The far right and resource extraction

[lpetrich]

Dig Beneath the World’s Far-Right Governments—You’ll Find Fossil Fuels | Common Dreams Views - "From Brazil to India to the United States, extractive industries have aligned themselves with authoritarian governments waging war on minority populations."

The world’s burgeoning far-right movements are far-flung and diverse, but in government they share a few core tendencies: They attack minority populations. They criminalize dissent. And they’re horrible for the planet.

The slide into extractivist authoritarianism in the U.S. is part of a worldwide trend, exemplified by the parallels between the U.S. and Brazil, where far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is presiding over an accelerated destruction of the Amazon, attacks on Indigenous Brazilians, and brazen profiteering by aligned corporate interests.

Another striking international parallel was on display recently in Houston, Texas, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the stage with Trump at an event that felt like a fascist rally.

Then on how Narendra Modi's party, the BJP, is an ethnonationalist one, and how NM's government has been persecuting Muslims. Much like Trump.

Other parallels between the far-right political projects in India and the U.S. include their ties to extractive industries and their shared objective of criminalizing opposition to extractivism, particularly by Indigenous peoples.

In the United States, a recent investigative news report revealed that oil and gas companies have been lobbying Congress to insert provisions criminalizing protests against fossil fuel infrastructure into a pipeline safety bill. Similar laws are already on the books in states such as Louisiana and North Dakota.

...
Similarly, Modi has direct ties with Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who has benefited from public subsidies and deregulation for his fossil fuel, mining, and other business interests. Adani has also been a vocal supporter of Modi, including when the latter faced scrutiny for his role in covering up an anti-Muslim pogrom when he led the state of Gujarat. Adani’s company has a sordid record of destroying ecosystems and violating Indigenous rights, from Gujarat to Australia.

And like the U.S. government, the Modi government is also criminalizing Indigenous resistance to extractivism by equating it with “terrorism.”

 

[lpetrich]

This is a case of the "resource curse", where resource extraction supports autocrats and oligarchs, and interferes with the development of democracy. It has even corrupted the politics of nominally democratic countries like the US and Canada - consider Texas and Alberta.

Consider that Exxon's management have long known that continued burning of fossil fuels would create some rather troublesome global warming - they have known it since the late 1970's. But they decided to use tobacco-industry tactics to keep action from being taken.

"Oil and democracy don't mix" - oil-rich countries usually score much lower on how much democracy they have than oil-poor countries with similar GDP per capita.

Saudi Arabia is an obvious case, and that is also rather evident for Russia and Venezuela. Norway escaped that by having a long tradition of democracy when North Sea oil was discovered.

A good part of this in the US, and likely elsewhere, is fossil-fuel interests' financing politicians' careers. They have the money, so they can easily spend whatever they decide is necessary for that. A solution is to try to get lots of small donations instead of hitting up oligarchs for big donations in places like wine caves. Some politicians have succeeded in that, but that tends to be dependent on celebrity.

So that is an additional reason to pursue a Green New Deal. Renewable energy is often developed in much more decentralized ways than fossil-fuel development, and that can avoid replacing oil barons with solar barons.

 

[Tigers!]

Wonder how you explain the resource exploitation and devastation that occurred under the Communists? Hardly far right they were.
The Aral sea and Chernobyl spring to mind.

 

[lpetrich]

Wonder how you explain the resource exploitation and devastation that occurred under the Communists? Hardly far right they were.
The Aral sea and Chernobyl spring to mind.

Tigers, I notice that you have not disagreed with *anything* that I posted. Do you concede every bit of it?

 

[Tigers!]

Wonder how you explain the resource exploitation and devastation that occurred under the Communists? Hardly far right they were.
The Aral sea and Chernobyl spring to mind.

Tigers, I notice that you have not disagreed with *anything* that I posted. Do you concede every bit of it?

I concede that there are irresponsible and rapacious governments in power. It does not discriminate between ''far-right'' and 'far-left'.

 

[Jarhyn]

Wonder how you explain the resource exploitation and devastation that occurred under the Communists? Hardly far right they were.
The Aral sea and Chernobyl spring to mind.

Tigers, I notice that you have not disagreed with *anything* that I posted. Do you concede every bit of it?

I concede that there are irresponsible and rapacious governments in power. It does not discriminate between ''far-right'' and 'far-left'.

When in reality, the "far left" you seem to want to impugn is hardly anything of the sort; it's just more oligarchy and fascism wearing a different mask.

Your failure is in that you are unable to parse that there's a very big difference between "communist" countries and actual socialist policies; the only difference is in how blatant the government is in giving the resultant bounties from exploitation of the land to the powerful elite.

There are a few socialist "far left" countries in Europe, not so much elsewhere.

 

[Tigers!]

I concede that there are irresponsible and rapacious governments in power. It does not discriminate between ''far-right'' and 'far-left'.

When in reality, the "far left" you seem to want to impugn is hardly anything of the sort; it's just more oligarchy and fascism wearing a different mask.

Of course call them all fascists. Avoids the problem of acknowledging the failures of your idols or dreams.

Your failure is in that you are unable to parse that there's a very big difference between "communist" countries and actual socialist policies;

Since all communist governments called themselves socialists I will let there own words stand by themselves.

the only difference is in how blatant the government is in giving the resultant bounties from exploitation of the land to the powerful elite.

Which is only repeating what I said - far left/right there appears to be very little difference in the end result.

There are a few socialist "far left" countries in Europe, not so much elsewhere.

And?