Green New Deal: Dead end or pathway beyond capitalism?

8122019 Green New Deal Dead end or pathway beyond capitalism

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgreen-new-deal-dead-end-or-pathway-beyond-capitalism 15

12

TADZIO MUELLER Before we start lookingat the crisis of the (global) left andwhether or not a Green New Deal might

be an opportunity for its rejuvenation Ithink there is a more important questionto be answered first Namely to whatextent is such a project a great opportunityfor the rejuvenation of global capitalism Profit rates (with the possible exceptionof those of bailed-out banks) are at rock

bottom And there is currently nothing ndash

no sector (like cars) no technology (like

IT) no process (like lsquoglobalisationrsquo) ndash thatis promising to push them back up againin the near future Capital in other wordsis in crisis and as Nicolas Stern author ofa report on the costs and opportunities ofclimate change for the British governmentargues it needs lsquoa good driver of growth tocome out of this period and it is not just asimple matter of pumping up demandrsquo

At the same time wersquore in the midstof another extremely serious crisis thebiocrisis far from climate change being

the only devastating socio-ecological crisistendency currently affecting the planetwe are also facing a serious loss of biodiv-ersity (some scientists refer to this as the6th great extinction in Earthrsquos history) agrowing scarcity of useable fresh wateroverfishing desertification destructionof forests and so on There are specificprocesses driving each of these crises(the destruction of specific ecosystemstoo much CO₂ in the atmospherehellip) but

ultimately they are all the result of onecentral contradiction that b etween theexpansion of capitalist production and therequirements of human life in relativelystable eco-social systems The biocrisis isa crisis of our life (bios ) of our collectivesurvival on a finite planet which is driven

by capitalrsquos need for infinite growthNow the point about any kind of lsquogreen

capitalismrsquo Green New Deal or not isthat it does not resolve this antagonismndash because it can be resolved as little asthe antagonism between capital andlabour Rather a Green New Deal attemptsto internalise it as a lsquodriver of growthrsquoExamples of such lsquodriversrsquo include suppos-edly lsquogreenrsquo cars and lsquoenergy-savingrsquotechnologies But electric cars today

still get their energy from burning fossilfuels ndash this time coal at the power plantnot gas in the tank Also so-called energsaving technologies are first frequentlyenormously energy-intensive to producwhilst second their energy savings geteaten up as the lsquosavedrsquo resources arereinvested in yet more energy-consuminactivities ndash the so-called lsquorebound effect

Of course it is theoretically possible conceive of a capitalism whose economgrowth is powered by carbon-neutralfuels But in the world of actually-existi

capitalism growth has always meant

Green New Deal

Dead end orpathway beyondcapitalismA Green New Deal is on everybodyrsquos lips at the moment Barack Obamahas endorsed a very general version of it the United Nations arekeen as are numerous Green parties around the world In the wordsof the lsquoGreen New Deal Grouprsquo an in1047298uential grouping of heterodoxeconomists Greens and debt-relief campaigners such a lsquodealrsquo promisesto solve the lsquotriple crunchrsquo of energy climate and economic crisesFrieder Otto Wolf an eco-socialist and early member of the GermanGreen Party argues that the challenge for the global movements isto hijack the Green New Deal rather than reject it Tadzio Muelleran editor of Turbulence and involved in the Climate Justice Action

network begs to differ He looks instead to an emerging movementfor lsquoclimate justicersquo Turbulence sat the two of them down for a chatand kicked off the debate by suggesting that a Green New Dealmight actually offer a weak looking global left a great opportunity

Of course it is theoretically possible

to conceive of a capitalism whose

economic growth is powered by carbon-

neutral fuels But in the world of

actually-existing capitalism growth

has always meant more energy use

more greenhouse gases and more

environmental destruction



13

more energy use more greenhouse gasesand more environmental destructionTake the issue of climate change thelast 30 years have seen only two cases ofsignificant reductions in CO₂ emissionsFirst the collapse of the growth-orientedstate-socialist economies of EasternEurope ndash greenhouse gas emissions fromthe Soviet economy fell by 40 andsecond the current global recessionwhich is reducing the consumption ofoil and gas and resulting in a 5 fall inglobal emissions levels I am not sayingthat an uncontrolled collapse of the world

economy with all the social upsets thatthis might bring with it is desirable ButI am certain that it is impossible to solvethe biocrisis without moving beyond thegrowth imperative So I do not be lievethat supporting a Green New Deal is agood opportunity for the left because thisproject is fundamentally about restartingcapitalist growth ndash and it is this growththat is the problem in the first placeFRIEDER OTTO WOLF The currentdebates on the left about whether ornot to support a Green New Deal are socontroversial and diffi cult because they

remind us of two unfinished issues Firstthe old but never resolved question of thelsquosocialist transitionrsquo the transformationprocess from the historical epoch of capit-alism to that of communism Second theycontinue a more recent debate about therelevance of green issues in leftwing poli-tics In this complicated context I thinkthat Tadziorsquos perspective on the multipleproposals that are currently on the table isfar too simplistic In fact the basic idea ofthe Green New Deal is p retty muchirrefutable as a political propos-ition and impossible to attack from

LOST DECADE

Ten years ago Brazil was

living the heyday of neoliberal

policies The Cardoso government

had used its 1047297rst term to do the dirtywork the hegemony of 1047297nance and

privatisation was imposed on the

working class manu militari It was

the period of the armyrsquos intervention

against the oil workersrsquo strike andof two massacres of peasants in

Corumbiara (nine murdered) and

Eldorado dos Carajaacutes (21 dead)

Signi1047297cant sectors of the intelligentsiaand the institutional left in the

universities civil society organisations

and even some so-called leftwing

parties adhered to neoliberalism

At the time we underestimated the

new hegemony Dazzled by the size

of our defeat we still gambled almost

everything on Lularsquos possible electoral

victory in 1998 when not even hebelieved it could be done

This stopped us from undertaking

a serious and deep critical appraisal

of the pervasiveness of neoliberalism

and its consequences and we failed

to meet the process of privatisation

with a decisive response We failed toorganise our social base in building

our own means of communication

and deluded ourselves about theimportance of the odd small space in

the bourgeois media We were wrong

in not prioritising the formation of

new militants and cadre that could

analyse the new context of class

struggle As a result we lost almost

everything that had been achieved

in the previous upsurge in social

mobilisation (1979ndash1990) We thuslost a decade in which the hegemony

of capital became consolidated the

left fell into fragmentation the trade

union movement became weaker and

the social movements had no strength

to react

Maybe we can still learn from

these mistakes and today investagain in social struggles in forming

cadre in building our own meansof communicating in debating a

popular project for the country We

might then be prepared for a new

historical moment of ascension of

mass movements without which

it will be impossible to change the

correlation of forces ndash something that

fortunately can already be seen in

some neighbouring countries

Joatildeo Pedro Steacutedile is a national

coordinator of the MST (the Brazilian

Landless Peasantsrsquo Movement) and of

the international network of peasant

movements Via Campesina



14

FOW Tadzio criticises the Green NewDeal Group for telling fairytales and forforgetting history So first of all it migh

be useful to provide some more historicperspective Irsquod like to clarify somethingthat seems to get lost in all this critique the idea of a G reen New Deal as lsquogrowthorientedrsquo and ignorant of the role ofstruggle and antagonism The first timethe idea was used it came from the leftWhen it became clear ndash around 1989 ndash th

the Gorbachev project of perestroika wafailing to provide a democratic socialand ecological alternative within Sovietsocialism a number of eco-socialists

began thinking about a lsquoperestroika in thWestrsquo This was then translated ndash with anumber of concessions to be sure ndash intothe first lsquored-greenrsquo project in what wasthen Western Germany an attempt by tSocial Democrats and the Green Party toenter into government together

This original proposal for a lsquoGreenNew Dealrsquo made no declarations of faithin green capitalism but concentrated onproposing specific policies that wouldaddress the problems of unemploymentenvironmental degradation and of apowerfully menacing arms race by way a number of simultaneous and synergetmeasures Strategically the focus was

on developing an alliance between theexisting labour movement and the newsocial movements that sprang from therebellion of the 1960s The eco-socialist

behind these proposals hoped to openfields of debate and of struggle whichwould in turn open windows of oppor-tunity for a deeper and ultimately sociatransformation of German society whicwould avoid the historical dead-end ofSoviet-type state socialism

Historically then the project of theGreen New Deal has not necessarily beeone of capitalist renovation It has alsofocused on introducing concrete improvments and on building broad alliancesaround these policies while at the sametime continuing to search for ways of ovcoming the domination of the capitalistmode of production in our society

This in turn means we need to hijackthe Green New Deal not reject it After awhat else is there In the current situatirejection could only mean one of twothings both of which are impossible todefend today Either that there should

be no lsquogreenrsquo elements in any packageof immediate emergency measures Orthat we go directly for socialism andnot support any so-called lsquotransitionaldemandsrsquo

Concerning the question of overcomcapitalism there is an old debate on the

the left It consists of first the obv iousstatement that the present constellation ofcrises presents a historical chance call ita lsquowindow of opportunityrsquo for real socialchange and second the very plausibleproposition that our best chance forseizing this opportunity is to combinethe economic (employment creation)and social (expanding public ser vices)dimension of the original New Deal with anew lsquogreenrsquo dimension that addresses the

ecological crises already mentioned This basic idea in turn has generated a widerange of different policy proposals that arenot yet conclusively defined ndash additionsand modifications are still possible

The left should understand theproposals for a Green New Deal as apackage of emergency measures to bejudged according to how effective theyare in addressing the immediate problemsraised by the current crises while at thesame time developing a capacity to explic-itly develop their potential as transitionaldemands and policies This means distin-guishing between the specific measuresproposed and the ideologies they aresupposed to support and to advance

Let me give some concrete examplesagainst Tadziorsquos very general argu-ment State intervention into banks may

very well be needed in order to avoid acatastrophic crisis of capitalist financewith all the negative consequences thatmight imply like the loss of pensions orsavings ndash but itrsquos quite another thing to

bail out private investors at the cost of thetaxpayer while not achieving any effectiveregulation of the system Similarly usinga pricing system as a tool for the plannedreduction of greenhouse gas emissions toan acceptable level might be a good ideandash while installing an emissions-tradingsystem based on fire-sale prices and intro-ducing a plethora of lsquooffsetrsquo-mechanismsis quite a different matter State interven-tion in order to regulate some specificmarkets or to define precise ecologicallimits is in no way equivalent to creating

something that could be called lsquogreencapitalismrsquo Fighting unemployment byincreasing government spending is some-thing quite different from perpetuating themadness of permanent economic growthTM But the question is not whether wesupport or reject this or that specific p olicyin any of the multiple proposals currentlymaking the rounds The question is howthese specific policies are articulated into a wider politico-economic projectthat can fill the space left by the at leastideological implosion of neoliberalismAny such project has to make a reasonably

credible claim to addressing the crises that brought the old era to its knees And inthis situation the function of the GreenNew Deal is to allow the lsquone edrsquo to restartcapitalist growth to be reconciled with thereality of the biocrisis Why else wouldthe Financial Times Deutschland haveendorsed the German Green Party beforethe 2009 European elections describingthe partyrsquos Green New Deal-project as alsquomarket-friendly engine of innovationrsquo

Even the most progressive version ofthe Green New Deal that of the Green

New Deal Group is guilty of two crucialomissions First it misrepresents the lsquooldrsquoNew Deal as a technocratic gentlemenrsquosagreement between the lsquogeniusrsquo econ-omist Keynes and the lsquocan-dorsquo politician

Roosevelt In fact that deal was foughtfor by a powerful workersrsquo movementthat forced the US-governmentrsquos hand onmany socially progressive measures ndash theNew Deal was the outcome of bitter andfrequently violent struggles Second itmisrepresents (surely against the authorsrsquo

better intellectual judgement) the relation-ship between capitalism and the biocrisisAccording to the Green New Deal Groupit is not industrial or fossilistic capit-alism that is to blame but lsquothe current[ie neoliberal] model of globalisationrsquoForgotten is the environmental destruc-

tion wrought by FordismTaylorismignored is the fact that the environmentalmovement that arose to fight this devast-ation predates neoliberal globalisation

These omissions are far from accid-ental they are symptomatic of the politicalaims of the project First to focus on theenvironmental devastation wrought byneoliberalism obscures the irreconcil-able antagonism between the need forinfinite growth and the fact that we liveon a finite planet As a result restartingcapitalist growth suddenly seems like agood idea Second the absence of strugglein this account allows its proponents toonce again tell the fairytale of a capitalismthat is somehow able to harmoniouslyintegrate all its internal contradictionsproducing a win-win-win-win situationfor capital (which can turn a profit) the

state (which gains legitimacy) labour(which gets good lsquogreenrsquo jobs) and theenvironment (which is lsquosavedrsquo) Butwhen Rooseveltrsquos New Deal temporarilystabilised the class antagonism it wasthe environment (which was destroyed)the Global South (whose resourceswere siphoned off) and women (whosedomestic labour and bodies were evermore tightly controlled) who had topay The G reen New Deal obscures thefact that in capitalism there is alwayssomeone or something that is exploited

Historically then the project of the Green New

Deal has not necessarily been one of capitalist

renovation It has also focused on introducing

concrete improvements and on building broad

alliances around these policies while at the

same time continuing to search for ways ofovercoming the domination of the capitalist

mode of production in our society

New Deal

The name given by US President FD Roosevelt to a 1933ndash1935 package of economic andsocial policies They included social security and job creation as well as massive state

investment in infrastructure and the imposition of tight regulations on the banking sector

The Deal which afforded workers a greater freedom to organise in order to demand and

win higher wages was meant to provide immediate relief to the masses that had been

impoverished in the Great Depression and to begin to pull the country out of the economic

slump In his book The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama describes the New Deal as

FDRrsquos attempt at lsquosaving capitalism from itselfrsquo While the Deal was later often associated

with the ideas of economist John Maynard Keynes the latter published his programmatic

General Theory in 1936 some years after the programme had been initiated In fact

it was largely as a result of pressure from workersrsquo and other social movements that

industrialists and politicians were forced to pass these progressive policies

lsquoWErsquoLL MAKE IT THROUGHrsquo

We were among those who

realised in the 1990s that

neoliberalism while

promoting the free

circulation of capital and

consumer goods sustainsmigration policies that control

and criminalise the circulation

of people especially those of the

most impoverished and discriminated

ethnicities and groups

Today we continue to recognise

international migratory movements

as a strategy of resistance to neoliberal

economic policies imposed on the

global South But the political risks ofgeneralisation have led us to distinguish

between two kinds of protagonism The

1047297rst non-intentional kind con1047297gures

an individual strategy of response to

the structural dynamics of violence and

exclusion Although it is ambivalent

and has a reduced reach ndash since it aims

at inclusion and the transformation of

individual situations ndash it is still an important

sign of resistance in the international

context The second type critical andconscious incorporates practices of

intervention in the symbolic and political

spheres a strategic 1047297ght against racism

and different forms of discrimination and

the formulation of alternatives It too can

be ambivalent and have a reduced impact

But this does not make it any less relevant

as it implies taking an antagonistic

ethical and political stance that exposes

discriminatory structures and makes

migrants appear as protagonists rather

than victimIn time however this distinction

would itself show its limits in striving to

make migrants visible as protagonists

conscious protagonists risk speaking on

behalf of those who are constituted by

the discourse of representation Radical

counter-discourses can often practice this

violence which silences those it would

supposedly represent Today our critical

attitude is directed not only at the so-called

hegemonic elites but in a self-criticalgesture towards migrant activists and

intellectuals in European territory

One thing has not changed Despite

restrictive measures and discriminatory

laws despite deaths off the European

coast despite the collaboration

programmes with Southern governments

to stop migration despite the violence an

precarity that the sans papiers are expose

to people keep on coming to Europe Once

here many manage to stay The European

Commission estimates the number ofnew migrants every year at somewherebetween 350000 and 500000

Some time ago I watched a TV report

showing Black men their hands and feet

tied who had been captured by police

around Ceuta and Melilla One of them

interviewed by a reporter stared straight

into the camera and speaking with a 1047297rm

voice said lsquoThey can build as many fences

and walls as they like Wersquoll keep on tryingand wersquoll make it throughrsquo

Rubia Salgado is a founding member of

maiz an autonomous centre by and for

migrant women in Linz Austria where she

does cultural and educational work The

centre was founded in 1994 wwwmaizat



15

the capitalist mode of productionTM I agree with your assessment thatndash with the possible exception of LatinAmerica ndash left social forces are pretty weakright now But I donrsquot understand howstarting from the fact of our weakness youcan arrive at the conclusion that we needto start picking and choosing betweenthe different aspects of different GreenNew Deals selectively supporting someand rejecting others (Given the powerful

social forces already arranged in thefield our support might be pretty muchirrelevant anyway) Surely the effective-ness of our opposition will depend on thedegree of collective power we can build inthe current situation And building collec-tive power I would argue requires theconstruction of an antagonistic subjector subjects which can only be done bymarking a clearly oppositional position tothe proposals currently on the table

In this process it is important toremember the lessons of the alter-globalisation movement where much ofthe conceptualideological inspirationfor a global cycle of struggles came fromSouthern movements not Northern thinktanks I believe that something similar ishappening today The concept of lsquoclimatejusticersquo was coined in the global South

and a movement is emerging aroundthis slogan Currently it is based arounda coalition of Southern movementsincluding the Indigenous EnvironmentNetwork and the global small and land-less farmersrsquo movement Via Campesinaalongside Northern autonomous activistgroups such as the UKrsquos Camp for ClimateAction but itrsquos rapidly growing beyondthese constituencies Or put another waythe global movements at the end of thecycle of anti-neoliberal struggles are

beginning to coalesce around the prob-lematic of the biocrisis We donrsquot yet knowwhere these movements are heading andwhat the new cycle of struggles will looklike But although it might take time thisis where I believe the greatest potentialfor a social and ecological transformationout of the current crises lies rather than in

supporting a Green New Deal that activelyaims to restart the madness of capitalistgrowthFOW If I understand you correctly youseem to be suggesting that theclimate crisis or the lsquobiocrisisrsquo asyou call it is essentially derivative

left that was a response to the fact thatthe expected social revolutions of themid-19th century did not come to p ass Onthe one side lsquomaximalistrsquo or lsquoanti-politicalrsquopositions emphasised the notion of afinal lsquogeneral strikersquo which would sweepaway capitalism on the other defendersof lsquotransformistrsquo or lsquo politicalrsquo stancesadvocated a politics of transition Sincethe 1890s this older debate had beenreframed in the internal debates of Social

Democracy as a confrontation betweenthe advocates of lsquoreformrsquo (as peaceful grad-ualism) and the adherents of lsquorevolutionrsquo(as a violent overthrow of the establishedpowers) This second phase of the debatewas again renewed after the successfulOctober Revolution in Russia and theidea of transitional demands turned outto be a central concept for defining morespecifically what Rosa Luxemburg andLenin alike had proposed as lsquorevolutionaryRealpolitik rsquo

The idea behind lsquotransitional demandsrsquowas to articulate positions that wereon the one hand demands for specificimprovements for the righting of partic-ularly pressing wrongs ndash one examplewould be the struggle for a shorterworking day But on the other wherethe struggle for those (very lsquoreasonablersquo)

demands would acquire a revolutionarymomentum calling into question thevery relations of power upholding cap-italist class domination and initiating aprocess of further radicalisation amongthe masses Incidentally it was with thesekinds of ideas in mind that parts of theradical left in the US were active duringthe time of the New Deal ndash both withinRooseveltrsquos administration and amongthose involved in the upsurge of working-class organisation linked to the emer-gence of the radical umbrella union CIO(Congress of I ndustrial Organizations)Mostly they did not labour under theillusion that this was already a process ofsocialist transition but they did believethat New Deal politics might open a pathtowards it

To reject the Green New Deal in its

entirety means not learning any of thelessons that we on the left should havelearnt by now It is bad politics andrepeats an unfortunate tendency on theleft to disdain mere lsquoimprovementsrsquo suchas those achieved by what was scath-ingly called lsquotrade-unionismrsquo while being

entirely out of touch with historical realityTM Of course Frieder is right that it is notenough particularly amidst the currentlyacute social and ecological crises tosimply dismiss something because it islsquocapitalistrsquo without providing any altern-atives But that is not what the emergingglobal movement for climate justiceis doing In the mobilisation towardsthe climate summit in Copenhagen

the network Climate Justice Action hasarticulated a set of positions that we hopewill function much like transitional ordirectional demands Examples includelsquoleave fossil resources in the groundrsquolsquorecognise and make reparations forecological debtrsquo lsquostrengthen communitycontrol over resources and production

be it food or energyrsquo The demands can besummarised under two broad headingsThe first is climate justice by which weassert that there is no way to solve the

biocrisis without a massive redistrib-utions of wealth and power ndash which inturn implies that the biocrisis can only

be solved through collective struggleThe second is currently for want of a

better worddegrowth which refers to theneed for collectively planned economicshrinkage

These are not just demands that arepresented to a government or inter-national institution (which is not to saythat government action will not playan important role) They are also issuesaround which multiple movements andpositions can coalesce (they can have

so-called compositional effects) Theyprovide an antagonistic vision that willprevent the immediate cooptation ofglobal movements (as happened in 2005with the G8 Summit at Gleneagles and theMake Poverty History campaign) Andfinally our struggle over these demandswill actually increase our collective powerto achieve themFOW But calling the transition towards

socialism by a different name ndash whetherit is lsquodegrowthrsquo or lsquoclimate justicersquo ndash doesnot solve the fundamental problemof the current constellation of socialforces In short there is no politicalsubject in sight that has any plausiblecapability of effectively starting aprocess of socialist transition in any ofthe relevant countries dominated by


entirety means not learning any of the

lessons that we on the left should have

learnt by now It is bad politics and

repeats an unfortunate tendency on

the left to disdain mere lsquoimprovementsrsquosuch as those achieved by what was

scathingly called lsquotrade-unionismrsquo

while being entirely out of touch with

historical reality

Green New Deal

Although the idea emerged in German eco-socialist

discussions during the early 1990s today the term

refers mostly to proposals that aim to solve the lsquotriple

crunchrsquo (ie the combined economic energy and climate

crises) by way of a large-scale programme of investment

in lsquogreen technologyrsquo and lsquogreen jobsrsquo The political

orientations of the proposals vary from those on the

right that see it largely as a possibility to ecologically

modernise contemporary capitalism to those on the

left ndash such as the British Green New Deal Group ndash who seeit as an opportunity to achieve a significant realignment

in global power structures and advance a number of

progressive agendasA Green New Deal Joined-Up

Policies to Solve the Triple Crunch is available at

wwwgreennewdealgrouporg

POLITICAL BODIES vs

BODIES POLITIC

Ten years ago some certainties

traversed us That doing politics

was something for more thana handful we had to connect to

many others That we lacked names

with which to account for our experience

we wanted to draw cartographies that

would re-situate what happened to us (our

lives precarity the privatisation of the

world mobility) That politics could not be a

question of identity it had to pass throughthe elaboration of situations shared withdifferent others (We then asked what is

there in common between what happens to

us and what goes on

in other parts of the

world What is the

relation between the

various worlds that

compose the world)

That to grasp the

complexity of globaltransformations

opened the possibility

of producing a

response and above

all new questions

That investigation was in itself a form of

action That bodies could not be at the

margins of politics they are part of the

1047297eld of operations of power and of multiple

struggles That feminisms and post-colonialisms were our allies

We had left the okupas [squats] to

build open and heterogeneous social

centres but we had not really broken

away from identity and the ghetto We

started to understand ourselves within

global processes and the global movement

opened a new sense of the destiny imposedby neoliberalism momentarily displacingfear and catastrophe And on returning

home we still wished to give names to the

miseries of daily

life and to break

with isolation

and silence We

thought precarity

as an existential

condition and

thought of it notonly in its negative

form but also in

its potency and

positivity We left

the social centres

and threw ourselves into the open space-

time of the city

On the one hand we thought that

naming things would allow for their

immediate transformation on the otherwe thought that if we 1047297lled precarity with

potency joy and desire we would connect

to peoplersquos experience from a different

side Neither happened We ran up against

the proliferation of in1047297nite narratives

dispersion and the diffi culty of delimiting

a territory an experience that seemed

impossible to take in and didnrsquot becometranslated into new rights or new spaces

Besides our lsquopositiversquo idea of precaritydidnrsquot connect with the social malaise

Paradoxically we started idealising others

We threw ourselves into concrete

alliances and lost along the way the

lsquostarting from oneselfrsquo In a way the

alternative to classic politics ideologies

ready-made formulas was to be found in

others more than in ourselves we failed to

successfully articulate the starting fromoneself with the encounter with others

and fell into the gap between life and

politics between experience the body

and the idea On one side the proper thing

what is done with (and for) others the

truly political But in separating life ndash the

other side ndash from politics politics becomes

materially and affectively unsustainable

And an encounter without bodies is an

abstract unreal ideaTen years ago we thought in terms of

the potency of the desire of the mobile and

changing subjectivity that constitutes us

Today we think that this potency unfolded

on a plane over and above life othersrsquo and

our own How to stay alert in the face of

politicsrsquo claims to transcendence if we are

to stop it from becoming unsustainableWhat is there of life ndash the real one whichallows us to connect to others in equality

rather than moral superiority or the

abandonment of oneself ndash in the politics

that we make How to go on encountering

others outlining common problems And

above all what is the point of a politics

today that doesnrsquot think through these

questionsThe group Precarias a la Deriva was formed

in Madrid in 2002 Since 2005 they have

been mutating towards the construction of

a laboratory of female workers called the

lsquoTodas a Cienrsquo Agency for Precarious Matters

with its headquarters in the womenrsquos public

space Eskalera Karakola



16

of the generalised crisis of capitalismBut is this really true Are we lsquojustrsquoconfronted with a crisis of capitalismas you seem to be arguing or lsquojustrsquo withan ecological crisis as some in the moremainstream green movement seem tothink I would argue that humanity isin fact facing a plurality of synchronous

crises that are irreducible to each otherIf this is indeed the case then it would

be a grave historical and political error tosee the ecological crisis as just a crisis ofcapitalism and to focus on fighting thelatter while ignoring the specificity of theformer

To clarify pointing out that theecological crisis has to be distinguishedfrom the crisis of capital accumulation

is not intended to greenwash capitalismThere are good grounds for affi rming asUS-based scientist and activist Joel Koveldoes in his recent book of this title thatcapitalism is indeed the lsquoenemy of naturersquondash in the last instance The question to beanswered by concrete analysis howeveris whether there is a really distinctivelsquomateriality and contradictionrsquo to be foundin the present manifestations of a globalcrisis of the ecology of humankind Inshort does the ecological crisis have arelatively autonomous existence fromthe ups and downs of capitalism Thisglobal ecological crisis is so significantthat some experts see it as ushering in anew geological age the Anthropocene where human activity is the single mostimportant cause of global environmentalchanges Whereas Tadzio seems to think

that it would be madness to support aGreen New Deal it is in fact in his denialthat there is a proper logic for example ofclimate change or of the dramatic

decrease of biodiversity that the madnesslies

Most importantly the dynamics ofthe ecological crisis bring about two newaspects that any meaningful contributionto present strategic debates must payattention to One the notion of irrevers-ibility and ndash therefore ndash two the notionof a specific urgency to be met within adeterminate (in fact rather short) spanof time Climate change ndash due to thevery different temporalities it involves incomparison to the cycles of politics or thecycles of capital accumulation ndash threatensto create an irreversible situation in whichthe very basis of human culture will bedestroyed Therefore any politics of lsquotheworse the betterrsquo ndash where the progressive

worsening of the situation is seen as themain motive and guarantee for effectiverevolutionary practice ndash would be plainlyirresponsible and will be (rightfully)rejected by the multitudes at each level ofpolitics There is thus no time to be lostin the diffi cult task of getting the left toaccept by way of strategic political debatethis basic point If decisive measures arenot introduced within something like thenext ten years very little will remain thatcan be saved at all ndash which means thatproviding immediate relief and buyingtime must be our priorities in the presenthistorical situationTM By focussing on the question of cap-italism and capitalist growth I am not atall denying the fact that the climate crisisndash and more generally the biocrisis ndash has itsown internal dynamics that are not reduc-

ible to the dynamics of capital accumul-ation Obviously climate change is forcingthe radical left to rethink the timeframe ofits political practices Humanity however

much it is exploited oppressed andtrodden upon has an amazing capacityto (almost) always regenerate itself Addto that a pinch of He gelian conceptionsof history and you get a teleology whereCommunists knew that ultimate victorywould be theirs Once the climate systemis pushed beyond its current stable statehowever returning to that state will beimpossible ndash so waiting for some lsquovictoryrsquoin some lsquofinal battlersquo simply wonrsquot do In

short yes there is an urgency surroundingecological crises and this urgency requiresus to rethink some things But where wedisagree is the question of what it is thatneeds to be rethought

To start with invoking urgency isessentially a politically indeterminatemove By this I mean that anyone whoinvokes urgency generally does so toexplain why their particular p rogrammeshould take precedence over others overthe lsquonormalrsquo course of things As a resultcalls for lsquourgentrsquo actionshould not be dismissed

but treated with a healthydegree of scepticism

Next Frieder issuggesting that byconflating the climate crisiswith the crisis of capit-

alism I am avoiding thecomplex chain of mediationthat stands between thetwo phenomena Thishe implies allows me tofocus on capitalism at theexpense of steps that couldrealistically and in lsquogoodtimersquo address the enor-mity of the climate crisisHowever the fact that todate only reductions ineconomic growth have ledto noticeable reductions ingreenhouse gas emissionsshows that capitalism is theenemy of nature not just in some mythicallsquolast instancersquo but each and ever y dayvery immediately And how complex canthe chain of mediation really be if to

take one example a 40 collapse in theSoviet economy led to a 40 reduction ingreenhouse gas emissions over the courseof the 1990s

Finally from a pragmatic perspectivewhy spend lots of time looking for waysto reduce emissions (witness the amazingattempts to make carbon trading lsquoworkrsquo)that are unproven if we already know thatthere is a way So for me u rgency pointstowards rejecting a Green New Deal as itis fundamentally a project for restoringnecessarily destructive capitalist growthOn this question it is the anti-capitalistlsquoradicalsrsquo that have realism on their sidewhile it is the moderates whose positionis mere wishful thinking In the world ofactually-existing green capitalism whatwe are likely to get is more carbon trading(which some are already predicting will

bring us the next subprime bubble) andmore carbon lsquooffsetsrsquo ie the ability topay dodgy companies to generate emis-sions reductions that allow the Northto continue to pollute ndash a process thathas often entailed the destruction ofindigenous communities while havingalmost no positive e nvironmental impactTo provide lsquoimmediate reliefrsquo in terms ofthe climate means to start leaving fossilfuels in the ground means starting tomove towards a global system of foodsovereignty means breaking intellectualproperty rights means transforming theglobal trade and transport system meansmaintaining a zero-growth economyFOW To me what is really at stake inthis debate is expressed in a nutshell by

Without the capability of effectively

indicating a signi1047297cant and achievable

1047297rst step radical visions remain

impractical nothing more than a pie-in-

the-sky ideal sustaining your hopes for

a better future

a Chinese saying used by Mao ZedonglsquoA voyage of 10000 miles begins withthe first steprsquo Without the capabilityof effectively indicating a significantand achievable first step radical visionsremain impractical nothing more than apie-in-the-sky ideal sustaining your hopfor a better future And such v isions andhopes far too often provide the b asis fora lsquorevolutionary quietismrsquo which preferdoing nothing (except writing theoretica

treatises) in order to avoid getting onersquoshands dirty in the vicissitudes of actualpolitical practice Accepting this idea ofthe first step in no way obliges us to refrfrom elaborating our socialist eco-socialist and eco-feminist visions moreconcretely On the contrary no significaadvances ever occur within theoretico-political debates without an underlyingurgency It is p recisely now that we findourselves confronted with the productivchallenge of deepening our ecological

feminist and socialistcommunist vision Only bway of such a deepeningwill we be able to criticaldistinguish positive firststeps from false steps Falsteps function to forecloany further options for

more radical change andstructural transformationand lead to our losingtime in dead ends like thproposal for reliance onfirst-generation agrofuelas a way of mitigating thelsquoenergy crisisrsquo Such fuelsactually exacerbate theglobal food crisis and thcarbon balance is oftenjust as bad or even worsthan that of fossil fuelsPositive steps on the othhand not only make actuimprovements and buy

more time ndash they also create openings fodeeper changes which will be capable ofputting the issues of societal transform-ation on the historical agenda An exam

of this is the proposal for lsquogreeningrsquo theexisting stock of houses and dwellingswhich both creates (green) jobs and reduces greenhouse gas emissions whilopening a broad range of possibilities folocal and co-operative initiatives whichwill be capable of touching the everydaylife of many people

Therefore we should not reject theproblematic underlying present proposafor a Green New Deal even though we whave to prevent them being functionalis

by Green parties as something over whithey hold a quasi-monopoly Instead wshould struggle to make them our own this point in time hijacking the idea of aGreen New Deal is our best and only shat putting the world on the path towardan e co-socialist transformation

Frieder Otto Wolf is an eco-socialist an

an early member (1982) of the German

Green Party Between 1984 and 1999 he

represented the party in the European

Parliament he was defeated in the 1999

election He has also been active as a politica

philosopher and has concentrated on teachi

philosophy and working within political

networks since 2000 Further details see

wwwfriederottowolfde

Tadzio Mueller is active in Clima te Justice

Action (wwwclimate-justice-actionorg) a

author of several articles on green capitalism

and the Green New Deal including lsquoAnother

Capitalism is Possiblersquo (in Abramsky K ed

Sparking a World-wide Energy Revolution Soc

Struggles in the Transition to a Post-Petrol

World ) He is an editor of Turbulence

Invoking urgency

is essentially

a politically

indeterminatemove Calls for

lsquourgentrsquo action

should not be

dismissed but

treated with a

healthy degree of

scepticism

TO ADVANCE ONE INCHhellip

My face was in South African

newspapers around September

1999 I had lsquodaredrsquo to challenge

the ruling party the African

National Congress

(ANC) by questioning

its privatisationprogramme I was

ANC regional leader

and ward councillor

for my area in Soweto

The press projected me

as a victim of the ANCrsquos lack of

democracy at a time when its hegemony was more or less unassailable I did my

best to use the attention to spread the message against neoliberal policy I wonpublic sympathy and maintained my immediate local support base

But I failed to use the commotion to go back to the 200 or so ANC branches in

the region and explain to ordinary members why I was opposed to neoliberalism

as a socialist ANC leader I should have gone there the same way I used to go

there to build the ANC I should have called meetings visited people in their

homes distributed pamphlets engaged in public debates and so forth Instead I

let the media tell my story while the ANC leadership did its damage control I was

catapulted from ANC leadership ranks into becoming the famous face of the then

emergent anti-globalisation movement in South Africa On re1047298ection I should have

ducked the fame and concentrated on advancing a thousand ordinary workers

one inch rather than the heady 10 mile revolutionary advance of myself and afew radical comrades I was hero and centre of my political universe I should have

worked harder to make the masses their own liberators

Trevor Ngwane was active in the ANC as an anti-apartheid activist in Soweto He was

later expelled from the ANC for opposing the privatisation of public services Today he

continues the struggle in post-apartheid society



13

more energy use more greenhouse gasesand more environmental destructionTake the issue of climate change thelast 30 years have seen only two cases ofsignificant reductions in CO₂ emissionsFirst the collapse of the growth-orientedstate-socialist economies of EasternEurope ndash greenhouse gas emissions fromthe Soviet economy fell by 40 andsecond the current global recessionwhich is reducing the consumption ofoil and gas and resulting in a 5 fall inglobal emissions levels I am not sayingthat an uncontrolled collapse of the world

economy with all the social upsets thatthis might bring with it is desirable ButI am certain that it is impossible to solvethe biocrisis without moving beyond thegrowth imperative So I do not be lievethat supporting a Green New Deal is agood opportunity for the left because thisproject is fundamentally about restartingcapitalist growth ndash and it is this growththat is the problem in the first placeFRIEDER OTTO WOLF The currentdebates on the left about whether ornot to support a Green New Deal are socontroversial and diffi cult because they

remind us of two unfinished issues Firstthe old but never resolved question of thelsquosocialist transitionrsquo the transformationprocess from the historical epoch of capit-alism to that of communism Second theycontinue a more recent debate about therelevance of green issues in leftwing poli-tics In this complicated context I thinkthat Tadziorsquos perspective on the multipleproposals that are currently on the table isfar too simplistic In fact the basic idea ofthe Green New Deal is p retty muchirrefutable as a political propos-ition and impossible to attack from

LOST DECADE

Ten years ago Brazil was

living the heyday of neoliberal

policies The Cardoso government

had used its 1047297rst term to do the dirtywork the hegemony of 1047297nance and

privatisation was imposed on the

working class manu militari It was

the period of the armyrsquos intervention

against the oil workersrsquo strike andof two massacres of peasants in

Corumbiara (nine murdered) and

Eldorado dos Carajaacutes (21 dead)

Signi1047297cant sectors of the intelligentsiaand the institutional left in the

universities civil society organisations

and even some so-called leftwing

parties adhered to neoliberalism

At the time we underestimated the

new hegemony Dazzled by the size

of our defeat we still gambled almost

everything on Lularsquos possible electoral

victory in 1998 when not even hebelieved it could be done

This stopped us from undertaking

a serious and deep critical appraisal

of the pervasiveness of neoliberalism

and its consequences and we failed

to meet the process of privatisation

with a decisive response We failed toorganise our social base in building

our own means of communication

and deluded ourselves about theimportance of the odd small space in

the bourgeois media We were wrong

in not prioritising the formation of

new militants and cadre that could

analyse the new context of class

struggle As a result we lost almost

everything that had been achieved

in the previous upsurge in social

mobilisation (1979ndash1990) We thuslost a decade in which the hegemony

of capital became consolidated the

left fell into fragmentation the trade

union movement became weaker and

the social movements had no strength

to react

Maybe we can still learn from

these mistakes and today investagain in social struggles in forming

cadre in building our own meansof communicating in debating a

popular project for the country We

might then be prepared for a new

historical moment of ascension of

mass movements without which

it will be impossible to change the

correlation of forces ndash something that

fortunately can already be seen in

some neighbouring countries

Joatildeo Pedro Steacutedile is a national

coordinator of the MST (the Brazilian

Landless Peasantsrsquo Movement) and of

the international network of peasant

movements Via Campesina



14


































New Deal















neoliberalism while

promoting the free





































































15






























historical reality

Green New Deal















POLITICAL BODIES vs

BODIES POLITIC












us and what goes on


world What is the


various worlds that

compose the world)

That to grasp the



of producing a

response and above

all new questions














miseries of daily

life and to break

with isolation

and silence We

thought precarity

as an existential

condition and


form but also in

its potency and

positivity We left

the social centres


time of the city



















































16

























a better future



























Invoking urgency

is essentially

a politically



should not be

dismissed but

treated with a

healthy degree of

scepticism






National Congress



ANC regional leader

and ward councillor






















14


































New Deal















neoliberalism while

promoting the free





































































15






























historical reality

Green New Deal















POLITICAL BODIES vs

BODIES POLITIC












us and what goes on


world What is the


various worlds that

compose the world)

That to grasp the



of producing a

response and above

all new questions














miseries of daily

life and to break

with isolation

and silence We

thought precarity

as an existential

condition and


form but also in

its potency and

positivity We left

the social centres


time of the city



















































16

























a better future



























Invoking urgency

is essentially

a politically



should not be

dismissed but

treated with a

healthy degree of

scepticism






National Congress



ANC regional leader

and ward councillor






















15






























historical reality

Green New Deal















POLITICAL BODIES vs

BODIES POLITIC












us and what goes on


world What is the


various worlds that

compose the world)

That to grasp the



of producing a

response and above

all new questions














miseries of daily

life and to break

with isolation

and silence We

thought precarity

as an existential

condition and


form but also in

its potency and

positivity We left

the social centres


time of the city



















































16

























a better future



























Invoking urgency

is essentially

a politically



should not be

dismissed but

treated with a

healthy degree of

scepticism






National Congress



ANC regional leader

and ward councillor






















16

























a better future



























Invoking urgency

is essentially

a politically



should not be

dismissed but

treated with a

healthy degree of

scepticism






National Congress



ANC regional leader

and ward councillor




















Documents

Green New Deal: Dead end or pathway beyond capitalism?