Eco-socialism
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Eco-socialism or Green socialism is an ideology fusing Green movement values with socialism. Eco-socialists believe that capitalism is inherently harmful to society and the environment due to waste, pollution, and overconsumption.
Eco-socialists are often described as Red Greens - adherents to Green politics with clear anti-capitalist views, often inspired by Marxism. They tend to be more markedly opposed to the mechanics of neoclassical economics than other Greens, and more strongly supportive of social justice as the primary goal of policy, seeing this as key to other goals. Red Greens should be contrasted with Blue Greens.
The term watermelon is sometimes applied to professed Greens who seem to put social goals above ecological ones, implying they are "green on the outside but red on the inside." Some Red Greens consider this a compliment, others an insult. Red Greens are not usually considered "fundis" or "fundamentalist greens", a term usually associated with Deep Ecology (although the "fundi" faction of the German Green Party and other parties included eco-socialists).
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[edit] History
William Morris, the English novelist, poet and designer, is largely credited with developing Eco-socialism, particularly in the UK[1]. During the 1880s and 1890s, Morris promoted his Eco-socialist ideas within the Social Democratic Federation and Socialist League[2].
Following the Russian Revolution, some environmentalists and environmental scientists attempted to integrate ecological consciousness into Bolshevism, although many such people were later purged by the CPSU[3]. Then, in the 1970s, Barry Commoner, suggesting a left-wing response to the limits to growth thesis, postulated that capitalist technologies were chiefly responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to population pressures[4]. East German writer Rudolph Bahro published two books addressing the relationship between socialism and ecology - The Alternative in Eastern Europe[5] and Socialism and Survival[6]. At around the same time, Alan Roberts, an Australian Marxist, wrote about how people's unfulfilled needs fuelled consumerism[7]. Fellow Australian Ted Trainer further called upon socialists to develop a system that met human needs, in contrast to the capitalist system that creates wants[8].
The 1990s saw the feminist-socialists Mary Mellor[9] and Ariel Salleh[10] address environmental issues within an Eco-socialism paradigm. With the rising profile of the anti-globalisation movement in the Global South, an "environmentalism of the poor", combining ecological awareness and social justice, has also become prominent[11]. David Pepper also released his important work, Ecosocialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice, in 1994, which critiques the current approach of many within Green politics, particularly Deep Ecologists[12].
In 2001, Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy released an Ecosocialist Manifesto. Currently, many Green Parties around the world, such as the Dutch Green Left Party, contain strong eco-socialist elements. Red Greens dominate the Green Parties in the Green Party of Saskatchewan (in Canada but not necessarily affiliated to the Green Party of Canada) and the Green Party of the United States (GPUS). Many Marxist organisations also contain ecosocialists: Michael Lowy, for example, is a leader of the reunified Fourth International, the principal Trotskyist organisation.
[edit] Beliefs
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Merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, environmentalism and ecology, Eco-socialists generally believe that the capitalist system is the cause of social exclusion, inequality and environmental degradation. Many Eco-socialists would argue that capitalism is also a cause of war and conflict. Eco-socialists criticise many within the Green movement for not going far enough in their critique of the current world system and for not being overtly anti-capitalist. At the same time, Eco-socialists would blame the traditional Left for overlooking or not properly addressing ecological problems[1].
[edit] Anti-Globalisation
Eco-socialists are anti-globalisation. Joel Kovel, a leading member of the USA Green Party who stood against Ralph Nader for presidential nomination in 2000, sees globalisation as a force driven by capitalism - in turn, the rapid economic growth encouraged by globalisation causes acute ecological crises[13].
In the Global South, Eco-socialists would highlight that the capitalist production of basic commodities is causing an array of environmental crises. Derek Wall argues that these environmental crises lead to poverty and social problems, as the free-market capitalist system makes it imperative to produce export-geared crops that take water from traditional subsistence farms and increase hunger and the likelihood of famine; furthermore, forests are increasingly cleared and enclosed to produce cash crops that separate people from their local means of production and aggravate poverty[1].
Eco-socialists see no contradiction between desire for zero economic growth to avoid ecological catastrophe and the need to increase production to solve issues of poverty: as Derek Wall argues, many of the world's poor have access to the means of production through "non-monetised communal means of production", such as subsistence farming. Such means, despite providing for need and a level of prosperity, are not included in conventional economics measures, like GNP. Thus Wall views neo-liberal globalisation as "just part of the long struggle of the state and commercial interests to steal from those who subsist" by removing "access to the resources that sustain ordinary people across the globe"[1].
For Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez-Alier, there are two "varieties of environmentalism" - the environmentalism of the North, an aesthetic environmentalism that is the privilege of wealthy people who no longer have basic material concerns, and the environmentalism of the South, where people's local environment is a source of communal wealth and such issues are a question of survival. They blame globalisation for creating increased levels of waste and pollution, and then dumping the waste on the most vulnerable in society[11]. Northern Eco-socialists, however, have noted that capitalism disproportionately affects the poorest in the North as well, leading to the foundation of an environmental justice movement in the US consisting of working-class people and ethnic minorities who highlight the tendency for waste dumps, major road projects and incinerators to be constructed around working-class and socially excluded areas. However, such campaigns are often ignored or persecuted precisely because they originate among the most marginalised in society: the African-American radical green religious group MOVE, campaigning for ecological revolution and animal rights from Philadelphia, had many members imprisoned or even killed by US authorities from the 1970s onwards[1].
[edit] Engagement with Marxism
Eco-socialism goes beyond a criticism of the actions of large corporations and targets the inherent properties of capitalism. Such an analysis follows Marx's theories about the contradiction between use values and exchange values. As Joel Kovel explains, within a market economy, goods are not produced to meet needs but are produced to be exchanged for money that we then use to acquire other goods. As we have to keep selling in order to keep buying, we must persuade others to buy our goods just to ensure our survival, which leads to the production of goods with no previous use that can be sold to sustain our ability to buy other goods. Eco-socialists like Kovel stress that this contradiction has reached a destructive extent, where certain essential activities - such as caring for relatives full-time and basic subsistence - are unrewarded, while unnecessary economic activities earn certain individuals huge fortunes[13].
Eco-socialists have often diverged with and modified Marxist theory. Some Marxists have considered economic growth as a useful tool for raising productive forces; in contrast, Eco-socialists are opposed to capitalist growth. James O'Connor has added a "second contradiction" to Marx's original economic contradictions: as Capitalism grows, it pollutes the air and water, increases soil erosion (which reduces the availability of productive farmland) and releases harmful chemicals into the natural world, therefore reducing the ability of the environment and workers to sustain growth and, like Marx's contradictions, threatens the system's existence[14]. In addition, O'Connor believes that, in order to remedy environmental contradictions, the capitalist system innovates new technologies that overcome existing problems but introduce new ones. He cites nuclear power as an example - a form of producing energy that is touted as an alternative to carbon-intensive, non-renewable fossil fuels, but creates long-term radioactive waste and other dangers to health and security. While O'Connor notes that capitalism is capable of spreading out its economic supports so widely that it can afford to destroy one eco-system before moving onto another, he and many other Eco-socialists now fear that, with the onset of globalisation, the system is running out of new ecosystems[14]. As Joel Kovel puts it, capitalist firms have to continue profit through a combination of intensive or extensive exploitation, and selling to new markets. This means that capitalism must grow indefinitely to exist, which seems impossible on a planet of finite resources[13].
Eco-socialism disagrees with the elite theories of capitalism, which tend to label a specific class or social group as conspirators who construct a system that satisfies their greed and personal desires. Instead, Eco-socialists go further, suggesting that the very system itself is self-perpetuating, fuelled by seemingly extra-human or impersonal forces. Kovel uses the Bhopal Union-Carbide industrial disaster as an example. Many anti-corporation observers would blame the avarice of those at the top of many multi-national corporations. Conversely, Kovel traces systemic impulses. Union Carbide were experiencing a decrease in sales that led to falling profits, which, due to stock market conditions, translated into a drop in share values. The depreciation of share value made many shareholders sell their stock, weakening the company and leading to cost-cutting measures that eroded the safety procedures and mechanisms at the Bhopal site. Though this did not, in Kovel's mind, make Bhopal inevitable, it illustrates the effect market forces can have on increasing the likelihood of ecological and social problems[13].
[edit] Criticisms of Malthusianism
Malthusianism and Eco-socialism overlap within the Green movement, and both address overindustrialism. However, despite the fact that Eco-socialists, like many within the Green movement, are described as neo-Malthusian because of their criticism of economic growth, Eco-socialists are often opposed to Malthusianism[1].
This divergence stems from the difference between Marxist and Malthusian examinations of social injustice - whereas Marx blames inequality on class injustice, Malthus argued that the working-class remained poor because of their greater fertility and birth rates. Neo-Malthusians have slightly modified this analysis by increasing their focus on overconsumption - nonetheless, Eco-socialists find this attention inadequate. They point to the fact that Malthus did not thoroughly examine ecology and that Garrett Hardin, a key Neo-Malthusian, suggested that further enclosed and privatised land, as opposed to commons, would solve the chief environmental problem, which Hardin labelled the 'Tragedy of the Commons'[1].
In contrast, Eco-socialists, including Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez-Alier, argue for commons land over private property. They blame ecological degradation on the inclination to short-term, profit-inspired decisions inherent within a market system. For them, privatisation of land strips people of their local communal resources in the name of creating markets for neo-liberal globalisation, which benefits a minority. In their view, successful commons systems have been set up around the world throughout history to manage areas cooperatively, based on long-term needs and sustainability instead of short-term profit[11].
[edit] View on Conflict and War
Following strains of thought within the Marxist tradition, many Eco-socialists claim that capitalism itself spurs conflict and, ultimately, war. Joel Kovel states that the 'War on Terror', between Islamist extremists and the USA, is caused by oil 'imperialism', whereby the capitalist nations require control over sources of energy, especially oil, which are necessary to continue intensive industrial growth - in the quest for control of such resources, the capitalist nations, specifically the USA, have come into conflict with the predominantly Muslim nations where oil is often found[13].
Though usually associated with the theme of non-violence and pacifism common to Green groups, Red Greens in many areas have been more accepting of the violation of nonviolence strictures, especially in strike actions.
[edit] Strategies
There are number of different eco-socialist remedies for the problems of capitalism.
Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez-Alier, echoing subsistence eco-feminists like Vandana Shiva, have argued first for the restoration of the commons[11].
Australian Eco-socialists, like Alan Roberts, have encouraged working-class action and resistance, such as the green ban movement in which workers refuse to participate in projects that are ecologically harmful[7]. Similarly, Joel Kovel focuses on working-class involvement in the formation of eco-socialist parties or their increased involvement in existing Green Parties. He believes in building prefigurative projects around forms of production based on use values, which will provide a practical vision of a post-capitalist system. Such projects include Indymedia, open-source software, Wikipedia and many other projects developed within the anti-globalisation movement[13].
[edit] List of Eco-socialists
- Rudolph Bahro
- John Bellamy Foster
- Walt Brown
- Murray Bookchin
- Barry Commoner
- Ramachandra Guha
- Joel Kovel
- Michael Lowy
- Juan Martinez-Alier
- Mary Mellor
- William Morris
- James O'Connor
- David Pepper
- Alan Roberts
- Ariel Salleh
- Ted Trainer
- Derek Wall
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wall, D., Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements, 2005
- ^ Green Left (Green Party of England and Wales) Website
- ^ Gare, A., Soviet Environmentalism: The Path Not Taken, in Benton, E. (ed.) The Greening of Marxism, 1996
- ^ Commoner, B., The Closing Circle, 1972
- ^ Bahro, R., The Alternative in Eastern Europe, 1978
- ^ Bahro, R., Socialism and Survival, 1982
- ^ a b Roberts, A., The Self-Managing Environment, 1979
- ^ Trainer, T., Abandon Influence!, 1985
- ^ Mellor, M., Breaking the Boundaries: Towards a Feminist, Green Socialism, 1992
- ^ Saller, A., Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern, 1997
- ^ a b c d Guha, R. and Martinez-Alier, J., Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South, 1997
- ^ Pepper, D., Ecosocialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice, 1994
- ^ a b c d e f Kovel, J., The Enemy of Nature, 2002
- ^ a b O'Connor, J., Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism, 1998
[edit] See Also
- Socialism
- Social ecology
- Green politics
- Green anarchism
- Eco-anarchism
- EcoCommunalism
- Inclusive Democracy
- Marxism
- Environmentalism
- Environmental movement
- Anti-globalization
- Anti-capitalism
- Green Parties
- Alliance for Green Socialism
[edit] External Links
- An ecosocialist manifesto by Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy on Ozleft
- Extract from Ecology and Socialism by The Socialist Party of Great Britain on Common Voice
- [1] Takis Fotopoulos: "Is de-growth compatible with a market economy?" (The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Volume 3, number 1, 2007).
- Another Green World: Derek Wall's Ecosocialist Blog
- Ecosocialism: A Weblog of Ecosocialist Opinion
- Amazon.com: So You'd Like to... Replace Capitalism with Ecosocialism
- Ecosocialism: The Post-Marxist Svnthesis by Robyn Eckersley
- Green Left (Green Party of England and Wales) Website
