BTW, Anthony, I already knew that Los Angeles was quite different from (much richer than) the vast majority of other third-world cities. Anthony asks:> What sort of non-capitalist growth is there? At least in historical terms, we have have the pre-capitalist, feudal, whatever, if it was growth at all. Bureaucratic-statist growth have been environmental disasters. A more fundamental issue is not the complete rejection of the past (a popular position of enlightenment thinking) but a bringing together of past and the future into the present.< As Louis comments, Nicaragua presented one alternative. But of course the US actively abhors alternatives. Absent a revolution as in Nicaragua, what can we do? I think people in the first world have an obligation to be concerned with environmental destruction _all over the world_ because it's a _global_ problem. Global warming, for example, is fueled not only by hydrocarbon emissions in the rich countries but by those in the poor countries and the "newly industrialized countries." In the poor countries and NICs themselves, hearing from first-worlders about the environmental impact of "industrialization" has got to be galling. This is not only for the business types who have a vested interest in preserving pollution. So I can see why environmentalism can't be imposed from the outside, or from above if it comes from the rich countries. But it's important to urban workers: maybe they've escaped the "idiocy of rural life," but the environmental degredation lowers their living standards, just as the shoddy building codes make living in tenements unsafe. I don't see why workers can't connect quality of life issues with wage issues. On some issues they can ally with local middle-class elements. It's this kind of movement from below that's needed. Of course, it's exactly this kind of movement which is opposed by the ruling elites -- and by their allies in the US and other rich countries. After all, such movements threaten the basis of many countries' comparative advantage in providing low-wage & low-regulation places for multinational corporations' investment. The best the fragmented and weak left of the rich countries can do is to provide solidarity. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/fall%201997/ECON/jdevine.html Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
