the failure of the free market,
and the fear of a carbon dictatorship
by Joseph Green, January 2007
Excerpts:
Recently there has been an outpouring of books, magazine articles, and films about global warming. Many of these are serious works which give a good picture of the dangers facing the world. ...
There is a notable contrast, however, between the urgency of the warnings, and the timidity of the solutions that are being proposed. The works from mainstream scientists and political figures leave something out. There is something they don't tell us. And this is the extent to which the environmental crisis represents the abject failure of neo-liberalism and free-market fundamentalism. ... instead they mainly hope that carbon taxes, the development of a market in carbon-emission certificates, and subsidies to corporations to behave better will solve the problem. ...
So workers and environmental activists must not only press for government action to deal with the environmental crisis, but for recognition that this crisis has been brought about by the free market, and that the solution requires the direct regulation of production. ... They should not be satisfied simply with the emergency government planning that the capitalists will eventually be forced to introduce, and must instead bring to the fore that there are different types of planning -- planning that puts the overall interests of humanity and of its working class majority to the fore, and planning that preserves the privileged positions of the corporations and the rich as its first principle. This is important not only in the interest of the welfare of the masses, but also if the environmental crisis is to be properly dealt with. It is impossible to have a planet that is half starved, and half environmentally clean, a planet filled with urban slums on its surface but with pure, pristine forests, oceans, and atmosphere. ...
. . . . . . . . . .
... progress requires doing whatever is necessary to save the environment ... This requires economic planning, and direct regulation of production. Such planning, still partial and subordinated to capitalist ownership of the economy, is not socialism; comprehensive economic planning under capitalism is state-capitalism. It can be a more reformist or a more dictatorial and oppressive state-capitalism, but it is still capitalism.
It is not, therefore, a move towards socialism. But it will show that economic planning is not only becoming possible, but necessary. Thus it will encourage workers to wonder if capitalists are needed at all, as the economy could be planned, and planned better, without them.
Subheads:
- The environmental crisis is upon us
- New Orleans, a sign of things to come
- Failure of the free market
- The Montreal Protocol and the protection of the ozone layer
- The Kyoto Protocol and the fiasco of carbon trading
- The failed balance-sheet of the Kyoto Protocol
- The carbon tax -- another attempt at a market solution
- The record of energy deregulation
- A comparison of Soviet planning to carbon trading and carbon taxes
- Democratic planning and the direct regulation of production
- Major changes throughout the economy
- Material balances, not "true cost pricing"
- Large-scale production
- Mass participation
- Planning for mass welfare
- The issue of ownership
- No lasting progress if there is fear of moving towards socialism
- War-style environmentalism
- Tim Flannery's nightmare -- the "carbon dictatorship"
Full article at http://www.communistvoice.org/39cKyoto.html.