[WS:] I do not often agree with Carrol, but on this one I agree 100%. Except that I honestly do not see any social force capable of carrying out such a revolution. Not just in the US - which is the bastion of neoliberalism - but in the so called BRIC countries as well. This is a very different landscape from that around the turn of the century, when the capitalists sat on a volcano, knew that it could explode at any time, and took drastic measures from welfare state to fascist repression to prevent it. Today you see a protest here or there, but no revolutionary potential in sight, and capitalists feel free to take back what they were forced to give when the "threat" of Communism was still alive. Depressing.
Wojtek
On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> I think the most optimistic but still minimally realistic prognosis is that
> socialist power (i.e., real democracy) will triumph in enough areas of the
> globe that some measure of "civilization" may preside over the gradual
> disappearance of modern industry. There will never be any substantial
> improvement in environmental policy as long as any major industrial power
> continues capitalist. And it is going to take long enough to overcome
> capitalism on a worldwide scale that the probability is that the environment
> will be unable any longer to support anything like modern industry.
>
> The only realistic policy then is anti-capitalist revolution. It may not be
> sufficient even if triumphant, but nothing else offers a future for
> humanity.
>
> Carrol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Joseph Green
> Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 12:41 PM
> To: lbo talk; pen-l
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Continuing failure of capitalist climate summits --
> Duban
>
> The 2011 UN climate summit is opening in Durban, South Africa tomorrow. All
> signs are that not only is the dominant bourgeoisie becoming more
> complacent,
> but that whatever measures it does agree to will simply be a continuation of
>
> the failed market measures for dealing with the environment.
>
> Below is the introduction, from the latest issue of "Communist Voice", to
> the
> the article "The sorry results of the Cancun global warming summit, the
> failure of climate capitalism, and the prospects of major change"/
>
>
> Introduction -- November 2011
>
> A few days ago, in early November 2011, it was announced that 2010 had seen
> a
> 6% jump in carbon emissions over the previous year, with about 564 million
> more metric tons of carbon than 2009. This was, in absolute terms, the
> largest annual increase in carbon emissions ever, and it was worse than the
> most pessimistic scenario put forward at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit.
>
> It was a sign of the utter failure of the climate summits organized by
> capitalist governments to deal with global warming.
>
> The market methods of dealing with carbon emissions, and the complete
> subservience of the capitalist governments to the energy corporations and
> other capitalist interests that make money off destroying the environment,
> have made a mockery of efforts at averting the looming climactic disaster.
> Climate capitalism, or neo-liberalism applied to environmental reform, has
> proved utterly bankrupt.
>
> There is no reason to think that 2011 will turn out to be any better. The
> article below shows that the measures adopted by the Cancun climate summit
> of
> December 2010 followed the same path to disaster as the previous climate
> summits.
>
> The 2011 UN climate summit will be held Nov. 28 - Dec. 9 in Durban, South
> Africa. All signs are that it will follow the same neo-liberal path as its
> predecessors, and the environmental crisis will deepen. There will be debate
>
> on what is to replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose first "commitment period" is
>
> set to expire at the end of 2012, but no challenge to reliance on market
> methods. But serious progress on global warming will require abandoning
> market fundamentalism and implementing serious environmental and economic
> planning and regulation. Moreover, it will require the influence of the
> working class on this planning and regulation to ensure that it accomplishes
>
> environmental goals, that capitalists aren't able to evade it, and that it
> is
> integrated with social programs to protect the well-being of the working
> masses, rather than serving mainly as another way to funnel subsidies to the
>
> capitalists.
>
> All this goes against the logic of capitalism, so that it can only be
> accomplished in part while capitalism exists. Moreover, world capitalism is
> still insisting on market fundamentalism as the world sinks deeper and
> deeper
> into a world depression. So the struggle for relief from austerity and its
> deepening misery, and the struggle for measures to deal with the
> environmental crisis, both face the need to fight the neo-liberalism of the
> bourgeoisie. The same bourgeoisie that is cruelly sending a whole generation
>
> of working people into destitution and desperation in order to save the
> banks, is also ruining the environment. If there is to be a chance for
> serious progress in protecting the environment, the class and environmental
> struggles must be linked.
>
> The following article is based on a presentation at the Detroit Workers'
> Voice Discussion Group meeting of Jan. 2, 2011. ....
>
> www.communistvoice.org/46cCancun.html
>
> -- Joseph Green
>
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