Enviromarxism: Environmentalism allows a collectivist elite to obtain bureaucratic control of privately controlled land, labor and capital without firing a shot
How do you legitimize taking wealth from the citizens of a country that produce wealth and jobs and give it to those that do not? A hundred years ago, collectivists could rely on the writings of Karl Marx to promote class envy and advocate class warfare to create a utopian communist state where the means of production were communally shared among the citizens of a country. However, the reality of communism is that after a violent revolution that destroyed private ownership of land and capital, capitalism was replaced by a far more repressive dictatorship that destroyed millions of lives and constrained all but the elite in the Communist party into lives of misery.
However collectivists have found a new philosophy, one currently being promoted by the Obama administration, to suppress capitalism and replace it with collectivism. This new philosophy does not even require an armed uprising to seize power. This new philosophy is environmentalism. Environmentalism allows a collectivist elite to obtain bureaucratic control of privately controlled land, labor and capital without firing a shot. Once they obtain control, environmentalists and their allies are able to utilize propaganda and guilt to retain control rather than utilizing the brutal political repression that was required under communist regimes.
The environment movement has learned to use falsified data, media bias and propaganda to convince the public of the urgency of its Malthusian claims. Based upon the success of fraudulently portraying DDT as threatening the mass extinction of a whole host of species around the world, environmentalists and their supporters in the media have manipulated data and falsified studies to show that only they alone can save the planet from the ills of capitalism.
While environmental scientists have the opportunity to obtain government grants to perpetuate their fears for mankind, that does not provide them with the funds to pursue collectivism on their own. They need allies in their quest for power and prestige that will directly benefit from the subversion of capitalism and the promotion of collectivism. What better ally in the quest for collectivism than organized labor, which has the financial resources to help elect candidates that would assure that the wealth stolen from capitalists will be distributed to workers that agreed to be represented by equally collectivist labor unions.
This is the concept behind the formation of the Apollo Alliance in 2003. Instead of organized labor promoting policies that would enrich, and in many cases, preserve union membership, while environmentalists promoted polices that would restrict economic development, they would work together to ensure that the industries that environmentalists allowed to prosper employed union workers. The third component of the Apollo Alliance was ACORN and other self proclaimed “social justice groups” that would also share in the spoils of ravaging capitalism. While this alliance was able to create and promote the myth of “green jobs”, the result of their policies will be green unemployment.
While the environmental policies of the Apollo Alliance will be devastating to most industries, government subsidies and funding will be used to create “clean energy” jobs in favored industries that employed union workers. The Apollo Alliance was instrumental in drafting both the Stimulus Bill and Cap and Trade legislation. In both bills there was significant funding for “green jobs” that required payment of union wages and for a host of ACORN sponsored programs.
While environmentalists have used scientific fraud and propaganda to promote the false premise of global warming to enhance their power and prestige, ultimately, it will be their organized labor allies that will suffer. Despite government manipulation of the marketplace, green energy programs ultimately cost two jobs for each one they create. While environmentalists may have no problem with constraining all but the enlightened elite to lives of misery if they believe that is what is required save the planet, the demise of capitalism will affect the ability of labor unions to survive. Even in a socialist country, not everyone can be a government employee.
Karl Marx was able to use the surplus labor theory in his writings to convince workers and the intellectual elite that workers were being exploited by capitalism. His proposed recourse was revolution and seizure of private property to achieve worker’s true worth. However, instead of the communal worker’s utopia that Marx predicted, workers were constrained to lives of misery in support of the Communist Party. How much better will American workers fare under enviromarxism?
David Nace was raised in rural western Pennsylvania. Graduated from Penn State University with an Undergraduate degree in Engineering and a Masters degree in Business Administration. He has managed and co-owned a construction company since 1989. Dave is active in the Associated Builders and Contractors organization on the local and national level, and is able to demonstrate the consequences of legislation and policies in concise and easily understood articles.
