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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Nandor Tanczos- Anti-Capitalist

Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos was an anarchist well into the the late 1990s and probably still is.

Certainly he is still militantly anti-capitalist.

Nandor Tanczos is a long time friend and associate of Derek Wall, principal Male Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales.


Wall is a militant anti-capitalist and eco-socialist and a leading Venezuela Solidarity activist,

Wall's Blog, Another Green World;

promotes anti-capitalism, green politics, direct action, practical lifestyle change, Venezuela/Cuba and a touch of Zen. Ecosocialism or muerte!

Wall lists his interests as;

No GM, Green Party,Green politics, organic farming, no nukes, peace, social movement theory, anti-capitalism, ital, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Donna Warren for President, ecosocialism, Cuba, zen, open source, commons, Latin American literature, socialism, political economy, sufism, Marx, direct action, Earth First

Wall is very supportive of the green anarchist movement and Peoples Blobal Action, the brainchild of the Mexican Zapatistas, which has inspired several NZ groups, including members of the "Urewera 17".

From a 2004 speech by Wall;

An anti-capitalist placard from Seattle showed a dophin with the slogan, 'I am not a trade barrier'. The WTO has forced countries to accept environmentally damaging products including tuna caught with nets that kill dolphins. Green pressure groups like Greenpeace, green direct action networks and green anarchists oppose unlimited free trade. Green Parties have been very active in opposing gm crops and the worst excesses of the corporations. The British direct action green network Reclaim the Streets helped found Peoples Global Action with the Mexican Zapitastas.

In 2006, Derek Wall published "Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements"


According to one reviewer, the book is;

An outline of different forms of anti-capitalist economics. Moving from the ideas of capitalist anti-capitalist like George Soros and Joseph Stiglitz, Korten and Klein, to green localists like Caroline Lucas and Vandana Shiva, Marxism from Marx to Castro, Anarchists and autonomists like Hardt and Negri, monetary reformers like Major Douglas or Tobin, ecosocialist like Joel Kovel

Nandor Tanczos wrote the foreword to Babylon and Beyond.

Here's some extracts;

Authoritative voices are warning us that we are very close to the point where world demand for oil will outstrip the capacity of the oilfields to supply. Our total dependence on fossil fuels, the use of which has provided the energy for an enormous expansion of human activity and population, is like a chemical addiction. And as the USA has recently confirmed in Iraq, strip a junkie of their supply and the temptation to turn to crime can be irresistable.

“The American way of life” says George Bush the First “is not negotiable”...

We cannot grow forever on a finite planet. If we continue to assume that endless growth and consumption is possible, and disregard the biosphere’s capacity to meet our greed, and if we continue to neglect social justice and fair and sustainable wealth distribution, we will reap a bitter harvest...

We humans think that we can own the planet, as if fleas could own a dog...

The ability to ‘own’ property is fundamental to capitalism. Since the first limited liability companies - the Dutch and British East India Companies - were formed, we have seen the kidnapping and enslavement of 20 - 60 million African people and the rape, murder and exploitation of indigenous people around the world. Colonisation was primarily about mercantile empires, not political ones. It was all about forcing indigenous, communitarian people to accept private individual ownership of resources, which could then be alienated, either by being bought or stolen. The subsequent political colonisation was just about how to enforce that ownership.


Clearly, Nandor Tanczos has not moved much beyond his anarchist/anti-capitalist days.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's disingenuous Trev as you will have read Nandors post on the Green Forum "The Greens are not a Left-Wing Party". Nandor's parents escaped communism. Your using Mao and Stalin to taint everything that questions the x% of activity that is pro a small minority at the expense of a majority and/or mother earth.

12:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How does ACT feel about the Liberals Govt of the 1890's wot broke up the big estates?????????????

12:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rape, murder, and exploitation(slavery) were actually the currency of pre-colonial NZ. Western law and private property bought a better form of currency, trade.
I guess the left doesn't like this because all they produce is grievence and babies.

3:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I read that introduction when the book came out and was totally inspired. Capitalism can only spread by destroying all cultures except those that prioritise individualism and greed. It continues to destroy the planet at rates that imperil our future existence.

We desperately need to get away from the economics that demands that we grow continually. Everybody knows (or is in denial about the fact) that growth cannot continue forever - sooner or later, no matter how resourceful and inventive you are, you reach limits.

3:47 PM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

Anon 1 I know Nandor wrote that and I accept that nandor is not a socialist. However I believe Nandor is still an anarchist, which is basically communism without the state.

Anon 2 Depends how those estates were formed. If the land was honestly obtained the government has no business interfering.

If they were dishonestly obtained, there may have been a case for intervention.

George-how do you know you cannot expand indefinitely? How do you prove a negative?

6:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

george attributes growth as a requirement of capitalism where it is a result of it.
are the welfare policies promoted by the left a cause of or just connected to the population explosion, excess consumption that they complain about?
funny how there's not enough resources unless there collectivly owned then apparently there's enough for every one.

8:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

heard of resource depletion and species exttinction?

resource boundaries?

welfare bashing isnt a defense for so called 'endless growth'. there are physical limits, even oil and coal CEOs accept that.

8:08 PM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

While certain raw materials may come under pressure from time to time, man has a pattern of finding better replacements

coal replaced wood, electricity replaced coal etc.

As long as man remains free, the material world will serve us well.

We have more to fear from fearmongers than we do from "resource depletion".

8:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

George and Anon misapply carrying capacity, where population growth effects natural resources.
Humans not only have the ability to create new and renewable resources as Trev points out, but can also control population.
The lefts welfare policies distort the incentives to having children and lead to irresponsible breeding and increased consumption. Rather than caring about the wellbeing of these children the left provides welfare to ensure they vote left when older.

10:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

electricity comes from coal trev, it didn't replace it. even solar and wind use coal, because coal is used in the steel making process to make the steal for the wind mill components.

so it isn't a matter of replacing but of dwindling resources. wood wasnt replaced, it is still used - as the new wood pulp mill in australia shows.

your idea dont match reality

5:34 PM  

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