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Capitalism Nature Socialism Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcns20 A Gathering Storm Joel Kovel Published online: 28 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Joel Kovel (2011) A Gathering Storm, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 22:4, 1-2, DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2011.619318 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2011.619318

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A Gathering Storm

This issue of Capitalism Nature Socialism is the first to be entirely devoted to a single theme*the COP-17 UN Climate Change conference in Durban, R.S.A.*and the first to be co-published in book form. Why such a fuss? The number 17 tells us that there have already been sixteen of these bureaucratic extravaganzas for the care and feeding of Carbon-centered Capital. CNS devoted a decent amount of critical space to the last two, COP-15/Copenhagen and COP-16/ Cancu´n, documenting the phenomenal betrayal*or was it the logical im- plication?*of the Kyoto protocols in the first instance, and the emergence of powerful voices from the South in the latter. But there was no thought of going beyond that level.

COP-17 is different, however*not in the intent of the organizers, but in the location that greets them and the opportunities it offers. Like most settings of colonialism, Durban bears a full set of scars inflicted by capital’s war on humanity and nature. But it also glows with the flame of struggle, from Gandhi’s development of Satyagraha, to the Apartheid era, and into its neoliberal sequel. This latter phase has been especially vicious given the heavy price in submission to the regime of global capital exacted for liberation from the chains of white racism. The post-Apartheid years, in South Africa generally and Durban particularly, have been a race to the bottom measured in terms of aggressive penetration of ecosystems for the sake of accumulation. All of these are connected to the Carbon complex in one way or another, and all of them enter into, and violate, the life-worlds of the poor. And all are being ardently contested in the spirit of Durban, from popular, neighborhood- based movements, to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Centre for Civil Society Downloaded by [Dr Basak Tanulku] at 09:05 10 December 2013 under the direction of Patrick Bond, who has been the chief architect of this issue. And so the ‘‘Conference of Polluters’’ is to be confronted by the multitude of those who have suffered pollution. This creates a need for a serious guide to situate COP- 17, lay out the story of the pernicious Carbon regime, detail the political geography of Durban, draw forth the lessons of these tormented times, and present the argument for inspired resistance. The point of view throughout makes no bones about which side it is on, and disdains a hypocritically ‘‘balanced’’ view. The interested reader may find copious amounts of official text to present what the establishment wants you to think. Our guide is written, rather, about, of, by, and for those on the underside, which is to say, the vast majority of earth’s inhabitants.

ISSN 1045-5752 print/ISSN 1548-3290 online # 2011 The Center for Political Ecology www.cnsjournal.org http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2011.619318 2 HOUSE ORGAN

The confrontation radiates outward in space and time. All Africa will be watching these proceedings and hopefully sharing in resistance*as may the South at large, and the metropolitan regions. As for the propitiousness of the time, it is hard to escape an impression that the year 2011 represents a kind of sea change in the emergence of radical struggle across the globe, whether as Arab Spring, outbreaks in the E.U. against draconian cutbacks, urban uprisings in Britain, or a million students in Santiago, Chile, 38 years after the fall of Alllende, singing ‘‘Un pueblo unido jamas sera vencido ...’’ There have even been stirrings in the most retrograde areas, such as Israel and the United States (where as of this writing hundreds have been arrested at the White House protesting the transfer of tar-sand petroleum from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico). Each occasion is of course uniquely shaped by local factors. But all, and those to come, are ultimately responses to the great crisis of capital, thrashing between its accumulation and ecological moments. Ruling classes tend to become more vicious as their bell tolls. They crack down harder, exploit more nastily, intrude and surveil more recklessly, and throw to the winds the softening features of liberal- democratic society, shedding legitimacy as they go and releasing increasing numbers of people, especially the young who face dead-end lives, to undertake more extreme measures. We see the forthcoming COP-17 events in such a context, and offer this collection as a contribution to the struggle.

This issue is also the last of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, after eight years of working to build consciousness of capital’s ecological ravaging in order to prepare the way for the transformation of society into an ecologically rational form. It’s good work, though not for the easily discouraged. Capitalism Nature Socialism is in a strong position, under the direction of Salvatore Engel Di-Mauro, to continue it onward. We are extremely grateful to Patrick Bond for his prodigious efforts, and look forward to sharing this struggle, the greatest challenge ever faced by humankind, in the period ahead. *Joel Kovel Downloaded by [Dr Basak Tanulku] at 09:05 10 December 2013