This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Bush changes global warming tune

June 12 2007

After years of denying that humyn pollution is causing any environmental problems, President Bush attempted to pacify the European countries and mainstream Amerika by offering a solution to the climate problem prior to the G8 summit last week. The G8 is a meeting of the political leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United KKKingdom and the United $tates.

Bush was facing international pressure as the German Summit host promised to focus on environmental issues and a number of European countries were pushing for an agreement on reducing emissions. However, Bush's solution was a joke that barely amounts to the criminals' self-policing. In this case the criminals are the imperialist countries, profiting from environmentally damaging capitalist practices.

Rather than agree to any of the moderate (but at least somewhat progressive) proposals already suggested (including the 1997 Kyoto Accord, which put limits on gas emissions but was never ratified by the United $tates) Bush put forward his own proposal: get all the big polluting countries together to talk about setting their own goals for reducing pollution. Once Bush has the relevant countries together, he wants to "create the technologies necessary to deal with this issue."(1) While technology is certainly a tool in the hands of humyns to accomplish many things, suggesting that new technology can end environmental destruction ignores the fact that this goal is contrary to the short term profit-driven focus of capitalism.

Previously, Bush and his cronies could only keep denying the existence of global warming, or the humyn role in global warming, for so long, with such mounting scientific evidence of the destructive effects on the planet; although, it is worth noting that Bush's proposed solution admits no humyn guilt in the destruction of planet earth and looks to technology, rather than any change in humyn interaction with the planet, to solve the problem.

In the end, the G8 summit lived up to its history of accomplishing a lot of posing and posturing among imperialist countries. At this summit, on the issue of the environment the United $tates agreed to "consider seriously" a plan to cut emissions globally by 50% by the year 2050. That was considered sufficient agreement to conclude discussions on the environment and praise the meeting as successful. The agreement does not commit any countries to any specific goals.

Following in the footsteps on the United $tates, China is talking about emissions like a jealous younger capitalist sibling, insisting that the big imperialist countries that developed before China were free to pollute all they wanted so China can't afford to be fettered by limits before it catches up. And of course when countries like China (and India, Brazil and other up and coming big polluters) take this position, the big imperialist polluters like the U.$. and Japan complain that they can't be expected to cut emissions if their competition isn't doing the same thing.

All this debate over who has to act first underscores the failure of capitalism at sustaining humynity over the long term. Whether it is bent on mutually assured destruction through war or nuclear attack, or the slower devastation of the environment until the planet becomes unlivable, capitalism is a system that can not take the long view of what is best for humynity when that conflicts with economic profits.

As MIM explained in our essay "On Capitalism and the Environment": "The root cause of environmental problems is capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production by a relative handful of people. This essence of capitalism is one reason why capitalism creates environmental problems: while the majority of the world's people have a material interest in maintaining a healthy planet, the small capitalist ruling class is not accountable to this majority, except in the indirect sense that the ruling class seeks to co-opt the demands of the majority in order to maintain the capitalist system. A second reason why capitalism creates environmental problems is that although the world's resources are controlled by a relative handful of people, planning is not centralized under capitalism. Instead, production is anarchic; it is centered around making profits, not around meeting basic humyn needs in the short or long runs. Much of what is produced by the capitalist system is unnecessary and wasteful, and the system is not fundamentally capable of incorporating long-term human survival as a need. Finally, the capitalist system does not distribute resources equitably. Under capitalism, many people do not have adequate resources for survival. Many environmental problems stem from this root problem."(2)

At some point environmental destruction will interfere with profits, in fact it is already doing so in some parts of the world where waters are becoming un-fishable or crops won't grow. But Capitalism will not be able to make the changes necessary to reverse the effects of global warming. No corporation is going to voluntarily reduce its own emissions when its competition is not doing anything. This is a clear case of where state control is essential to save humanity. When the state is run by the same capitalists focused on profit over humyn need, we end up with a government like the Bush administration that sticks its head in the sand and insists that there is no environmental problem. This is why MIM says we need a dictatorship of the proletariat to run the state and address problems in the interests of the people rather than profit.

We can hope that because global warming is *global* it will affect the capitalists too and they will be forced to make changes. But in reality, environmental disasters disproportionately affect the poor. When a hurricane strikes the United $tates, it is very rare that we see devastation as in the Third World countries because in the United $tates there is money for construction that resists forces of nature. The devastation in New Orleans hit a disproportionately poor and Black area and that was no accident. Similarly, earthquakes like those that kill many people in Latin America and Asia have far less devastating effects in the united states. And as global warming threatens the food supply, imperialist countries will still have the money to buy plenty of food. It is the people in Third World countries who will suffer first. At some point, we can even expect to hear the most die-hard reactionaries gloat about the effects of global warming as they gloated about the effects of AIDS on gay people and others.

We conclude with another quote from the MIM article on capitalism and the environment: "The best way forward for the environment is socialist revolution. The capitalist system of production for profit clearly needs to be replaced by the socialist system of production for humyn needs. This will eliminate the motive for overproduction, overconsumption, and socially-destructive production. Genuine socialism cannot be brought about through reform, because the capitalists will not give up their power voluntarily; they will defend their power by any and all means necessary, including military means. Genuine socialism is less detrimental to the environment, since the absence of the profit motive under socialism eliminates the need to produce many useless products, and since centralized planning eliminates the need for overproduction."

Notes:
1. The Guardian, June 8, 2007
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/mt12capenv.html