Surviving Capitalism (Not) : “Green” Capitalism builds Big Solar: Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater?

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

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

“Green” Capitalism builds Big Solar: Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Click here to access article by David Schwartzman from Capitalism Nature Socialism (CNS).

I think that the author is engaging in a bit of knit-picking with another anti-capitalist writer, Hamza Hamouchene, but nevertheless the former does focus on the immediate issue of reducing fossil fuel emissions without neglecting the ultimate agenda: the urgent necessity of replacing private control of economies under capitalism with social control of economies under some form of socialism.

While ecosocialist class struggle is still too weak to prevent the deficiencies in these big solar projects, and as the global climate and energy justice movement gains strength, then the opportunity to create a sustainable and just solar transition will grow. But the creation of a wind/solar energy infrastructure should be welcomed now even with all the problems pointed out by Hamouchene. We cannot wait for the end of the rule of capital to start building this renewable infrastructure; it will be too late.