Nature in Marx Reconsidered

Abstract

Alfred Schmidt's contribution to the ecological interpretation of Marx is reassessed from the standpoint of Marx's value-form analysis of capitalism and Marx's historical and materialist approach to nature under communism. Although Schmidt provides some useful insights into the relations between class exploitation and ecological destruction in Marx's view, his interpretation ultimately lapses into an uncritical determinism similar to that of official (Stalinist) Marxism. This determinism unjustifiably naturalizes capitalism's exploitation of nature while bypassing the systemic basis for an eventual merging of Red and Green anticapitalist movements that is highlighted by Marx's approach.