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“Once upon a time the working class had nothing to lose but its chains; but now it has been absorbed within capitalism, is a prisoner of consumerism, and its articles of consumption own and consume it.” -Michael A. Lebowitz

Ecosocialism and consumerism

By Ian Angus on March 23, 2018 in Capitalism, Consumers, Ecosocialism, Movement Building

Commodity accumulation leads people to identify with the means of destruction. We must aim to disintegrate links in the chain of capital reproduction.

Movement building

Can we shop our way to a better world?

By Ian Angus on April 20, 2016 in Books & Reports, Consumers, Movement Building

Lifestyle change and ‘ethical consumerism’ are not bridges to effective social change, but barriers to it. To build effective social movements, we must begin by rejecting individualist approaches.

Food and Farming

The True Cost of Cheap Meat

By Ian Angus on March 10, 2016 in Books & Reports, Consumers, Food and Farming

Martin Empson reviews Farmageddon, an important expose of the disastrous failings of the global food system that never quite gets to the bottom of why the agricultural system is like it is.

Green consumerism is no solution

By Ian Angus on July 26, 2015 in Consumers, Movement Building

The entire premise that justice and sustainability can be purchased in the marketplace is patently absurd.

Corporate greenwashing on Earth Day in New York

By Ian Angus on April 26, 2015 in Climate Change, Consumers, Corporate polluters, Featured

Once again, corporate environment-killers presented a festival of greenwashing, where shopping was promoted as a painless way to save the world.

Can we save the planet by shopping less?

By Ian Angus on September 12, 2014 in Climate Justice, Consumers, Featured

Many greens blame consumer choices and lifestyles for the global crisis. This blames the victims, while ignoring the real environmental criminals.

Who really benefits from sweatshops?

By Ian Angus on September 19, 2013 in Capitalism, Consumers, Inequality & Class

Exposing the myth that ‘consumer demand for low prices’ causes dangerous working conditions in third world factories

Ration consumption or ration production?

By Ian Angus on June 3, 2013 in Books & Reports, Consumers, Featured

Don Fitz: To ensure fairness and sustainability, an ecosocialist society will have to ration scarce resources. The real question is, what should be rationed, and how?

The personal relevance of socialism

By Ian Angus on February 28, 2013 in Australia, Consumers, Ecosoc Notebook, Movement Building

My friend Kamala Emanuel, a member of the Socialist Alliance in Perth, on Australia’s west coast, posted this on Facebook. It’s brilliant.

How could socialists not love a book called <em>How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth</em>? Unfortunately, although it is better than most recent books on ecological and social problems, its explanations don't hold water, and the solutions it proposes are just wishful thinking.

Is 'conspicuous consumption' destroying the earth?

By Ian Angus on June 13, 2012 in Books & Reports, Consumers, Featured

How could socialists not love a book called How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth? Unfortunately, although it is better than most recent books on ecological and social problems, its explanations don’t hold water, and the solutions it proposes are just wishful thinking.

Riots and role models

By Ian Angus on March 29, 2012 in Consumers, Featured, Inequality & Class

A UK government report blames last year’s riots on the participants’ “materialism and consumerism.” They couldn’t possibly have learned such anti-social values from Britain’s ruling class. Could they?

On the origins of green liberalism

By Ian Angus on March 27, 2012 in Capitalism, Consumers, Featured

How did the strange idea that individual actions and capitalist markets can save the world become the dominant ideology of mainstream environmentalism? Historian Ted Steinberg traces the rise of green liberalism from the counterculture of the 1970s to the White House.

Why corporate fat cats love 'ethical consumerism'

By Ian Angus on February 22, 2012 in Consumers

… and five reasons why voting and shopping are not the same thing (more…)

Barry Commoner: Pollution, affluence and class

By Ian Angus on February 3, 2012 in Consumers, Quotes & Insights

[Quotes and Insights #23] Pioneer socialist ecologist Barry Commoner, author of The Closing Circle, speaking at Harvard University, during the first Earth Day, April 1970…. “The favorite statistic is that the U.S. contains 6 to 7% of the world population but consumes more than half the world’s resources and is responsible for that fraction of […]

Why the movement should not #OccupyXmas

By Ian Angus on December 6, 2011 in Consumers

Adbusters is wrong. At a time when the movement finally has the ear of the public via mainstream news coverage, the call to disrupt Christmas shopping is counter-productive and harmful (more…)

Are consumers destroying the earth?

By Ian Angus on December 3, 2011 in Consumers

Monstrous as the consumer economy has become, consumer spending is not the biggest environmental problem. Most waste and pollution is caused by industrial, military and commercial processes, over which consumers have no control. CONSUMERS ARE NOT THE BIG GREEN PROBLEM by Simon Butler Green Left Weekly, December 3, 2011 Most environmentalists would agree consumerism and […]

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