social phenomena.
<snip>
>There is a strong case for the intrinsic ties between Marxian socialism and
>the ecology movement, but that is a subject for other articles and books.
>Harvey's attempt to drive a wedge between the greens and Marxism is tied to
>a workerish impulse that has marked the extreme left over the past 25
>years.

Is David Harvey a "brown Marxist"? I understand that he has been involved
in and thinks highly of environmental justice movements. What Harvey is
trying to do, I think, is first of all to point out the fact that there are
Greens and there are Greens, and secondly to remind us that some--but not
all--environmentalist rhetoric derives from and reinforces reactionary
ideologies, which can lead some--but not all--Greens to embrace reactionary
political positions. I think that the sort of ideological critique that
Harvey brings to environmentalism is highly necessary.

Nathan Newman replies to Louis:
>>Is Earth First anti-industrial? Their real politics, as
>>opposed to the smears against them, are much more subtle. They are not
>>opposed to logging, just logging of old-growth in federal lands, which they
>>argue is a waste of precious resources.
>
>The "smears" against Earth First are based on some of its founders early "Deep
>Ecology" pronouncements, such as praising AIDS and famine in Africa as ways to
>balance out the carrying capacity of the Earth.  Now, a number of those
>founders
>lost out within the organization to leaders like Judi Bari who have a
>progressive pro-labor, pro-humanist version of radical environmentalism, but
>there was a real misanthropic strain within Earth First that (rightfully)
>gained
>it notoriety in its early years.
>
>>Lester Brown's Worldwatch Institute
>>is concerned with how to recycle agricultural byproducts, most especially
>>organic fertilizer.
>
>Lester Brown also recently endorsed the anti-immigrant resolution within the
>Sierra Club - endorsing the "carrying capacity" rhetoric of the immigrant
>bashers. I was saddened to see him line up with the racist right on this
>initiative, but his actions actually reinforce the argument that, despite good
>intentions by many Greens, they can find affinity with the racist right at
>critical junctures.

Nathan Newman's post highlights the concerns that I have always had about
many strains of environmentalism. Marxism without environmentalism is a
problem, but for now, it seems to me that environmentalism without
marxism--that is, without a political project to replace capitalism with a
just social order--is a bigger problem.

Yoshie