Lecture 5 - Eco-socialism

Fraser on Eco-socialism

Challenges us two expand view 1) Fraser pushes us to think not just politics + environment ALSO + social 2) Fraser ask us to interrogate how politics + environment nexus is related to econ

Multiplicity of environmental politics (4)

1. Environmental politics or “ecopolitics” currently takes many diff forms

   1. E.g., youth activists, degrowthers, indigenous communities pitted against corporate extractors, environmental feminists, green New Dealers, eco-nationalists, etc.

2. Each form has diff diagnosis-prescription about what’s causing env degradation + what would be needed to correct it + contradict each other at times

   1. BUT This moment of pol confusion is also one of possibility/opportunity -> for mobilization + coalition 

Fraser’s Eco-Socialism (4)

• This moment of pol confusion is also one of possibility/opportunity -> for mobilization + coalition

• The opportunity as a counter-hegemonic bloc (In a world org by capital, an anti-capitalist position is definitionally counter-hegemonic) that is:

  • Trans-environmental

  • Anti-Capitalism

Trans-Environmental (2)

1. Environmental crises linked to social and political crises

2. Environmental issues bound to non-environmental issues

Anti-capitalist (3)

1. Capitalism is a common driver behind env, social, + pol crises -> Capitalism non-accidentally creates environmental crises 

2. A fundamental contradiction within capitalism means it creates crises in all three domains 

3. Therefore, shared rejection of capitalism could be unifying

Capitalism non-accidentally creates environmental crises (4)

1. “Capitalism non-accidentally creates environmental crises” ≠ “Only capitalism creates environmental crises”

2. Non-capitalist societies can, but are not structurally compelled, to generate env harm

3. By contrast, capitalism can’t help but generate env harm bcs of a contradiction baked into its structure

4. Both Keynseians + eco-socialists see capitalism as cause for env crisis -> BUT for eco-socialists, unlike green Keynesians, capitalism cannot be made greener

Capitalism - Definition (2)

1. System of econ production + exchange predicated on growth + accumulation

2. System for org relationship between a) econ production + exchange b) their supporting, “non-econ” conditions + materials

Capitalism - Contradiction (3)

1. Capitalism org relationship between econ + non-econ in a contradictory + self-undermining way

2. Capitalism divorces econ (value creating) from nonecon (not value creating)

3. Therefore, capitalism invites econ to free ride on noneconresources 

Capitalism - Non-Economic contradictions (3)

• Capitalism needs: environment, society + politics

• But by designating each as "non-economic," capitalism encourages econ to free ride on + corrode:

• This means capitalism simultaneously needs + trashes:

Capitalism needs: environment, society + politics (3)

1. Both environment as a) tap for inputs b) sink for waste -> excludes nature from econ 

2. Both society for a) carework of human labor b) carework of human cooperation -> excludes social from econ (sees no econ value that goes into social reproduction so encourages participants to free ride) -> so non-accidentally creates env crisis + social inequalities 

3. Politics for a) security forces b) legal protection of private property c) policies that enable accumulation -> BUT also excludes these from econ, incentivises pv actors to free ride -> evade taxes/public goods -> so also non-accidentally creates crisis 

But by designating each as "non-economic," capitalism encourages econ to free ride on + corrode: (3)

1. -environmental resources

2. -social resources

3. -political resources

This means capitalism simultaneously needs + trashes: (3)

1. Environment, leading to environmental crises (i.e., capital’s environmental or ecological contradiction)

2. Society, leading to social crises (i.e., capital’s social contradiction)

3. Politics, leading to political crises (i.e., capital’s political contradiction)

Fraser on Capitalism and contradiction (2)

1. There is an ecological contradiction at heart of capitalist societies in way society establishes relation between social + nature

2. Eco-politics must be anti-capitalist BUT also need to consider structural contradictions in capitalist society

Eco-politics must be anti-capitalist BUT also need to consider structural contradictions in capitalist society (5)

1. Social reproductive conditions for capitalist econ -> production’s relation to care work (esp by women) -> care work is indispensable 

   1. BUT capitalism org it by splitting it - splitting production from reproduction - thereby licensing econ to free ride on society - to appropriate care work w/o replenishment 

2. Social reproductive contradiction is deeply entangled in ecological contradiction as it encompasses life + death (children/sick/elder…) -> everyone depends on care work 

3. Also political contradictions -> excludes political from economic 

4. Need to understand + connect ecological + social  + pol contradictions 

Non-Economic (Social, Pol, Ecological) interconnected (5)

1. Environment, society + polity interconnected

2. Therefore, crisis in one domain likely to mean crisis in others

3. This analytical complexity is an opportunity for solidarity + coalition building (i.e., those concerned ab seemingly diff crises actually have a shared enemy: capitalism)

4. E.g., environmental crises are often also pol crises bcs states manage boundary between env + econ, making env decisions also pol decisions

5. At intersection of 3 domains is race- capitalism expropriates labor + wealth of full communities -> previously through colonialism now through post-colonial practices

   

Eco-socialism VS Single-issue environmentalism (3)

1. Interconnection of “noneconomic” domains + their racialization challenges single issue environmentalism

2. As strategy (shallow critique): single-issue env bypasses opportunity for coalition-building

3. As ideology (deeper critique): single-issue env accepts capitalism’s separation of econ + env

Capital’s Contradiction in History (6)

1. History of capitalism demonstrates systematic creation of interconnected env, social + pol crises

2. When crises come to a head, one “accumulation regime,” will be replaced by another (Fraser id 4 “accumulation regimes”)

3. But each new period will eventually create new env, social + pol crises of its own

4. Bcs it too will segregate econ from non-econ, generating env, social, + political free-riding

5. History of capitalism is a cyclical pattern of: accumulation regime; crisis; new accumulation regime; new crisis, etc.

   1. Fraser is agnostic ab whether climate change will put end to this pattern

Fraser’s Liberal-Colonial Period (5)

1. Characterized by metabolic rift in Global North

2. Mass agri shipped from countryside to cities to feed newly concentrated factory laborers

3. Food produced + consumed in one place returns nutrients to soil, but food produced + consumed in diff places doesn’t, leading to declining soil fertility

4. Newly industrialized Global North experiences soil-nutrient crisis threatening food supplies

5. Industrial capital creates a metabolic rift within capitalist society

Metabolic rift - Definition (2)

1. Metabolic rift: disruption of society’s ability to generate energy needed to sustain + regenerate itself

2. Eco-socialists see capitalism as esp vulnerable to metabolic rifts bcs of how it relates to its “non-econ” bases

Guano - 19th (Liberal-Colonial Period) century must-have natural resource (4)

1. Guano: fertilizer traditionally used by indigenous ppl of South America

2. As industrial agri depletes soil fertility in Global North, interest in Global South guano deposits grows

3. Peru: key guano exporter to Global North, guano revenue makes up large part of state revenue by late 1800s -> Peru could pay its debt to Britain by exporting + supplying Guano 

4. Guano trade profitable but environmentally taxing

Guano trade profitable but environmentally taxing (3)

1. Unique geography + aesthetic of guano islands erased by extraction

2. Guano producing birds driven away + slaughtered

3. Metabolic rift in North creates env destruction in South

Guano and Labor (4)

1. Early 19th century Peruvian labor shortage leads to immigration law subsidizing import of contract laborers

2. European merchants import Chinese laborers through coercion + deception under horrific transport conditions

3. Chinese laborers employed on plantations, railroads + in guano business under slave-like conditions (guano mining thought to be worst)

4. Compensating for metabolic rift in Global North via ecological imperialism leads to inhumane, racialized exploitation of labor (i.e., social crisis) in Global South

Ecological imperialism - Definition (3)

1. Ecological imperialism: taking resources from capital's periphery to compensate for metabolic rift at capital's core

2. Eco-socialists see this as capitalism’s standard "fix" to metabolic rifts

3. Unsustainable growth at capitalism’s center/core is propped up + sustained via material pillaging + degradation at capitalism’s periphery

Nitrates - (Liberal-Colonial Period) Another must-have natural resource (6)

1. Nitrates: 2nd fix for capital’s depletion of soil fertility in Global North

2. Found in Peru + Bolivia, nitrates start to rival guano as export fertilizer of choice

3. Peru monopolizes nitrates, expropriates pv investors, many of whom are foreign (especially British)

4. Bolivia raises taxes on nitrate exports

   1. Monopolization + taxation anger foreign investors

5. Leads to War of the Pacific, AKA The Nitrate War, 1879-1883

The Nitrate war (5)

1. Chile backed by Britain declares war on Peru + Bolivia

2. Chile, victorious, claims all nitrate zones held by Peru + Bolivia

3. British investors also win big 

4. Nitrate War seen at time as “case of British-instigated, Chilean-executed aggression” motivated by quest for fertilizer

5. Metabolic rift in Global North creates not just env + social crises but here also pol crisis in form of war

British investors also win big (3)

1. They buy up nitrate certificates issued by Peru during monopolization

2. After war, Chile recognizes these certificates as proof of ownership

3. So British stake in South American nitrates balloons on heels of war

Eco-Socialism takeaways (4)

1. Ecological imperialism allows Global North to overburden its own env by taking from env in Global South -> e.g. of Britain + Nitrate 

2. Capital’s contradictory relation to env is sustained by ecological imperialism

   1. E.g., soil nutrient crisis in North displaced via env, social, + political crises in South

3. Fraser: trans-environmental bloc org around rejection of capitalism is for her the only adequate prescription for env harm