Ecofeminists contra Debt a materialist decolonial analysis Ariel

Ecofeminists contra Debt a materialist decolonial analysis Ariel Salleh - www. arielsalleh. info

Social Movement Paradigms Environmental pre-feminist Corporate Greenwash Liberal Managerialism De-Growth Eco-Socialism Social Ecology Deep Ecology Indigenous Ecology Eco-feminism Feminist pre-ecological Postmodern/Materialities Transnational/Liberal Socialist/Anarcha Radical/Cultural Indigenous Womanism

The Great Chain of appropriation – real subsumption GODS & KINGS

The Pre-Conscious Imaginary of Eurocentric Capitalist Patriarchal domination a dissociated – dualist logic humanity over nature man over woman subject over object mind over body production over reproduction capital over labour Idealism over materialism machine over organism economy over ecology physics over biology mental over manual white over black North over South land over water

DIMENSIONS OF MATERIAL EXTRACTION 6 Debts Transnational ruling class – Debtors aim to defend status quo, securitization discourse, assetization Social Debt owed to Workers socialist movement - aim to protect wages and conditions Colonial Debt owed to Peasants & Indigenes decolonial movement - aim to reclaim land livelihood Embodied Debt owed to Mothers feminist movement - aim to stop sex-gendered resourcing Intergenerational Debt owed to Youth extinction movement - aim to survive, to have a future Species Debt owed to others animal rights movements - aim to extend human sensibility Ecological Debt owed to nature at large Environmental movement - aim to protect biodiversity

Pietila - The Three Tiered Economy

Mies and Bennholdt Thomsen – The Subsistence Perspective How work would change No sexual division of labour; men do as much unpaid work as women Not waged work; self-determined socially and materially useful work Subsistence decolonised, ceasing to subsidise commodity production Characteristics of a subsistence technology Technology is regained as a tool to enhance life, nurture, care, share Not domination, cooperation with nature; people's knowledge valued Technology should be such that effects can be 'healed' and repaired

Mies continued … Moral features of a subsistence economy An economy respecting the limits of nature Recognised as just one subsystem of society, not the reverse Ending economic relations based on cost-benefit and competition An economy serving the core-life system A decentralised and regional economy Supporting production and regeneration on the planet as a whole

Mies continued … How trade and markets would be different Local markets to satisfy the subsistence needs of all Local trade preserving product diversity; resisting homogenisation Long distance trade not used for subsistence needs Trade would not destroy biodiversity

Mies continued … Changes in the concept of need and sufficiency Direct satisfaction of needs, not capital accumulation and material surpluses Reciprocal relations of rural and urban, producer and consumer, culture and region Self-reliance in food security as fundamental Commons reclaimed from privatisation and commercialisation of nature Money as a means of circulation not a means of accumulation

Mellor - ME versus WE Economy ME - HIGH VALUE Economic ‘Man’ Market value Personal wealth Labour/Intellect Skills/Tradeable Knowledge Able-bodied workers Exploitable resources Unlimited consumption WE - LOW / NO VALUE Women’s work Subsistence Social reciprocity Body, emotions Feelings, wisdom Sick, needy, old, young Eco-systems, wild nature Sufficiency

Shiva – A Vernacular and Decolonial Science It is in managing the integrity of ecological cycles in forestry and agriculture that women's productivity has been most developed and evolved. Women transfer fertility from the forests to the field and to animals. They transfer animal waste as fertilizer for crops and crop by-products to animals as fodder. They work with the forest to bring water to their fields and families. This partnership between women's work and nature's work ensures the sustainability of sustenance. See also Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Science and the Scientific Revolution – in refs below

Salleh – Meta-Industrial Labour The methodological features of a non-monetised society-nature metabolism contrast sharply with the incoherent regime of commodity production. The consumption footprint is small because local resources are used and monitored daily with care. Closed loop production is the norm. Scale scale, maximises responsiveness to matter–energy transfers in nature, so avoiding disorganization and entropy. Judgments are built up by trial and error, using a cradle-to-grave assessment of ecosystem health. Meta-industrial labour is intrinsically precautionary because it is situated in an intergenerational time frame. Lines of responsibility are transparent – far from the confusion of small decisions that often impairs corporate or bureaucratised economies.

Salleh continued … Where social organisation is less convoluted than in urban centres, the efficiencies of synergistic problem solving can be achieved. In farm settings and in wild habitat, multi-criteria decision making is common sense. Regenerative work patiently reconciles the time scales of humans and other species, and readily adapts to disturbances in nature. This is an economic rationality that knows the difference between stocks and flows; no more is taken than is needed. It is an empowering work process, without a division between the worker's mental and manual skills. The labour product is immediately enjoyed or shared, whereas the industrial worker has no control, creativity is alienated. Autonomous local economies imply food and energy sovereignty. Such provisioning is eco-sufficient as it does not externalise costs on to others as debt.

Ecosystem Thermodynamic sector Actors soils, water, plants, animals Aims regeneration/reproduction Logic relational, cyclic energy flows, biocomplexity Benefit metabolic value Cost nil

Mode of production extractivist manufacturing sector Actors entrepreneurs, wage labour Aims accumulation, power, structural reform Logic Benefit reductionist, linear, stock focus Cost (x 3) exploitation of worker's surplus exhaustion of domestic/peasant labour degradation of natural metabolism exchange value

Mode of reproduction Regenerative meta-industrial sector Actors care givers, peasant labour, indigenes Aims health, sufficiency, cultural autonomy Logic relational, cyclic energy flows, biocomplexity Benefit use value, metabolic value Cost nil

Eco-Sufficiency / Buen vivir for a synergistic economy • the economy re-produces nature • gives fertility back to the soil, maintaining clean air and water • protects not commodifies the variety of genetic forms, plant and animal species • uses simple technologies with a minimum of resources - a culture of creativity • the economy re-produces individuals • meets basic needs of health and self-expression without the medium of money • enlists cooperation among the able-bodied and caring for others • nurtures equality regardless of gender, race, age, ability - a culture of patience • the economy re-produces community • minimises the separation between home and workplace • eliminates class power by involving everyone in decision making • celebrates community itself as the goal of economic life - a culture of dialogue.

Materialist Ecofeminism foundational references – cited above Caroline Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper, 1980. Hilka Pietila, ‘We in the North are the Biggest Problem for the Global South’, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 2006, Vo. 17, No. 2, 45 -61. Veronika Bennholdt Thomsen and Maria Mies, The Subsistence Perspective. London: Zed Books 1999. Mary Mellor, ‘Ecofeminist Political Ecology in A. Salleh (Ed. ), Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice. London: Plutp Press, 2009. Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive, Women, Ecology & Development. London Zed Books, 1986. Ariel Salleh, ‘From Ecological Debt to Embodied Debt’ in A. Salleh (Ed. ), Eco. Sufficiency & Global Justice. London: Zed Books, 2009. - plus Chapter 21. See also in French Emilie Hache, Reclaim: Les Textes Ecofeministes. Paris: Socrcieres, 2017.