----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Parks <davep at exeterleft.freeserve.co.uk> To: <Right-left at savanne.ch> Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2000 7:05 PM Subject: [right-left] Darker Shades of green
>
> Interesting article by Derek Wall in Red Pepper.
>
> http://www.redpepper.org.uk/cularch/xdkgreen.html
>
> cheers
>
> Dave Parks
>
> Darker shades of green
> Derek Wall traces the thread of ecofascism through the Green movement's
> history.
> Paradoxically, while Greens argue for social justice and other left
themes,
> environmentalism is often linked to the right. Hitler believed in a
politics
> of hatred ordained by iron 'laws of nature'. Former Green Party speaker
> David Icke advocates a convoluted anti-semitic conspiracy arguing 'that a
> Jewish clique' caused the Russian Revolution, two world wars and now runs
> the world. US Earth First!er Chris Manes praised the Ethiopian famine and
> AIDS for reducing population. In the 1930s, the grandfather of
> post-modernism, Heidegger, attacked the alienation of industrial society
and
> supported the Nazis as an antidote.
>
> Far-right attempts to influence the British Green movement take three
forms.
> Firstly, an authoritarian strain in the environmental movement has
> proclaimed the need for a centralised and strongly 'eco'-policed state,
> since the publication of Garrett Hardin's 1968 essay 'The Tragedy of the
> Commons'. Immigration, seen as threatening the ecological carrying
capacity
> of a country, should cease. Population must be cut, by coercion if
> necessary. Social issues such as homelessness and poverty are seen as a
> distraction from the essential job of tackling the environmental crisis.
In
> Britain, this strain dominant in the environmental movement of the early
> 1970s has waned considerably. It is represented by the Campaign for Real
> Ecology and eco groups disillusioned with the Green Party, with an
ideology
> rooted in the pessimistic conservatism of Malthus. Far from overtly
racist,
> despite some frankly repellent views - neither can this conservative
> environmentalism be seen as a fascist movement - it is clearly positioned
on
> the statist right.
>
> Its main ideologue, Sandy Irvine, a former International Socialist
> organiser, criticises those who in ecological destruction from individuals
> to wider social forces such as the multinationals and financial
> institutions. Ecological salvation is rooted in personal lifestyle choice.
> Empowerment (a buzz word of radical greens) is part of the problem. He
even
> condemns the fact that 'women working at night are glad to see lights
> wastefully left on in empty corridors, simply because they feel safer.'
> [Irvine 1996]
>
> Secondly, in contrast with the Malthusians are groups with neo-Nazi
pedigree
> who claim to advocate 'social justice' and decentralization. In the 1980s,
> the National Front's Joe Pearce described 'Social Justice, Ecology and
> Racial Purity' as the three pillars of 'nationalism'. Ruralism, spiritual
> values, social credit and even animal rights are themes that both appeal
to
> greens but are also given a far-right spin by these groups. Social Credit
is
> a 1930s theory devised by anti-semite Major Douglas, which advocates
> community take-over of banks, that places the blame for ecological
> destruction on the banking system rather than capitalism/industrialism.
And
> from here it is a short step to the NF's shrilling about a global Jewish
> banking conspiracy and 'Alien Bankers Destroying British Countryside' (see
> Nationalism Today, March 1980). Their espousal of animal rights focuses on
> ritual slaughter, with the right forgetting that kosher and halal
practices
> are intended to reduce the suffering of animals.
>
> The Naalso advocates of decentralisation. The most sophisticated group,
> Trans-Europa, publishes Perspectives, a cultural magazine advocating a
> Europe of the regions. The slogan 'Europe of a Hundred Flags' sounds
> appealing but hides the racial separatism assumed in Fascist
> decentralization. A model for these variants of the far right is
> contemporary Croatia. The small-scale racial state is utilised to
challenge
> internationalism and the formation of 'One World' government. Richard
Hunt -
> former editor of Green Anarchist, who regularly publishes material from
> Perspectives, Patrick Harrington and others on the far right - speaks of
the
> 'unspoken, illegal, iron law "Our side, right or wrong". This loyalty to
the
> family, then to the group - the clan - the nation, is the glue which holds
> the small community together' (in Alternative Green no.2).
>
> Finally, we have those like David Icke who explicitly advocate the
> anti-semitic conspiracy. The far right have long argued for the existence
of
> a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy, which manipulates the world. For example,
> funding the Russian Revolution and, confusingly, Hitler's rise to power.
The
> conspiracy provides an explanatory framework to describe the origins of
> almost any popular fear, from progressive concerns to irrational
prejudice.
> Icke now argues that environmental problems have been manufactured by the
> conspirators as yet another excuse to introduce 'Onwhich is far younger,
> larger and socially active, than any that the likes of John Tyndall or
other
> far-right leaders are likely to attract.
>
> Eco-fascism also has a lengthy lineage in Britain. The Soil Association,
> Britain's organic lobbyists, counted amongst their earliest members Jorian
> Jenks, former agriculture advisor to the British Union of Fascists. AK
> Chesterton, first Chairman of the National Front, was closely linked to
> far-right environmentalism of the 1930s. His uncle GK, Catholic apologist
> and purveyor of the Father Brown stories, invented the ideology of
> Distributism with Hillaire Belloc. Distributism, proclaiming the principle
> of 'three acres and a cow', seen as a 'third way' between capitalism and
> communism, drifted into the anti-semitic sphere before becoming the
> inspiration behind the modern remnants of the Front. Issues of
Distributist
> newsletters in the 1950s advertised support for car free cities,
> decentralisation, the racist League of British Loyalists and Rudolf Hess.
>
> To an extent all of this is unsurprising. The far right in Britain have
> tried to gain legitimacy by appealing to green sentiments, while ignoring
> manifestations of environmental concern that they find unpalatably
> egalitarian, anti-sexist and multi-cultural. Equally, opponents and
> especially the State have an interest in labelling greens as 'Nazis'. What
> better way, after all, of destroying a radical movement than by connecting
> surrogate body to suggest that infiltration by the far right has occurred
> and that names/addresses should be handed over for prudent disinfection?
>
> Greens have, to their credit, fought back. Earth First! now prioritises
> anti-racist campaigning, proclaiming the slogan 'Monkey Wrench a Fascist'
> and work with the predominantly black radical ecology group MOVE. After
> research by veteran anti-fascist and state watcher Larry O'Hara, the Green
> Party banned Icke. Green Anarchist threw out both their former
> rapidly-moving-right editor Richard Hunt and apparent agent
provacateur/BNP
> member Tim Hepple. The Third Positionists have remained a tiny, divided
and
> whole uninfluential force. Yet often Greens argue that their politics is
> 'new' and beyond, as they see it, the essentially trivial 'old' arguments
of
> left and right. Without engaging with such 'old' politics, Greens can
place
> themselves in a position were appropriation by both the State and the
> far-right becomes all too easy. Ironically, Herbert Gruhl - who coined the
> phrase that Green 'is neither Left not Right but ahead' - promptly left
the
> German Greens to form his own far-right Ecological Democratic Party in the
> 1980s, complete with neo-Nazi sympathisers.
>
> Ignorance is far from bliss. Fascism/Nazism is a surprisingly plastic
> fundamentalism, willing to change ideological clothes to gain support and
> win power for a core philosophy. The far-right, briefly, inhistorically
> recruited radical Greens and successfully presented their own arguments as
> part of an environmental agenda. Unless Greens clearly define how they
> differ from the far-right, they will continue to be ripe for
reappropriation
> by softly-spoken Nazis who articulate a rhetoric of decentralisation,
> justice, and the rural, while seeking to build insular authoritarian
> communities based on atavistic notions of blood-and-soil and anti-semitic
> hatred.
>
> The Green movement, often better at providing a description of crisis and
> utopian prescription, seems to lack a firm and convincing explanation of
why
> we live in a world of injustice and ecological destruction. Yet without an
> analysis of power and a much clearer debate around the issue of agency,
the
> world merely appears to be a confusing and depressing place, where
> Conspiracy can become a way of explaining apparent injustices and
> irrationalities. Far-right ideologies, although relatively isolated, are
> dangerous because they provide an explanatory framework within which any
> problem can be placed, and presented to groups who feel disempowered and
> under threat. The authoritarian environmentalists can be seen as
> substituting social explanation for biological myth, seeing destruction of
> the Earth as a function of diffuse human nature. Without an account of how
> capitalism fuels ecological destructive growth and feeds from human
> exploitation, Green politics is prey to righ
>
> But Green concerns are spectacularly multi-cultural. They are to be found
in
> Jamaican society, amongst African-American deep ecologists such as MOVE in
> Philadelphia, amongst the emerging West African Green Parties, within
Muslim
> and Jewish traditions. The opportunity for learning and mutual criticism
is
> almost infinite but relatively unexplored.
>
> Global environmental destruction and poverty are products of racist
> colonialism and neo-colonialism. Without a culturally informed
self-critical
> and anti-imperialist analysis, today's youthful environmental protester
> could, via the explanations of the far right, become tomorrow's embittered
> anti-semite.
>
> Derek Wall is a member of the Green Party's Anti-Fascist and Anti-Racist
> Network, author of Green History (Routledge 1994) and co-founder of the
> multi-cultural green group Friends of Move with Jamaican poet Brian Wilson
> in 1995. He teaches at the University of the West of England.
>
> Further reading: Alan Roberts, The Self-managing Environment (Allison and
> Busby, 1979). David Icke: Time for the Hard Truth by Larry O'Hara in
> Greenline, Winter 1995. Stan Taylor, The National Front in English
Politics
> (Macmillan, 1982). Open Eye magazine, issues two and three (send £1.50 for
> each copy to Open Eye, BM Open Eye, London WC1N 3XX); D.Gasman, The
> Scientific Origins of National Socialism
>
>
>
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