Red and Green Politics: Why people associate environmentalist policy with the political left.

                                      A poster for a Green Party meeting in Hackney (inner London) in 1985

While organised groups of environmental activists having existed since the 17th century with the founding of the Royal Society and the Temple Coffee House Botanical Club, and the Victorian environmental organisations seeking to campaign against industrialisation and its resulting environmental consequences, it is only recently that governments have become increasingly keen to improve the environmental inclusivity of their policymaking, as well as the general public having become more vocal about these issues. This has led to increased support for and rapid growth of the Green political movement likely properly taking off at the time of 1970s counterculture going against  materialism and capitalism with the UK Green Party (under a different name) having emerged in the UK political scene in 1972. This brings about the question, why has this been the case and what positions on the political spectrum have influenced this?

                                                     A Royal Society meeting in its early years.

Many consider the beginnings of environmental activism to relate to the concern about the rapid growth in industry and the concerns regarding people's health and wellbeing due to the high levels of pollution observed. This could perhaps also be somewhat criticising the capitalist ideas of the time as well considering the intentions of this rise in industry perhaps somewhat presenting a more left wing perspective on this. There is Marxist precedent on the leftist connotations of environmentally inclusive policy and ecological politics with both Marx and Engels having touched upon the natural environment and its importance in the development of their ideology. This can be evidenced through it being clear through Marx claiming that "the true humanist turns out to be the true naturalist" and that it "is by definition impossible in true Marxism" to oppose and abuse nature in that nature would prove to act as the foundations of human behaviour and what they rely upon to support their needs thus making it appear paradoxical for humans to be against it, as well as disproving the belief that those passionate for the environment resented mankind in that mankind would be somewhat required to keep this nature in order. Howard L. Parsons (1977) interprets this mutual symbiotic relationship between humans and the environment conceived by Marx and Engels that Marxists would value both of these equally considering humans to function in their environment in a similar way to non-human animals within a habitat, albeit with different aims and uses for it "as if man is a human animal, as Marxism maintains, man's needs require the full support of both society and nature." Parsons also considers Marx and Engels to be the main pioneers in the studying of humans and the environment, and the implementation of environmental safeguarding into government policy having claimed that they studied an approach to ecology long before the evidence of an "ecological crisis" and "energy crisis" was contemplated.

However, it is perhaps misguided to assume that the rise in ecological policymaking was entirely due to the interpretation of these leftist theories especially with there being, in many cases, a much reduced investment into environmental innovation and technologies under left-wing governance compared with in a more capitalist society, as well as more economically and socially advanced nations which have the adequate infrastructure to support this. This is likely due to this new technology being considered an effective way of boosting the economy and generating more income as an effective business opportunity so likely appealing more to capitalists, despite the fact that environmental preservation is perhaps, ironically, not considered a major priority for groups that are ideologically more right wing. This would prove to present that, while the foundations of environmental policy and those in support of its development are based around the political left, it is, in fact, the more capitalist right-wing groups that invest more into developing the infrastructure to support this, albeit likely for their own vested interests as opposed to because of them advocating clear environmental principles.

Maccaferri, M (2022) European History Quarterly Vol. 52 (3) pp. 401-17: From ‘Old’ to ‘New’ Politics: The Politicization of the Environment in Left-Wing British Intellectual Discourse (1970s–1980s) DOI: 10.1177/02656914221103165

Matuszczak, A et al (2020) Science of the Total Environment: Environment and political economics: Left-wing liberalism or conservative leftism- Which is better for eco-efficiency? Evidence from Poland  www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Breen, S.D (2014) Green Views of Marx: Reinterpreting, Revising, Rejecting, Transcending DOI: 10.1177/2158244013520609

Tawiah, V, Zakari, A (2023) Government political ideology and green innovation: evidence from OECD countries https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-024-09712-y