[A-List] Re: [R-G] Eco-Apartheid: Why is the green movement so lily white?

[Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>]

There is and will be no such thing as Green Capitalism; but as someone 
who got active in the early 90's, the bigger elephant in the room-- a 
generally white supremacist tinge to the entire movement-- has t be 
taken up and moved on from, for though the solutions of the article are 
very weak, the attempt to put the question of race, class and privilege 
on the table is not only good, it is utterly urgent.

With climate change, peak oil and US wars for energy all intersecting, 
the upsurge in this form of consciousness will be very stark and 
profound-- but lest we start to address the weaknesses of this movement 
as not one of simple policy, but a "clear as a bell" sign of the 
problems with the entire way the society is structured, we will have NO 
CHANCE. For that reason, despite the calls for business input, etc... 
the piece goes a long way.

The arguments are American. That could explain why the indigenous 
component, while deriding racism, is actually too much of the usual 
"look at them in the past" stuff; In Canada, the best environmental 
groups often are subconsciously the most racist.

I'll tell a story that gave me great hope, but also tells a major 
warning (names removed to avoid gossip). A nation was doing a road 
blockade to prevent logging on their territory that had pushed them to 
the edge-- after trying all the "proper" channels it became clear this 
was the way they needed to move forward. When they alerted greens who 
had helped them before, others too were concerned from an anti-poverty 
organization-- one known for "radical actions" to the people who only 
read papers. The greens phoned people from the nation "those people are 
too radical, we can't be associated with them", they said. The 
nti-poverty folk had already shown up with blankets, food and were 
helping construct a winter shelter to keep out the cold near the 
blockade site set by the nation. The green folk were tol "they have 
already helped us, don't call us, we'll call you".

This is hopeful because people from the non-green movement got it; but 
it is illustrative of the way white/settler supremacy works in so many 
of the supposedly green actions happening in "Canada"-- actions more 
often than not led by nations facing threats to their survival.

The "green" movement will often only back nations as a means to an end, 
not as a general principle. Once, when asked about indigenous 
sovereignty, David Suzuki-- a brilliant analyst, lousy activist-- stated 
"yes, just show me how the nation is supporting the environment and I'll 
be happy to support their cause once I see that".

Clearly, he doesn't get it. But get it we must, because as energy 
changes, along with the climate, and the alternative to our tossing them 
from power becomes clearly climate change and more wars of conquest led 
by a rapacious imperialism, we must prevent the alternate side of the 
equation from advancing: one where the first world dumps the fake 
stalling time options onto the third world, again, while poisoning the 
internal colonies on Turtle Island.

Our chances are bad, and they aren't worth spit without taking on the 
totality of environmental disasters and consequences as they come. Right 
now, that means tackling a system that is working to take food from the 
mouths of the exploited and turn it into fuel. Why not shut down the 
cars and turn them into food delivering devices?


Gregory Meyerson wrote:
> I'm sure richard posted this out of disbelief.
>
>
> an exciting anti racist green capitalism.
>
>
> I guess the grain of truth in green capitalism is that billions and 
> perhaps trillions of dollars (pick your currency) would have to be 
> invested in public transport, passivehaus (pl), retrofitted 
> infrastructure, solar, wind, carbon sequestration tech, synching 
> marginalized fossil fuel sources with electricity grids.  all that.

--
Macdonald Stainsby
Coordinator, http://oilsandstruth.org
--
moderated radical news & discussion list:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green

In the contradiction lies the hope.
   --Bertholt Brecht.