Joel Kovel: Ecological Crisis and Opportunity for Radical Change

The manifold of events comprised by Hurricane Katrina should be regarded within the framework of the ecological crisis as the interaction of relatively independent lines of ecosystem de-stabilization each representing a strand of capital’s impact on “socio-nature.” The result of this interaction: the United States starts to become a “failed state,” which leads to other levels of destabilization and chaos (including accelerated economic crisis – especially those aspects driven by fossil-fuel shortages), and for which the only outcome within the reigning system-logic is the further emergence of fascism. The lessons are starkly clear: seize the moment of de-legitimation to weaken the system’s grip; integrate all movement activity under the sign of this crisis; focus upon the building of autonomous zones of post-capitalist resistance and community in those spaces that open up before us as the edifice of capital and its state formation crumbles. Joel Kovel’s books include The Age of Desire; Against the State of Nuclear Terror; and The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or The End of the World (Zed, 2002 Since 2003 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism. In 1998, he was the Green Party candidate for US Senator from New York. Free.