Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Ending the affair between polluters and politicians

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Ending the affair between polluters and politicians

Click here to access article from Corporate Europe Observatory.

(Note: Once again I've experienced difficulty accessing articles on their website--actually even worse this morning. Thus, if you have problems, to save time I advise you to load a similar article from Climate Connections that expresses the same theme.)

If you follow this website you have read numerous articles about the influence of industries on the governments of Europe and their interference with climate policies that reduce carbon emissions. The same phenomenon, of course, applies to the USA.

Let me say first that such articles are excellent to help us gain an understanding of how the capitalist version of democracy works. The problem I have is that they never go beyond their theme of industry interference in climate rehabilitation policies. They refuse to admit that capitalism and sustainable climate policies cannot coexist. As long as societies are ruled by a narrow segment of capitalists, the latter will inevitably destroy biospheric conditions that can support human and many other life forms.

In article after article the website's authors provide interesting details on how industry leaders have such easy informal as well as formal access to European official political leaders. Referring to informal contacts, they will make frequent statements like this:

They meet at birthday parties, over breakfast meetings, during cocktail receptions; so just how close are Europe’s dirtiest industries to senior politicians and regulators?

And they will give specific examples:

“Early July I had the pleasure of sharing a dinner table with Commissioner Oettinger at the birthday celebrations of Dr Klaus Mangold in Munstertal [Executive Adviser to the Chairman of DaimlerChrysler] .... I was wondering if he [Oettinger] would have some time either after the breakfast, or perhaps over dinner the evening before, to continue
our conversation from Munstertal about the future of energy and CO2in Europe.”

Email from Shell executive to the European Commission

They go on to discuss the massive lobbying efforts of industry. They report on closed door meetings between business leaders and government officials which are followed up by formal meetings where the former are again given priority over those concerned about carbon emissions. They acknowledge that there is a revolving door between industry and government positions. But, they stop short of recognizing that there is a ruling class consisting of capitalists who thoroughly control political institutions along with all other institutions in society. They always stop short of recognizing the basic contradiction between the short-term profit dynamics of capitalism and a sustainable biosphere.

The website's cartoons illustrate the same limited perspective. This one merely suggests that the European business man will go the way of the dinosaurs, but in reality human beings will go that way if we continue to allow this class and their system to rule over us.