Environmentalism: Fusing Red and Green

...The economic crisis and the seeming incapacity of current neoliberal policies to surmount it are not the only causes...

...movement" which emerged fused old struggles and new values...

...Garcia Guadilla, Ambiente, Estado y Sociedad...

...R. Bahro, La Alternativa (Madrid: Alianza, 1980...

...A small group of professionals, called the Association of Friends in Defense of the Gran Sabana, managed to unite all the country's ecology groups in opposition to the project...

...For Brazil, see K. Goldstein, "Searching for Green through Smog and Squalor: Defense of the Environment in Brazil," PhDdiss., Dept...

...Environmentalism: Fusing Red and Green 1. See J. O'Connor, "Capitalism, Nature, Socialism: A Theoretical Introduction, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism (1988...

...P. Quiroga, "La Dimensi6n Politica de la Problemitica Ambiental," in Crisis Ambientaly DesarrolloEcondmico:Aportesa la discusidn en laArgentina, (Buenos Aires: Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios Ambientales/Fundaci6n Friedrich Ebert, 1991...

...7. See A. Gunder Frank and M. Fuentes, "Nine Theses on Social Movements," IFDA Dossierr, No...

...Yet the environmental movement offers a vision capable of renewing the traditional banners of the Left, with respect to both the basic rights of the working class and the growing demand of civil society for abetter quality of life...

...It points to a redefinition of socialist ideals grounded in a new material basis, involving new forms of ownership and access to productive resources, and new participative institutions...

...2 Workers, too, began to protest the use of toxic chemicals in the workplace and the contamination of surrounding neighborhoods...

...It is heterogeneous---crossing class lines, economic sectors and national boundaries...

...25, No...

...Environmentalism is taking hold in people's consciousness, transforming people's ways of thinking...

...Sustainable development would require not only closing the gap between rich and poor, but questioning the rationality of economic growth as we know it, under both capitalism and socialism...

...In 1983 the "Plan de Ayala" National Coordinating Council, made up of 523 peasant organizations at the time, incorporated the defense of natural resources into their ancestral struggles for land...

...Feldmann was also instrumental in gaining elite supreport for two key environmental organizations: S.O.S...

...This all contributed to a growing clamor for a new concept of development to replace the predatory models of eco- nomic growth, exponential use of natural resources and unsustainable patterns of consumption that have devas- tated the region's environment and left 183 million people in misery...

...They also organized in response to "industrial accidents" caused by negligence and nonenforcement of statutes on workplace hygiene and security, and by chaotic urban and industrial growth...

...IN THE 1970S PEOPLE AFFECTED BY DEteriorating environmental conditions in the work- place and at home, particularly the poor who suffer disproportionately, began to voice explicitly environ- mental concerns...

...It links different social movements that assault the social edifice...

...In 1984 the first national meeting of environmental non-governmental organizations was held in C6rdoba, Argentina.s In Colombia, a series of national forums on ecology took place in the mid-1980s, although only the central western portion of the country has formed a regional ecological council, known as CERCO...

...Although the state can coopt the movement's leadership, it has yet to find a way to defuse its demands...

...and O. Ovalles, La Fuerza de la Ecologfa en Venezuela (Caracas: Ecotopia, 1983...

...Other peasant groups campaign against pesti- cide abuse, intensive farming and the control of residual waters...

...Protest grows out of deteriorating living conditions which people associate with failed development policies, the inadequate use of resources, and environmental degradation...

...In Latin America these movements marked the beginning of society's break with the authoritarian state...

...And the Mixtec Indian communities of the Sierra de Juirez in Oaxaca state have fought to regain control over their forests, which the government had ceded to a foreign company...

...J. O'Connor, "Capitalism, Nature, Socialism...

...His most recent book, Cultura y Manejo Sustentable de los Recursos Naturales (Mexico: UNAM/Porrda, 1992), was written with J. Carabias...

...But his action neutralized the efforts of the environmental movement and further consolidated the power of the state...

...to "a spirit of civil disobedience that goes beyond the limits of rebellion, and a profound scorn for authority, for institutions and for the customary channels" of protest...

...The global, transnational and long-term character of some environmental problems (among them biodiversity, species conservation, climatic change, trade and disposal of dangerous and toxic waste) pose problems that are beyond the consciousness, daily lives and direct interests of the citizenry...

...See E. Leff, Ecotechnological Productivity: a conceptual basis for the integrated management of natural resources," Social Science Information, Vol...

...Latin America' s emerging democratic regimes have skillfully manipulated the environmental cause by invoking its symbols for other purposes...

...Hundreds of these councils were formed, although momentum fell off with the change in government in 1986.6 ENVIRONMENTALISM SEEMS TO BE THE only new social movement that is really "new," the result of heretofore unknown phenomena: cumulative ecological destruction and global socio-environmental degradation.7 This multi-class, heterogeneous, and multisectoral movement has yet to find a strategy capable of consolidating the power of civil society...

...63 (1988...

...Nearly 25 years ago the student movements of 1968 announced the emergence of a populace more aware of its rights and desirous of participating in the decisions that affect it...

...3 Unregulated municipal dumps are another issue that gives rise to local environmental organizing...

...Garcfa Guadilla (ed...

...By positing a new paradigm for achieving the ideals of liberty, equality and social justice--one based on a new relationship to nature- environmental consciousness may well be the vehicle that will renew socialism's potential to transform civilization...

...ofPolitics, Princeton University, 1990;forArgentina, see P. Quiroga, "La Dimensi6n Politica...

...8. Recent studies identified 900 ecology groups in Brazil, 700 in Argentina and over 100 each in Mexico and Venezuela...

...Although "ecology" has become a mandatory staple of political rhetoric, both socialism and democracy in power remain divorced from the transformatury capacity of environmentalism: democratic participation in the management of environmental resources...

...This has opened the way for new approaches to social change...

...Such was the case in Caracas in February 1989 and then again in March of this year...

...They are now compensated directly without intermediaries, set their own prices, and are learning how to read...

...Their efforts dovetailed with new middle-class demands for a better quality of life, for rights to expression and participation, and for the recu- peration of community values...

...In Mexico environmentalism has given new meaning to the struggles of peasants, workers and the urban poor...

...It would overcome poverty and marginalization through self-managed production to satisfy basic needs and to enhance the quality of life of the majorities.' 0 In many ways, the environmental "movement" seems little more than wishful thinking: an amalgam of groups without defined social actors or effective strategies to build power, paralyzed when faced with the uncertain direction of global change...

...As en drives down the quality of life, environmental consciousne tional banners of the Left...

...Although growing popular protest often does not explicitly refer to the environmental crisis, environmental consciousness underlies much of it...

...The "environmental Deforestation along Brazil's southern Atlantic coast...

...Toledo, "La Resistencia Ecol6gica del Campesinado Mexicano," Ecologia Politica, No...

...4 In Brazil, despite the existence of over 900 environmental groups with 35,000 members, the movement has viromenal dgraatio IlaUe Iew iInlVLIU 111IV U1e environmental degradationpopular movement and re- ss is renewing the tradi-p uar e ment ade- mains essentially made up of urban middle-class pro- fessionals...

...Largely as a result of his efforts, the 1988 constitution includes an article for environmental protection that is among the most progressive in the world...

...The recent gas explosions in Guadalajara have already triggered significant protests...

...and O. Ovalles, La Fuerza de la Ecologia en Venezuela...

...One of their greatest successes was the cancellation of the TransAmazon Ralley in 1987, aproposed car-race from Venezuela to Brazil, which would have been disastrous for the fragile ecosystems of the Gran Sabana region...

...They offered new perspectives on social change and generated a new political culture out- side established channels of power...

...This "accident," which killed over 400 and left more than 4,000 injured, gave rise to a struggle for compensation, for the relocation of the industrial park, and for policy changes to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy elsewhere in the country...

...Since 1976, peasants in the state of Tabasco in Mexico's Southeast, for example, have protested oil spills and pollution of the rivers...

...The socialist governments of Latin America have been open to the environmental viewpoint, but their environmentalism has been limited to Nicaragua's defense of natural resources and Cuba's policies of decentralized economic planning...

...More effective have been the efforts of "eco-politicians"-people from the movement who have gone on to win public office...

...Meanwhile, Latin America's great megalopololi-Mexico City, Santiago, Slo Paulo and Cubatio (Brazil)-became the world's most polluted and poverty-stricken cities...

...Poverty and inequality are as environmentally unsustainable as the current trend toward overconsumption in wealthy societies...

...Civil society, shaking off its passivity toward populist governments and confronting the oppression of totalitarian regimes, has emerged as a multi-faceted and decentralizing force, demanding democracy via citizen participation in matters that concern individual freedoms, living conditions, and their destiny as peoples...

...Illusions of economic miracle-oil wealth in Mexico and Venezuela, the opening up of the Amazon, the colo- nization of tropical jungles in many countries, extensive cattle ranching, the Green Revolution, migration to urban and industrial centers-all left a legacy of deforestation, soil salinization and erosion, and air and water pollution...

...These community-based efforts seek not only to move the dumps out of town, systematize land ownership and find more healthy and efficient ways of disposing of waste, but also to transform the dumps from the fiefdoms of garbage barons into community-controlled productive resources...

...9 A new paradigm for sustainable development, based on direct community participation, would link up local economies according to the ecotechnological potential of their resources, both natural and cultural...

...The governor of the state of Zulia described it well when he said that desperation had led Mexican environmentalistEnrique Leffworks at the United Nations Environment Program...

...2 (Barcelona, 1991...

...See E. Leff, "Cultura Democritica, Gesti6n Ambiental y Desarrollo Sustentable en Armdrica Latina," in Conferencia Internacional sobre Cultura Democrdticay Desarrollo: Hacia el TercerMilenio en Amdrica Latina (Montevideo: UNESCO/PAX, 1990...

...It mixes with other social movements, old and new, renewing worker and peasant struggles, indigenous and urban popular movements, and the peace and conservation movements...

...Although the environmental movement has no explicit strategy to build links to the Left or to build a new socialism, it has transformed people's conception of socialism...

...4. A good example was the local community organization in Colonia Hidalgo, in the city of Minatitldn, Veracruz, which managed to transform an unregulated dump into a sanitary landfill overseen by the community and a municipal "ecology ombudsman...

...Estado, Sociedad Civil y Medio Ambiente: Crisis y Conflictos Socio-Ambientales en America Latina y Venezuela (Caracas: Universidad Sim6n Bolivar/Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo, 1991...

...But as Galileo put it years ago, e pure si muove, and nevertheless it moves...

...and Pr6-Jureia, to preserve the estuary-lagoon complex in the south of Sdo Paulo state...

...6. E. La Torre, "Estado, Ambiente y Sociedad Civil en Colombia," in M.P...

...2. See V.M...

...Fibio Feldmann, for example, a founder of Sgo Paulo's OIKOS ecology group, became in 1986 the first congressman elected on an environmentalist platform...

...Sandoval, "Primera Reuni6n Nacional de Movimientos Sociales y Medio Ambiente" (Mexico: Programa Universitario Justo Sierra, UNAM, 1985...

...Peasants have protested arsenic poisoning due to the overuse of the aquifer in Comarca Lagunera and irrigation with sewer water in the Mezquital Valley...

...Also responsible are the state's failure to develop ways for people to participate directly in the improvement of the quality of their lives, and its incapacity to repress new forms of collective identity and solidarity that question its power...

...The tendency of ecology groups to stand firm by the principles of diversity and autonomy has led to atomized organizations, fractured power and distrust of any form of leadership.8 At the same time, the movement's immaturity has favored the rise of environmental caudillos and personality cults, facilitating the process of co-optation as the state mines this fertile ground forits own environmental spokespeople...

...When Mexico's President Salinas decided to close the Azcapotzaclo oil refinery in Mexico City last year, for example, he was not under public pressure to do so...

...This coincided with a new awareness of the limits of growth, the degradation of the environment and the deterioration of the quality of life...

...for Mexico, see E. KurzingerWiemman et al, PoliticaAmbiental enMdxico: El Papel de las Organizaciones no Gubernamentales (M6xico: Instituto Alemdn de Desarrollo/Fundaci6n Friedrich Ebert, 1991...

...It combined the struggle for survival with the quest for a better quality of life...

...Most of these are very small and many are not active, but the numbers are indicative of the movement's atomized nature, due in great part to the environmental philosophy which stresses decentralization and autonomy...

...And in Ciudad Judrez in Chihuahua, the workers who labored under wretched conditions picking reusable goods in the municipal dump threw off the yoke of the official union and formed a cooperative...

...This effort sought to set up Green Councils in each municipality to organize the communities in defense of their environmental resources, as well as to strengthen local democracy...

...for Venezuela, see M.P...

...The new democracies are more inclined toward neoliberal de-regulation than environmental management...

...The environmentalism being born may well prove to be the theory and praxis that will allow humanity to survive into the twenty-first century...

...This environmental vision aspires to undo the centralized economic and political power of the elites and the ideology that legitimizes unequal, oppressive and ecocidal development...

...These new avenues of protest, often quiet, symbolic or nearly invisible, can lead to explosions of anger...

...The cooperative covers medical expenses and funerals...

...As a consequence, instead of evoking broad class actions, environmental issues get translated into diverse, local, concrete concerns, like pollution, the destruction of woodlands, and the degradation of the water supply...

...3 (1986...

...A new Left that fuses red and green as it reaches for a new utopia could launch a new cycle of social change, capable of transcending the civilizing rationale of modernity...

...The governmental agency responsible for managing natural resources, INDERENA, generated the greatest surge in environmental action by launching a "green campaign" in 1985-1986...

...Its actors circulate within and outside the state institutions, the universities and the new professional entities and organizations of civil society...

...Mata Atlantica, to preserve the remaining 5% of the tropical forest that once covered the southern Atlantic Coast...

...5. From that meeting two tendencies emerged: the Confederation of Environmental NGOs (COANG) and the Ecology Action Network...

...1 (Barcelona...

...3. The worst of these was the November 19, 1984 explosion of a PEMEX gas depot in the heart of San Juan Ixhuatepec (known as San Juanico), a town of 70,000 inhabitants located in the industrial zone of Tlanepantla north of Mexico City...

...9. F. Ovejero, "Ecologfa y Proyectos de Izquierda,"Ecologa Polftica, No...

...For an overview of the social-environmental movement in Mexico, see E. Left and J.M...

...R. Bahro, La Alternativa...

...In Venezuela, the most visible part of the environmental movement is also made up of middle-class-based ecology groups who pursue local, restricted demands...