Labour and the ecological crisis: The eco-modernist dilemma in western Marxism(s) (1970s-2000s)

Abstract

The article offers an intellectual critique of Marxist political ecology as developed in western Europe between the 1970s and 2000s, focusing on the labour/ecology nexus. My critique is based on the intersection of two levels of analysis: (1) the historical evolution of labour environmentalism, focusing on what I will call the eco-modernist dilemma of labour; (2) the meaning of class politics in relation to the politics of the environment, with a special focus on the production/reproduction dialectic. Focusing on the work of four Marxist intellectuals whose ideas resonated with various social movements across the Left spectrum (labour, environmentalism, feminism and degrowth), the article shows how the current entrenchment of labour within the politics of eco-modernization hides a number of internal fractures and alternative visions of ecology that need to be spelled out in order to open the terrain for a rethinking of ecological politics in class terms today.

The Just Transition and its work of inequality

“…At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, climate-justice movements and official trade unions found themselves on opposite sides of climate politics (Barca 2019a). This situation, we have suggested, can be explained by the fact that in ITUC's version of the JT workers are seen as a social category whose identity is entirely defined by the wage relation-the job.…”

“…This void is partly due to structural constraints stemming from ITUC's limited negotiating power within ILO. However, we also need to take into account how, over the last four decades, labor environmentalism-at least in western Europe-has subscribed to the hegemony of a post-political ecomodernist horizon that assumes the current western lifestyle as the only possible definition of well-being, one to be extended into the future via a green growth agenda (Barca 2019a). The problems with this vision are multiple.…”

“…This article critically discusses the notion of a "just transition" as developed at the intersection between climate and labor politics with the aim of expanding conventional understandings of socioenvironmental justice. We start from the observation that labor and environmental justice organizations have different stakes in the definition of justice: while marching together and asking for carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) emission reductions, still too often the two modes of advocacy find themselves on different sides of environmental conflicts (Barca 2019a; Barca and Leonardi 2018). The climate-justice movement has emphasized the values of selfdetermination through grassroots control over the use of resources, food sovereignty, energy democracy, reduction of overconsumption, recognition of climate debt, and respect for indigenous and peasant rights (Bond 2012).…”

Unions and the green transition in construction in Europe: Contrasting visions

“…In Italy the construction union FILLEA-CGIL, part of the second largest union in Europe and underpinned by its historically radical political identity, challenges the industry to replace high-carbon cement and to stop building for building’s sake. This profoundly questions the underlying economic rationale and, together with detailed proposals on the social dimension and the important input into the VET system, represents a radical perspective (Barca, 2019; Barca and Leonardi, 2018; Hampton, 2015).…”

Grassroots Ecologies of Value: Environmental Conflict and Social Reproduction in Southern Italy

“…As I show in the following section, this shift echoed a broader trajectory of transformation in the international ecological movement, from labour environmentalism—with male blue‐collar workers and unions in the leading role—to a variety of green movements detached from labour issues. This transformation was also a reflection of the international crisis of labour movements within the complex restructuring and tertiarisation of labour markets in the industrial economies of advanced capitalism (Barca ).…”