Build a working class environmental movement

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Build a working class environmental movement

The only force that can provide a consistent counterweight to the corporations, and to the government run by the bourgeoisie, is the working class. But for this to be so, the working class has to provide not just numbers for the environmental movement, but also a working-class standpoint for the movement. The building of such a class-conscious environmental movement would fill out a new category in the chart -- groups with no connection to bourgeois philanthropy, but based on the class struggle.

A working-class environmental movement wouldn't be compromised by ties to the corporations and the bourgeoisie in general. It would be able to fight for serious measures to deal with greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems. It wouldn't be a stepping stone for getting cushy jobs in big business, but a part of a general movement of struggle of the working masses in their own interest.

A radical environmental movement shouldn't simply be more militant than the establishment groups, but it should fight for a more effective environmental strategy. It shouldn't fight for the same market measures as the establishment groups, but avoiding their compromises. It shouldn't, say, fight for a cap and trade bill, albeit one unwatered down by the many compromises with the corporations which appeared in the last congressional bills. Instead it should put forward a better, truly effective, environmental strategy; it should oppose the futile cap and trade and carbon tax proposals; and it should put forward the need for comprehensive environmental regulation and planning.

Such a movement would see that the bourgeoisie acts not just through the corporations, but through the government as well. It would take seriously the lessons of the corporate capture of government regulatory agencies by the polluters, and would call for regulation to be carried out on a new basis, not only more transparent than before, but also involving the workers in enforcement. Naturally only a small part of this is possible under capitalism, but it is essential that something be accomplished along these lines if environmental regulations are to be enforced in every workplace, and if the government agencies are to have some independence from bourgeois industry.

A serious working class environmental movement doesn't mean one organized around the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy which leads the present-day American union movement, but around rank-and-file workers. It would be good, of course, if unions took a serious interest in environmental matters, but this would require an upsurge of rank-and-file pressure to transform the present situation in the unions. Today's union bureaucracy, insofar as it considers environmental issues at all, is linked up with bourgeois environmentalism and trying to find common interests with business leaders.

Today there are militant activists that are looking for a real fight against environmental devastation. There are groups that are not compromised by ties to the large corporations. But these groups don't yet have a class viewpoint towards the differences in the movement. And, as can be seen by the example of Greenpeace, it isn't sufficient to have militant actions against the polluters in order to be free from corporate seduction. It is necessary to go further and see the class issues involved in the movement.

The chart Know Who You're Dealing With brings out that there are real differences in the movement. It shows that the establishment environmentalists are compromised by ties with the corporate polluters. In doing so, it makes important points that should be spread widely in the movement. A consciously working-class environmental movement can only be brought into existence by keeping such lessons in mind, and maintaining vigilance against the bourgeoisie, which not only runs the corporations, but also stands behind the government agencies and the establishment environmentalist groups.

From the article "Class trends in the environmental movement: Not all that glitters is green", November, 2010, at https://www.communistvoice.org/45cClassTrends.html.