Fires raging in Brazil and around the world represent a long-term, sharpening struggle. It pits sustainable development to benefit the masses against capitalismās ruthless drive to maximize profits. Masses are rising against this horrendous destruction.
Brazilian agribusinesses burn dry scrub and trees cut down for cattle ranching. Itās a deliberate strategy to grab more land.Ā Farmers and ranchers in southern ParĆ” organized āa day of fireā for August 10 to clear land for pasture and planting.
Brazil is an emerging world agricultural superpower, with China as its largest customer. Sales to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa are expanding. Yet a third of Brazilās people are food-insecure.
āItās Not Fire, Itās Capitalismā
Capitalism demands continual expansion. Every year, more land is burned, cleared, and planted. More indigenous people lose access to the forests that sustained their ancestors for millennia.Ā Ā Land ownership is increasingly concentrated. Giant corporations control close to half of all farmland.
āBrazil has turned states like Mato Grosso into Iowa,ā said a technical expert. āYouāve got rain forest, and then thereās just an ocean of soybean.ā
Racism, Capitalism and Environmental Catastrophe Go Hand in Hand.
āItās a shame,ā Bolsonaro said in 1998, āthat the Brazilian cavalry hasnāt been as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians.ā If elected, he promised in 2017, āThere will not be a centimeter demarcated for indigenous reservations or quilombolas [villages of descendants of Afro-Brazilians who had escaped from slavery].ā
The destruction of Amazonian rain forests illustrates what Marx called the āprimitive accumulation of capital.ā In his words, āCapital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.ā
Communism will resolve the contradictions created by the profit system. It will begin to reverse the ravages of capitalism. Acting on communist principles, we will create and deploy the science needed to begin the process of environmental and social regeneration.