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“A world worth fighting for”: Agrarian South reviews Creating an Ecological Society

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Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation
388 pp, $25 pbk, ISBN 9781583676295
By Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams

Reviewed by S. Krithi for Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, vol. 6, no. 2, 2017, 406-409, first published, January 2018

At a time when capitalism is widely considered as the only and inevitable system, there are seldom critiques that go beyond understanding the inherent faults of the capitalist system to establishing the possibility of an alternative. This book is the latest contribution by Fred Magdoff and
Chris Williams in their lifelong commitment not only to elucidate the ecological crises entailed in capitalism, but to provide the basis and the possibilities for an alternate system: eco-socialism. This book is unique in integrating a vast range of examples of crises, from socio-economic variables like labour, housing and race-based discrimination to ecological factors like waste and pollution under a single macro-perspective, to present a comprehensive critique of the present capitalist paradigm and its socio-ecological consequences.

The sheer scope of this attempt is bewildering, and it is to the authors’ credit that they bring it together to form a cohesive story. The basic arguments are the following: the present system is unsustainable, and this is not inevitable but the nature of capitalism; there is nothing in biology or in human genes that necessitates the present world order and there are sufficient examples that back co-operation and equality as basic norms of the biological world; it is viable to envision an alternate system from existing knowledge that would address ecological complexities; this alternate system can only be brought by a revolutionary transformation and there are certain preliminary forms that this endeavour could take. These arguments are supported in this book by an immense effort in collecting and presenting information, covering ecological, biological, social, economic and other perspectives.

These arguments are presented in four sections. The first section (Chapters 1–4) presents the nature of the current crises, both ecological and socio-economic, and the systemic reasons behind their origin. The authors bring together the material of their earlier work and expand its scope, presenting the alarming scale of the imminent crisis. The evidence for the immediacy of the environmental crisis is augmented by the differential experiences across race, class, gender and other socioeconomic categories. Simultaneously, they contest the assertion of green alternatives within the capitalist system as the solution. Chapter 2 locates the global socio-ecological crisis in the profit orientation of capitalism. There is a systematic exploration of the nature of capitalism and its rise and growth through slavery, colonialism and imperialism, while elaborating the concepts of profit, commodity and labour. The attack in the neoliberal period is not just on labour but on the progress made by African-Americans, women, environmentalists and other social groups in the 1970s and 1980s. The next two chapters link the drastic environmental changes and the worsening socio-economic conditions as part of capitalism’s destructive tendencies that depend on over-extraction of nature and labour. For instance, the massive waste generation, climate change and other changes due to the capitalist system are in conjunction with imperialism and war leading to greater exploitation of the poorer regions and marginalized sections.

In the second section (Chapters 5–7), the authors show that these tendencies are not inherent in humanity. The desire for equality and fairness characterizes humanity as much as the opposite, and cooperation and pro-social behaviour have been the dominant characteristics of human societies. An in-depth study of history and evolution shows that there has always been a dialectical interaction between people and the environment. The authors propose a re-envisioning of human nature as different from the ‘individualistic, greedy, acquisitive and competitive’ (p. 174) image portrayed under an inevitable capitalist system. Historically, there have been different and less destructive forms of interaction with nature, and the present form can be attributed not to human nature but the nature of the world capitalist system. Violence and war are associated not with humanity but with forms of human society.

It is capitalism with its associated ideas of competition, consumerism and individual greed, particularly among the rich, that has promoted the present world view. This barely covers 0.3 per cent of the history of human evolution on earth. Human behaviour is thus not innate nature but reflective of the economic and societal norms of the day. The authors show how nature and access to it are a socially constructed process, mediated by race, class and gender: this is significantly different from the dominant paradigms today. On the slightly contentious issues, a greater level of emphasis on establishing the argument may have been appreciated, particularly for the sceptics. For instance, for people not convinced yet of the argument, the simple assertion that ‘there is nothing in our biology to constrain or derail its (equality) blossoming’ (p. 210) may seem insufficiently proven.

Once capitalism is not conceived as the end of human development, in the third section (Chapters 8–10), the authors argue for the need to learn alternate possibilities from existing knowledge and experience in the human and animal world. A system directed towards reactive and preventive approaches, with adaptive mechanisms, is far more capable of handling ecological complexities than the present reductive and isolating approaches. This requires building resilience in socio-ecological systems through long-term planning that is ecologically sound. There is a detailed description of the forms this needs to take, such as localized production, promoting diversity and establishing self-regulating systems and balanced natural cycles which focus on improving human resilience at the individual and social levels. It is not the absence of alternate possibilities but antagonism among the ruling classes to such options that curtail their effective implementation. The exposition on what would be ecological approaches to fulfilling human needs starts from re-thinking agriculture and forms of growing food, soil health and livestock management as well as forms of generating energy, water conservation, transportation, reducing waste and creating healthy cities. Though this section is empirically very rich, a sharper theoretical focus may have focused on the point more pointedly.

Having established that another system is possible, the authors present both the values and the framework needed behind this new ecological society and how to reach it, in the final section (Chapters 11–12). This calls for a re-envisioning of society itself and what living well means. Equality and democratic decision-making needs to be given centrality, with an aim of achieving a class-free society. For this purpose, economic rationing and the present capitalist mechanisms will be overturned in favour of ensuring access to all. Not only does private production need to be replaced by public ownership of production, but worker and community control with promotion of communal sharing mechanisms is required. This necessitates planning that places people at the centre of development, with a social purpose that includes ecological considerations. This also implies a changed world order with corresponding ethics and behaviour patterns and new patterns of life, work and leisure. While the ideas seem somewhat utopian, the examples from different countries like Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico keep them grounded.

The final chapter then postulates that the utter socio-ecological crisis necessitates a change that cannot be done through mere reforms, as these are too easily reversed, but need a revolution. This revolution will have to assume a mass movement form and international characteristics, rejecting fragmentation and promoting changing leadership and organizational forms. While resistance from the establishment and ruling classes is inevitable, the fight for a new world system does not end at the point of revolution, but is a sustained effort to keep a new society alive, learning from history, and dismantling the capitalist state. This, the authors proclaim, is a world worth fighting for and a fight that provides meaning to life. Although this book provides some alternatives, the revolutionary content of these alternatives could have been described more exhaustively, especially if more of its examples were drawn from the Global South.

All in all, this is an excellent book for students, scholars and activists looking for an introduction to the environmental crisis and its structural basis that integrates political economy and ecology. It not only critiques the current order but makes another world seem possible, which is very important at the present juncture. Rigorous research provides a complex understanding, making it essential reading, not only for researchers
interested in learning about the socio-ecological crisis, but for people searching for ways of intervention. Dedicated readers in this area may be familiar with some of these arguments, as they draw from Magdoff’s larger work. As always, the authors do a credible and scathing critique of the current dominant theoretical perspectives, though perhaps a greater expansion on the transformation processes may have been of relevance to the movements currently debating alternatives.

S. Krithi
Assistant Professor
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, India

Originally published in Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 6 No. 3 Copyright 2017 © Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South (CARES), New Delhi. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders and the publishers, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi

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