ABSTRACT
Before considering how anarchism and Marxism may illuminate green thinking it is useful to extend the discussion of context which was begun in Chapter 1.2 by examining how these three relate to each other in the sense of political economy and traditional political ideologies. To try to do this immediately invites condemnation from those who see ecologism as a new and separate political ideology. But I think that Chapter 1 has demonstrated that while ecologism may start from different premises and concerns to those of traditional politics, it has to become involved in old political questions when it begins to say what we should do to attain ecological rectitude. Hence, ecologism can at least partly be analysed in terms of the classic questions posed by political economy, and be mapped against other ideologies. The exercise is instructive because, first, it helps to define what ‘greens’ we are and are not discussing in this book. Secondly, it suggests that there are, indeed, grounds for concern on the part of those green activists who believe that their political ideology is too eclectic or lacking in coherence:
the role of pressure groups has always had inherent weaknesses: to concentrate on pushing the establishment in a certain direction fails to challenge their power head on…. Those in power have also welcomed the pressure groups with suspiciously open arms, seeing… a relatively cheap method of courting popularity…. Pressure group activity in a vacuum, without an ideological framework or long-term strategy for change, is all too prone to exploitation by the Establishment….
