[lbo-talk] Preliminary Remarks on Catastrophism

[Carrol Cox]

A few years ago I posted parts of a a paper I had written for a 2009 Left
Foroum panel, which included urging that one left demand should be stopping
all U.S. aid of any sort to anyone. One responder argued against this on the
ground that the climate crisis was the over-riding issue and that
third-world nations would not be able to adopt a green program without aid
from the U.S.

This seems to me to include _both_ the error of Catastrophism as Doug
describes it AND Doug's own error as I argued in my previous post.

The Enemy is Capitalism, and the Final Goal remains  the achievement of
state power by the working class (i.e., democracy) by the overcoming of
capitalism. We can and must fight for specific "green" actions, but we
cannot forget that Capitalism is the Supdreme Enemy, and that any ultimate
response to climate  change will only be possible in a socialist (free)
world. 

Part of the struggle against capitalism has to be the crippling of U.S.
global power. (That is our concern here. For our German comrades, for
example, the crippling of German global power is equally crucial.) That
global power is expressed in many ways, but economic and military aid to
Latin American, African, & Asian nations is a crucial part, and there is no
way a mass movement can dictate what _kind_ of aid to offer. The U.S. will
_always_ use aid to empower global capital; we can't affect that
distribution of foreign aid; we can and must attempt to limit all aid. 

Carrol