Ecosocialism
Submitted by Alan Hughes on February 27, 2008 - 12:46pm.
I’m a socialist. There I said it. I’m a socialist.
But wait a minute. You’re not supposed to admit to being a socialist these days. Socialism is dead. It’s in the past, like dinosaurs and glam rock. The free market has won the day. The end of history. We’re all happy consumers now. Capitalism rules.
And yet... I wonder. Look at what’s happening out there in the big wide world.
Grinding poverty, war, nuclear proliferation, AIDS – not to mention climate change and its terrifying consequences. Yet, we are told, there is no other way.
Except there has to be. It’s hardly rocket science to figure out that the earth has finite resources. That things just CAN’T go on as they are. That there really HAS to be another way.
But there is another way.
Socialism with a green agenda. Eco-socialism.
Combining socialism – society based on need instead of profit – with a reverence for the earth and its precious resources.
There you go. Sorted.
All I have to do now is convince everyone else...
Here's a few links you might find useful:
The obligatory Wikipedia entry on ecosocialism
Leading ecosocialist, Joel Kovel, on 'Why Ecosocialism Today'
And the Ecosocialist Manifesto
Ecosocialist International Network
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If you want to get involved
If you want to get involved and help convince everyone else, Green Left is the ecosocialist organisation in the Green Party http://gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml, Socialist Resistance have also signed up to the ecosocialist manifesto http://www.socialistresistance.net/SR%20Editions/Savage.htm...or if you are not a joining type there is still plenty to do in terms of spreading the word and getting involved in direct action.
Generally the various different groups supporting ecosocialism in the UK work together despite our political differences in a constructive way...we have all been involved in the Trade Union climate
campaign.
My book Babylon and Beyond or Joel Kovel's book 'The Enemy of Nature' examine ecosocialist economics and anti-capitalism.
Ecosocialism
Yes i completly agree to the author's viewpoint.Infact today capitalist market regime is quientessence to colonial powers of 19th centuary, and each passing day is a remeniscent of the fact that Marxian views are as strong as ever, in whatever format they emerge they have their relevance and acceptance.
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