The class function

The great mystery of the neoliberal takeover of the American left lies in differing class outcomes being attributed to ideology.

The liberal view of ideology is classless – the rich, PMC, working class and poor can be right or left as is their predilection. Quite remarkably, given how insistently differences have been proclaimed, this is the view of much of the American left as well. However, to the extent this is descriptively accurate, it hides more than it reveals. For the rich and PMC, ideology is a tool of class management. Yesterday’s law and order politician is today’s anti-racist warrior.

This isn’t a matter of political evolution or even opportunism, per se. The idea of political compromise is that both sides get something, which implies that there are two sides, eg right and left. When the dimension of class is added, right and left can both win while all but the rich and PMC lose.

In other words, the political space where both ‘sides’ win is a function of class. Through ideology, these wins can be dispersed amongst the classes without any material redistribution of political or economic power. In this system, winning or losing a political contest depends on one’s class, not one’s ideology.

By way of an extended analogy: in 2012 it came to light that the Sierra Club, the premier American environmental group, had taken $26 million is ‘secret’ donations from Chesapeake Energy, the fracked-gas company known for being a political player, to launch a public relations campaign against coal in favor of fracked natural gas (methane). In a controlled environment, methane produces half of the CO2 per unit of energy that coal does. By 2012, it was well understood that fracking wasn’t a controlled environment. Chesapeake Energy’s slash-and-burn businesses practices made it certain that its fracking never would be a controlled environment.

Chesapeake Energy invented the fracking playbook of leasing land in economically depressed areas and rendering the water unfit for human and animal consumption. The company preyed on economic desperation and treated the land, air and water with utter contempt. Its lobbying points, that methane is a ‘bridge fuel’ that is ‘clean,’ were adopted by the Obama administration coincident with the Sierra Club’s lobbying efforts. The EPA then moved to outlaw the burning of coal by American utilities. Regardless of whether there was an explicit quid pro quo, the Sierra Club served Chesapeake’s business objectives quite effectively.

The liberal frame of capitalism is as cooperative social organization where the products that corporations produce benefit consumers.

Excerpted from: 'Class Struggle and the Parable of an Environmental Victory'.

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