Capital is trying to usurp nature adhering to its own rules, while state power is joining hands with capital to offer full support to this exercise; the only way to freedom from this is establishing social control over the state, said senior journalist Anirban Chattopadhyay at the First Sumit Bandyopadhyay Memorial Lecture.

The lecture — titled “Ekdikey Shudhu Punji, Prithibi Onyodikey / Biddhosto Poribesh, Biponno Groho (Only capital on one side, the earth on the other / Troubled environment, endangered planet)” — was organised by the Satyajug Employees’ Cooperative Industrial Society and delivered by Chattopadhyay, a former editor of Anandabazar Patrika, at the Kolkata Press Club on Monday evening.

“This social control over the state cannot be established by any other society, but the one formed with the help of the enhanced consciousness of the working class. Only that society will be able to control state power in a real sense. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately begin talking to the working classes about the environment,” said Chattopadhyay, noting that no leading figure or trade union leadership had taken the initiative to begin this dialogue with the working classes.

In the lecture, Chattopadhyay said the late veteran journalist Sumit Bandyopadhyay had never compromised with state power, and that his entire career as a journalist was a protest against the interference of state power in the media.

Chattopadhyay said in Karl Marx’s writings, the intense communication between humans and nature was clearly underscored. He cited the German philosopher’s A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy where it was stated that only humans could save the world from the hunger for omnivorous capital, adding that unfortunately, in the Soviet model of socialism, this particular aspect of Marx’s thinking was not given adequate importance.

“Marx’s thoughts on the environment were fully fleshed out in Friedrich Engels’ last work, the unfinished Dialectics of Nature. In this book, Engels showed that man’s deep faith in coexistence and ecology would initiate a social life that would lead a communist society towards a better civilisation,” he said.

Chattopadhyay said the state speaks of alternative energy, but asked if it could really save the world, underscoring how the lithium used to make batteries for electric vehicles is an extreme pollutant.

“Bottled drinking water is a similar problem. Groundwater is being depleted gradually to make purified drinking water. Isn’t that another kind of destroying nature? State power is unable to show the alternative path. Only social power can rein in capital and protect the environment,” he said.

Chattopadhyay said the earth had faced destruction many times before and during the last extinction-level catastrophe, dinosaurs were wiped out from the face of the planet.

“But the disaster this time is completely different. Prior to this, there was no human hand in any disaster of that scale. This time, however, it is the humans who have become the cause of the planet’s destruction. The uncontrolled movement of capital has made civilisation all-consuming. If we are not conscious from now on, the ramifications will be inevitable destruction,” he added.