Eco-socialism
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{{Socialism}}
'''Eco-socialism''', '''Green socialism''' or '''Socialist ecology''' is an [[ideology]] merging aspects of [[Marxism]], [[socialism]], [[Green politics]], [[ecology]] and the [[anti-globalization movement]]. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansion of the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] system is the cause of [[social exclusion]], [[poverty]] and [[environmental degradation]] through [[globalization]] and [[imperialism]], under the supervision of repressive [[state]]s and transstatal structures; they advocate the [[Non-violence|non-violent]] dismantling of capitalism and the state, focusing on collective ownership of the [[means of production]] by freely associated producers and restoration of the [[Commons]].<ref name=Manifesto>{{cite book
|author= Kovel, J.
|coauthors= Löwy, M.
|title= An ecosocialist manifesto
|year= 2001
}}</ref>
==Ideology==
{{Greens}}
Eco-socialists are critical of many past and existing forms of both [[Green politics]] and socialism. They are often described as '''Red Greens''' - adherents to Green politics with clear [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] views, often inspired by [[Marxism]] (Red Greens should be contrasted with [[Blue Greens]]). The term '''Watermelon''' is commonly applied, often as an insult, to describe professed [[Green politics|Greens]] who seem to put [[social justice]] goals above [[Ecology|ecological]] ones, implying they are "green on the outside but red on the inside"; the term is usually attributed to either [[Petr Beckmann]] or, more frequently, [[Warren T. Brookes]],<ref name=RatsNestWatermelon>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.win.net/ratsnest/archive-articles-13/fog0000000219.html
|publisher= Rats Nest
|format= Blog
|title= ''A Blogroll, please''
}}</ref><ref name=NoWatermelonBlog>
{{cite web
|url= http://nowatermelons.blogspot.com/2007_02_25_archive.html
|title= No Watermelons Allowed
|format= Blog
}}]</ref><ref name=TheAmericanSpectator>
{{cite journal
|url= http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11728
|work= The American Spectator
|date= [[13 July]] [[2007]]
|title= The Man Who Saw Tomorrow
}}</ref> both [[conservative]] critics of [[environmentalism]], and is apparently common in [[Australia]],<ref name=AustrailianWatermelon>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1198314.htm
|publisher= Media Watch
|title= Stolen watermelons
}}</ref><ref name=AustrailianWatermelon2>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/09/07/1194186.htm
|title= Brown dismisses Govt name-calling
|publisher= ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
|date= [[September 7]] [[2004]]
}}</ref> [[New Zealand]]<ref name=WatermelonNZ>
{{cite web
|url= http://thewatermelon.org/
|title= The Watermelon
}}</ref> and the [[United States]]<ref name=Frontpage>[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7165 FrontPage magazine.com :: ''The Green Menace'' by Christopher Archangelli]</ref> (a website in [[New Zealand]], ''The Watermelon'', uses the term as a compliment, stating that it is "[[Green politics|green]] on the outside and [[Liberalism|liberal]] on the inside", using the term 'liberal' while also citing "[[Socialism|socialist]] political leanings", reflecting the use of the term 'liberal' to describe the [[Left-wing]] in many English-speaking countries<ref name=WatermelonNZ/>). Red Greens are often considered '[[fundi (politics)|fundies]]' or 'fundamentalist greens', a term usually associated with [[Deep ecology|Deep Ecology]] despite the fact that the [[German Green Party]] '[[fundi (politics)|fundi]]' faction included eco-socialists, and eco-socialists in other [[Green Parties]], like [[Derek Wall]], have been described in the press as '[[fundi (politics)|fundies]]'.<ref name=Mail21Sep>'Triumph for 'Fundies' hits Green Party'', Daily Mail, 21 September 1989</ref><ref name=LynasBlog>[http://www.newstatesman.com/200707120024 Mark Lynas' ''New Statesman'' Blog - ''Even Greens need leaders'']</ref>
Eco-socialists also criticise bureaucratic and elite theories of socialism such as [[Maoism]], [[Stalinism]] and what other critics have termed [[Bureaucratic collectivism|Bureaucratic Collectivism]] or [[State Capitalism]]. Instead, eco-socialists focus on imbuing socialism with ecology while keeping the emancipatory goals of 'first-epoch' socialism.<ref name=Manifesto/> Eco-socialists aim for a world of communal ownership of the [[means of production]] by "freely associated producers" with all forms of domination eclipsed, especially [[Ecofeminism|gender inequality]] and [[racism]].<ref name=Manifesto/> This often includes the restoration of [[commons]] land in opposition to [[private property]],<ref name=Guha>Guha, R. and Martinez-Alier, J., ''Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South'', 1997</ref> in which local control of resources valorizes the [[Marxist]] concept of [[use value]] above [[exchange value]].<ref name=Kovel>Kovel, J., ''The Enemy of Nature'', 2002.</ref> Practically, eco-socialists have developed different theories of ways to mobilise action on an [[Internationalism|internationalist]] basis, developing networks of grassroots individuals and groups that can radically transform society through [[Non-violence|non-violent]] "prefigurative projects" for a [[Post-capitalism|post-capitalist]], [[Anti-statism|post-statist]] world.<ref name=Kovel/>
==History==
===1880s-1930s - Marx, Morris and influence on the Russian Revolution===
Contrary to the depiction of [[Karl Marx]] by some environmentalists,<ref name=Eckersley>Eckersley, R., ''Environmentalism and Political Theory'', 1992 (Albany, NY: SUNY Press)</ref> [[Social ecology|social ecologists]]<ref name=Clark>Clark, J., ''The Anarchist Moment'', 1984 (Montreal: Black Rose)</ref> and fellow [[Socialism|socialists]]<ref name=Benton>Benton, T. (ed.), ''The Greening of Marxism'', 1996 (New York: Guildford)</ref> as a [[Productivism|productivist]] who favoured the domination of nature, eco-socialists have revisited [[Karl Marx|Marx]]'s writings and believe that he "was a main originator of the [[Ecology|ecological]] world-view".<ref name=Kovel/> Eco-socialist authors, like [[John Bellamy Foster]]<ref name=JBF>Foster, J. B., ''Marx's Ecology'', 2000 (New York: Monthly Review Press)</ref> and [[Paul Burkett]],<ref name=Burkett>Burkett, P., ''Marx and Nature'', 1999 (New York: St. Martin's Press)</ref> point to Marx's discussion of a "metabolic rift" between man and nature, his statement that "private ownership of the globe by single individuals will appear quite absurd as private ownership of one man by another" and his observation that a society must "hand it [the planet] down to succeeding generations in an improved condition".<ref name=Capital3>Marx, K., ''Capital Vol. 3.'', 1894</ref> Nonetheless, other eco-socialists feel that Marx overlooked a "recognition of nature in and for itself", ignoring its "receptivity" and treating nature as "subjected to labor from the start" in an "entirely active relationship".<ref name=Kovel/>
Therefore [[William Morris]], the [[England|English]] novelist, poet and designer, is largely credited with developing key principles of what was later called eco-socialism.<ref name=Babylon>Wall, D., ''Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements'', 2005</ref> During the 1880s and 1890s, Morris promoted his eco-socialist ideas within the [[Social Democratic Federation]] and [[Socialist League (UK, 1885)|Socialist League]].<ref name=GLSite>[http://www.greenleft.org.uk Green Left (Green Party of England and Wales) Website]</ref>
Following the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]], some [[Environmentalism|environmentalist]]s and [[Environmental science|environmental scientist]]s attempted to integrate [[Ecology|ecological]] consciousness into [[Bolshevism]], although many such people were later purged by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]].<ref name=Gare>Gare, A., ''Soviet Environmentalism: The Path Not Taken'', in Benton, E. (ed.) ''The Greening of Marxism'', 1996</ref> The "pre-revolutionary environmental movement", encouraged by revolutionary scientist [[Aleksandr Bogdanov]] and the [[Proletkul't]] organisation, made efforts to "integrate production with natural laws and limits" in the first decade of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] rule, before [[Joseph Stalin]] attacked ecologists and the science of ecology and the Soviet Union fell into the pseudo-science of the state biologist [[Trofim Lysenko]], who "set about to rearrange the [[Russia]]n map" in ignorance of environmental limits.<ref name=Kovel/>
===1970s-1990s - Rise of environmentalism and engagement with Marxism and 'actually existing socialism'===
In the 1970s, [[Barry Commoner]], suggesting a [[left-wing]] response to the ''[[Limits to Growth]]'' model that predicted catastrophic [[resource depletion]] and spurred [[environmentalism]], postulated that capitalist technologies were chiefly responsible for [[environmental degradation]], as opposed to [[Overpopulation|population pressures]].<ref name=Commoner>Commoner, B., ''The Closing Circle'', 1972</ref> [[East Germany|East German]] dissident writer and activist [[Rudolph Bahro]] published two books addressing the relationship between socialism and ecology - ''The Alternative in Eastern Europe''<ref name=Bahro>Bahro, R., ''The Alternative in Eastern Europe'', 1978</ref> and ''Socialism and Survival''<ref name=Bahro1>Bahro, R., ''Socialism and Survival'', 1982</ref> - which promoted a 'new party' and led to his arrest, for which he gained international notoriety. At around the same time, [[Alan Roberts]], an [[Australia]]n [[Marxism|Marxist]], posited that people's unfulfilled needs fuelled [[consumerism]].<ref name=Roberts>Roberts, A., ''The Self-Managing Environment'', 1979</ref> Fellow [[Australia]]n [[Ted Trainer]] further called upon [[socialists]] to develop a system that met human needs, in contrast to the capitalist system of created wants.<ref name=Trainer>Trainer, T., ''Abandon Influence!'', 1985</ref>
===1990s onwards - Engagement with the anti-globalization movement and The Ecosocialist Manifesto===
The 1990s saw the [[Socialist feminism|socialist feminists]] [[Mary Mellor]]<ref name=Mellor>Mellor, M., ''Breaking the Boundaries: Towards a Feminist, Green Socialism'', 1992</ref> and [[Ariel Salleh]]<ref name=Salleh>Saller, A., ''Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern'', 1997</ref> address environmental issues within an eco-socialist paradigm. With the rising profile of the [[anti-globalization]] movement in the [[Global South]], an "[[environmentalism]] of the poor", combining [[Ecology|ecological]] awareness and [[social justice]], has also become prominent.<ref name=Guha/> [[David Pepper (Eco-socialist)|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 ecology|Deep Ecologists]].<ref name=DPepper>Pepper, D., ''Ecosocialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice'', 1994</ref>
In 2001, [[Joel Kovel]], a [[Social science|social scientist]], [[Psychiatry|psychiatrist]] and former candidate for the [[Green Party (United States)|Green Party of the United States]] (GPUS) [[President of the United States|Presidential]] nomination in 2000, and [[Michael Löwy]], an [[Anthropology|anthropologist]] and member of the [[Reunified Fourth International]] (a principal [[Trotskyist]] organisation), released ''An ecosocialist manifesto'', which has been adopted by some organisations<ref name=GLSite/> and suggests possible routes for the growth of eco-socialist consciousness.<ref name=Manifesto/> Kovel's 2002 work, ''The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?'',<ref name=Kovel/> is considered by many to be the most up-to-date exposition of eco-socialist thought.<ref name=Babylon/>
In October 2007, the International Ecosocialist Network was founded in [[Paris]]. <ref>[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/383067.html UK Indymedia - Ecosocialist International Founded<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
===Influence on current Green and socialist movements===
Currently, many [[Green Parties]] around the world, such as the [[GreenLeft|Dutch Green Left Party]] (GroenLinks), contain strong eco-socialist elements. Radical [[Red-green alliance]]s have been formed in many countries by eco-socialists, radical [[Green politics|Greens]] and other radical left groups. In [[Denmark]], the [[Red-Green Alliance (Denmark)|Red-Green Alliance]] was formed as a coalition of numerous radical parties. Within the [[European Parliament]], a number of [[far-left]] parties from [[Northern Europe]] have organized themselves into the [[Nordic Green Left Alliance]]. Red Greens feature heavily in the [[Green Party of Saskatchewan]] (in [[Canada]] but not necessarily affiliated to the [[Green Party of Canada]]) and [[Green Party (United States)|GPUS]], while the [[Green Party of England and Wales]] features an eco-socialist group, [[Green Left (UK)|Green Left]], that holds a number of important positions within the party, including both the [[Principal Speaker]]s (the nearest equivalent to leaders) [[Siân Berry]] and Dr. [[Derek Wall]], himself an eco-socialist academic.<ref name=GLSite/> Many Marxist organisations also contain eco-socialists, as evidenced by [[Michael Löwy|Löwy's]] involvement in the [[reunified Fourth International]] and ''[[Socialist Resistance]]'', a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Marxist]] newspaper that reports on eco-socialist issues and has published a collection of essays on eco-socialist thought in a book entitled ''Ecosocialism or Barbarism?'', which is edited by [[Jane Kelly (eco-socialist)|Jane Kelly]] and [[Sheila Malone]].<ref name=SR>[http://www.socialistresistance.net/ ''Socialist Resistance'' Newspaper Website]</ref><ref name=SRBooks>[http://resistancebooks.blogspot.com/ ''Socialist Resistance'' Books Blog]</ref>
===Influence on “existing socialist” regimes===
Eco-socialism has had a minor influence over developments in the [[Environmental policy|environmental policies]] of what can be called “existing [[Socialism|socialist]]” regimes, notably the [[People's Republic of China]]. [[Pan Yue]], Deputy Director of the [[People's Republic of China|PRC]]'s [[State Environmental Protection Administration]], has acknowledged the influence of eco-socialist theory on his championing of [[environmentalism]] within [[People's Republic of China|China]], which has gained him international acclaim (including being nominated for the Person of the Year Award 2006 by ''[[New Statesman|The News Statesman]]'',<ref name=NSYue>[http://www.newstatesman.com/200612180028 ''The New Statesman'' 18th December 2006 - ''Person of the year: The man making China green'']</ref> a [[United Kingdom|British]] current affairs magazine). [[Pan Yue|Yue]] stated in an interview that, while he often finds eco-socialist theory "too idealistic" and lacking "ways of solving actual problems", he believes that it provides "political reference for China’s scientific view of development", "gives socialist ideology room to expand" and offers "a theoretical basis for the establishment of fair international rules" on the [[Natural environment|environment]]. He echoes much of eco-socialist thought, attacking international "environmental [[inequality]]", refusing to focus on technological fixes and arguing for the construction of "a harmonious, resource-saving and environmentally-friendly society". He also shows a knowledge of eco-socialist history, from the convergence of radical green politics and socialism and their political "[[red-green alliance]]s" in the post-[[Soviet Union|Soviet]] era. This focus on eco-socialism has informed an essay, ''On Socialist Ecological Civilisation'', published in September 2006, which, according to [[chinadialogue]], "sparked debate" in [[People's Republic of China|China]].<ref name=YueInterview>[http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/493--The-rich-consume-and-the-poor-suffer-the-pollution- ''chinadialogue'' Interview with Pan Yue 18th December 2006 - ''"The rich consume and the poor suffer the pollution"'']</ref>
===Ecosocialist International Network (EIN) and other international eco-socialist organisations===
In 2007, it was announced that attempts to form an [[Ecosocialist International Network]] (EIN) would be made and an inaugural meeting of the International occurred on October 7th 2007 in [[Paris]].<ref name=InternationalAnnounce>[http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/06/international-ecosocialist-meeting.html ''Climate and Capitalism'' Blog - ''International Ecosocialist Meeting Planned'']</ref> The meeting attracted "more than 60 activists from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States" and elected a Steering Committee featuring representatives from Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Greece, Argentina, Brazil and Australia, including [[Joel Kovel]], [[Michael Löwy]], [[Derek Wall]], [[Ian Angus]] (editor of [http://www.climateandcapitalism.com Climate and Capitalism] in [[Canada]]) and [[Ariel Salleh]]. The Committee states that it wants "to incorporate members from China, India, Africa, Oceania and Eastern Europe". EIN intends "to organize a larger ecosocialist international conference on January 2009, in association with the next [[World Social Forum]] in Brazil".<ref name=International>[http://www.ecosocialistnetwork.org Ecosocialist International Network Website]</ref>
International networking by eco-socialists has already been seen in the [[Praxis Research and Education Center]], a group on international researchers and activists. Based in [[Moscow]] and established in 1997, [[Praxis Research and Education Center|Praxis]], as well as publishing books "by [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialists]], Marxist [[Humanism|humanists]], [[Anarchism|anarchists]], [and] [[Syndicalism|syndicalists]]", running the [[Victor Serge]] Library and opposing [[Second Chechen War|war in Chechnya]], states that it believes "that capitalism has brought life on the planet near to the brink of catastrophe, and that a form of ecosocialism needs to emerge to replace capitalism before it is too late".<ref name=PraxisUSSF>[https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/2833 United States Social Forum - ''Ecosocialism vs. Capitalist Ecoside: how do we get from here to there?'']</ref><ref name=PraxisRU>[http://www.praxiscenter.ru Praxis Research and Education Center Website]</ref>
==Critique of capitalist expansion and globalisation==
Merging aspects of [[Marxism]], socialism, [[environmentalism]] and ecology, eco-socialists generally believe that the [[Capitalism|capitalist]] system is the cause of [[social exclusion]], [[inequality]] and [[environmental degradation]] through [[globalization]] and imperialism under the supervision of repressive states and transstatal structures.
In the ''Ecosocialist manifesto'', [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] and [[Michael Löwy|Löwy]] suggest that capitalist expansion causes both "crises of ecology" through "rampant [[industrialization]]" and "societal breakdown" that springs "from the form of imperialism known as globalization". They believe that capitalism's expansion "exposes [[ecosystem]]s" to [[pollutants]], habitat destruction and [[resource depletion]], "reducing the sensuous vitality of [[nature]] to the cold exchangeability required for the accumulation of [[capital]]", while submerging "the majority of the world's people to a mere reservoir of [[labor]] power" as it penetrates communities through "[[consumerism]] and depoliticization".<ref name=Manifesto/> Other eco-socialists, like [[Derek Wall|Wall]], highlight how, in the [[Global South]], [[free-market]] capitalism structures economies to produce [[Cash crop|export-geared crops]] that take water from traditional [[Subsistence farming|subsistence farms]], increasing hunger and the likelihood of [[famine]]; furthermore, forests are increasingly [[Deforestation|cleared]] and [[Enclosure|enclosed]] to produce [[cash crops]] that separate people from their local [[means of production]] and aggravate [[poverty]]. [[Derek Wall|Wall]] shows that many of the world's poor have access to the [[means of production]] through "non-monetised communal [[means of production]]", such as [[subsistence farming]], but, despite providing for need and a level of prosperity, these are not included in conventional economics measures, like [[Measures of national income and output|GNP]]. [[Derek Wall|Wall]] therefore views [[Neoliberalism|neo-liberal]] globalization as "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".<ref name=Babylon/> Furthermore, Kovel sees the form of [[Neoliberalism|neo-liberal]] globalization as "a return to the pure logic of capital" that "has effectively swept away measures which had inhibited capital’s aggressivity, replacing them with naked exploitation of humanity and nature"; for Kovel, this "tearing down of boundaries", which was "a deliberate response to a serious accumulation crisis" in the 1970s, has become the definition of modern 'globalization'.<ref name=KovelNSG>[http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=1321 New Socialist Group: WHY ECOSOCIALISM TODAY? Joel Kovel NS 61]</ref>
Furthermore, [[Ramachandra Guha|Guha]] and [[Juan Martinez-Alier|Martinez-Alier]] blame globalization for creating increased levels of [[waste]] and [[pollution]], and then dumping the [[waste]] on the most vulnerable in society, particularly those in the [[Global South]].<ref name=Guha/> Others have also noted that capitalism disproportionately affects the poorest in the [[Global North]] as well, leading to examples of resistance such as the [[environmental justice]] movement in the [[USA]], consisting of [[working-class]] people and [[ethnic minorities]] who highlight the tendency for waste dumps, major road projects and [[incinerator]]s to be constructed around socially excluded areas. However, as [[Derek Wall|Wall]] highlights, such campaigns are often ignored or persecuted precisely because they originate among the most marginalized 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.<ref name=Babylon/>
Eco-socialism disagrees with the elite theories of capitalism, which tend to label a specific [[Social class|class]] or social group as conspirators who construct a system that satisfies their greed and personal desires. Instead, eco-socialists suggest that the very system itself is self-perpetuating, fuelled by "extra-human" or "impersonal" forces. Kovel uses the [[Bhopal disaster|Bhopal industrial disaster]] as an example. Many [[Anti-corporate activism|anti-corporate]] observers would blame the avarice of those at the top of many [[Multinational corporation|multi-national corporation]]s, such as the [[Union Carbide]] Corporation in [[Bhopal disaster|Bhopal]], for seemingly isolated [[industrial accident]]s. Conversely, Kovel suggests that [[Bhopal disaster|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 the Bhopal disaster inevitable, he believes that it illustrates the effect [[Free market|market]] forces can have on increasing the likelihood of ecological and social problems.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Use and exchange value===
Eco-socialism focuses closely on [[Karl Marx|Marx's]] theories about the contradiction between [[use value]]s and [[exchange value]]s. [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] posits that, 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. Such goods, in an eco-socialist analysis, produce [[exchange value]]s but have no [[use value]]. 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 commodities earn individuals huge fortunes and fuel [[consumerism]] and [[resource depletion]].<ref name=Kovel/>
===The "second contradiction" of capitalism===
[[James O'Connor (Eco-socialist)|O'Connor]] has added a "second contradiction" to [[Karl Marx|Marx]]'s original [[Dialectical materialism|economic contradictions]]. He suggests that, 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 [[Natural environment|environment]] and workers to sustain [[Economic growth|growth]] and, like Marx's dialectical contradictions, therefore threatens the system's own existence.<ref name=OConnor>O'Connor, J., ''Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism'', 1998</ref> In addition, [[James O'Connor (Eco-socialist)|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, which he sees as a form of producing energy that is advertised 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 believes that capitalism is capable of spreading out its economic supports so widely that it can afford to destroy one [[ecosystem]] before moving onto another, he and many other eco-socialists now fear that, with the onset of globalization, the system is running out of new [[ecosystem]]s.<ref name=OConnor/> Kovel adds that capitalist firms have to continue to extract profit through a combination of intensive or extensive exploitation and selling to new markets, meaning that capitalism must [[Economic growth|grow]] indefinitely to exist, which he thinks is impossible on a planet of finite resources.<ref name=Kovel/>
===The role of the state and transstatal organisations===
[Capitalist] expansion is seen by eco-socialists as being "hand in glove" with "corrupt and subservient client states" that repress dissent against the system, governed by [[international organisation]]s "under the overall supervision of the [[Western world|Western powers]] and the [[superpower]] [[United States]]", which subordinate peripheral nations economically and militarily.<ref name=Manifesto/> [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] further claims that capitalism itself spurs [[conflict]] and, ultimately, [[war]]. 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 [[Economic growth|industrial growth]] - in the quest for control of such resources, Kovel argues that the capitalist nations, specifically the [[USA]], have come into conflict with the predominantly [[Muslim]] nations where oil is often found.<ref name=Kovel/>
Eco-socialists believe that state or self-[[Regulatory economics|regulation]] of markets does not solve the crisis "because to do so requires setting limits upon accumulation", which is "unacceptable" for a [[Economic growth|growth]]-orientated system; they believe that [[terrorism]] and revolutionary impulses cannot be tackled properly "because to do so would mean abandoning the logic of [[empire]]". Instead, eco-socialists feel that increasing repressive [[counter-terrorism]] increases [[social alienation|alienation]] and causes further [[terrorism]] and believe that state [[counter-terrorism|counter-terrorist]] methods are, in Kovel and [[Michael Löwy|Löwy]]'s words, "evolving into a new and malignant variation of [[fascism]]". They echo [[Rosa Luxemburg]]'s "stark choice" between "socialism or barbarism", which was believed to be a prediction of the coming of [[fascism]] and further forms of destructive capitalism at the beginning of the twentieth century ([[Rosa Luxemburg|Luxemburg]] was in fact murdered by proto-[[Fascism|fascist]] [[Freikorps]] in the revolutionary atmosphere of [[Germany]] in 1919).<ref name=Manifesto/>
==Critique of other forms of green politics==
Eco-socialists criticise many within the [[Green politics|Green movement]] for not being overtly [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]], for working within the existing [[Capitalism|capitalist]], [[State|statist]] system, for [[voluntarism]], or for reliance on technological fixes. The eco-socialist ideology is based on a critique of other forms of Green politics, including various forms of [[Green economics]], [[Localism]], [[Deep Ecology]], [[Bioregionalism]] and even some manifestations of radical [[Green politics|green ideologies]] such as [[Eco-feminism]] and [[Social Ecology]]. As Kovel puts it, eco-socialism differs from Green politics at the most fundamental level because the '[[Four Pillars of the Green Party|Four Pillars]]' of Green politics (and the 'Ten Key Values' of the [[Green Party (United States)|US Green Party]]) do not include the demand for the [[emancipation of labour]] and the end of the separation between producers and the [[means of production]].<ref name=Kovel/> Many eco-socialists also oppose [[Malthusianism]]<ref name=Babylon/> and are alarmed by the gulf between Green politics in the [[Global North]] and the [[Global South]].<ref name=Guha/>
===Opposition to within-system approaches, voluntarism and technological fixes===
Eco-socialists are highly critical of those [[Green politics|Greens]] who favour "working within the system". While eco-socialists like [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] recognise the ability of within-system approaches to raise awareness, and believe that "the struggle for an [[Ecology|ecologically]] rational world must include a struggle for the state", he believes that the mainstream Green movement is too easily co-opted by the current powerful socio-political forces as it "passes from citizen-based [[activism]] to ponderous bureaucracies scuffling for 'a seat at the table'". For Kovel, capitalism is "happy to enlist" the Green movement for "convenience", "control over popular dissent" and "rationalization". He further attacks within-system green initiatives like [[carbon trading]], which he sees as a "capitalist shell game" that turns [[pollution]] "into a fresh source of profit".<ref name=Kovel/> [[Brian Tokar]] has further criticised carbon trading in this way, suggesting that it augments existing class inequality and gives the "largest 'players'... substantial control over the whole 'game'".<ref name=Tokar>Tokar, B., ''Earth for Sale'', 1997 (Boston:South End Press)</ref>
In addition, Kovel criticises the "defeatism" of [[voluntarism]] in some local forms of [[environmentalism]] that do not connect together: he suggests that they can be "drawn off into [[individualism]]" or co-opted to the demands of capitalism, as in the case of certain [[recycling]] projects, where citizens are "induced to provide free labor" to [[waste management]] industries who are involved in the "capitalization of nature". He labels the notion on [[voluntarism]] "[[Green politics|ecopolitics]] without struggle".<ref name=Kovel/>
Technological fixes to [[Ecology|ecological]] problems are also rejected by eco-socialists. [[Saral Sarkar]] has updated the thesis of 1970s '[[limits to growth]]' to exemplify the limits of new capitalist technologies such as [[hydrogen fuel cell]]s, which require large amounts of energy to split molecules to obtain hydrogen.<ref name=Sarkar>Sarkar, S., ''Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism?: A Critical Analysis of Humanity's Fundamental Choices'', 1999 (London:Zed Books)</ref> Furthermore, Kovel notes that "events in nature are reciprocal and multi-determined" and can therefore not be predictably "fixed"; socially, technologies cannot solve social problems because they are not "mechanical". He posits an eco-socialist analysis, developed from [[Karl Marx|Marx]], that patterns of production and social organisation are more important then the forms of technology used within a given configuration of society. Under [[capitalism]], he suggests that technology "has been the ''sine qua non'' of [[Economic growth|growth]]" - thus he believes that, even in a world with hypothetical "free energy", the effect would be to lower the cost of [[automobile]] production, leading to the massive [[overproduction]] of [[vehicle]]s, "collapsing infrastructure", chronic [[resource depletion]] and the "paving over" of the "remainder of [[nature]]". In the modern world, Kovel considers the supposed efficiency of new [[post-industrial]] commodities is a "plain illusion", as [[Miniaturization|miniaturized]] components involve many substances and are therefore non-[[Recycling|recyclable]] (and, theoretically, only simple substances could be retrieved by burning out-of-date equipment, releasing more [[pollutants]]). He is quick to warn "environmental [[Liberalism|liberals]]" against over-selling the virtues of [[Renewable energy|renewable energies]] that cannot meet the mass energy consumption of the era; although he would still support [[renewable energy]] projects, he believes it is more important to restructure societies to reduce energy use before relying on [[renewable energy]] technologies alone.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of Green economics===
Eco-socialists have based their ideas for political strategy on a critique of several different trends in [[Green economics]]. At the most fundamental level, eco-socialists reject what Kovel calls "[[ecological economics]]" or the "ecological wing of mainstream economics" for being "uninterested in social transformation". He furthers rejects the [[Adam Smith|Neo-Smithian]] school, who believe in [[Adam Smith]]'s vision of "a capitalism of small producers, freely exchanging with each other", which is self-regulating and competitive. The school is represented by thinkers like [[David Korten]] who believe in "regulated markets" checked by [[State|government]] and [[civil society]] but, for Kovel, they do not provide a critique of the expansive nature of capitalism away from localised production and ignore "questions of [[Social class|class]], [[gender]] or any other category of domination". Kovel also criticises their "fairy-tale" view of history, which refers to the abuse of "[[natural capital]]" by the [[materialism]] of the [[Scientific Revolution]], an assumption that, in Kovel's eyes, seems to suggest that "nature had toiled to put the gift of capital into human hands", rather than capitalism being a product of social relations in human history.<ref name=Kovel/>
Other forms of [[Community-based economics]] are also rejected by eco-socialists such as Kovel, including followers of [[E. F. Schumacher]] and some members of the [[Cooperative movement]], for advocating "no more than a very halting and isolated first step". He thinks that their principles are "only partially realizable within the institutions of [[Cooperative movement|cooperatives]] in capitalist society" because "the internal cooperation" of [[Cooperative movement|cooperatives]] is "forever hemmed in and compromised" by the need to expand value and compete within the [[Free market|market]].<ref name=Kovel/> [[Karl Marx|Marx]] also believed that [[cooperative]]s within capitalism make workers into "their own capitalist... by enabling them to use the [[means of production]] for the employment of their own labour".<ref name=Capital3/> For Kovel and other eco-socialists, [[Community-based economics]] and Green [[Localism]] are "a fantasy" because "strict [[localism]] belongs to the aboriginal stages of society" and would be an "ecological nightmare at present population levels" due to "heat loses from a multitude of dispersed sites, the squandering of scare resources, the needless reproduction of effort, and cultural impoverishment". While he feels that small-scale production units are "an essential part of the path towards an ecological society", he sees them not as "an end in itself"; in his view, small enterprises can be either capitalist or [[Socialism|socialist]] in their configuration and therefore must be "consistently [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]]", through recognition and support of the emancipation of labour, and exist "in a dialectic with the whole of things", as human society will need large-scale projects, such as transport infrastructures. He highlights the work of [[Herman Daly]], who exemplifies what eco-socialists see as the good and bad points of [[ecological economics]] - while he offers a critique of capitalism and a desire for "workers ownership", he only believes in workers ownership "kept firmly within a capitalist market", ignoring the eco-socialist desire for struggle in the emancipation of labour and hoping that the interests of labour and management today can be improved so that they are "in harmony".<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of Deep Ecology===
Despite the inclusion of both in political factions like the '[[Fundies]]' of the [[German Green Party]], eco-socialists and [[Deep ecology|deep ecologists]] hold markedly opposite views. Eco-socialists like Kovel have attacked [[deep ecology]] because, like other forms of Green politics and [[Green economics]], it features "virtuous souls" who have "no internal connection with the critique of capitalism and the emancipation of labor". Kovel is particularly scathing about [[deep ecology]] and its "fatuous pronouncement" that Green politics is "neither left nor right, but ahead", which, for him, ignores the notion that "that which does not confront the system comes its instrument".<ref name=Kovel/>
Even more scathingly, Kovel suggests that in "its effort to decentre humanity within nature", [[Deep ecology|deep ecologists]] can "go too far" and argue for the "splitting away of unwanted people", as evidenced by their desire to preserve [[wilderness]] by removing the groups that have lived there "from time immemorial". Kovel thinks that this lends legitimacy to "[[Capitalism|capitalist]] elites", like the [[US State Department]] and the [[World Bank]], who can make preservation of [[wilderness]] a part of their projects that "have added value as sites for [[ecotourism]]" but remove people from their land. Between 1986 and 1996, Kovel notes that over three million people were displaced by "conservation projects"; in the making of the [[US National Parks]], three hundred [[Shoshone]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] were killed in the development of [[Yosemite]]. Kovel believes that [[deep ecology]] has affected the rest of the [[Green politics|Green movement]] and led to calls from restrictions on [[immigration]], "often allying with reactionaries in a... cryptically [[Racism|racist]] quest". Indeed, he finds traces of [[deep ecology]] in the "biological reduction" of [[Nazism]], an ideology many "organicist thinkers" have found appealing, including [[Herbert Gruhl]], a founder of the [[German Green Party]] (who subsequently left when it became more [[Left-wing]]) and originator of the phrase "neither left nor right, but ahead". Kovel warns that, while '[[ecofascism]]' is confined to a narrow band of [[far right]] intellectuals and disaffected [[white power skinhead]]s who involved themselves alongside [[far left]] groups in the [[anti-globalization movement]], it may be "imposed as a [[revolution from above]] to install an [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] regime in order to preserve the main workings of the system" in times of crisis.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of bioregionalism===
[[Bioregionalism]], a philosophy developed by writers like [[Kirkpatrick Sale]] who believe in the self-sufficiency of "appropriate bioregional boundaries" drawn up by inhabitants of "an area",<ref name=Sale>Sale, K., 'Principle of Bioregionalism', in Goldsmith, E., and Mander, J. (eds),''The Case against the Global Economy'', Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1996</ref> has been thoroughly critiqued by [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]], who fears that the "vagueness" of the area will lead to conflict and further boundaries between communities.<ref name=Kovel/> While [[Kirkpatrick Sale|Sale]] sites the [[Bioregionalism|bioregional]] living of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]],<ref name=Sale/> Kovel notes that such ideas are impossible to translate to populations of modern proportions, and evidences the fact that [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] held land in [[commons]], rather than [[private property]] - thus, for eco-socialists, [[bioregionalism]] provides no understanding of what is needed to transform society, and what the inevitable "response of the capitalist state" would be to people constructing [[bioregionalism]].<ref name=Kovel/>
Kovel also attacks the problems of self-sufficiency. Where [[Kirkpatrick Sale|Sale]] believes in self-sufficient regions "each developing the energy of its peculiar ecology", such as "wood in the northwest [USA]",<ref name=Sale/> Kovel asks "how on earth" these can be made sufficient for regional needs, and notes the environmental damage of converting [[Seattle]] into a "forest-destroying and smoke-spewing wood-burning" city. Kovel also questions [[Kirkpatrick Sale|Sale]]'s insistence on [[Bioregionalism|bioregions]] that do "not require connections with the outside, but within strict limits", and whether this precludes journeys to visit family members and other forms of travel.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of variants of eco-feminism===
Like many variants of socialism and Green politics, eco-socialists recognise the importance of "the gendered bifurcation of nature" and support the emancipation of [[gender]] as it "is at the root of [[patriarchy]] and [[Social class|class]]". Nevertheless, while Kovel believes that "any path out of capitalism must also be [[Eco-feminism|eco-feminist]]", he criticises types of [[Eco-feminism|ecofeminism]] that are not [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] and can "essentialize women's closeness to nature and build from there, submerging history into nature", becoming more at place in the "comforts of the [[New Age]] Growth Centre". These limitations, for Kovel, "keep [[Eco-feminism|ecofeminism]] from becoming a coherent social movement".<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of Social Ecology===
While having much in common with the radical tradition of [[Social Ecology]], eco-socialists still see themselves as distinct. [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] believes this is because Social Ecologists see hierarchy "in-itself" as the cause of [[Ecology|ecological]] destruction, whereas eco-socialists focus on [[gender]] and [[Social class|class]] domination embodied in capitalism and recognise that forms of authority that are not "an expropriation of human power for... self-aggrandizement", such as a student-teacher relationship that is "reciprocal and mutual", are beneficial. In practice, Kovel describes [[Social Ecology]] as continuing the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] tradition of [[non-violent direct action]], which is "necessary" but "not sufficient" because "it leaves unspoken the question of building an ecological society beyond [[Capitalism|capital]]". Furthermore, Social Ecologists and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] tend to focus on the state alone, rather than the class relations behind state domination (in the view of [[Karl Marx|Marxists]]). Kovel fears that this is political, springing from historic hostility to [[Marxism]] among anarchists and sectarianism, which he points out as a fault of the "brilliant" but "dogmatic" founder of Social Ecology, [[Murray Bookchin]].<ref name=Kovel/>
===Opposition to Malthusianism and Neo-Malthusianism===
While [[Malthusianism]] and eco-socialism overlap within the [[Green politics|Green movement]] because both address [[Industrialization|over-industrialism]], and despite the fact that Eco-socialists, like many within the Green movement, are described as [[Neo-malthusianism|neo-Malthusian]] because of their criticism of [[economic growth]], Eco-socialists are opposed to [[Malthusianism]]. This divergence stems from the difference between [[Karl Marx|Marxist]] and [[Malthusianism|Malthusian]] examinations of social injustice - whereas Marx blames [[inequality]] on [[Social class|class]] injustice, [[Thomas Malthus|Malthus]] argued that the [[working-class]] remained poor because of their greater [[fertility]] and [[birth rate]]s. [[Neo-malthusianism|Neo-Malthusian]]s 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 [[enclosure|enclosed]] and privatised land, as opposed to [[commons]], would solve the chief environmental problem, which Hardin labeled the '[[Tragedy of the Commons]]'.<ref name=Babylon/>
===The "two varieties of environmentalism"===
[[Ramachandra Guha|Guha]] and [[Juan Martinez-Alier|Martinez-Alier]] attack the gulf between what they see as the two "varieties of [[environmentalism]]" - the environmentalism of the [[Global North|North]], an aesthetic environmentalism that is the privilege of wealthy people who no longer have basic material concerns, and the environmentalism of the [[Global South|South]], where people's local environment is a source of communal wealth and such issues are a question of survival.<ref name=Guha/> Nonetheless, other eco-socialists, such as [[Derek Wall|Wall]], have also pointed out that capitalism disproportionately affects the poorest in the Global North as well, leading to examples of resistance such as the [[environmental justice]] movement in the US and groups like [[MOVE]].<ref name=Babylon/>
==Critique of other forms of socialism==
Eco-socialists choose to use the term '[[socialist]]', despite "the failings of its twentieth century interpretations", because it "still stands for the supersession of [[Capitalism|capital]]" and thus "the name, and the reality" must "become adequate for this time".<ref name=Manifesto/> Eco-socialists have nonetheless often diverged with other [[Marxist]] movements.
===Critique of 'Actually Existing Socialisms'===
For Kovel and [[Michael Lowy|Lowy]], eco-socialism is "the realization of the “first-epoch” socialisms" by resurrecting the notion of "free development of all producers", distancing themselves from "the attenuated, reformist aims of [[social democracy]] and the [[Productivism|productivist]] structures of the [[Bureaucratic collectivism|bureaucratic variations]] of socialism", such as forms of [[Leninism]] and [[Stalinism]].<ref name=Manifesto/> They ground the failure of past [[socialist]] movements in "underdevelopment in the context of hostility by existing [[capitalism|capitalist]] powers", which led to "the denial of internal democracy" and "emulation of capitalist [[productivism]]".<ref name=Manifesto/> Kovel believes that the forms of 'actually existing socialism' consisted of "public ownership of the [[means of production]]", rather than meeting "the true definition" of socialism as "a free association of producers", with the Party-State bureaucracy acting as the "alienating substitute 'public'".<ref name=Kovel/>
In analysing the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], Kovel feels that "conspiratorial" revolutionary movements "cut off from the development of society" will "find society an inert mass requiring leadership from above". From this, he notes that the anti-democratic [[Russian Empire|Tsarist]] heritage meant that the [[Bolshevism|Bolsheviks]], who were aided into power by [[World War I|World War One]], were a minority who, when faced with a [[counter-revolution]] and invading [[Western world|Western]] powers, continued "the extraordinary needs of '[[war communism]]'", which "put the seal of [[authoritarianism]]" on the revolution; thus, for Kovel, [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] and [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] "resorted to terror", shut down the [[Soviet (council)|Soviets]] (workers' councils) and emulated "capitalist efficiency and [[productivism]] as a means of survival", setting the stage for [[Stalinism]].<ref name=Kovel/> [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], in Kovel's eyes, came to oppose the nascent [[Bolshevism|Bolshevik]] [[environmentalism]] and its champion [[Aleksandr Bogdanov]], who was later attacked for "idealism"; Kovel describes [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]'s philosophy as "a sharply dualistic [[materialism]], rather similar to the [[Cartesianism|Cartesian]] separation of matter and consciousness, and perfectly tooled... to the active working over of the dead, dull matter by the human hand", which led him to want to overcome [[Russia]]n backwardness through rapid [[industrialization]]. This tendency was, according to Kovel, augmented by a desire to catch-up with the [[Western world|West]] and the "severe crisis" of the revolution's first years.<ref name=Kovel/> Furthermore, Kovel quotes [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]], who believed in a [[Communism|Communist]] "superman" who would "learn how to move rivers and mountains".<ref name=Trotsky>Trotsky, L., ''Literature and Revolution'', 1924</ref> Kovel believes that, in [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s "revolution from above" and mass terror in response to the early 1930s economic crisis, [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]]'s writings "were given official imprimatur", despite the fact that [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]] himself was eventually purged, as [[Stalinism]] attacked "the very notion of ecology... in addition to ecologies". Kovel adds that [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] "would win the gold medal for enmity to nature", and that, in the face of massive [[environmental degradation]], the inflexible [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] bureaucracy became increasingly inefficient and unable to emulate capitalist accumulation, leading to a "vicious cycle" that led to its collapse.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Critique of the wider socialist movement===
Beyond the forms of 'actually existing socialism', Kovel criticises [[Socialism|socialists]] in general as treating ecology "as an afterthought" and holding "a naive faith in the ecological capacities of a [[working-class]] defined by generations of [[Capitalism|capitalist]] production". He exemplifies [[David McNally]], who advocated increasing consumption levels under socialism, which, for Kovel, contradicts any notion of natural limits. He also criticises [[David McNally|McNally]]'s belief in releasing the "positive side of [[Capitalism|capital]]'s self-expansion"<ref name=McNally>McNally, D., ''Against the Market'', 1993 (London: Verso Books)</ref> after the emancipation of labor; instead, Kovel argues that a [[socialist]] society would "seek not to become larger" but would rather become "more ''realized''", choosing sufficiency and eschewing [[economic growth]]. Kovel further adds that the [[Socialism|socialist]] movement was historically-conditioned by its origins in the era of [[industrialization]] so that, when modern [[Socialism|socialists]] like [[David McNally|McNally]] advocate a socialism that "cannot be at the expense of the range of human satisfaction",<ref name=McNally/> they fail "to recognize that these satisfactions can be problematic with respect to nature when they have been historically shaped by the domination of nature".<ref name=Kovel/>
==Eco-socialist strategy==
Eco-socialists generally advocate the [[Non-violence|non-violent]] dismantling of capitalism and the state, focusing on collective ownership of the [[means of production]] by freely associated producers and restoration of the [[Commons]].<ref name=Manifesto>Kovel, J., Löwy, M., ''An ecosocialist manifesto'', 2001</ref> To get to an eco-socialist society, eco-socialists advocate [[working-class]] [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] resistance but also believe that there is potential for agency in autonomous, grassroots individuals and groups across the world who can build "prefigurative" projects for [[Non-violence|non-violent]] radical social change.<ref name=Kovel/> These prefigurative steps go "beyond the [[Free market|market]] and the state"<ref name=Babylon/> and base production on the enhancement of [[use value]]s, leading to the internationalization of resistance communities in an 'Eco-socialist Party' or network of grassroots groups focused on [[Non-violence|non-violent]], radical social transformation. An 'Eco-socialist revolution' is then carried out.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Agency===
Many eco-socialists, like [[Alan Roberts|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.<ref name=Roberts>Roberts, A., ''The Self-Managing Environment'', 1979</ref> Similarly, [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] focuses on [[working-class]] involvement in the formation of eco-socialist parties or their increased involvement in existing [[Green Parties]]; however, he believes that, unlike many other forms of [[socialism|socialist]] analysis, "there is no privileged agent" or revolutionary [[Social class|class]], and that there is potential for agency in numerous autonomous, grassroots individuals and groups who can build "prefigurative" projects for [[Non-violence|non-violent]] radical social change. He defines "prefiguration" as "the potential for the given to contain the lineaments of what is to be", meaning that "a moment toward the future exists embedded in every point of the social organism where a need arises". If "everything has prefigurative potential", Kovel notes that forms of potential [[Ecology|ecological]] production will be "scattered", and thus suggests that "the task is to free them and connect them". While all "human [[ecosystem]]s" have "ecosocialist potential", Kovel points out that ones such as the [[World Bank]] have low potential, whereas internally democratic [[anti-globalization]] "affinity groups" have a high potential through a dialectic that involves the "active bringing and holding together of negations", such as the group acting as an alternative institution ("production of an [[Ecology|ecological]]/[[Socialism|socialist]] alternative") and trying to shut down a [[G8]] summit meeting ("resistance to capital"). Therefore "practices that in the same motion enhance [[use-value]]s and diminish [[exchange-value]]s are the ideal" for eco-socialists.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Prefiguration===
For Kovel, the main prefigurative steps "are that people ruthlessly criticize the capitalist system... and that they include in this a consistent attack on the widespread belief that there can be no alternative to it", which will then "deligitimate the system and release people into struggle". Kovel justifies this by stating that "radical criticism of the given... can be a material force", even without an alternative, "because it can seize the mind of the masses of people", leading to "dynamic" and "exponential", rather than "incremental" and "linear", victories that spread rapidly. Following this, he advocates the expansion of the dialectical eco-socialist potential of groups through sustaining the confrontation and internal cohesion of [[human ecosystem]]s, leading to an "activation" of potentials in others that will "spread across the whole social field" as "a new set of orienting principles" that define an ideology or "'party-life' formation".<ref name=Kovel/>
In the short-term, eco-socialists like Kovel advocate activities that have the “promise of breaking down the commodity form”. This includes organizing labor, which is a “reconfiguring of the [[use-value]] of labor power”; forming [[cooperatives]], allowing “a relatively free association of labor”; forming localised currencies, which he sees as “undercutting the value-basis of money”; and supporting “radical media” that, in his eyes, involve an “undoing of the fetishism of commodities”. [[Arran Gare]], [[Derek Wall|Wall]] and Kovel have advocated economic [[localism|localisation]] in the same vein as many in the [[Green politics|Green movement]], although they stress that it must be a prefigurative step rather than an end in itself.<ref name=Gare2>Gare, A., ''Creating an ecological socialist future'' in ''Capitalism, Nature, Socialism'' 11 (2), 2000</ref><ref name=Babylon/> Kovel also advises political parties attempting to “democratize the state” that there should be “dialogue but no compromise” with established political parties, and that there must be “a continual association of electoral work with movement work” to avoid “being sucked back into the system”. Such parties, he believes, should focus on “the local rungs of the political system” first, before running national campaigns that “challenge the existing system by the elementary means of exposing its broken promises”.<ref name=Kovel/>
Kovel believes in building prefigurations around forms of production based on [[use value]]s, which will provide a practical vision of a [[Post-capitalism|post-capitalist]], [[Anti-statism|post-statist]] system. Such projects include [[Indymedia]] ("a democratic rendering of the [[use-value]]s of new technologies such as the [[Internet]], and a continual involvement in wider struggle"), [[open-source software]], [[Wikipedia]], [[public libraries]] and many other initiatives, especially those developed within the [[anti-globalisation movement]].<ref name=Kovel/> These strategies, in [[Derek Wall|Wall]]'s words, "go beyond the [[Free market|market]] and the state" by rejecting the supposed dichotomy between [[Capitalism|private enterprise]] and [[Government-owned corporation|state-owned]] production, while also rejecting any combination of the two through a [[mixed economy]]. He states that these present forms of “amphibious politics”, which are “half in the dirty water of the present but seeking to move on to a new, unexplored territory”. He suggests that [[open source software]], for example, opens up “a new form of [[commons]] regime in [[cyberspace]]”, which he praises as production “for the pleasure of invention” that gives “access to resources without exchange”. He believes that [[open source]] has “bypassed” both the [[Free market|market]] and the state, and could provide “developing countries with free access to vital computer software”. Furthermore, he suggests that an “[[open source]] economy” means that “the barrier between user and provider is eroded”, allowing for “cooperative creativity”. He links this to [[Marxism]] and the notion of [[usufruct]], asserting that “Marx would have been a [[Firefox]] user”.<ref name=Babylon/>
===Internationalization of prefiguration and the 'Eco-socialist Party'===
Many eco-socialists have noted that the potential for building such projects is easier for media workers than for those in heavy industry because of the decline in [[trade unionism]] and the [[Globalization|globalized]] [[division of labor]] which divides workers. However, Kovel believes that examples like the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Bruderhof Communities]] (despite elements of [[patriarchy]] that he attacks) show that "communistic" organizations can "survive rather well in a heavily industrialized [[Free market|market]]" if they are "protected" from the dependence on the [[Free market|market]] by "[[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] intentionality". He further posits that [[class struggle]] is "internationalized in the face of globalization", as evidenced by a wave of [[Strike action|strikes]] across the [[Global South]] in the first half of the year 2000; indeed, he says that "labor's most cherished values are already immanently ecocentric". Kovel therefore thinks that these universalizing tendencies must lead to the formation of "a consciously 'Ecosocialist Party'" that is neither like a parliamentary or vanguardist party. Instead, Kovel advocates a form of [[political party]] "grounded in communities of resistance", where delegates from these communities form the core of the party's activists, and these delegates and the "open and transparent" assembly they form are subject to [[recall]] and regular rotation of members. He holds up the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]] (EZLN) and the [[Gaviotas]] movement as examples of such communities, which "are produced outside capitalist circuits" and show that "there can be no single way valid for all peoples". Nonetheless, he also firmly believes in connecting these movements, stating that "ecosocialism will be international or it will be nothing" and hoping that the Ecosocialist Party can retain the autonomy of local communities while supporting them materially. With an ever-expanding party, Kovel hopes that "defections" by [[Capitalism|capitalists]] will occur, leading eventually to the [[armed forces]] and [[police]] who, in joining the [[revolution]], will signify that "the turning point is reached".<ref name=Kovel/>
==’The Revolution’ and transition to eco-socialism==
'The Revolution' as envisaged by eco-socialists involves an immediate socio-political transition. Internationally, eco-socialists believe in a reform of the nature of [[money]] and the formation of a 'World People's Trade Organisation' (WPTO) that democratizes and improves world [[trade]] through the calculation of an 'Ecological Price' (EP) for goods. This would then be followed by a transformation of socioeconomic conditions towards ecological production, [[commons]] land and notions of [[usufruct]] (that seek to improve the common property possessed by society) to end private [[property]]. Eco-socialists assert that this must be carried out with adherence to [[non-violence]]<ref name=Kovel/>
===The immediate aftermath of the revolution===
Eco-socialists like [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]] use the term “Eco-socialist revolution” to describe the transition to an eco-socialist world society. In the immediate socio-political transition, he believes that four groups will emerge from the revolution – revolutionaries, those “whose productive activity is directly compatible with ecological production” (such as nurses, schoolteachers, librarians, independent farmers and many other examples), those “whose pre-revolutionary practice was given over to [[Capitalism|capital]]” (including the [[bourgeoisie]], advertising executives and more) and “the workers whose activity added surplus value to capitalist commodities”. In terms of political organisation, he advocates an “interim assembly” made up of the revolutionaries that can “devise incentives to make sure that vital functions are maintained” (such as short-term continuation of “differential remuneration” for labor), “handle the redistribution of social roles and assets”, convene “in widespread locations”, and send delegates to regional, state, national and international organisations, where every level has an “executive council” that is rotated and can be recalled. From there, he asserts that “productive communities” will “form the political as well as economic unit of society” and “organize others” to make a transition to eco-socialist production; he adds that people will be allowed to be members of any community they choose with “associate membership” of others, such as a [[Physician|doctor]] having main membership of healthcare communities as a [[Physician|doctor]] and associate membership of child-rearing communities as a father. Each locality would, in Kovel’s eyes, require one community that administered the areas of jurisdiction through an elected assembly. High-level assemblies would have additional “supervisory” roles over localities to monitor the development of [[ecosystem]]ic integrity, and administer “society-wide services” like transport in “state-like functions”, before the interim assembly can transfer responsibilities to “the level of the society as a whole through appropriate and democratically responsive committees”.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Transnational trade and capital reform===
Part of the eco-socialist transition, in Kovel’s eyes, is the reforming [[money]] to retain its use in “enabling exchanges” while reducing its functions as “a commodity in its own right” and “repository of value”. He argues for directing [[money]] to “enhancement of [[use-value]]s” through a “subsidization of [[use-value]]s” that “preserves the functioning core of the economy while gaining time and space for rebuilding it”. Internationally, he believes in the immediate cessation of [[speculation]] in [[Currency|currencies]] (“breaking down the function of money as commodity, and redirecting funds on [[use-value]]s”), the cancellation of the debt of the [[Global South]] (“breaking the back of the value function” of money) and the redirecting the “vast reservoir of mainly phony value” to reparations and “ecologically sound development”. He suggests the end of military aid and other forms of support to “comprador elites in the [[Global South|South]]” will eventually “lead to their collapse”.<ref name=Kovel/>
In terms of [[trade]], Kovel advocates a ‘World People’s Trade Organization’ (WPTO), “responsible to a confederation of popular bodies”, in which “the degree of control over [[trade]] is... proportional to involvement with production”, meaning that “farmers would have a special say over food trade” and so on. He posits that the WPTO should have an elected council that will oversee a reform of prices in favour of an ‘Ecological Price’ (EP) “determined by the difference between actual [[use-value]]s and fully realized ones”, thus having low [[tariff]]s for forms of ecological production like [[organic agriculture]]; he also envisages the high [[tariff]]s on non-ecological production providing subsidies to ecological production units. The EP would also internalize the costs of current [[Externality|externalities]] (like [[pollution]]) and “would be set as a function of the distance traded”, reducing the effects of long-distance transport like [[carbon emissions]] and increased [[packaging]] of goods. He thinks that this will provide a “standard of transformation” for non-ecological industries, like the [[automobile industry]], thus spurring changes towards ecological production.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Ecological production===
Eco-socialists pursue "[[ecology|ecological]] production" that, according to [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]], goes beyond the [[Socialism|socialist]] vision of the emancipation of labor to "the realization of [[use-value]]s and the appropriation of intrinsic value". He envisions a form of production in which "the making of a thing becomes part of the thing made" so that, using a high quality meal as an analogy, "pleasure would obtain for the cooking of the meal" - thus activities "reserved as hobbies under capitalism" would "compose the fabric of everyday life" under eco-socialism. This, for Kovel, is achieved if labor is "freely chosen and developed... with a fully realized [[use-value]]" achieved by a "negation" of [[exchange-value]], and he exemplifies the [[Food Not Bombs]] project for adopting this. He believes that the notion of "mutual recognition... for the process as well as the product" will avoid [[exploitation]] and [[hierarchy]]. With production allowing humanity to "live more directly and receptively embedded in [[nature]]", Kovel predicts that "a reorientation of human need" will occur that recognises [[Ecology|ecological]] limits and sees [[technology]] as "fully participant in the life of [[eco-system]]s", thus removing it from profit-making exercises.<ref name=Kovel/>
In the course on a Eco-socialist revolution, writers like Kovel advocate the a “rapid conversion to ecosocialist production” for all enterprises, followed by “restoring [[ecosystem]]ic integrity to the workplace” through steps like workers ownership. He then believes that the new enterprises can build “socially developed plans” of production for societal needs, such as efficient light-rail transport components. At the same time, Kovel argues for the transformation of essential but, under capitalism, non-productive labour, such as child care, into productive labour, “thereby giving reproductive labour a status equivalent to productive labour”. During such a transition, he believes that income should be guaranteed and that money will still be used under “new conditions of value… according to use and to the degree to which ecosystem integrity is developed and advanced by any particular production”. Within this structure, Kovel asserts that markets and will become unnecessary – although “market phenomena” in personal exchanges and other small instances might be adopted – and communities and elected assemblies will democratically decide on the allocation of resources.<ref name=Kovel/> [[Istvan Meszaros]] believes that such "genuinely planned and self-managed (as opposed to bureaucratically planned from above) productive activities" are essential if eco-socialism is to meet its "fundamental objectives".<ref name=Meszaros>Meszaros, I., ''Beyond Capital'', 1996 (New York:Monthly Review Press)</ref>
Eco-socialists are quick to assert that their focus on “production” does not mean that there will be an increase in production and labor under Eco-socialism. Kovel thinks that the emancipation of labor and the realization of [[use-value]] will allow “the spheres of work and culture to be reintegrated”. He cites the example of [[Guaraní|Paraguayan Indian]] communities (organised by [[Jesuits]]) in the eighteenth century who made sure that all community members learned musical instruments, and had labourers take musical instruments to the fields and takes turns playing music or harvesting.<ref name=Kovel/>
===Commons, property and ‘usufruct’===
Most eco-socialists, including [[Ramachandra Guha|Guha]] and [[Juan Martinez-Alier|Martinez-Alier]], echo subsistence [[Eco-feminism|eco-feminists]] like [[Vandana Shiva]] when they argue for the restoration of [[commons]] land over [[private property]]. They blame [[Ecology|ecological]] degradation on the inclination to short-term, profit-inspired decisions inherent within a [[Free market|market]] system. For them, [[privatization]] of land strips people of their local communal resources in the name of creating markets for [[neo-liberalism|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.<ref name=Guha/>
Many eco-socialists focus on a modified version of the notion of ‘[[Usufruct]]’ to replace capitalist private [[property]] arrangements. As a legal term, [[Usufruct]] refers to the legal right to use and derive profit or benefit from [[property]] that belongs to another person, as long as the property is not damaged. According to eco-socialists like Kovel, a modern interpretation of the idea is “where one uses, enjoys – and through that, improves – another’s property”, as its [[Latin]] etymology “condenses the two meanings of use – as in [[use-value]], and enjoyment – and as in the gratification expressed in freely associated labour”. The idea, according to Kovel, has roots in the [[Code of Hammurabi]] and was first mentioned in [[Roman law]] “where it applied to ambiguities between masters and slaves with respect to property”; it also features in [[Islam]]ic [[Sharia|Sharia law]], [[Aztecz|Aztec]] law and the [[Napoleonic Code]].<ref name=Kovel/>
Crucially for eco-socialists, Marx mentioned the idea when he stated that human beings are no more than the planet’s “[[usufruct]]aries, and, like ''boni patres familias'', they must hand it down to succeeding generations in an improved condition”.<ref name=Capital3/> Kovel and others have taken on this reading, asserting that, in an eco-socialist society, “everyone will have... rights of use and ownership over those means of production necessary to express the creativity of human nature”, namely “a place of one’s own” to decorate to personal taste, some personal possessions, the body and its attendant sexual and [[reproductive rights]]. However, Kovel sees [[property]] as “self-contradictory” because individuals emerge “in a tissue of social relations” and “nested circles”, with the self at the centre and extended circles where “issues of sharing arise from early childhood on”. He believes that “the full self is enhanced more by giving than by taking” and that eco-socialism is realized when material possessions weigh “lightly” upon the self – thus restoration of [[use-value]] allows things to be taken “concretely and sensuously” but “lightly, since things are enjoyed for themselves and not as buttresses for a shaky ego”. This, for Kovel, reverses what Marxists see as the [[commodity fetishism]] and atomization of individuals (through the “unappeasable craving” for “having and excluding others from having”) under capitalism. Under eco-socialism, he therefore believes that enhancement of [[use-value]] will lead to differentiated ownership between the individual and the collective, where there are “distinct limits on the amount of [[property]] individuals control” and no-one can take control of resources that “would permit the alienation of [[means of production]] from another”. He then hopes that the “hubris” of the notion of “ownership of the planet” will be replaced with [[usufruct]].<ref name=Kovel/>
===Non-violence===
Most eco-socialists are involved in peace and antiwar movements, and eco-socialist writers, like [[Joel Kovel|Kovel]], generally believe that "violence is the rupturing of [[ecosystem]]s" and is therefore "deeply contrary to ecosocialist values". Kovel believes that revolutionary movements must prepare for post-revolutionary violence from counter-revolutionary sources by "prior development of the democratic sphere" within the movement, because "to the degree that people are capable of self-government, so will they turn away from violence and retribution" for "a self-governed people cannot be pushed around by any alien government". It is therefore essential, in [[Joel Kovel|Kovel's]] view, that the revolution "takes place in" or spreads quickly to the [[USA]], which "is capital's gendarme and will crush any serious threat", and that revolutionaries reject the [[death penalty]] and retribution against former opponents or counter-revolutionaries.<ref name=Kovel/>
==Criticisms of eco-socialism==
While in many ways the criticisms of eco-socialism combine the traditional criticisms of both socialism and Green politics, there are unique critiques of eco-socialism, which are largely from within the traditional [[Socialism|Socialist]] or [[Green politics|Green movement]]s themselves, along with [[Conservativism|conservative]] criticisms.
Some [[Socialism|socialists]] are critical of the word 'eco-socialism'. [[David Reilly (Eco-socialist)|David Reilly]], who questions whether his argument is improved by the use of an "exotic word", argues instead that the "real socialism" is "also a green or 'eco'" one that you get to "by dint of struggle".<ref name=LeftClickCritic>[http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-is-ecosocialism.html LeftClick Blog: ''What is ecosocialism?'']</ref> Other socialists, like [[Paul Hampton]] of the [[Alliance for Workers' Liberty]] (a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Third camp|third camp socialist]] party), see eco-socialism as "classless ecology", wherein eco-socialists have "given up on the [[working class]]" as the privileged agent of struggle by "borrowing bits from Marx but missing the locus of Marxist politics".<ref name=AWLCritic>[http://www.workersliberty.org/node/8390 Joel Kovel meeting - why I'm sceptical about "eco-socialism" | Workers' Liberty]</ref> Writing in ''[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]]'', [[Doug Boucher]], [[Peter Caplan]], [[David Schwartzman]] and [[Jane Zara]] criticise eco-socialists in general (and [[Joel Kovel]] in particular) for a deterministic "[[catastrophism]]" that overlooks "the countervailing tendencies of both popular struggles and the efforts of capitalist governments to rationalize the system" and the "accomplishments of the [[labor movement]]" that "demonstrate that despite the interests and desires of capitalists, progress toward [[social justice]] is possible". They argue that an ecological socialism must be "built on hope, not fear".<ref name=CNSCritics>[http://www.dccofc.org/Documents/Review%20of%20Kovel.htm ''Capitalism Nature Socialism'' September 2003 - ''Another look at the end of the world'']</ref>
[[Conservatism|Conservatives]] have criticised the perceived opportunism of [[left-wing politics|left-wing]] groups who have increased their focus on green issues since the fall of [[Communism]]. [[Fred L. Smith]] Jr., President of the [[Competitive Enterprise Institute]] think-tank, exemplifies the conservative critique of left Greens, attacking the "pantheism" of the Green movement and conflating "[[eco-paganism]]" with eco-socialism. Like many conservative critics, Smith uses the term 'eco-socialism' to attack non-socialist [[Environmentalism|environmentalists]] for advocating restrictions on the [[free market]], although he does recognise and condemn the influence of socialist ideals on many in the Green movement who reject [[private property]], and instead advocates [[Free market|market]]-based solutions to ecological problems. He nevertheless wrongly claims that eco-socialists endorse "the [[Malthusianism|Malthusian]] view of the relationship between man and nature", and states that [[Al Gore]], a former [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] [[Vice President of the United States]] and now a [[climate change]] campaigner, is an eco-socialist, despite the fact that [[Al Gore|Gore]] has never used this term and is not recognised as a such by other followers of either Green politics or socialism.<ref name=SmithCritic>[http://www.policycounsel.org/46101/48601.html Policy Counsel - ''Eco-Paganism - Eco-socialism: Severe Threats to America's Future'']</ref>
Some [[Environmentalism|environmentalists]] and [[Conservation movement|conservation]]ists have criticised eco-socialism from within the Green movement. In a review of [[Joel Kovel]]'s ''The Enemy of Nature'', [[David M. Johns]] criticises eco-socialism for not offering "suggestions about near term [[Conservation movement|conservation]] policy" and focusing exclusively on long-term societal transformation. Johns believes that [[species extinction]] "started much earlier" than capitalism and suggests that eco-socialism neglects the fact that an [[Ecology|ecological]] society will need to transcend the destructiveness found in "all large-scale societies". Johns questions whether non-hierarchical social systems can provide for billions of people, and criticises eco-socialists for neglecting issues of [[Over-population|population pressure]]. Furthermore, Johns describes Kovel's argument that human hierarchy is founded on raiding to steal women as "archaic". Overall,Johns feels that eco-socialism asks "many of the right questions" and will encourage [[Conservation movement|conservation]]ists "to better understand which obstacles to conservation are structural", but still feels that eco-socialists suffer from trying "to fit ecological processes and problems into categories long used to describe human society",<ref name=NPSCritic>[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cnps/2003/00000025/00000001/art00009?crawler=true ''New Political Science'', Volume 25, Number 1, March 2003 - Reviews]</ref> the very tendency that Kovel himself attacks among capitalists and traditional leftists who attempt to reduce nature to "linear" human models.<ref name=Kovel/>
==List of eco-socialists==
* [[Ian Angus]]
* [[Rudolph Bahro]]
* [[John Bellamy Foster]]
* [[Walt Brown]]
* [[Barry Commoner]]
* [[Ramachandra Guha]]
* [[Jane Kelly (eco-socialist)|Jane Kelly]]
* [[Joel Kovel]]
* [[Michael Löwy]]
* [[David McReynolds]]
* [[Sheila Malone]]
* [[Juan Martinez-Alier]]
* [[Mary Mellor]]
* [[William Morris]]
* [[James O'Connor (Eco-socialist)|James O'Connor]]
* [[David Pepper (Eco-socialist)|David Pepper]]
* [[Alan Roberts]]
* [[Ariel Salleh]]
* [[Ted Trainer]]
* [[Alan Thornett]]
* [[Derek Wall]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==See also==
* socialism
* [[Social ecology]]
* [[Green politics]]
* [[Green anarchism]]
* [[Eco-anarchism]]
* [[EcoCommunalism]]
* [[Inclusive Democracy]]
* [[Marxism]]
* [[Environmentalism]]
* [[Environmental justice]]
* [[Environmental movement]]
* [[Anti-globalization]]
* [[Anti-capitalism]]
* [[Green Parties]]
* [[Agrarian socialism]]
==External links==
* [http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Ecosocialist.html ''An ecosocialist manifesto'' by Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy on ''Ozleft'']
* [http://www.ecosocialistnetwork.org/ The Ecosocialist International Network]
* [http://www.climateandcapitalism.com ''Climate and Capitalism'' An online journal edited by Ian Angus]
* [http://www.cvoice.org/buick.htm Extract from ''Ecology and Socialism'' by The Socialist Party of Great Britain on ''Common Voice'']
* [[Takis Fotopoulos]]: "[http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol3/vol3_no1_Takis_degrowth.htm Is de-growth compatible with a market economy?]" (''The International Journal of [[Inclusive Democracy]]'', Volume 3, number 1, 2007).
* [http://another-green-world.blogspot.com ''Another Green World'': Derek Wall's Ecosocialist Blog]
* [http://www.greens.org/s-r/43/43-16.html ''Green Unionism In Theory and Practice'', by Dan Jakopovich]
* [http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com Ecosocialism: A Weblog of Ecosocialist Opinion]
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/24E8W4R6SGVFH Amazon.com: ''So You'd Like to... Replace Capitalism with Ecosocialism'']
* [http://prome.snu.ac.kr/~skkim/data/article/files/ecosocia.htm ''Ecosocialism: The Post-Marxist Svnthesis'' by Robyn Eckersley]
* [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/ssfa2/ecology.html ''Ecology and Society'' book by socialist environmentalist sociologist Luke Martell]
* [http://www.greens.org/s-r/34/34-18.html ''Protecting the Environment in a Participatory Economy'', an article by Robin Hahnel]
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/environment ''Ecosocialism: Where Anticapitalism and Ecology Intersect'', video presentation by Ian Angus]
* [http://www.socialistproject.ca/environment/patrick_bond.html ''After Bali: The Global Fight for Climate Justice '', video presentation by Patrick Bond]
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