New politics or environmental class struggle?

Abstract

The expansion of capitalism into new places and new activities has encountered various forms of resistance around the world. It is argued that this opposition represents a form of environmental class struggle. Such a struggle involves the refusal of integration of both people and environment into capital's social relations. Such struggles are undertaken by those whose way of life and labour are being proletarianised by capital's expansion. As such, they have a particular relation to, and focus on, material production and reproduction. Their struggles have the potential to disrupt capital's system of social relations, and the accumulation process on which it depends. This political and environmental potential lies in their ability to disrupt accumulation, and to reclaim environmental conditions at risk of capitalisation.