******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
Patrick Bond wrote: > Superb, but I hope the next part(s) address the strategic question of > stripping away capitalist support from Trump, by invoking invoking > climate sanctions against US goods and services. There is talk of this > strategy from Naomi Klein, Joseph Stiglitz and a few far-sighted > capitalists, and the largest European eco-network (EEB) also just called > for a carbon tariff against the US. (I know your strong opposition to > relying on 'market-based strategies' such as a carbon tax and generally > I agree - but this is different.) > Thanks, Patrick, for the comments. As far as climate sanctions against US goods and services, I'm not sure what you have in mind. Are you imagining that the EU as a whole, or individual countries, will impose an environmental tariff on US goods and services? Or is the plan that there will be pressure for institutions to divest from US companies? Or to boycott American goods and services? All goods and services, or just ones which aren't judged to be making the progress they would be if the US hadn't declared that it was leaving the Paris Accord (and if so, how would one judge that)? Would there be any comparison between the carbon content of American goods and services and that of the alternate ones which would replace them? Are the sanctions to be only against the withdrawal from the Paris Accord, or for the many steps of the Trump administration against the environment? When the plan is better formulated, it could be evaluated more concretely. For now, it doesn't seem very realistic to me. It may seem analogous to BDS in form, but I don't think it actually is. It seems to me that the hope that the other capitalists will institute sanctions against Trump over the issue of the environment is mainly a product of despair, reminiscent of Hansen and Monbiot turning to nuclear. I'm sorry to hear that Naomi Klein is considering this. I think her book "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate" was a real contribution to the movement, and it talked about some important things, such as the collaboration of Big Green with the energy corporations, that are not usually mentioned. But this new strategy seems to me like a reversion, for the time being, to "This Changes Nothing". Presently the left pole in the environmental movement, despite many important and dedicated actions against pipelines and on other issues, has limited strength. And the situation is really dangerous, as the time is running out for preventing drastic climactic change. So there is pressure to look for quick remedies. But the political realities and the class alignments don't change just because the situation is dangerous. We need to work to build up a truly working-class wing of the environmental movement. We need to work to build the left pole of the environmental movement up, in strength, in its class character, and in its program. The fate of the environmental movement depends on how far the left can strengthen itself as well as on when market fundamentalism finally cracks. There is also the issue of the Paris Accord itself. Your powerful article on it back in December 2015 characterized it as "implicit terrorism by carbon addicts". This doesn't mean that activists should boycott protests against Trump's withdrawal from the Accord, which is a rallying point for explicit terrorism against the environment. But a strategy of expecting very much from the green-talking wing of the carbon addicts seems futile to me. If we really want to fight global warming, we have to bear in mind that this fight must go beyond the Paris Accord, and we must do our best to bring forward demands that go beyond simply condemning withdrawal from the Accord. We shouldn't boycott anti-Trump environmental actions because of the domination of those who don't go beyond the Accord or of establishment environmentalism, but we need to patiently strive to have the movement go beyond the Paris Accord and the sham environmentalism of the carbon (and fracking) addicts. ----------------------------------- Joseph Green m...@communistvoice.org ------------------------------------ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
