Ecosocialism

An Eco-Socialist Education Agenda

June 21, 2024 The Last Farm, Resilience. Create! Conflict Resolution, Ecosocialism, Education, New Economy, Outdoors

Our education system is a mess. The reason is obvious: it’s being eroded by capitalism. This erosion takes many forms, from the privatization of schooling itself to altering curricula to meet the demands of employers to undermining the state’s capacity to deliver universal public education, and so on. It’s one of many ways that capitalism shreds our social fabric, keeping us in a constant state of crisis and anxiety. For the same reason, there is also a great dearth of education for adults and the elderly. Instead of a lifetime of learning and enrichment, adults are lucky to get job re-training after a layoff and the elderly might get to learn a new card game after being shipped off to the old people warehouse.

COP28 – We Need To Challenge The Power Of Fossil Fuel Capitalism

December 5, 2023 Global Ecosocialist Network. Strategize! Capitalism, climate crisis, COP28, Ecosocialism

Despite the fact that we are teetering on the edge of the climate cliff, capitalist governments are far from the drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon drawdown necessary to prevent this “temporary” temperature rise from becoming the norm, setting us well on the path to an unlivable planet for the majority of the world’s human and non-human population. On the contrary, emissions have steadily increased during the past few years. The environmental destruction caused by wars, occupations and the military-industrial complex are compounding the crisis. The shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy has suffered a setback because of this and the threat of a nuclear conflict is again hanging over us.

Chávez, UNASUR And The End Of Unipolarity

June 13, 2023 Cira Pascual Marquina, Resumen English. Educate! Anti-Imperialism, Ecosocialism, History, Hugo Chavez, US coup, Venezuela

A pivotal event that would push Chávez to proclaim the Bolivarian Process anti-imperialist (and later frame our project as “Socialism of the 21st Century”) was the April 11, 2002 coup d’état – which involved imperialist interference – and also the popular mobilization to rescue him and bring him back to the presidency on April 12 and 13. From that moment on, he began to purge his government of the conservative and anti-popular elements in it. He did all this because he was listening and learning from the people. In 2004 Chávez declared the Venezuelan process to be anti-imperialist.

Venezuela: Missing Hugo Chávez

March 5, 2023 Carlos Aznárez, Resumen English. Educate! Ecosocialism, Hugo Chavez, Revolution, Venezuela

Ten years have already passed without Comandante Hugo Chávez and his overwhelming drive to explain to the people what the Revolution to be built is all about. Yes, the Revolution with capital letters, which is not the same as appealing to the reformist or social-democratic shortcuts to which some try to accustom us. Because if there is something that Chávez became clear in the heat of his practice, it is that for any society to grow seriously, develop and generate a dignified life for its people, it is not enough with cold cloths or attitudes of just possibilities, but it is necessary to turn everything upside down and generate a deep transformation. Whatever the cost.

Manifesto For An Ecosocial Energy Transition By People Of The South

February 11, 2023 Peoples Of The Global South, Resilience. Create! Ecosocialism, Global South, sacrifice zone, Transformation

More than two years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic—and now alongside the catastrophic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a “new normal” has emerged. This new global status quo reflects a worsening of various crises: social, economic, political, ecological, bio-medical, and geopolitical. Environmental collapse approaches. Everyday life has become ever more militarized. Access to good food, clean water, and affordable health care has become even more restricted. More governments have turned autocratic. The wealthy have become wealthier, the powerful more powerful, and unregulated technology has only accelerated these trends. The engines of this unjust status quo—capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and various fundamentalisms—are making a bad situation worse.

COP27: Latin American Leaders Unite Their Voices Against Climate Change

November 12, 2022 Alejandra Garcia, Resumen English. Educate! climate crisis, COP27, Ecosocialism, Latin America

The eyes of the world are on Egypt as this African country is now hosting the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention (COP27), where hundreds of heads of state, ministers, activists, civil society representatives and businessmen from almost 200 countries are discussing climate change. There are great expectations for the event, which will be held until November 18. A number of important Latin American leaders have now arrived in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheik, on the shores of the Red Sea, to raise the issues of the region, one of the hardest hit by climate change, and one of those that contribute the least to environmental pollution.

Why The World Needs Eco-Socialism

March 14, 2022 Max Ajl, Green New Deal Media. Create! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Ecosocialism, Green New Deal

Climate change affects everyone, but it does not affect everyone the same way. It hammers a capitalist world rampant with inequality and exploitation. This is the case because capitalism neither exploits nor develops evenly. Some nation-states are centers for accumulating wealth and development. Some nation-states are peripheries, and are underdeveloped. Development and underdevelopment are two sides of the same process: accumulation on a world scale. Climate change, in turn, is a human-made process, a product and accelerator of uneven accumulation. Because it is human-made, some states (as well as some within those states) are more responsible than others. And the very poorest simply bear no culpability at all.

Mision Arbol: Ecosocialism In An Oil-Rich Nation

May 21, 2021 Dakotah Lily, Popular Resistance. Create! climate crisis, Ecosocialism, Environment, Venezuela

President Chavez was ahead of his time for a head of state, but was merely reiterating what thousands of activists and thinkers had been saying for decades. “But wait!” many readers and commentators alike may say; “Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution exported oil, so any claims of environmentalism must just be talk!”. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as I will show in the following article how Chavez, his successor Nicolas Maduro, and the Bolivarian process as a whole has an outstanding record in terms of combating climate change and defending the environment. The environment is the beginning and end of all life on Earth, as many Socialists have been saying for centuries. This article's main focus is on the creation and maintenance of the Arbol (Tree) mission.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s ‘The Ministry For The Future’

April 3, 2021 David Schwartzman, Washington Socialist. Create! Book Review, Capitalism, Ecosocialism, Green New Deal

The Ministry for the Future (Orbit, 2020) is a magnificent novel but also an especially welcome resource for thinking about ecosocialist initiatives for a near-future global Green New Deal. Could not be more timely! This was my initial impression upon reading it last week. After some reflection, I am somewhat more critical but still highly recommend this novel for its inspiration and provocation — particularly because of how Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) concretely addresses the radical transformation of real existing capitalism dominated by its militarized fossil legacy. Ministry should certainly be subject to critique, but KSR has his heart in the left place! After reading KSR’s novel 2140 in 2019, I sent him an email suggesting that his scenario for this post–climate catastrophe New York City would be more relevant to the near-future pre–climate catastrophe early 21st century.

Bolivarian Missions: Mision Nevado

February 2, 2021 Dakotah Lilly, Popular Resistance. Create! Animal Rights, Democracy, Ecosocialism, Venezuela

While it could be compared to a social program, or as our oligarchs call them here in the United States “entitlement programs,” it is clearly defined as much more than that. Not only is the direct participation of the masses in the administration of these programs enshrined in law to avoid clientelism and promote popular participation, but the law defines missions as part of the battle to eradicate poverty and towards a full actualization of the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic. This is what sets apart these programs from traditional welfare programs in the capitalist world; they are aimed at popular empowerment and participation, the eradication of poverty, and are aimed at something enshrined in the constitution of the republic; social rights.

Will Biden Become The Climate President?

January 15, 2021 Mark Dunlea, GELFNY.org. Create! climate crisis, Ecosocialism, Green New Deal, Joe Biden

A number of large coalitions (e.g., ClimatePresident.org) have outlined a comprehensive list of Executive Actions the President can take without the need for Congressional approval. It includes setting a goal of moving to 100% clean electricity by 2030 (though that sector accounts for only a quarter of carbon emissions). It embraces a commitment to environmental justice for frontline communities and a Just Transition to ensure that all individuals benefit from the changes. Most importantly, it calls to keep fossil fuels in the ground, including a halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure. Such a halt is something that even the progressive wing of the Democrats has shied away from.

‘We Demand Tomorrow’: Marxist Documentary On The Climate Crisis

December 30, 2020 David Schwartzman, Popular Resistance. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Ecosocialism, Marxism

Kudos to Patreon for this brilliant production, well worth seeing, with its deep analysis of capitalism though I have some reservations to be noted below. I particularly applaud the presentation of Cuba’s socialist solutions in this current pandemic, in contrast to capitalist Britain, with Cuba being on the cutting edge of global ecosocialism. “We Demand Tomorrow” should trigger a lot of debate, and be a useful resource for wide-ranging discussion. I agree with the video’s support for a two-stage path out of capitalism. I have long argued that socialism in our epoch must confront the climate/ecological crisis with effective science-based solutions...

Ecosocialism: An Alternative To Global Capitalism

November 4, 2020 Hans Baer, Green Left. Create! Capitalism, climate crisis, Ecosocialism, Recession

Over the past four decades or so, various leftists have become more sensitive to the environmental degradation in developed and developing capitalist societies and post-revolutionary societies, particularly in the former Soviet Union and, in recent times, China. As a result, they have sought to develop an ecosocialism, ecoMarxism or ecological Marxism. Robert Albritton in Eco-Socialism for Now and the Future: Practical Utopias and Rational Action states that the earliest use of the term of the term ecosocialism he uncovered appeared in a pamphlet titled Eco-Socialism in a Nutshell, published in England by the Socialist Environment and Resources Association in 1980.

Changing To An Ecological Way Of Valuing National Economies

October 12, 2020 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Economic inequality, Ecosocialism, Global South, Pacific Islands

The Global South is adversely impacted by the many crises that exist in this world - the climate crisis, pandemic, recession, war to name a few. Although the Global South is wealthy in terms of culture, biodiversity, knowledge and more, the way the Global North defines what is valuable contributes to economic inequality between the North and South and exploitation of peoples and the planet. Now, my guests Arnie Saiki and Chanzo Greenidge are challenging that paradigm with a new concept of intemerate accounting. The idea is receiving growing support by Pacific Island nations. They explain what it is and how social movements can adopt it to transition to a more ecological economic system.

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