A Russian collective calling itself the Alliance of Revolutionary Socialists (ARS) has published a must-read account and critique of the occupation of the Kherson Factory in the Ukraine by workers seeking unpaid wages and employment security. The article, “A Requiem for Nationalisation,” explains the shortcomings of the struggle, demonstrates the collusion of the Trotskyists, Stalinists, trade unions, and mainstream bourgeoisie parties in diverting the struggle, and convincingly argues against reformism. But perhaps most important is their insistence that the proletarian struggle can succeed only after a series of defeats; even after suffering defeat, the Kherson workers have acquired invaluable experience, which is not only theirs, but is now appropriated by the Ukrainian and the global proletariat.
Switching gears, I’d like to tie up a loose end, as it were. About two weeks ago I posted about the tremendous environmental cost of direct mailing, i.e., junk mail: over 100 million trees cut down each year, not to mention the fossil fuels expended in producing and delivering junk mail (which comprises 30% of all mail). Now Wired Science has pointed out a report from Antivirus and junkware peddlers McAffee that says that spam — electronic junk mail — pollutes the environment too:
According to a report published by computer antivirus and spam filter seller McAfee, the annual sending, receiving and hand-deleting of 62 trillion email spams consumes 33 terawatt hours of energy every year. Producing that energy emits about 20 million tons of greenhouse gases.
In the translational shorthand of environmentalism, that’s enough juice to power Chicago for two years, and the greenhouse equivalent of driving 1.6 million cars around the Earth.
Bah!