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E X C E R P T KILLING ME SOFTLY Toxic Waste, Corporate Profit, and the
Struggle by Eddie J. Girdner and Jack Smith All material copyright © 2002 by Monthly Review Press |
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October 2002 |
Achieving Environmental Justice: A Radical Perspective At its most radical, environmental justice challenges the systemic structure of developed capitalist society and the global system of discrimination. John Bellamy Foster grounds global ecological decline in “the dominant conception of human freedom,” which sees freedom as the selfish exploitation of nature for individual gain. The environmental justice movement (EJM) often questions the notion that the “free market” is the best instrument available for combating environmental problems. Many social thinkers have seen the need for “organic community” and institutions that promote a “sense of community.”67 Ultimately, “achieving environmental justice demands major restructuring of the entire social order.”68 Such restructuring would include a challenge to absolute property rights; a challenge to the logic of growth without limit; the right of everyone to a clean environment; the concept of security as a sustainable ecological system, rather than military superiority; and social planning and grassroots democracy as the basis for environmentally sound growth. There must be a shift of power from corporate public policy making to local policy making by the people. After all, heads of corporations are not elected by the people. Nevertheless, they run totalitarian organizations that affect thousands and even millions of people’s lives. The New Right ideology, from ideologues such as Frederick Hayek, that sanctifies and deifies private property effectively serves as the groundwork for the emerging dictatorship of the corporatariat. Francis Fukuyama has it wrong. It is not, in fact, individualism and freedom that are emerging, but a new form of totalitarian organization of society, cloaked in liberal trappings and clever buzz terms.69 The EJM often involves a major shift in the concept of democracy as it has existed in American society—from traditional elite to grassroots democracy. People must have the right to know about health effects of toxics, the right to inspect facilities, and the right to negotiate agreements with responsible parties. There is a clear and recognized direct conflict between environmental protection and corporate profits.70 When the costs of capital are increased by environmental protection, states and transnational corporations seek to dilute or remove such protection through free trade rules and arrangements. Cost benefit analysis, risk management and a narrow focus on legislative tinkering must also be challenged. The new corporate campaign of greenwashing environmentalism, backed by corporate big bucks, is another formidable challenge to the EJM. Other factors include the white-male power structure and dominant culture, the prevailing more-is-better consumerist mentality, and the deification of advertising as “the right to choose” by New Right ideologues. The challenge will involve linking grassroots organizations to international organizations and grounding research in empirical facts. When states do not lead, the people must take action. The EJM has moved to link academic researchers with local communities and activists through “communiversities.” Gaining control of local political processes and building coalitions of grassroots organizations could pull governments in the direction of new legislation and policies on hazardous waste production, disposal, cleanup, and waste facility siting. The EPA and other federal agencies may be challenged to help address and eradicate unequal environmental protection. Participation and organization can lead to local political empowerment.71 In the words of Robert Bullard, the “ultimate goal” should be to “democratize environmental decision making and empower disenfranchised people to speak out and act for themselves.”72 Globally the movement may borrow ideas from the West while being grounded in local political cultures. The logic of capitalist acccumulation requires corporate invasions into local communities for resources. As the power of the global corporation grows in the age of neoliberal ideological hegemony and the deification of the rights of private property, people must struggle in community, and solidarity, if the earth is to be saved. Truly, the environmental justice movement must transcend race and national identities. NOTES
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