RE: [Marxism] Marx and the natural environment

["robert montgomery" <ilyenkova@xxxxxxxxx>]

Apologies if this excerpt from Marx on alienated labor has been
already referenced in this thread ( I didn't see it on first pass).
There's a lot packed in here and elaborated discussions are very
important (i.e.) the ongoing one on the List and things like Foster's
"Marx's Ecology".  I first came across this about 35 years ago when it
was argued against Marx that his repeated emphasis on the historical
necessity for humans to struggle with and subdue nature made him
essentially anti-nature.
It seemed to me then that this excerpt pretty much settles the
question. It still does, at least as a starting point.

"Nature is man's inorganic body – that is to say, nature insofar as it
is not the human body. Man lives from nature – i.e., nature is his
body – and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it is he is not
to die. To say that man's physical and mental life is linked to nature
simply means that nature is linked to itself, for man is a part of
nature." (from Estranged Labour, Early Writings)
RM

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