The environment

Stuff about nature etc.

John Bellamy Foster: Marxism, metabolism and ecology

Over the past decade or so, John Bellamy Foster has been one of the principal architects of the revival of Marxist ecology, arguing that the relationship between nature and human society is best conceptualised in terms of metabolism. Foster’s new book, The Ecological Revolution (2009) brings together many of his essays on the subject and together with his earlier book Marx’s Ecology (2000), makes a significant contribution to historical materialism. Metabolism (stoffwechsel) was widely used in Marx’s main published work, Capital volume I, and it can be found in successive drafts of his mature...

Who are Workers’ Climate Action?

Workers Climate Action is a network of socialists, anarchists, environmentalists and trade unionists seeking to build a mass working-class response to climate change. We don’t believe that climate change can be averted by a bit of green consumerism, whether that is individuals buying organic veg or multinationals buying “carbon credits”. We respect, but see the inadequacy, of the direct action environmentalists, like Greenpeace — elitist bands of brave individuals pulling off media stunts. Climate change requires an urgent and appropriate response — we believe the working-class needs to stand...

Arguments for wind power

The government’s UK Renewable Energy Strategy, published on 15 July along with its UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, makes a number of arguments for wind power. It stated: “Wind power is currently one of the most developed and cost-effective renewable electricity technologies. The UK has the largest potential wind energy resource in Europe. While offshore wind is more technologically challenging and more expensive than onshore wind, it has a larger potential due to a stronger and more consistent wind resource out to sea, leading to higher power outputs per turbine and more hours spent generating...

And for Vestas?

Ed Miliband’s statement on Vestas blames NIMBYism for the failure of Vestas. The NIMBYs in question are no doubt well-off people who can afford expensive lawyers. Certainly, there wasn’t this problem when the government evicted the East London working-class communities to make way for the deeply unpopular Olympics site. But fundamentally Miliband is saying that there is no market for onshore wind farms at the moment. The supporting documents to the White Paper suggest that Miliband might be contradicting his own policy. The Renewable Energy Strategy document states: “Our lead scenario suggests...

New Labour Policy: Climate change as business opportunity

The government’s White Paper, “Low Carbon Transition Plan” sets out the first legally binding carbon targets and a plan for a transition to a low carbon economy. As 600 Vestas workers struggle to keep their factories open, the government has been embarrassed by its claim that 1.2 million workers will be in the green energy sector by 2020. The paper was released in advance of international talks on these issues taking place in Copenhagen this December. The government is trying to position itself at the green end of the capitalist consensus that dominates establishment environmentalism. But...

A Vestas worker speaks out

What follows is the text of a speech written by a Vestas worker for delivery at trade union and environmental movement meetings, edited only slightly. It gives an excellent insight into the background of the struggle, and its wider political significance. Taken from the Save Vestas blog . Hello there – my name is Matt and I’ve come today to speak about a little factory called St. Cross on the Isle of Wight – otherwise known as Vestas; you may have heard about it before… It is currently in occupation as it’s due to close at the end of the week [31 July]. Over 625 jobs will be lost at the three...

Vestas: how it happened

28 April: Vestas bosses announce that they are ditching previous plans to re-fit the Isle of Wight plants for more advanced production methods, and will close them instead. They blame “a lack of political initiatives to support the wind industry” and say that “orders have ground to a halt” in Northern Europe. At this stage, however, they also say that it is “too early to say whether orders wwill pick up enough to rescue the plant”. 15 June: Workers’ Liberty activists arrive in the Isle of Wight to start leafleting and talking to workers about the Vestas factory closure and ways to resist it...

How Vestas workers became a power

It all started on 15 June, when a small group of young members of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty set off for the Isle of Wight. They had read in the press about the planned closure of Britain’s only wind turbine blade factories, operated by the Danish-based multinational Vestas at Venture Quays, East Cowes, and St Cross, Newport, on the Isle of Wight. They had discussed it among themselves and with other AWL members. They had cast around for contacts to give them a first foothold on the Isle of Wight. It wasn’t easy. The Isle of Wight — both a local-government county and a parliamentary...

We will build the sustainable society!

The action taken at the Vestas wind turbine plant demonstrates the emergence not of a “red and green coalition” (as the Guardian would have it) but a realisation on the part of two social movements that they are inextricably linked. The environmental movement has realised that the only system capable of making the economic changes required to achieve sustainability is one of democratically controlled, social production. In parallel, the socialist movement has realised the imminence of environmental destruction — we cannot wait until the democratisation of production before we build a...

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