The Green Nazi - an investigation into fascist ecology

by J. Sakai

"Did the fall of the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich set back the cause of environmentalism by a hundred years? Does healing Mother Earth of man's crude ravages require the world rule of the white race? This sounds like only the delusions of a few neo-fascist boneheads, but they are questions to take seriously. If only because this type of ecological politics is held not just by a few fanatics but very possibly by millions of people. Surprising though it may be, this represents one possible future for insurgent Green politics. Challenging usual assumptions that Green politics must be progressive, the nexus of the radical right and white environmentalism needs to be reexamined." —from the Introduction

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Ecology, History, Conspiracy Theories, Germany

33 pages, saddle stitch pamphlet 5.5 x 8.5

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

J. Sakai is a revolutionary intellectual with decades of experience as an activist in the U.S. He is one of North America’s most insightful and challenging radical intellectuals, best-known for his work Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat, which remains the essential anti-racist labor history of the united states. Sakai work is grounded in Mao’s politics, anti-imperialism, and in a lifetime of hands-on activism; he has consistently focused on the relationship between “race” and “class” in the american context, from a perspective dedicated to abolishing the united states, capitalism, and white supremacy.

Beyond Settlers, however, Sakai has authored a number of other works, on subjects ranging from movement security, to the nature of the lumpen/proletariat, to the rise of the far right, and much more. Several of these have been published in book-form by Kersplebedeb, others as zines, while others have only ever appeared on the Internet.

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly what I expected but enjoyable and informative nonetheless. It explores some of the ways that aspects of capitalist environmentalism have roots in fascist/Nazi ideology. It was interesting to see how ecology/environmentalism was used to build power for the Nazi party. In the context of approaching ecological crises, climate/ecology will need to be central to our organizing and it is useful to note that fascists will also be attempting to build power from the same crises.

[Swarm Feral · Rating 4 out of 5]

was curious about this and didn't know where it was going to go

it was a good read and v nuanced and highlights both green washing and pastoral nazi ambitions, or at least certain peasant sympathetic nazis as well as other fashy tricks like using propaganda to hate "bad" capitalists while also appealing to the "good" capitalists etc

it is an investigation into a particular nazi and a particular agrarian strain of nazism as well as false critiques of such things. it is not an analysis of the more hunter-lifeway oriented "green" nazis etc and is perhaps a little dated, but maybe shows how social-ecology and nationalist class-politics have just as much in common with certain nazi strains as primitivists etc

one of it's closing points "People's moral disorientation doesn't come from anything ecological---that's just the cover story--- but from the continuing attraction of capitalist racism. That's true whether we're talking about Reichsminister Darre or Ralph Nader."

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://trashtree.org/sakai.html

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

so i've only read the first 2 chapters of this author's signature book "settlers" like 2 days ago, but basically capitalistic racism is a major theme in both these works. so anywho i stumbled upon this book via goodreads, and it's like the size of a short story or a chapter or 2 of "settlers" so i was like this looks quick. it took about 45 minutes to an hour. this was written in 2003 & it is very important since with the beginning of climate cataclysm started to be accepted by USAmericans circa 2018, "green new deal" discourse vs ecofascists shooting up public places are becoming common place. so point being, this made me think that these sides are close to each other than i think, since history rhymes. i sense this is going to be involved in present-day/2020 studies on ecofascism.

this pamphlet quotes the nazis a lot in order to present evidence. so that's kind of disturbing to read out loud. i say this because i'm the kind of reader that does better to read out loud in order to focus my eyes on the page, & i worry about how i might be platforming. that being said, it's important to see that shit to know how history rhymes & learn about dogwhistles.

it seems in 2020 & this decade even associating purity of food has been used to undercut fda usda standards of like water & such. ugh. i don't know how to properly word this, but like think whole foods vs food deserts & deregulation of the fda & usda. nutrition is relatively individualistic but still shown as holistic... ugh.

[warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

solid pamphlet about how certain environmentalisms fit with fascism and how some parts of today's capitalistic environmentalism were actually pioneered by the nazis. i expected it to be some history and more linking it to the current far right (idk why i did lol) but it was mostly history and analysis of how this nazi eco guy organized german peasants and how that contributed to their rise to power and interacted with the general class politics of nazi germany. there are a lot of parallels with their vision of the greater german empire with settler colonial conquest imo.

anyways the history ended up being interesting bc it just gives a better understanding of how fascism functions which is useful for the serious anti-fascist organizing we need today — as sakai writes: "this is being written in part for generations that have no experience with fascism as a mass happening"

[Nechayev_V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, and scarily pertinent in an era where "eco-fascism" is seeing a revival, particularly in the Christchurch Shooting.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

shook me to my absolute core. i think this pamphlet would do well to be paired with wilmette brown from Black Women for Wages for Housework’s work

[Adam Marsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://trashtree.org/sakai.html

[Jayden gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

like poles or whatevers