General Agreement

I have joined a DSA "working group" set up to formulate a coherent strategy for the organization as concerns climate action. The proposal is to research the history of the climate justice movement and the different players (NGO's, Blockadia, UN COP, etc..)then try to identify ways to be more effective going forward.

I just re-read an essay by Andreas Malm titled Revolution in a Warming World and noticed lots of convergence with my own thinking on strategy. So I would love to see the working group give it a read. Here are some of the main points: "Any climatic spark will always burn through relations between people on its way to an explosion."
Here Malm points to Syria as an example, a place where severe drought heightened already existing tensions and precipitated the implosion of a society. In other words a "climatic impact is articulated through a particular social formation." Malm then claims that because "it is getting hotter at work", class conflict is heating up, at least in the so-called "developing world". Which brings us to the concept of "uneven and combined development", or the way capitalism takes on different modes in the Center and the Periphery and here Malm uses the Russian Revolution to support his argument that war induced threat of famine led to the crisis and the revolution's authoritarian turn. "Climate change is likely to be the accelerator of the twenty-first century, speeding up the contradictions of late capitalism"

This, of course, was Naomi Klein's basic thesis as well, a la Shock Doctrine, that the crisis contains a kernel of opportunity, a very rare opportunity for radical transformation. Many liberal and moderates will call for "adaptation" and peaceful ways to "transition" incrementally but that isn't how it is going to go down. Humans have a remarkable capacity to only see what they want to see until the catastrophe actually grabs them by the throat and starts shaking. Even then they might turn to religion or meditation or fentenyl.

Citizen Participation

I was just invited to "comment" on a proposed expansion of a coal mine. This is part of the "public process" which must legally take place before the coal company starts digging; they apply for a permit, the State decides whether it meets their "standards" then they invite citizens to comment. Sounds pretty damn democratic!

The first thing you need to do is step back and consider a few things like: Mining more coal? Really? Cause I thought there was a climate emergency? So isn't the proposal itself insane? But once we have decided to "participate" in moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic ( to immerse ourselves in the mad dance) we see lots of strange rules. Our comments can't consider how many deck chairs, we can only comment on the configuration: rows, circles, randomly scattered perhaps. We aren't allowed to consider the cumulative arrangement of chairs, only the ones on the deck. In other words there are lots of little parameters already set up by the capitalists and their lobbyists outside of which your "comments" are meaningless, not worthy of consideration by the powers that be.

The beauty of this "process" ( from the capitalist perspective) is that is sucks up tons of activist energy and directs it into a bureaucratic, regulatory black hole. These hearings and decisions all take forever and if you can't take time off work to go attend you get to feel guilty and thankful at the same time that a handful of committed, retired folks can go waste their time for you. This "participatory process" also serves the important function of re-legitimizing "democratic capitalism" as a fair, open system of governing. Look at how they want to include our voices!

Of course at a psychological level it causes all sorts of dissociation and trauma as you get sucked into an "irrational rationality". Arguing about how much poison you should be giving your grandchildren can only result in a psychotic break leading to "President Trump" and reality TV shows and religious cults and mass shootings and Texas. Golf. Christian rock.