In defence of civilisation: Terrorism and environmental politics in the 21st century

Abstract

The use of the term civilisation has assumed renewed prominence within high profile speeches by political leaders in the opening decade of the 21st century. Initially articulated in relation to the ‘war on terror’ following September 11 in 2001, the discourse of terrorism was extended to elements of environmental and social justice movements. This extension of the discourse of terrorism within the public sphere followed a period in which state surveillance and security resources were targeted on environmental protestors. Primary legislation, such as the US Patriot Act, and successive Crime and Criminal Justice Acts in the UK, combined with global collaboration between national security services, increased the range of formal charges which can be brought against individuals. This contribution explores the symbolic stakes and processes associated with this discursive return to civilisation as a prominent political discourse that simultaneously defends unsustainable ‘western’ practices against external and internal enemies. It is argued that the evocation of civilisation as part of a ‘war’ implicitly and explicitly legitimates the introduction of extraordinary measures consistent with wartime contingencies. Such measures apply to both internal and external affairs of state and include those sections of environmental movements explicitly linking environmental degradation with critiques of contemporary neo-liberalism. It is argued that the attempt to define such movements as ‘enemies within’ is a tacit recognition of the symbolic potency of both global and national stakes raised through recourse to extra-parliamentary forms of protest and the founding of alternative deliberative forums at a global level. Such movements render visible elements of a prevailing neo-liberal civilisation inimical to environmental and societal integrity.

Notes

1. Widening inequalities in wealth and health are amongst the examples I have in mind.

2. This term avoids the negative connotations of the prefix ‘Anti’ which misses the proactive content of the movement of movements.

3. For a critique of this ideological position see Bauman (1999), Bourdieu (1998, 2004) and Gounari (2006).

4. The term axiomatic is intended to reflect Deleuze & Guattari's (2003) sense of the term as developed in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia throughout this contribution.

5. For an account of the systemic, multi-agency use of violence and terror by Italian forces against anti-capitalist protestors in Genoa, the subsequent promotion of key personnel involved and efforts to gain legal redress see Chesters & Welsh (2006, ch. 4: ‘From carnival against capitalism to death at high noon: states fight back’).

6. In this context also see Blühdorn (this volume) on the ‘non-negotiable consensus of defence’.

7. Based on numerous email exchanges and conversations with US academics and activists.

8. Personal observation of those involved included individuals with longstanding involvement amongst prominent UK groups and those attending their first such event. Participants included those with academic training in art and performing arts and those with no formal training or experience in performance.

9. The kernel of substance in this claim within the UK lay in funds from Russian miners reaching the National Union of Mineworkers, which backed the formation of the Anti-nuclear Campaign, but the association was drawn with the anti-nuclear movement as a whole.

10. States have not seriously attempted to restructure such sectors by creating appropriate markets via legislation. Cities like London pioneered road charging, and California, which in 2003 had the fifth largest economy in the world (Chytry, 2006), is pursuing legal action against the car industry. Many examples of systemic engagement come from sub-state actors.

11. Mumford included the use of ‘sun converters’, heat exchangers utilising oceanic temperature gradients and ‘new types of wind turbine’, commenting that wind alone could supply all reasonable energy demands given some advance in battery technology. Advances in battery technology and solar battery chargers now make the hybrid car the most viable short term technical option for reducing emissions arising from vehicular transport. The capacity of market mechanisms alone to effect such a transition within relevant timeframes is limited.

12. Other responses included experimenting with applications of complexity theory by establishing cascading email lists generating an interactive depiction of alignments and interests within a variety of constituencies. Greenpeace thus remain tapped into global, bottom-up formalisations whilst maintaining their strategic distance from formal initiatives, a position easily misinterpreted as non-participation within international realignment processes (see Rootes, 2006).

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Notes on contributors

Ian Welsh

This contribution draws extensively upon joint work with Graeme Chesters but responsibility for the arguments in the form advanced here remains with the author. I would like to thank Ingolfur Blühdorn and anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts and the contributors to this volume for their commitment to this project. Finally thanks are due to my colleagues, especially Peter Fairbrother, in the School of Social Science at Cardiff, for their support