As someone with libertarian communist sympathies (my precise politics are still in formation), I believe in democratic, bottom-up revolution as opposed to vanguardist-style models which I feel have perilous authoritarian potential. I am also, however, a radical environmentalist who understands fully the imminence of ecological disaster caused by reckless capitalism. As a Marxist I understand that bottom-up, class-wide revolution will happen when the material conditions are in place, but as an environmentalist conscious of the precarious state of the biosphere, I have to wonder when the material conditions will be right if not now with global warming spelling doom for our planet. What if class consciousness comes too late and the ecological damage is already too severe for recovery? Where is the balance? Immediatism (or vanguardism?) in the name of the planet, or "patience" (for material conditions/class consciousness) in the name of democracy?
