Ecosocialism

In early 2014, Solidarity’s Ecosocialist Working Group developed six questions that we felt deserved some substantial discussion among those who identify as “ecosocialists.” We invited members of our working group, of Solidarity as a whole, and others to draft some initial responses as a way to generate further discussion. Since then we have been collecting, considering, and editing those responses. We are now sharing some of them in this working paper, and we plan to share more in the future as they become ready.

[An important article: "I would argue that it's much more likely to come from social protest than from the eventual exhaustion of natural resources."- says Chris Williams - read the full article - Editors]

We are now officially living amid the sixth great extinction, according to scientists, but the global economy has still not shifted to prevent climate change's existential threat to human civilization and much of the biosphere.

[Webpage editor's note: This short article by the author of the blog Life on the Left is part of a discussion in Quebec among socialists and nationalists about the Canadian election. It was submitted to a bulletin associated with the journal Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme.]

When Bolivian President Evo Morales announced in May that his government was allowing oil and gas drilling in national parks, mainstream and progressive media outlets alike were quick to condemn his supposed hypocrisy on environmental issues.

Writing for the Associated Press, Frank Bajak argued that although Morales is known internationally for his outspoken campaigning on climate change, at home he faces constant criticism from conservationists “who say he puts extraction ahead of clean water and forests”.

This book review of Green Capitalsm the God that Failed by Richard Smith was first published by the World Economics Association eBooks.

Forget the ‘tragedy of the commons.’  The real cause of environmental crises is a system that commodifies nature and values profit above life itself.

Leftist journalist and broadcaster, Paul Mason, has a new book out at the end of this month. It's called ‘Postcapitalism’.  I don’t have a copy but Mason has written a long article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, outlining his main arguments, http://gu.com/p/4ay9c

On the Climate and Capitalism site (http://climateandcapitalism.com/) Ian Angus wrote on May 8, 2015:

It’s often said that socialists are latecomers to environmentalism, that until the 1990s, Marxists ignored or rejected the concerns raised by environmentalists. There’s some justice to that criticism, but there were important exceptions.