Critics of Capitalism
The events of the past have shown that capitalism, as a system, is the main cause of the present crisis of global warming and other related crises. It is also empirically evident that within capitalism no alternatives will work.
If the burning of fossil fuels causes global warming, then the alternative must be a fossil fuel free society. How does one go about it? As Albert Einstein once said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mindset that caused it”.
The mindset that caused global warming is capitalism or more generally industrialism. This mindset is a product of the Industrial Revolution, which among other things, believed in conquest of nature. So any solution offered within this system will fail. Hence there cannot be a solution within the capitalist system.
From the very beginning there have been critics of capitalism, both within the Industrial Revolution mindset as well as outside of it. Among the former the most important of course is the Marxist tradition. Although both Marx and Engels had many deep insights into the ecological damage done by capitalism, they were not opposed to industrialism and ‘progress’ as such. While their view may not help us for an alternative vision, their view on who will carry out the change, namely the proletariat, cannot be rejected. It is the victims who have a maximum stake in change and therefore the victims of global warming, the poor and oppressed of the world, through their organisations like trade unions, peasant associations and a wide variety of people’s organisations will play a crucial role in bringing about a transformation.
The Visionaries
For the vision for a fossil fuel free society, we may need to look at other traditions. These visionaries were not some wooly headed people living in a dream world, moving around with long beards and living an undisciplined life without care. They were highly reputed professionals, well established in the mainstream and through their practice found a critique of their fields and established new and alternative disciplines. Their vision does not actually use the words ‘fossil fuel free society’. This is a wider vision of an alternative society, which among other things, will be based on low energy consumption.
Such a tradition would include Thoreau (Walden), Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God is Within You) Kropotkin (Fields, Factories and Workshops), Gandhi (Hind Swaraj), Albert Howard (An Agricultural Testament), Masanobu Fukuoka (One Straw Revolution), Schumacher (Small is Beautiful) and Patrick Geddes (Patrick Geddes in India
Mainstream critics call this tradition as ‘romantic’ and in fact, Tolstoy did say, ’How can there be romance with electricity?’ But probably, a more accurate description of this tradition is ‘Pacifist Anarchism’, though probably except Kropotkin none of them called themselves “anarchist”; but then, Kropotkin was not a pacifist! Anarchism has a large number of different variations and it is difficult to define it. However in general:
1. They are anti state. ‘The State has never been good to poor and never will be”. At best they would consent to having a minimal small state wielding low political power.
2. They believed in freedom, co-operation and mutual aid rather than competition. Their motto: a free association of free people. They believed in small communities federated with other similar communities.
3. As a rule they believed in ‘Respect for Nature’ and not in ‘Conquest of Nature’. Their approach was deeply ecological.
Thoreau, Kropotkin and Tolstoy laid the foundation of a powerful critic of capitalist and industrial society and were the principal visionaries for an alternative anarchist society. Each represented a different perspective. Thoreau emphasized the importance of self-reliance, solitude, contemplation and closeness to nature in transcending the crass existence that is supposedly the lot of most humans. Kropotkin's emphasis was on local organisation, local production, obviating the need for central government. Kropotkin's emphasis is also on agriculture and rural life. Tolstoy speaks of the principle of non-resistance when confronted by violence and advocates non-violence as a solution to nationalist woes.
However it was Gandhi who translated many of these concepts into action first in South Africa and later in India
Around the same time, there were others who were also expounding similar ideas in specific fields both in theory and practice. In agriculture, it was Sir Albert Howard, the father of organic farming movement, Masanobu Fukuoka
The Vision
If we take all these authors collectively, their work and ideas offer a powerful critique of industrialism and capitalism and provide an alternate vision. Kropotkin, Gandhi, Howard and Fukuoka
So why did they not succeed or why did capitalism triumph in spite of them? A short answer is: they were ahead of their times. The material basis of capitalism i.e. concentrated source of energy resource like coal and oil appeared inexhaustible. The trade union movement was able to wrest some benefits for itself in the midst of this phase. Today several crises of capitalism have come together and are feeding into each other. These are global warming, peak oil, food production peaking, inter-imperialist contradictions escalating, and the anti-imperialists struggles - both at organised level as well as large small scale movements all over the world. The era of industrialism is coming to an end.
The collapse of the capitalist system does not automatically bring a new society. For example in Myanmar (formerly Burma Burma West Bengal in the 60s and 70s. The Left Front instead of following Cuba
Today we face three tasks. First, is to articulate clearly the vision for a fossil fuel free society in its entirety. Then engage with workers unions and other mass organisations to evolve a concrete programme. Unless the ideas are gripped by the masses, they will not, as Mao has said, become a material force. The programme should give a concrete activity at the organised level as well as an ethical base for an individual and a small group to live and act. Thirdly we have to continue the struggle against damages capitalism continues cause, such as big dams, thermal power plants, new mining leases for coal and iron, SEZs and so on. These struggles will be empowered by a positive vision of the future.
What would a Fossil Fuel Free Society look like?
It is neither possible nor desirable to synthesize the views of these great people mentioned above. It is best that we read them in their own words and absorb what we need. Let there be diversity. However they do provide a basis for a few principles and help us to visualize what the future society may look like.
It is of course difficult to predict the future. We can only have dreams and visions about it. One way to begin is by addressing the question: what would we like it to be? And then take the discussion towards what its implications would be for today’s society. A few non negotiable guide lines to build on could be:
1. Human beings are a part of nature; they have to live with it and not off it.
2. Within human societies there should be equity.
3. Resist the scheme of centralised political power being in the hands of a few; particularly that of the state and government. At best, a minimal small state.
4. Small self-managed societies based on the principle of ‘a free association of free people’.
5. The technological base of such a society will be to move towards ecologically sound processes like organic farming, humane use of domesticated animals in farming practices, leather and wood as main raw materials etc. - not at all implying the complete abandon of modern sensibilities, scientific and technological advances.
6. The main agenda for humanity for the next thirty years or so will be to restore the earth’s ecological health that has been so severely damaged by capitalistic approaches.
7. A holistic approach to health, education, culture and sciences. They should be integrated with the main agenda of the society while maintaining a creative diversity of approaches.
Possible Reorientations
1. Administratively manageable regional reorientation on the basis of ecological/bio-geographic, cultural and linguistic (dialect) considerations such as Telengana, Vidarbha, Malwa, Bundelkhand, Awadh, Bhojpur etc. As an exercise, one can list nearly 100 such regions within the Indian subcontinent.
2. The above could be federated regionally, again, as large bio-geographic regions such as the Deccan, Western Ghats , Gangetic Plains, North-East India etc. These may be further federated within even larger landmasses such as South Asia . There are already precedents in this direction - the SARCC countries, European Union etc. - with cooperative and collaborative endeavours; even though ecological concerns and sustainability may not have been their common starting point.
3. While there will be rural and urban centers, there will be continuity. Rural regions will have urban facilities and urban areas will not be just concrete jungles. It will be something like parts of present day Kerala.
4. Urban Centres: Each of these administratively independent entities would have a few large and small urban centers with a population of 10,000 to 5 lakhs. They will have institutions for academic pursuits, research, sophisticated health services, art and cultural centers, infrastructure facility for small industrial enterprises related to food processing, housing, clothing, building material etc. Much of the industrial activity would be related to recycling and maintenance. One of the main activities would be segregating waste at source and recycling of urban solid waste. The bulk of which, being biodegradable would be made into compost to feed into urban vegetable and fruit growing farms and gardens. Thus the cities would be ‘garden cities’ producing their own vegetables and fruits. Many modern aspects of life will remain, such as phones and internet, operating on efficient use of energy from renewable sources.
5. Bulk of the community would comprise of self-sufficient natural/organic farmers, artisans and skilled personnel providing ancillary services to a farm based economy. Industry and services would be in the areas of health care, education, food processing, animal husbandry, leather work, carpentry, smithy, metal crafts, textiles, tailoring, hair dressing, sports, entertainment the arts etc. School, library and cultural centers would be a facility for all children and adults. They will be geared to the immediate agenda of restoring ecological stability.
6. There would be a major worldwide conservation project to save the flora and fauna that has been on the verge of extinction. This would be done principally through restoration of habitat by releasing more land to forests.
Changes that may occur
Many things that we take today as given may not be there in a fossil fuel free society. Demands have been made in the past and the present by individuals and mass movements for such a change. Taken together, it may be difficult to accept them all; also, there is always a quantum of resistance to change.
1. To begin with, one can see movements, negotiations, campaigns, agitations, demands etc. for smaller less powerful states. On the other hand are continued instances of resistance and opposition to mega states with powerful armies, weaponry, capitalistic economies etc. By implication, there is an opposition to armament industry and weapons of nuclear warfare.
2. Likewise, with fossil fuels depleting, the automobile industry would have to scale down, for, there is really no effective solution for automobiles. Instead, public transport such as buses, trams and railways would gain practical significance. This would be coupled with bicycles, cycle rickshaws, horse and donkey carts etc. One great benefit would be that, air pollution will reduce drastically.
3. Hopefully, alcoholism, use of narcotics and tobacco would become negligible since part of the reason for large-scale addiction is alienation in a capitalist society.
4. With better and healthier food, cleaner environment and a less stressful life; the need for health care services - which is the second largest industry today - would reduce drastically.
5. As a combined effect of farming with organic methods and reduced availability of petrochemicals, the chemical fertiliser and pesticide industry would diminish significantly. Bio-fertilisers and bio-pest controllers will become more popular. On the whole less of even these would be required.
6. Commercial agriculture would be reduced and more land will be released for forestry and community common use. Cotton would be the main non-food crop and sugarcane cultivation will decrease.
7. Petrochemical industry as a whole will be reduced considerably and we will be rid of the menace of plastic bags all across the urban landscape.
8. The need for power industry would reduce as armament and large governments consume a lot of irrational power. The reduced power need could be met with largely by decentralised power sources such as solar, wind and mini-hydel projects. They could, however be coupled with a small mix of coal and oil energy. Large mega power projects, which are dangerous to ecosystem and are very heavily polluting would gradually vanish.
9. The demand for iron and steel industry would also come down. A lot of recycling of existing but no longer useful iron and steel equipment and machinery will become important.
10. The demand for minerals would also decrease. No major new mining projects would come and some of the existing mines would be exhausted and close down. Mining water through deep tube wells would come down drastically. Water conservation and rain water harvesting will become important.
10. Higher education and research would be aimed at restoring ecological balances. Thus there would be extensive good research in soil fertility, bio pest controllers, forestry, river systems, ecology, air streams etc. Research and development of alternative renewable sources of energy and low energy nano technology would also play a very crucial role. Fundamental research in sciences as well as in humanities would facilitate in the development of these concepts.
Resistance to change
Normally resistance to change among ordinary people diminishes with time, non-availability and with new generation. However this does not happen with people in power. They oppose it with power. What it means is that powerful classes and nations will continue in their old ways. The scramble for depleting resources of oil and minerals will continue to lead to small and big wars. It can also lead to a world war kind of situation, which, this time around, with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons can destroy almost all living beings. So we cannot slacken in our existing movements of antiwar, antinuclear weapons and energy, opposition to mega dams and polluting power and other industries. Nor should we forget the daily struggle of billions of people just to survive. During the transition period these struggles will be even more painful. We will face job losses, malnutrition, hunger, illnesses, suicides and so on. What we need to do is to strengthen all these struggles and mass organisations like worker unions, peasant associations and other civil society organisations and engage with them on the themes of a fossil fuel free society.
This is one individual’s, that is, my dream. I invite you to join me both in working towards the dismantling of capitalism as well as to dream on your own.
Appendix
Appendix
THE VISIONARIES
Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) published in 1854, emphasizes the importance of self-reliance, solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the crass existence that is supposedly the lot of most humans. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised.
Fields, Factories and Workshops is a landmark anarchist text by Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), and arguably one of the most influential and positive statements of the anarchist political position. His inspiration has permeated into the 20th and 21st centuries as a lasting vision of a more harmonious way of living for a new world. To a large degree Kropotkin's emphasis is on local organisation, local production obviating the need for centralised governments. Kropotkin's vision is also on agriculture and rural life, making it a contrasting perspective to the largely industrial thinking of communists and socialists. His focus on local production leads to his view that a country should manufacture its own goods and grow its own food, making import and export unnecessary. To these ends he advocated irrigation for boosting local food production ability. Critics say he is rather optimistic in his works, however the problems arising from industrialisation and its reliance on fossil fuels has shown his ideas to be far sighted and possibly appropriate for the post fossil fuel age.
The Kingdom of God is Within You, the non-fiction magnum opus of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), is the culmination of thirty years of Tolstoy's Christian thinking. It lays out a roadmap for a new organisation of society based on literal Christian interpretations. Tolstoy takes the viewpoint on "Thou shalt not murder" literally and therefore that all governments who wage war are directly affronting the Christian principles that should guide all life. In the book Tolstoy speaks of the principle of non-resistance when confronted by violence, as taught by Jesus. He advocates non-violence as a solution to nationalist woes and as a means for seeing the hypocrisy of the church. These words had profound influence on Mahatma Gandhi. He wrote in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth, that this book "overwhelmed" him and "left an abiding impression". Gandhi listed Tolstoy's book, as one of the most important modern influences in his life.
For Indians, Gandhi (1869-1948) and his booklet Hind Swaraj immediately come to mind. It is a manifesto, which is, at once a critique of ‘English civilisation’ (industrial society) and a programme for rebuilding India
Swaraj is a kind of Individualist Anarchism. It advocates a stateless society, as according to Gandhi the overall impact of the state on the people is harmful. He called the state a "soulless machine" which, ultimately, does the greatest harm to mankind. Adopting Swaraj means implementing a system whereby state machinery is virtually non existent and the real power directly resides in the hands of people. Gandhi said, ‘Power resides in the people, they can use it at any time.’ This philosophy rests inside an individual who has to learn to be master of his own self and spreads upwards to the level of his community which must be dependent only on itself. ‘It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.’
Gandhi was undaunted by the task of implementing such a utopian vision in India India
An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard (1873-1947), first published in 1940, is credited by some with launching the organic farming agricultural movement. It focuses on the nature and management of soil fertility, and notably, explores composting. At a time when modern, chemical-based industrialised agriculture was just beginning to radically alter food production, it advocated natural processes rather than man-made inputs as the superior approach to farming. In 1924, he set up the Indore Institute of Plant Industry at Indore in central India Indore
Masanobu Fukuoka, (1913-2008), author of The One-Straw Revolution, The Road Back to Nature and The Natural Way Of Farming, is one of the pioneers of no-till grain cultivation. Fukuoka Japan India Fukuoka
Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977), originally published in 1973 is a collection of essays that brought Schumacher's ideas to a wider audience, at a critical time in history. Schumacher's work coincided with the growth of ecological concerns and with the birth of environmentalism and he became a hero to many in the environmental movement. In the first chapter - The Problem of Production, Schumacher points out that our economy is unsustainable. The natural resources (especially fossil fuels), are treated as expendable incomes, when in fact they should be treated as capital, since they are not renewable and thus subject to eventual depletion. He further points out that, similarly, the capacity of nature to resist pollution is limited as well. Schumacher's philosophy is a philosophy of enoughness, appreciating both human needs and limitations, and appropriate use of technology. It grew out of his study of village-based economics, which he later termed ‘Buddhist Economics.’ He faults conventional economic thinking for failing to consider the most appropriate scale for an activity, blasts notions that ‘growth is good’, and that ‘bigger is better’, and questions the appropriateness of using mass production in developing countries; promoting instead, ‘production by the masses’. Schumacher was one of the first economists to question the appropriateness of using Gross National Product (GNP) to measure human well being, emphasising that ‘the aim ought to be to obtain the maximum amount of well being with the minimum amount of consumption.’
Patrick Geddes in India is a collection of excerpts of writings of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) while he was in India India India
There are three central themes in Geddes work. First is ‘Respect for Nature’. His approach is deeply ecological emphasising a city’s relationship to its water resources, the promotion of parks and trees, the importance of recycling, and the lessening of dependence on the resources of the hinterland. The second theme is ‘Respect for Democracy’. He insisted that the residents of a city must help design plans made for them. The third theme is ‘Respect for tradition, ‘appreciation of all that is best in the old domestic architecture of Indian cities and of renewing it when it has fallen away’.
See also
No comments:
Post a Comment