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Thank you very much.* *John Bellamy Foster* ------------------------------ *February 2007* The Ecology of Destruction by John Bellamy Foster Home <http://monthlyreview.org/index.html> Subscribe<http://monthlyrevieworg.nationprotect.net/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MRS&Category_Code=SUB> ------------------------------ Notes From the Editors <http://monthlyreview.org/nfte0207.htm> ------------------------------ This article is based on talks delivered in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil on November 21–23, 2006, at the Regional University of Blumenau and the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis. These presentations were part of the third annual Bolivarian Days Conference organized by the Institute of Latin American Studies in Brazil. I would like to begin my analysis of what I am calling here "the ecology of destruction" by referring to Gillo Pontecorvo's 1969 film *Burn!.*1Pontecorvo's epic film can be seen as a political and ecological allegory intended for our time. It is set in the early nineteenth century on an imaginary Caribbean island called "Burn." Burn is a Portuguese slave colony with a sugar production monoculture dependent on the export of sugar as a cash crop to the world economy. In the opening scene we are informed that the island got its name from the fact that the only way that the original Portuguese colonizers were able to vanquish the indigenous population was by setting fire to the entire island and killing everyone on it, after which slaves were imported from Africa to cut the newly planted sugar cane. Sir William Walker (played by Marlon Brando) is a nineteenth-century British agent sent to overthrow the Portuguese rulers of the island. He instigates a revolt amongst the numerous black slaves, and at the same time arranges an uprising by the small white colonial planter class seeking independence from the Portuguese crown. The goal is to use the slave revolt to defeat Portugal, but to turn actual rule of the island over to the white planter class, which will then serve as a comprador class subservient to British imperialists. Walker succeeds brilliantly at his task, convincing the victorious army of former slaves and their leader José Dolores to lay down their arms after the Portuguese have been defeated. The result is a neocolony dominated by the white planters—but one in which the *de facto* rulers, in accordance with the laws of international free trade, are the British sugar companies. Walker then departs to carry out other intelligence tasks for the British admiralty—this time in a place called Indochina. When the film resumes in 1848 ten years have passed. A revolution has again broken out on Burn led by José Dolores. Sir William Walker is brought back from England as a military advisor, but this time as an employee of the Antilles Royal Sugar Company, authorized by Her Majesty's government. His task is to defeat this new rebellion of the former slaves. He is told by the oligarchy ruling the island that this should not be difficult since only ten years have passed and the situation is the same. He replies that the situation may be the same but the problem is different. In words that seem to echo Karl Marx he declares: "Very often between one historical period and another, ten years suddenly might be enough to reveal the contradictions of a whole century." British troops are brought in to fight the insurgents, who are waging a relentless guerrilla war. To defeat them Walker orders the burning down of all the plantations on the island. When the local representative of the British sugar interests objects, Walker explains: "That is the logic of profit....One builds to make money and to go on making it or to make more sometimes it is necessary to destroy." This, he reminds his interlocutor, is how the island Burn got its name. Nature on the island has to be destroyed so that labor can be exploited on it for hundreds of additional years. My intention here is not of course to recount Pontecorvo's entire extraordinary film, but to draw out some important principles from this allegory that will help us to understand capitalism's relation to nature. Joseph Schumpeter once famously praised capitalism for its "creative destruction."2 But this might be better seen as the system's destructive creativity. Capital's endless pursuit of new outlets for class-based accumulation requires for its continuation the destruction of both pre-existing natural conditions and previous social relations. Class exploitation, imperialism, war, and ecological devastation are not mere unrelated accidents of history but interrelated, intrinsic features of capitalist development. There has always been the danger, moreover, that this destructive creativity would turn into what István Mészáros has called the "destructive uncontrollability" that is capital's ultimate destiny. The destruction built into the logic of profit would then take over and predominate, undermining not only the conditions of production but also those of life itself. Today it is clear that such destructive uncontrollability has come to characterize the entire capitalist world economy, encompassing the planet as a whole.3 Full: http://monthlyreview.org/0207jbf.htm