(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #252 (n° spécial) -
political, Production: Industry against ecology? (fr, it, pt)[machine
translation]
The rise of the ecological crisis calls for a reconsideration of the role of the industry.
The rupture necessary for the containment of this crisis does however lead to the
elimination of all forms of industrial production and the revival of a society based on
crafts? ---- The industrialization of production is characterized by high productivity,
the use of machines, the centralized organization of production and sometimes the line
work. It uses techniques resulting from the development of research and science, but they
are chosen from those that serve the interests of the capitalists. ---- It embodies an
economy of waste and the destruction of the living. It does not even provide the means to
meet the basic needs of each and production is often of poor quality. Work Living
conditions are destructive to the health of workers, the labor organization is
dehumanizing, and the dichotomy producer / consumer is one of the engines of alienation.
Live and work differently
Faced with "damage of progress", just one alternative between blind industrialism and
abandonment of all forms of industrialization and science, we are faced with two questions
posed since the emergence of capitalism: What happen? How to produce? What happen? To
avoid the saturation of markets, products are programmed to fall down quickly; it leads to
a waste and production of poor quality. The explosion of the luxury industry is realized
at the expense of basic needs of all, which is a manifestation of class contempt.
Pollution is a combination of the choice of the techniques work and savings at the expense
of industrial safety.
In short, the "decision-makers", the capitalist class, impose their choices to avoid
falling profits and maintain their dominant position. The pressure exerted by the
profitability competition flange science, technology and industry, rendered unable to
implement the necessary solutions.
An abandoned industrial processes would provide no real answer to these questions. Unlike
other problems emerge: regressions on the material, social and health; waste of human
labor, natural resources and energy; technical difficulties in controlling pollution;
technical impossibility to manufacture complex goods, yet socially necessary, etc.
Autolimiter democratically consumption needs
Tracks exist to tackle the ecological crisis: challenge the global organization of
production and relocate the most part, with the use of local resources and manufacturing
of products adapted to the natural and social conditions; choose the necessary products
to people's needs at the expense of luxury goods reserved for the bourgeoisie manufacture
durable capital goods, easily repaired and designed to be recycled; give priority to
collective facilities; drastically reduce or even abandon some productive sectors:
packaging, single use, advertising, armaments, non-durable materials, automotive industry,
etc.; implement energy saving and raw materials and a widespread recycling; etc.
autolimiter democratically consumption needs to keep human activity below the
sustainability threshold; etc.
Industrial sectors such as the food would probably be called to sharply decline in favor
of a multitude of small local production facilities, while other industries are likely to
develop: those that represent an advantage in terms of labor saving human, product
quality, technical necessity of limiting energy costs and raw materials and / or control
of pollution to the environment.
Of course it is possible to take action today by convincing segments of the population to
live and work differently or popularizing research on industrial ecology[1], that is to
say all practices to reduce industrial pollution.
But a comprehensive solution is incompatible with the maintenance of a market economy. It
will require attacking capitalism at heart, to challenge the terms of the production value
and trade reports, to abolish private ownership of the means of production and to
establish economic equality among all.
Community participation, supportive, egalitarian
And how to produce? Authoritarianism, prioritization, the separation between command and
execution, between production and consumption are now part of what the industry. But these
social phenomena predate industrialization, industrial society has only amplify.
Imagine a society where the industry would be replaced by a multitude of craft workshops
would provide no solution to the health conditions and dissatisfaction in work prevalent
in today's society. Faced with competition, the artisan owner who does not push to the
intensification of work is threatened with bankruptcy and its employees there would be no
less alienated than in industry. Our denunciation of the form of social organization in
which the subject is no longer actor of his social production, and has more influence on
the world around him, brings us again to the class society.
From the first days of the revolution, the organization of work can be transformed. No
one should be in a position to be a simple running. All will be entrusted to some of the
implementation tasks, to the duties of responsibility. Specialization at work will be
reduced-not least because it will be essential that everyone be formed es to participate
in major decisions of the company.
The possibility of another industrial company
The workers' control over working conditions will change life in the company.
Participation in the self-management of society - in the city needs to decide, in the
"workshop" to manage working conditions - will remove the alienation mechanisms at work today.
The end of capitalism will open the possibility of another industrial company: production
would be organized based on the needs of all and not to allow capitalist accumulation;
material and energy waste will be dropped.
Such a society will be based on community participation, supportive, egalitarian. It will
be a true democracy allowing men and women to manage the contradiction between necessary
reduction of the ecological footprint of humanity and meeting the needs of all humans,
also to focus on the collective dimension of the needs and respect the aspirations of
each. The newfound solidarity create a friendly society, free of consumerism, and where
life is good.
Jacques Dubart (AL Agen)
[1] Arnaud Diemer and Sylvère Labrune, Industrial Ecology: when the industrial ecosystem
becomes a vector of sustainable development, sustainable development and territories, 2007.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Production-Industrie-contre
