© Red Quill Books Ltd. 2013 Ottawa www.redquillbooks.com ISBN 978-1-926958-24-8 Printed on acid-free paper. The paper used in this book incorporates post-consumer waste and has not been sourced from endangered old growth forests, forests of exceptional conservation value or the Amazon Basin. Red Quill Books subscribes to a one-book-at-a-time manufac- turing process that substantially lessens supply chain waste, reduces greenhouse emissions, and conserves valuable natural resources. Includes bibliographical references. “Alternate Routes” ISSN 1923-7081 (online) ISSN 0702-8865 (print) Red Quill Books is an alternative publishing house. Proceeds from the sale of this book will support future critical scholarship. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research Volume 25, 2014 EditoRS: Carlo Fanelli and Bryan Evans intERVEntionS EditoR: Jordy Cummings Book REViEw EditoRS: Priscillia Lefebvre and Nicolas Carrier EditoRiAl BoARd: Nahla Abdo, Pat Armstrong, David Camfield, Nicolas Carrier, Wallace Clement, Simten Cosar, Simon Dalby, Aaron Doyle, Ann Duffy, Bryan Mitchell Evans, Luis Fernandez, Randall Germain, Peter Gose, Alan Hunt, Paul Kellogg, Jacqueline Kennelly, Mark Neocleous, Mi Park, Georgios Papanicolaou, Justin Paulson, Garry Potter, Stephanie Ross, Herman Rosenfeld, George S. Rigakos, Heidi Rimke, Arne Christoph Ruckert, Alan Sears, Mitu Sengupta, Donald Swartz, Ingo Schmidt, Toby Sanger, Janet Lee Siltanen, Susan Jane Spronk, Mark P. Thomas, Rosemary Warskett. J o u r n a l M a n d at e Established in 1977 at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, Alternate Routes is committed to creating outlets for critical social research and interdisciplinary inquiry. Although Alternate Routes is now an independent peer-reviewed annual, the journal continues to work closely with labour and social justice researchers to promote the publication of non-traditional, provocative and progressive analyses that may not find a forum in conventional academic venues. AR seeks to be a public academic journal and encourages submissions that advance or chal- lenge theoretical, historical and contemporary socio-political, economic and cultural issues. In addition to full-length articles, we welcome review essays sparked by previously published material, interviews, short commentaries, as well as poetry, drawings and photographic essays. AR publishes pri- marily special-themed issues and therefore requests that submissions be related to the current call for papers. Submissions must be free of racist or sexist language, have limited technical or specialized terms and be written in a style that is accessible to our diverse readership.” file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/4624') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/4317') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/7468') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/7468') 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file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/7105') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/7106') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/7106') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/5935') file:///D:/Documents/WORK%20FILES/RED%20QUILL%20BOOKS/UNITING%20STRUGGLES/manuscript2013/javascript:openRTWindow('http://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/about/editorialTeamBio/4515') 4 | Climate Change and Its Discontents Table of Contents | 5 table of Contents Editorial Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Carlo Fanelli and Bryan Evans Articles Introduction: Climate Change: ‘The Greatest Challenge of Our Time’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 - Carlo Fanelli Capitalism, the Climate Crisis and Canada’s ‘Relations of Mobility’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 - Ryan Katz-Rosene Gendered Emissions: Counting Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Gender and Why it Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 - Marjorie Griffin Cohen Overcoming Systemic Barriers to ‘Greening’ the Construction Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 - John Calvert Approaches and Responses to Climate Change: Challenges for the Pantanal and the Upper Paraguay River Basin . . . . . . 119 - Antonio Augusto Rosotto Ioris Brazilian Dystopia: Development and Climate Change Mitigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 - Garry Potter, Jun Mian Chen and Nazar Hilal Can You Build an Open-Pit Mine in an Urban Centre? Big Copper Versus a Small City and the Urban Environment in a B.C. Interior Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 - Terry Kading and Elisabeth Bass ‘Greening Work’ in Lean Times: The Amalgamated Transit Union and Public Transit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 - Jeffrey Carey and Steven Tufts 6 | Climate Change and Its Discontents Interventions The Contradictions of Localism: An Interview with Greg Sharzer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 - Jordy Cummings Urban Space in Perspective: An Interview with Matthew Gandy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 - Aaron Henry Indigenous Takes On Environmentalism: An Interview on the Front Lines of Indigenous Land Defense . . . . . . . . . . . 259 - Megan Kinch The Geopolitical Ecology of Empire’s Ally: An Interview with Greg Albo and Jerome Klassen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 - Jordy Cummings Working in a Warming World: On Climate Change and Union Renewal with Carla Lipsig-Mummé . . . . . . . . . . . 283 - Christina Rousseau Climate Change and Socialism: An interview with John Bellamy Foster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 - Steve da Silva Reviews John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Richard York. The Ecological Rift Capitalism’s War on the Earth; Anthony Giddens. The Politics of Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . 303 - Samantha Wilson Silvia Federici. Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 - Danielle DiNovelli-Lang Ross Sutherland. False Positive: Private Profit in Canada’s Medical Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 - Deborah Komarnisky Ernesto Che Guevara. El diario del Che en Bolivia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 - Gabrielle Etcheverry Victoria Law and China Martens. Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 - Kevin Partridge Victoria Law. Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 - Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich Babak Fozooni. What is Critical Social Research? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 - Mahnam A. Malamiry Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker. José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 - Matthew Hawkins C.L.R. James. A New Notion: Two Works by C.L.R. James . . . . . . . . . 329 - Paul Whiteley Holly Gibbs, Belinda Leach, and Charlotte A.B. Yates. Negotiating Risk, Seeking Security, Eroding Solidarity: Life and Work on the Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 - Madalena Santos Richard Swift. The Great Revenue Robbery: How to Stop the Tax Cut Scam and Save Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 - Matt Fodor 8 | Climate Change and Its Discontents Editorial Introduction: Climate Change and Its Discontents | 9 Editorial Introduction Climate Change and its discontents Carlo Fanelli1 and Bryan Evans2 In “Capitalism, the Climate Crisis and Canada’s ‘Relations of Mobility’”, Ryan Katz-Rosene explains how the material and subjective systems governing transport infrastructure are ecologically unsustainable and largely undemocratic. Rather than challenging market forces, the Cana- dian state has played a central role in deepening and extending these practices. In his view, confronting these challenges requires a genuinely democratic, anti-capitalist politics aimed at transforming state power across all scales of public administration. Next, Marjorie Griffin Cohen shows why counting “Gendered Emissions” matters. While many of the gendered analyses exploring climate change focus on the implications for women and their work in the Global South, less attention has been devoted to exploring how climate change differentially effects women in the North. Cohen’s analysis breaks new ground in understanding how paid and unpaid labour as well as consumption issues vary by gender in the developed world, and explains why knowing the gendered distinc- tions in GHG emissions can inform radical ways to think about public policy and its relation to climate change. Moving forward, in “Overcoming Systemic Barriers to ‘Greening’ the Construction Industry” John Calvert argues that reducing GHG emissions and energy consumption of the built environment is central to mitigating climate change. He explores how building trades workers can adopt low carbon construction policies. To do this, he argues, means challenging the pervasive use of sub-contracting and precarious employ- ment, as well as largely unregulated construction markets. A ‘green’ con- struction culture, boosted by enhanced training and apprenticeship pro- grams and improved job security through unionization, could go a long way in implementing climate objectives at the workplace. The following article by Antonio Augusto Rosotto Ioris, “Approaches and Responses to Climate Change: Challenges for the Pantanal and the Upper Paraguay River Basin”, draws on original empirical research that explores a range 1 Carlo Fanelli is an Instructor and SSHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University. Thanks are due to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their financial support. 2 Bryan Evans is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies. 10 | Climate Change and Its Discontents of responses that are being developed in order to cope with the negative impacts of climate change. Loris shows how the influence of the agri- business sector, coupled with few national and trilateral environmental policies, have focused on principles of systematic adaptation, climate skepticism and/or marketization. In “Brazilian Dystopia: Development and Climate Change Mitiga- tion”, Potter et al., stress the ecological importance of the Amazonian Rainforest to the rest of the world. They argue that deforestation, rather than the carbonized energy and transport sectors, disproportionately accounts for Brazil’s GHG emissions. They explore the “dystopia thesis” concretizing their arguments through an examination of the complex relationships between the Brazilian economy and practices aimed at mit- igating climate change. Kading and Bass ask “Can you Build an Open- Pit Mine in an Urban Centre?” They explore how residents of the city of Kamloops found themselves at the centre of a controversial debate over a foreign-domestic investment proposal: the establishment of an open- pit copper and gold mine in a B.C. interior community. They argue that environmental and community concerns have been overshadowed by the rhetoric of job creation, low taxes, balanced budgets and economic growth at all costs. Should this proposal go unchallenged, they argue, it could set a Canada-wide precedent with dire implications for the liv- ability, economic future and democracy for residents of Kamloops and beyond. The final article by Jeffrey Carey and Steven Tufts, “‘Greening Work’ in Lean Times: The Amalgamated Transit Union and Public Transit”, explores the trialectic relationship between capital, labour and nature in Canada’s public transit unions. They review union documents and Canadian newspapers finding that the state uses the environment as a wedge issue in its ‘war of position’ with unions: workers’ strike actions are characterized as harmful to the environment and community. Their article concludes with an examination of a recent campaign strategy by Toronto’s ATU Local 113 wherein they call for more community based approaches to resistance. Our Interventions section brings together leading thinkers and com- munity organizers in the pursuit of ecological, political, economic and social justice. Starting us off, Jordy Cummings interviews Greg Sharzer, author of No Local, on the issue of localism. Their discussion explores the limitations of ethical shopping, community initiatives like gardens and farmers’ markets and local economic development. Sharzer suggests that these initiatives will not change the world, but that challenging market priorities will. Next, Aaron Henry and Matthew Gandy discuss Editorial Introduction: Climate Change and Its Discontents | 11 new critical methodological tools with which scholars and activists can get a handle on the conjuncture, encompassing a range of issues con- nected with Gandy’s theory of ‘partial modernity’. Following this up, Megan Kinch delves into conversation with Indigenous Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee land defenders, exploring land occupation, cul- tural revitalization, and their perspectives on both Marxism and envi- ronmentalism In what follows, Christina Rousseau discusses the impact of climate change on labour markets with Carla Lipsig-Mumme, incorporating a discussion of her most recent work titled Work in a Warming World. The following interview with Empire’s Ally editors Greg Albo and Jerome Klassen discusses a range of issues surrounding Canadian Imperialism in general and the war in Afghanistan in particular. In their discussion with Jordy Cummings, Albo and Klassen challenge the humanitarian aspects of the Afghanistan war, drawing attention to the ecological, social and political consequences of war without end. The section is capped with an interview between John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, and Steve da Silva. They discuss the frightening prospects that we face as a species, incorporating discussions of recent IPCC reports as well as Foster’s highly original reading of Marx and Engels’ writings on nature and the metabolic rift. Concluding Alternate Routes’ thirty-seventh year of publication and twenty-fifth issue are eleven reviews examining everything from climate change to progressive taxation, healthcare, revolutionary social and political thought and cross-border solidarity. We would like to thank all contributors for working under extremely tight publishing deadlines, carefully addressing reviewers’ concerns and contributing their time and energy to put together this volume. Special thanks are also due to our editorial advisory board, as well as a number of external reviewers, who graciously volunteered their time and expertise to see this project through. This collection would not have been possible without your steadfast support. The concerns raised in this issue cross-cut racial, ethnic, gender and class lines; the actions or inactions taken to mitigate and adapt to cli- mate change will effect all living systems on earth now and well into the future. In 2000, Perry Anderson remarked: “The only starting-point for a realistic Left today is a lucid registration of historical defeat. Capital has comprehensively beaten back all threats to its rule, the bases of whose power – above all, the pressures of competition – were persistently under-estimated by the socialist movement...For the Left, the lesson of 12 | Climate Change and Its Discontents the past century is one taught by Marx. Its first task is to attend to the actual development of capitalism as a complex machinery of production and profit, in constant motion.”3 Fourteen years later Anderson’s words are perhaps more revealing now than when they were first written. We hope that the contributions in this volume, along with those of social- ists, feminists, anti-racists, indigenous communities and ecologically- inspired authors and activists from around the world, assist readers in interpreting the consequences of climate change and inspire them to do something about it. 3 Anderson, P. (2000). Renewals. New Left Review, http://newleftreview.org/II/1/perry-anderson- renewals http://newleftreview.org/II/1/perry-anderson-renewals http://newleftreview.org/II/1/perry-anderson-renewals