What Could an Ecofeminist Society Be?

Ethics and the Environment, 4(2):179-184 Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. ISSN: 1085-6633 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. Françoise d'Eaubonne What Could an Ecofeminist Society Be? Feminism is looking to become what one is, and doing what one wants to do as an individual , and not as a woman. Jane O'REILLY, F., May 1979 We must first put forward the principle that the abolition of patriarchy and the establishment of a relationship with the environment that is finally balanced are not only fundamentally linked, but also can only occur in a post-revolutionary and self-managing society. The first relationship between ecology and the liberation of women is the reclamation by women of population growth, defining the reappropriation of the body (all liberation is liberation of the body and of time). This liberation has already begun in highly industrialized countries, which must, for reasons of productivity, grant women contraception. (This same contraception was denied them during the beginning stages of Capital for the opposite reasons. Today, the same profit-based system no longer needs abundant manpower but seeks, on the contrary, to limit it, forcing it to deal with the issue of unemployment.) The second reason that Daddy's Capital insists on a high birthrate is the need for soldiers; however, now that the proliferation of nuclear arms compels those in power to reject armed conflict amongst themselves in favor of war among interposed peoples (in the Third World), this second motive no longer plays a part. The poverty-stricken people of the Third World have protested against proposed measures to limit population growth because of the crucial need felt by families to keep some children alive to take care of their aging parents. These survivors of infant mortality are only the tip of the iceberg, while the huge number of births remains the crux of the matter. This miTranslated from the French by Jacob Paisain Direct all correspondence to: J. Paisain, Department of French, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812; E-mail: paisain@selway.umt.edu 179 180 ETHICS ANDTHE ENVIRONMENT Vol. 4, No. 2,1999 sogynistic disgrace which enslaves women will cease only with a rise in the standard of living. The progress in the stature of Western women begins with a veritable liberation and is balanced against social injustice, the exploitation of poor countries, the exportation of deadly armaments and nuclear industries, and devastation of the environment as ends to productivity. What keeps Capital, the last stage of Patriarchy, from achieving an ecological society when the analyses of the Club of Rome1 have proven to what point it is aware, right to the top, of this dangerous peril? The old revolutionary guard clearly showed that the number one interest of capitalist exploitation used to be the private possession of the sources of collectively consumed production. Today, this motivation is reinforced by the need to conserve a unique form of energy in order to insure the centralization of power. This is why nuclear power, a completely insane waste of time and a threat of agony for all living kind, has been preserved against all logic, ever since oil, which flows in poor countries and not in those "on the right side of the tracks" ceased to be the number one factor in profit. Many different forms of energy could be used instead of this one: hard methods such as geo-thermal: the layer of water underneath the Central Massif could provide for half of all domestic heating in France, for example; soft methods like solar, which in France could only be a secondary source of energy, even if it was a French company that made it the main source of energy in Mexico. The use of tidal power, which at one time demanded an enormous complex (like at la Ranee) could today be carried out by the completely attainable means of industrial miniaturization. In Grenoble, official studies were undertaken on the energy to be gleaned from natural gas, another interesting secondary source of energy. Finally, France Electric (Energie de France) itself had to admit that the hydrographie energy available was far from being used throughout the entire country. All...