Conference debates populationism

Conference debates populationism

By Ross Davidson

The questions of population and immigration are contentious ones in the broad green movement. So it was not surprising that they should feature on the agenda at the Ecopolitics VI conference held in Melbourne September 25-27.

One session heard sharply divergent presentations by Sheila Newman of Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population and Dave Holmes of the Democratic Socialist Party.

The populationist approach articulated by Sheila Newman sees sheer human numbers as the major causal factor in the degradation of the planet's biosphere. Thus it concludes that the fundamental remedy is to limit population growth. In regard to Australia, the populationists argue for capping population numbers by reducing immigration.

Dave Holmes argued that the real cause of both world poverty and the ecological crisis was the operation of our profit-driven capitalist system and Western imperialist domination of the Third World. Fighting to replace capitalism with democratic socialism and achieve a new deal for the Third World was the road forward for the green and progressive movement. Moreover, the only way to bring Third World population numbers under control was to achieve social justice and eliminate poverty and oppression.

He stressed that it would be a disaster for the green movement to adopt populationist positions. Such a stance, whatever the intention, would lead it into a bloc with reactionary forces. The green movement had to work with others to replace capitalism with democratic socialism.

From GLW issue 75