The In Defense of Marxism website (IDOM) is associated with a small
Trotskyist sect in Great Britain that was led by Ted Grant until his
death 2 years ago. It is now led by Alan Woods who has done some good
work in publicizing and defending the Bolivarian revolution in
Venezuela, even if there is some sectarian baggage that goes along with it.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Grant-Woods tendency was its
rather serious engagement with science, especially manifested in the two
leaders’ book “Reason in Revolt: Marxism and Modern Science”. That
legacy has been tarnished by the appearance of a 2-part article on
global warming by one Brian J. Baker. Baker’s article is filled with the
usual global warming skepticism found at places like Spiked and in
Alexander Cockburn’s recent articles. It should be mentioned that IDOM
has never published anything like this in the past. Only last December
they were saying things like this:
The impact of climate change, says the report, will vary regionally but
in an overall view it points out that even with temperatures rising only
3C there will be an important increase of mortality from heat waves,
floods and droughts; reduced agricultural production in low latitude
areas with important negative impact on smallholders, subsistence
farmers and fishermen; 30% of the world species will be at risk of
extinction and hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to
increased water stress.
Those less able to adapt to these new circumstances will receive the
heaviest blow. These are the poor of the world and it will matter very
little whether they live in Burkina or in the United States of America,
as the working class and poor of New Orleans learnt during and after
Katrina.
Now we learn from Brian J. Baker that global warming is a capitalist
plot against the working class:
“We are all going to fry,” a sentiment endorsed from the ex-public
schoolboys from Eton, to the lofty heights of Rupert Murdoch and George
Soros from the media and financial world. And at the same time are
joined by various left and pseudo-socialist organisations the world over.
So what is it that unites such disparate class interests? A common
understanding that industrialisation has destroyed the planet? But then
the Victorian gentry had a disparaging attitude to the common men of
trade. “Tradesmen’s Entrance” was always around the back. And we have
always seen the religious fundamentalists parading along Oxford Street
telling us to “Prepare to meet thy doom.”
Fred Weston prefaces Baker’s article by stating that it “is not the job
of the Marxist.com Editorial board to develop a ‘line’ on climate
change.” Maybe that is so, but it does strike me as a bit odd to see two
so sharply opposed articles on global warming within a few months. He
adds that he invites “any of our readers, comrades and supporters,
especially the more scientifically qualified, to contribute to this
debate with their opinions both for and against.” Well, that’s very
generous of him, but until his website actually includes a place for
comments or letters, the invitation seems pretty hollow.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/in-defense-of-marxism-gets-spiked/
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