After the Pentagon on the environment now the scientists

by john throne - labors militant voice Mon Mar 22, 2004 20:40 loughfinn at aol dot com

My health has been not too good recently so this can affect my view of things. Perhaps putting too much emphasis on the negative. However I think that the above conclusions from the scientists coming along with the recent Pentagon report raise the prospect for the destruction of life on earth as we know it. In my opinion never before has the urgency been so great for the working class to act independently around a program and strategy to end capitalism.Yet it seems to me that not in 100 years has the revolutionary forces in the working class been so weak and while the working class as an objective force in world society has never been potentially more strong the working class consciousness has been thrown back dramatically, not as far as capitalism being a destructive system but as far as having an alternative to capitalism.

I feel that if activists agree that this position is correct then we need to put it to the forefront of our work. That is we need to discuss and explain the crisis of the environment and the working class and the urgency of ending capitalism and replacing it with a system based on collective democratic ownership and decision making and a sustainable planned world system where the aim is to supply the needs of all on earth and sustain life on earth rather than profits .

I personally believe the environmental issue is more threatening than the peak oil issue. I believe the Pentagon going public with their report show that these forces in the Pentagon are concluding that life on earth is threatened and the the bourgeois are increasing this threat every day while not in any way trying to deal with this threat.

I also believe that this environment issue is more serious and immediate than the peak oil issue. I do not know what the likely date for a peak oil crisis is although I do not think it is too far in the future given the slowing of new finds and the development of capitalism especially in China. Related to this the question arises in my mind why the Pentagon goes public on the global warming and not on Peak oil .

I think this is because they and the |US bourgeois have a strategy for the peak oil crisis. That is to militarily seize the worlds oil. It is insane. It will not work but it is a strategy that the Pentagon are allied with the Whitehouse to implement and they cannot see anything else that can be done.  But on the issue of global warming they see their own class, the bourgeois class, are as Trotsky said "toboganning towards disaster with their eyes shut" and I think they published this report to try and provoke the bourgeois into some recognition that something has to be done.

However in my opinion I do not think the bourgeois can do anything serious about this developing crisis situation except make it worse. It, that is the use of the types of energy that produces the environmental crisis and the peak oil crisis is centrally and inseperably involved in the entire capitalist world economy and profits. And as I said we now have capitalism surging in China. I continue to believe that the issues explained in the theory of the permanent revolution do not apply to the ex stalinist world and therefore these regimes are headed towards developing as developed capitalist countries and mass consumer markets.However I believe they can never get there because of the crisis of oil and at least as  important in my opinion the environmental crisis. I am not excluding in any way serious world recession and slump cutting across the development of these and all world economies but this in my opinion would not be an absolute blockage, however I do believe that the oil crisis and the global environmental crisis are absolute obstacles to these countries developing into modern capitalist economies. Imagine the environmental impact of a China that consumed energy on the same level per head of the population as in the US at present. This is impossible without the greatest environmental destruction and the destruction of life on earth as we know it.

I believe that all who agree that capitalism is a system of madness that works behind the backs of the bourgeois have no choice but to conclude that the world capitalist powers will consume the globe and life on earth in the struggle for profits and control. I believe that this capitalist struggle will lead not only to economic crises, environmental crisis of unprecedented proportions in the period of life on earth of which we have knowledge, the running out of energy reserves, but also it will lead to wars on a scale unprecedented in history and most likely involving nuclear weapons and other mass slaughtering agents.India and Pakistan. USA and China. USA and Europe. Israel and other Middle East Arab powers.

It is against this background that I believe that the top priority is to assist the working class in taking a stand that will halt and throw back the capitalist offensive. Working class victories on sizeable scales would raise the consciousness and confidence of the working class in itself as an independent power which could achieve victories and this in turn would make it possible for the international working class to begin to seriously consider the issues that are posed in front of life on earth and to begin to absorb the conclusion that the options are the international working class carrying through the world socialist revolution or the destruction of life on earth as we know it.

The victories of the working class in 1934 in the US come to mind as events  of the type we have to build for and then build on. Elements of of the uprising of 1916 here in Ireland may also become posed at some time.

Serious action against the bourgeois by the working class acting consciously and democratically as a class is essential if the masses that are drawn towards terrorism, or the many other reactionary methods and ideas that are now filling the vacuum left by the capitalist policies of the present working class leadership, are to be drawn into the international working class movement. The terrorist methods that are gaining strength are the result of the failure of the mass international working class movements of the past 100 years to provide an alternative to capitalism and stalinism. But these terrorist methods are also serious blows against the development of a new mass international working class movement in the present period and they have to be opposed without any qualification. This terrorism has an extremely negative affect on the confidence and consciousness of the working class and acts as a major obstacle to the working class developing a strategy and program and methods which would allow it to rise as an independent force that can win victories and as such begin to attract towards it the great masses in society who are increasingly desperate and as a result tempted to support the methods of terrorism.

Opposing the murderous policies of imperialism and capitalism, opposing the destruction of the environment by capitalism, these have to be at the forefront of the struggles of all working class and anti capitalist activists. Side by side with this has to be the struggle for the development of the international working class as an independent force which can build a new democratic collectivist society based on sustainable economic policies which are determined by needs and not profits. And while conducting these struggles clear unqualified opposition to the desperate methods of terrorism have to also be expressed and put forward in the most clear fashion.

John Throne.

by pat c Tue Mar 23, 2004 12:52

(Johns piece is indeed timely. See this NS article below. pc)

Greenhouse gas level hits record high

The level of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the Earth's atmosphere has hit a record high, US government scientists have reported.

The new data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also suggest that the rate of increase of the gas may have accelerated in the last two years. Carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, are thought to be a principle cause of global warming.

by RED BHOY Tue Mar 23, 2004 14:42

People in Ireland these days cant see past the end of their nose. Good luck trying to change that. Once they have their few bob at the end of the week to keep their heads above water and get to the pub, lifes a beach. Serious lack of education!

by Concerned Tue Mar 23, 2004 15:56

I have come to the conclusion mainly from my own observations over the years of people's reactions and responses both in conversation and argument and in the general lack of action, that in fact nearly everyone is in mass denial about the multiple global crisis that face us, especially the environmental one.

I can recall numerous times people saying to me: 'they don't want to hear anymore' or that they just find it too depressing and that they don't bother read about it. Other's accept that there are some problems, but then strongly reject that they are of major proportions. Yet others suggest that since it won't affect us in our lifetimes there's nothing we can do. This last point is clearly wrong, since hundreds of millions already suffter because of environmental degradation, such as loss of land, soil, water etc. And there are still others who simply state that they don't care.

I was told once, that during the apartheid period in South Africa a lot of people were in denial about what was going on in the country at the time and the reaction of some, presumably whites, to this moral dilemna was to immurse themseleves in some kind of non political personal pursuit such as sports. They would devote all the energies and time to this and then use this as an excuse to themselves and others to explain they had just no time to get involved in anything else. Ever heard similar arguments from people who claim to be concerned about say the war or the environment, but are just too busy to come along to a meeting, protest or whatever?

People clearly feel hopeless too, but there is also a certain wishful thinking, that if the rules were just tinkered a bit, everything would be okay. Some but not all people, must know that deep changes and sacifrices will have to be made and they are simply not prepared to go out on a limb to do that. Besides, as they see it, no else is and the few that do are labelled as crazies by society at the behest of the media and they don't dare face such ridcule.

Ever since I thought of this problem in terms of denial, I have had a look around for related articles (in google), but they seem to be few and hard to find. [See related link for one quite good article]

However the more one thinks about it, the clearer it is to see. The problem is very very similar to the case of an alcoholic who refuses to recognise or do anything about their problem, or any other person with some kind of abuse type problem. Except this is not happening at just the individual level, but at the family, community (of friends), institutional, governmental and societal levels.

Having said that I would agree there is a classs element to the problem, and the state and corporate media have strongly influenced the creation of an environment that actively encourages apathy, inaction, dumbing down of intellectual debate, hopelessness and so forth. Indeed the last thing they want is for the masses to wake from this stupor. The corporate & state media has made a concerted effort to blame the world's environmental problems on individuals. No mention is ever made of the role of corporations, and the structure of our society, i.e. capitalism and top-down command structures in general. How many so called environmental type documentaries, does the narrator say: Mankind is destroying the Earth etc. Yet, they nearly always gloss over the real reasons and this subtle technique has had the effect of influencing millions of people to think it is just human greed and not the structure of system we live in. All effort is made to make sure that under no circumstances should people think, contemplate or question the system.

Many people will strongly argue with you, that's human nature is the problem and since you can't change that, then castrophe is inevitable anyhow and there's no point doing anything about it. I have had the essence of that said to me many times. This is a measure of the success of the media propanganda coup.

To counter pose some of this netativity by the global corporate media, here's some articles that might be of interest to those new to the Indymedia and the like:
The Psychology of Denial: our failure to act against climate change http://www.theecologist.org/archive_article.html?article=282&category=96

Society and Ecology http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/bookchin/sp000514.txt
What is Social Ecology http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bookchin/socecol.html
Mutual Aid http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/mutaidcontents.html

by pat c Thu Mar 25, 2004 18:34

Environment 'stunts young brains'

The brains of children in many parts of Europe are suffering greater damage from environmental risks than previously recognised, scientists say.
The WHO claims lead continues to be a menace - up to 30% of urban children show high blood levels in some places.

by pat c Wed Apr 07, 2004 15:28

(and it gets worse... )

Pentagon Seeks Looser Pollution Controls

The Pentagon Wednesday asked Congress for relief from environmental laws like the Clean Air Act that it says threaten all 525 military training ranges in the United States.
The Defense Department is engaged in a legal battle with various citizens groups and an Indian tribe over one range in particular -- Fort Richardson's Eagle River Flats in Alaska, where the groups are trying to shut down the Army's use of live ammunition on training ranges.