Boom Town

Capitalist logic insists the solution to every problem is more growth. All economic indicators point to a huge post-pandemic surge and of course that's what all the Biden stimulus is about. Locally, folks are definitely spending like there's no tomorrow- and if the economy booms there literally won't be. Everyone, including ecosocialists, are celebrating the "millions of new jobs" that go along with high growth and of course the Democrats will have lots to crow about when people have lots of disposable income to throw around. Entertainment, vacations, a new pick-up truck perhaps? All of which creates emissions. Despite Obama's assurance that "growth and emissions can be de-coupled.They can't. And that's the contradiction we are living and must heighten, though you won't win popularity contests. Which brings me to DSA and the big push to pass the PRO Act. I am worried that these young, mostly white, educated socialists are conflating the BLM uprising with a newly energized working class, of which I see little evidence. Apples and oranges. And my worry is that this young cadre doesn't know the dampening effect a loss (or string of losses) has on movement building capacity. The Amazon union campaign is a case in point, as was the Bernie campaign. Back to the local scene, the DSA chapter wants to support workers who were fired at the airport for walking out. But we already have a dozen under-staffed campaigns in the works, the workers are totally unorganized and a legal battle for re-instatement is pissing in the wind. Which brings me to my last complaint: our local 350 branch insists on arguing that we should abandon fossil fuels "because renewables are cheaper". And so they continue to reinforce capitalist/market logic despite the fact it is totally irrational. "Cheaper" by whose accounting? But they believe deeply that this argument and this logic is the only way to appeal to "the masses". Despite over a decade of watching emissions rise as a sclerotic movement flounders around Green Capitalism.