Imperialism, Revolution, and the Ecological Crisis of Central America

The ecological crisis created by capitalist development in Central America has been the subject of considerable research, but most of this work has failed to systematically examine the causes, manifestations, and impacts of ecological destruction from a Marxist or socialist perspective. Instead, most explanations of the crisis have been based on a Malthusian notion of overpopulation (Daugherty, 1969), irrational and inefficient environmental planning (Leonard, 1987), and/or the idea of excessive demand in the First World for environmentally destructive commodities (such as beef) from the Third (Nations and Komer, 1983). In contrast, I offer an ecological Marxist critique (see Faber, 1988; O'Connor, 1988). 1 examine the role of U.S. imperialism in creating the ecological, communal, and human conditions of production for capitalist export agriculture and industry in Central America and argue that social and ecological marginalization of the peasant subsistence sector has been a functional component of this process, providing the necessary supplies of highly exploitable semiproletarian workers for the capitalist export sector. I explore the thesis that the survival strategies adopted by the peasantry in response to its impoverishment have resulted in the widespread degradation and collapse of the ecological conditions necessary for the reproduction of semiproletarian labor-power. I go on to point to the contribution of the ecological crisis, aggravated by U.S. policies of low-intensity conflict and ecocide, to the development of powerful reformist and revolutionary movements for social and ecological justice and conclude that Marxist and socialist theory should place the ecological crisis at the center of any analysis of revolution and imperialism in Central America.