Babylon and Beyond The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements Derek Wall Pluto P Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI Wall 00 pre iii 25/7/05 15:07:11 First published 2005 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Derek Wall 2005 The right of Derek Wall to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7453 2391 X hardback ISBN 0 7453 2390 1 paperback Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England Wall 00 pre iv 25/7/05 15:07:11 To Jean-Pierre Faure and Brad Warner Wall 00 pre v 25/7/05 15:07:11 Contents Acknowledgements x Foreword by Nandor Tanczos xii 1 Warm Conspiracies and Cold Concepts 1 2 Vaccinating against Anti-capitalism: Stiglitz, Soros and Friends 23 3 White Collar Global Crime Syndicate: Korten, Klein and other Anti-corporatists 44 4 Small is Beautiful: Green Localism 64 5 Planet Earth Money Martyred: Social Credit and Monetary Reform 84 6 Imperialism Unlimited: Marxisms 101 7 The Tribe of Moles: Autonomism, Anarchism and Empire 123 8 Marx on the Seashore: Ecosocialist Alternatives 153 9 Life after Capitalism: Alternatives, Structures, Strategies 171 Bibliography 193 Index 207 Wall 00 pre vii 25/7/05 15:07:11 The Green Economics Institute Directors: Volker Heinemann, Goettingen University, and Miriam Kennet, Mansfi eld College, Oxford University The Green Economics Institute (GEI) seeks to promote an economy that puts people and planet before profi t. Green economics opposes the commodifi cation of life and democracy. It adds a spiritual and ethical element to decision making, while acknowledging the pivotal role of women and nature in real wealth creation. It also opposes the growth imperative, injustice and patriarchy inherent in capitalism. Prosperity, without cancerous expansion of GNP growth, can become compatible with ecological considerations through the principle of ‘usufruct’ where goods are shared rather than simply produced, consumed and thrown away by private owners. Green economists strive to reclaim economics from being the preserve of purely quantitative measurement, graphs and statistics. Economics should focus on happiness rather than econometrics. The GEI series examines the pathologies of global capitalism as well as critically discussing green economic alternatives including commons regimes, fi scal measures and new monetary instruments. GEI titles build on insights from ecological and post-autistic economics, ecofeminism, stakeholder theory, Marxism, post-structuralism and post-Keynesian ideas, but moves beyond them to create a discipline that seeks to nurture radically new alternatives based on equity, intergenerational social justice as well as concern for non human species and the biosphere. GEI titles argue for economic development based on cultural diversity, transparent community control and decision making. www.greeneconomics.org.uk www.inderscience.com/ijge Academic Journal International Journal of Green Economics Email: [email protected] Green Economics Institute Economics as if people mattered. www.greeneconomics.org.uk [email protected] Wall 00 pre viii 25/7/05 15:07:11 Mr. Lebeziatnikov who keeps up with modern ideas explained the other day that compassion is forbidden nowadays by science itself, and that that’s what is done now in England, where there is political economy. Dostoevsky 1993: 14 Wall 00 pre ix 25/7/05 15:07:11 Acknowledgements To Nandor, of course. Peter Lockley worked with heroic dedication, reading the whole thing and making lots of useful corrections and suggestions; also thanks for the Rings of Saturn, Open Source, Robin Hood, beer and conversation. Xanthe Bevis for her many virtues including being thorough, keeping me laughing in diffi cult situations and partnering me in several rash political projects. She is one of the people who keeps me doing ‘real’ things when the temptation is simply to hole out in trailer trash land, drinking, smoking Bolivars, reading the Grundrisse and Gary Snyder and writing in pleasurable isolation. Her academic contribution was also essential. X you shine. And thank Will for the Slough song. Also to Christina who was happy to roll a spliff or pass a can of red stripe in moments of stress … Christina Borgenstierna made me think deeply, introduced me to squatting, made me aware of that place known as Europe, read and commented, helped with lots of cool political interventions and was continually good for my sanity, thanks Chris, your merit is great. Matthew Tempest for some good advice on the chapter one, lots of encouragement and the hotel fl oor in Weston-super-Mare, immortal line ‘lets share a room and the Guardian will pay’. Chris Cotton read the whole thing and was continuously enthusiastic while catching lots of typos. Andrew Copeman, another friend and a poet, was a source of great encouragement, we once walked 50 miles together which helped; Andrew, have fun with the trees. Adam Buick and Richard Kuper read my stuff on Marx with more care than I deserve. Victor Anderson, John Barry, Michael Babula, Molly Scott Cato, Steve Dawe, Richard Douthwaite, Brian Heatly, Gary Holden, Nadia Johanisova, Chris Keene, Miriam Kennet, Jim Killock, Brian Leslie, Brian Orr, Frank Rotering and Stephen Young also gave me detailed feedback. David Castle for being a patient editor even when I was a desperately impatient writer. Kate Brennan for rescuing me from the gutter when I was homeless. Joel Kovel, may you live long and usufruct strongly, for carrying the ecosocialist cause into many diffi cult battles, your comments were as always erudite and relevant. x Wall 00 pre x 25/7/05 15:07:12 Acknowledgements xi For those friends who I sit with in the South and West London Dojos, sesshins in Sheringham and Galway Bay, Zen days especially Alex and Jim. Caroline Lucas for generally being right, always been inspiring and being as innocent as a lamb when it comes to deals, intrigue and manoeuvres, all the usual stuff politicians do but she doesn’t, although it would be nice if she could sew some meetings up and do at least some Machiavellian deals just once in a while. Thanks for your continued support for Babylon. For my band of travelling anarchists Larry Wall, Peter Wall and Vincent Wall for their enthusiasms for cookery, wildlife, Jackie Chan, Japanese popular culture (all right yu-gi-oh) hi to the women formerly known as Mrs Wall, if only by the secretary of St Francis primary school. For my bosses, especially Clive Denning, for being to capitalism what Caroline is to backroom politics. Walt Contreas Sheasby, whose death has robbed me of a good friend for whom all the important bases green, red and Zen were covered; a dear friend, the world diminished without you. Mike Woodin is also sadly missed. Both died from environmental causes, Mike, never a smoker, from lung cancer, something that is diffi cult to pin down to a precise cause but increasingly is a product of pollution; Walt from the West Nile Virus that global warming has brought to California … Peter Lockley and Beth Collar researched the illustrations, Xanthe Bevis completed the index, all with their usual fl air and effi ciency. And thanks to anybody who I have forgotten in the rush to fi nish! The mistakes are all mine. Derek Wall July 2005 Wall 00 pre xi 25/7/05 15:07:12 Foreword by Nandor Tanczos Nandor Tanczos, Nandor Tanczos, nandor.net.nz Human beings face the greatest challenge in the history of our species. We face the destruction of the life support systems on which our very existence depends, and we face it because of our own activity. There are some who deny or diminish that threat. They mostly either retreat into fairy tale thinking – that technology, or the ‘free’ market, or UFOs will save us – or hope that by closing their eyes they can make it go away. Yet the evidence is mounting almost daily that the threats are very real and are gathering momentum. A new report from the UK is saying that if we don’t turn carbon emissions around in the next decade, we will not be able to stop runaway climate change whatever we do. Authoritative voices are warning us that we are very close to the point where world demand for oil will outstrip the capacity of the oilfi elds to supply. Our total dependence on fossil fuels, the use of which has provided the energy for an enormous expansion of human xii Wall 00 pre xii 25/7/05 15:07:12 Foreword xiii activity and population, is like a chemical addiction. And as the US has recently confi rmed in Iraq, strip a junkie of their supply and the temptation to turn to crime can be irresistable. ‘The American way of life’ said George Bush Sr, ‘is not negotiable.’ A time of crisis, however, is also the time of greatest opportunity. More and more people are waking up to the need to change, to change at a fundamental level, and to change right now. People are waking up to the fact that the institutions of society that so many have put their trust in are failing us.