Ecosocialism

Ecosocialism definition

Ecosocialism, also known as eco marxism, is a branch of Social Ecology, which in turn is a division of the political ideology of Ecology. Before delving into Ecosocialist thought, let's briefly define what we mean by Ecology and Social Ecology.

If Eco-anarchism sees hierarchy and domination of groups over others as the root, and Ecofeminism sees patriarchy and climate change as related, Ecosocialism identifies Capitalism as the root of the problem.

Ecosocialism main points

The main points of Ecosocialism revolve around a critique of capitalism and the idea that it must be replaced with a new socio-economic system, such as a socialist one. Therefore Ecosocialists assume that a socialist state differs from a capitalistic one in its articulation of growth.

In particular, ecosocialism borrows the fundamentals of socialism, such as:

• A strong and managerial state that controls the economy and provides welfare to its citizens.

• Common ownership: it can look different according to the extent of collectivisation of the economy. Modern and reformist socialists argue for state control of fundamental parts of the economy, such as infrastructure or energy, in relation to climate change.

• Equality of outcome and conditions: this signifies that everyone has more or less the same gains and that their conditions of access to life are more or less the same. One could eliminate social gaps such as gender, class, and racial inequalities to achieve this. Classes are particularly crucial to classic socialist theory.

Against green capitalism

In particular, Ecosocialists oppose the idea that capitalistic economic growth and the environment can be reconciled. This is usually referred to as (mainstream) Sustainable Development or green capitalism and is part of Modernist Ecology and Shallow Ecology.

According to Ecosocialists green capitalism cannot solve the climate crisis because, just as capitalism, it is still based on:

Ecosocialism theory

Now you know that the main points of Ecosocialism are articulated around the inadequacy of capitalism in finding a solution to the climate crisis. However, many Ecosocialists go further than this and maintain that capitalism caused the current climate crisis.

Neo-marxism and climate change

Fig. 2, Marx and Engels

Neo-Marxist political-economic theory can be used to analyse how capitalism has impacted the environment. Under this logical climate change and capitalism are in a relationship of causality, where capitalism causes climate change.

Capitalism as a system tends to maximise profits by exploiting "external" goods, which are human labour and natural resources. This exploitation leads to the commodification of these goods, which were not commodified (they were not on sale) before. This is because, before capitalism, nature was the primary source of sustainment, but it was exploited in respect of its cyclical flows.

In particular, there was a historical shift from using renewable resources (e.g., soil, water, etc.) to non-renewable resources (e.g. coal), which do not have cyclical flows and will end. According to Ecosocialists nature started being seen for its exchange value and not for its role in sustaining human life.

Ecosocialism Michael Löwy

Michael Löwy is a Marxist sociologist and philosopher and one of the pioneers of Ecosocialism.

In 2001, alongside Joel Kovel, he authored a manifesto called An Ecosocialist Manifest, which is the base of many grassroots organisations that coordinate socialist action against climate change.

Here is an overview for you to remember the main arguments:

• The social struggles that many are facing and the climate crisis result from the same structural forces.
• They denounce industrialisation and globalisation as the manifestations of capitalism responsible for the above crises.
• They believe that liberal democracies use human rights to justify the exploitation of labour and resources from developing countries.
• They believe that capitalism can not resolve the social and ecological crises of the world as it is based on accumulation, while we require a decrease in consumerism and production.
• Socialism is the only way to overcome the crises of capitalism.
• They recognise that socialism has failed in some of its historical applications. Inserting Ecologism will hopefully make socialism adapt to respond to the current crises.
• Ecosocialism must ideologically transform the idea of production and adapt it to the limits to growth that is necessary to address the climate crisis. This does not signify a society based on a lack of resources but a new idea of production and consumption, funded on quality and not quantity, social and equal welfare and not profit.

Ecosocialist movement

The above manifesto contains principles that are fundamental to many Ecosocialist movements around the globe. Let's look at two of the main ones.

Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rebellion are two related movements born in London, UK, in 2018 that demand new management of the climate crisis based on collective assemblies of citizens and peaceful civil disobedience, e.g. occupation of key buildings.

Therefore, their approach focuses on grassroots action that permits citizens to come together and decide how they believe we should act on climate change. This approach is socialist since it gives everyone equal opportunities and conditions to determine the best method for climate change, weakening the private sector's power.

Fig. 3, Extinction rebellion protest in London

Climate Justice is Social Justice

Fridays for Future is is a students' movement which aims at global school strikes on Fridays to draw attention to the urgency of finding a solution to preserve the liveability of the planet for future generations.

Furthermore they illustrate how this would also require a just redistribution of the resources of our planet and especially because climate change challenges people unequally: the Global South is generally more impacted, and even in the Global North, when climate catastrophes hit, not everyone will have the same resources to adapt.

Therefore, these Ecosocialist movements believe that the solutions are climate justice and social justice; in other words, we cannot solve the climate crisis without also theorising how resources and opportunities must be redistributed equally.