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Home , Revolutionary socialism, Second International, Workers Power (Ireland)

The case for ecosocialism 29 John Molyneux

Ecosocialism is an idea whose time has come —Joao Camargo

he names and labels adopted by so- inists on the grounds that feminism has now generally cialists change over time and vary depending on become synonymous with standing for women’s rights circumstances. In the mid 1840s called and equality. The evolution of the terms adopted at var- himself a communist because, he said, that was ious stages in the struggle by Black people in the United theT term used by the workers in the movement where- States (Negro, coloured, Black, African American, etc.) as ‘socialist’ was more favoured by the middle classes. would make an interesting study in itself. The evolution But by the 1880s Marx and Engels were happy to refer from homosexual through gay, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, to themselves as socialists, as in Engels’ classic text So- LGBT+, Queer, and so on is another case in point. cialism: Utopian and Scientific, and by the time we get Against this shifting background I wish to argue that to the first decade of the twentieth century virtually all the time is right for and Marxists to de- Marxists (Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, etc.) call them- scribe themselves as ecosocialists. I do not mean by this selves social democrats as in the Russian Social Dem- that we should replace the term socialist with ecosocial- ocratic Labour Party. This changed in 1914 with the ist across the board or immediately change the names of ’s support for the First World War, our organisations (from Socialist Workers Network to which led Lenin to argue for abandoning the label ‘so- Ecosocialist Workers Network, from International So- cial democrat’ in favour of a return to the original name cialist Tendency to International Ecosocialist Tendency, of communist, the name later used by the vast majority etc.), but that we should be happy to use the word and of Marxist parties across the world—though it is worth refer to ourselves in that way, as in having an ‘ecosocial- noting that it took three years and a for the ism’ section on Rebel, holding workshops on ecosocial- RSDLP () to actually change their name. ism, and affiliating with the Global Ecosocialist Network The tainting of ‘’ by resulted (as People Before Profit has done). The reasons for this in many (though not all) Trotskyist and anti-Stalinist are both objective—by which I mean the nature of the Marxist organisations reverting to calling themselves crisis facing humanity and the response it demands— socialist as in Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Alli- and ideological—by which I mean the role the term ance, Socialist Alternative , Socialist Workers Network, ecosocialism can play in the environmental movement and so on. and on the left. Then there are the terms and labels that are generally accepted or used on various occasions, even if not neces- The Objective Case sarily as a party name: Workers, Labour (party, league, The objective case for using the term ecosocialism is etc.), international and internationalist, revolutionary, very strong. Large numbers of scientists have accepted and left are all examples. Feminist is an interesting case the proposition that the world has entered a new geolog- in point. The likes of , , and ical epoch—the Anthropocene1—in which human activ- would not generally have called ity has a substantial impact on the geology and ecosys- themselves feminists, seeing feminism as largely bour- tems of the earth. Moreover, this impact has a negative geois, and the term was heavily contested in the 1970s and species-threatening character, rather than having and 1980s, but now I think most revolutionary socialists a positive life-enhancing character, because of human would accept it, referring to themselves as socialist fem- alienation from nature caused by alienated labour and

IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 30 the between society and nature brought public transport. Switching the carrying of freight from about by . Within that it is clear that in 2020 the environmentally destructive lorry to the more eco- capitalism has entered a new phase with the triple cri- logically sustainable train will not happen without the sis of the Covid pandemic, the economic recession, and planned expansion of the rail network.4 Reducing the climate change, with these crises being interconnected massive carbon emissions from private houses involves aspects of a decaying capitalist system in which the con- large-scale retrofitting of homes, but that is beyond the tradiction between the forces and relations of produc- incomes of most people; it cannot be done tion has reached extreme proportions. without a major programme of investment. It is If we assume that, with the arrival and dissemina- the same with the vast programme of afforestation that tion of a vaccine, the Covid crisis passes (even if it is is necessary on a global scale. It will not happen on the destined to return in the form of a new virus, as experts basis of private enterprise or market mechanisms in a like Rob Wallace and Mike Davis expect2), recovery world where the ‘value’ of trees is only realised when from the recession will only feed into and exacerbate they are cut down. climate change which, in the long run, will prove the But even if we put all these examples together it most dangerous and intractable crisis of all. It is already still doesn’t get to the heart of the matter, which is that producing large-scale fires and floods from California to capitalism is not only ideologically committed to end- Siberia and Bangladesh to Southern Africa, and this can less (capitalist) economic growth but also inherently only get worse. Other issues and campaigns come and economically driven to it by the competitive pressure go, but climate change, along with many other forms to accumulate capital. Only system change, that is the of environmental degradation such as the acidification replacement of production for profit with planned pro- and plastification of the ocean, is not going away. It is duction for human needs, i.e. , can break this clearly set to be epoch defining. relentless logic of destruction. Then there is the fact that the solutions to climate Then there is the matter of dealing with the effects change, both for preventing it taking off catastroph- of climate change and the many other forms of environ- ically and for dealing with its effects (which are al- mental degradation. If ‘the worst’ is yet to come—and ready built in and inevitable), are necessarily socialist can still be averted—these effects, above all in the shape solutions. Efforts to deal with climate change through of increasingly frequent extreme weather events, are market mechanisms such as carbon trading and carbon very much with us and are already catastrophic in many taxing are manifestly failing and inadequate.3 Even the parts of the world. It is stark-staringly obvious that re- simplest real steps in the right direction involve a) gov- sponding to raging forest and bush fires, devastating ernment/state action and planning and b) challenging storms and floods, prolonged droughts and unliveable the so-called rights of private property and the priority heat waves cannot be left to private enterprise, the mar- of profit. ket, or individual initiative. Even the most died-in-the It is evident that the absolutely urgent task of halt- wool neoliberal politician can hardly say to the people ing the destruction of the Amazon forest requires, as a of South Eastern Australia or California, ‘Show some bare minimum, government action to stop predatory initiative! Get out there and fight the fires yourselves!’ capitalists felling and burning trees to free up land for But if a state-led response is self-evidently essential, cattle and to prevent mining companies driving roads the nature of the state/government will make a huge through the forest to open up indigenous territory for difference. Just look at the different governmental re- mineral extraction. Similarly, taking the essential mea- sponses to the Covid pandemic, with Trump, Bolsona- sure of stopping further exploration for oil and gas de- ro, Modi, and Johnson leading the charge to disaster. posits, i.e. ‘Keeping it in the ground!’, involves standing In fact, we know from much experience that the re- up to the lobbying and other pressures of the immense- sponse of capitalist states to ‘natural’ disasters is invari- ly rich and powerful fossil-fuel companies. Tackling ably slow, callous, inadequate, corrupt, and repressive. the growing problem of the ever-increasing use of the Hurricane Katrina and the fate of New Orleans is the private car necessitates a planned expansion of free classic example but the pattern is repeated again and 31 again; Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico and relate to such radicalising elements, as revolutionary Dominica in 2017, was another dramatic case in point, socialists must if they are not to adopt a position of os- and anger at the appalling handling of this disaster was trich like sectarianism,5 describing ourselves as ecoso- a major driving force in the massive popular revolt in cialists is a very useful point of departure. For a start it Puerto Rico in 2019. Of course, when the disaster first signals that we are serious about the environment and strikes and pictures of suffering children and destroyed not just ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ (which is what will communities hit the headlines, politicians and govern- be claimed by many of the ‘liberal’ and anti-politics el- ments weep crocodile tears and make all sorts of pledg- ements in the movement). It relates to and builds on es of support and aid. But the moment the news cycle the popular slogan ‘System Change not Climate Change’ moves on and the media spotlight switches elsewhere, by moving to flesh out what is meant by system change such pledges are promptly forgotten and the victims are (i.e. not just a collective change of heart but a change abandoned to their fate. from capitalism to socialism). It gives substance to the And again we know from an abundance of research calls, now widely accepted in the movement, for climate and, indeed, from common sense that extreme weath- justice and for a ‘just transition’ since climate justice is er events invariably hit the poor, women, children, fairly clearly impossible under capitalism, which oozes people of colour, and working class people worst. The injustice from every pore. distribution of suffering reflects the general distribu- The term ecosocialist also neatly signals a number tion of social inequality in all its aspects both nationally of necessary demarcations. It differentiates us from and globally. With the further development of climate what can be called ‘government greens’. By government change, the increasing frequency of disasters and un- greens I mean obviously the leaders of the Irish Green livable conditions, including the dramatic rise in the Party and their supporters, who have gone into coali- numbers of climate refugees, will exacerbate all of these tion with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and are propping inequalities. The greater the levels of national and glob- up a right-wing government, but also that whole layer al inequality, the weaker a given society’s health service of similarly minded environmentalists internationally and welfare provisions, the lower its average living stan- whose strategy, even if they cannot yet fully implement dards, and the higher its numbers in poverty the more it, is to become part of capitalist governments. This dif- terrible the impacts will be. Only radical system change ferentiation is especially important at the moment be- will permit any response to these conditions other than cause, in conditions of global recession and subsequent a barbaric one. austerity, government greens are likely to be seen by Thus the term ‘ecosocialism’, which signifies the ne- large swathes of working people as part of the establish- cessity of a break with capitalism and a commitment to ment and identified with numerous cutbacks and unjust a socialism based on democratic planning to heal the taxes, and it is vital that neither socialists nor the cli- rift with nature and build a sustainable future for hu- mate change movement as a whole allow themselves to manity, is thoroughly justified by the objective circum- be tarred with the same brush. stances we now face. Ecosocialism also serves to distinguish us from both the ecomodernist trend that has emerged recently and The Ideological Case the general liberal ethos that pervades the climate There are a number of strong ideological reasons for movement. Ecomodernism is a quite agressive tenden- adopting the term ecosocialism. cy that has developed in the U.S., particularly associat- The first is that within the overall environmental ed with Ted Nordhaus and the Breakthrough Institute, movement there has been, in the last few years, a very which argues for the abandonment of environmental- considerable radicalisation, both among a layer of the ism as hitherto generally understood and an enthu- movement’s theorists and intellectual spokesperson’s siastic embrace of new technology, including nuclear and its activists, especially its young activists. Both the power, so as to escape from climate change while per- global school strikes and the rise of Extinction Rebel- mitting capitalism to continue with its ‘endless growth’. lion are testimony to this. In striving to engage with and Ecomodernism, with its unequivocal pro-capitalism, is

IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 32 clearly music to the ears of sections of the ruling class all level of their productive activity, in addition to redi- and their supporters in the media, so the counterposi- recting it in ecologically positive ways—from fossil fuel tion of ecosocialism to ecomodernism is a very import- production to renewable energy, from mining to affor- ant debate to be had in the climate and environmental estation, etc.—then socialism (i.e. collective democrat- movement as a whole, and would also help dispel the ic planning of production) would be the only way this illusion that the issue of climate change is somehow ‘be- could be achieved without immense unemployment, ut- yond’ ideology and politics. Making a positive case for ter chaos, and human devastation. How removed Marx ecosocialism is probably going to be a more fruitful ba- and Engels were from a simplistic belief in an unlimit- sis for reaching new people than launching into strident ed capacity of humans to ‘conquer’ or ‘master’ nature denunciations of liberalism6. is shown in Marx’s observation that agriculture ‘when Within our own ranks, that is within socialism, using it progresses spontaneously and is not consciously con- the term ecosocialism signifies a break with and move trolled…leaves deserts behind it—Persia, Mesopotamia, beyond ‘productivist’ . By productivism I mean etc., Greece’,8 and Engels’ that we should not.. an understanding of Marxism which sees it as first and however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of foremost a theory of the unending growth of the produc- our human victories over nature. For each such vic- tive forces and a conception of socialism as embodying tory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it such growth, no longer fettered by capitalism, in pursuit is true, in the first place brings about the results we of unlimited mechanistic domination of nature. expected, but in the second and third places it has The attribution of such a view to Marx (and to Marx- quite different, unforeseen effects which only too ism as a whole) has been common in ecological circles, often cancel the first. The people who, in Mesopota- often in ignorance of the substantial body of ecological mia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, destroyed thinking in Marx, and on the basis of a very crude un- the forests to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed derstanding of . In fact, Marx’s that by removing along with the forests the collect- vision of socialism was never simply of the unlimited ing centres and reservoirs of moisture they were production and consumption of material goods under laying the basis for the present forlorn state of those state ownership and control rather than private owner- countries. When the Italians of the Alps used up ship. Certainly for Marx the establishment of socialist the pine forests on the southern slopes, so carefully and the transition to a classless cherished on the northern slopes, they had no in- society was predicated on the achievement of a level of kling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots economic development which would permit a decent of the dairy industry in their region; they had still standard of living for all. Without that ‘want is merely less inkling that they were thereby depriving their made general, and with destitution the struggle for ne- mountain springs of water for the greater part of the cessities and all the old filthy business would necessar- year, and making it possible for them to pour still ily be reproduced’, i.e. class divisions and exploitation more furious torrents on the plains during the rainy would return.7 But this level of material development seasons. Those who spread the potato in Europe has largely been achieved already under capitalism, if were not aware that with these farinaceous tubers goods and wealth were equitably distributed, and was they were at the same time spreading scrofula. Thus for Marx by no means the prime goal or ultimate aim at every step we are reminded that we by no means of socialism. Rather for Marx socialism was to be the rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign peo- positive transcendence of alienated labour and its con- ple, like someone standing outside nature—but that sequent alienation of human beings from the products we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, of their labour, from their fellow humans, and from na- and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it ture, on the basis of establishing collective human con- consists in the fact that we have the advantage over trol over the productive process. If climate change and all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and other environmental degradation should require as a apply them correctly.9 matter of necessity that human beings reduce the over- But if Marx and Engels were not productivists, it is 33 nevertheless the case that an overemphasis on the role in the most spectacular fashion imaginable, with the of the as the driver of history has been Bolsheviks and the thus giving rise present in much of what has passed as Marxist thinking to the . In recent years some- in the last century or so. It was a significant feature of thing like this has only happened with left reformist the social democratic Marxism of the Second Interna- formations (, Podemos, Corbynism, the Sanders tional (particularly that of ), which tended campaign), which have all fairly rapidly failed or disap- to assume that the growth of the productive forces made pointed. the transition to socialism inevitable. It became a key el- Another route out of isolation might be provided by ement in Stalinism at the time of the first five-year plan the formation or emergence of transitional organisa- and the forced industrialisation of the Union, and tions with broad appeal and open to militant anti-sys- it passed into the ‘Marxism’ of many Third World na- tem workers whose consciousness remains in some tionalists for whom socialism became synonymous with sense ‘reformist’, but under the hegemony of revolution- economic development and industrialisation. It also ex- aries. This is how People Before Profit, with some mod- isted as a tendency in the thinking of various strands est success, has developed in , and it is perhaps a of , particularly when Troskyists argued that role that could be played by the Democratic Socialists of Russia’s economic growth in the thirties, forties and fif- America (DSA) if it breaks with the Democrats. ties showed that it remained a workers’ state. The term There is also the possibility that some new and over- ecosocialism signals a break with such thinking that is riding issue will result in a realignment of the left, pro- both necessary in itself and helpful in relating to envi- ducing new points of unity and new lines of differenti- ronmentalists. ation. This happened in 1914 and 1917 on the question Finally there is the role that ecosocialism may pos- of and . The war and the sibly be able to play in the future regeneration and re- revolution showed that many ostensibly Marxist leaders constitution of the revolutionary left. Any honest survey and organisations were in fact reformists and defend- of the left internationally is confronted with the brutal ers of capitalism while many syndicalists, though wrong fact that the forces of , above all on the matter of the political party, were genuine rev- revolutionary socialist organisations, are exceedingly olutionaries who, as Trotsky put it at the time, ‘really weak and fragmented. In many countries they bare- wanted to tear the head off the ’. The most ly exist at all. In a number of countries there are three likely candidate for such an overriding issue today is the of four or more very small groups with, at least to the existential threat, and the real experience, of climate outside world, very similar politics. Almost everywhere change.10 This may make it possible, at least for those revolutionary socialists are isolated from the mass of who are not determined and inveterate sectarians, to the working class. How can this situation be remedied, overcome various ‘historical’ disagreements and griev- bearing in mind that remedying it is vital given the cat- ances. I should be clear here that I do not believe it pos- aclysmic times we are entering? sible to ‘overcome’, as is often proposed, the difference I do not think it can be remedied simply by regroup- between and revolutionary socialism which ing or uniting existing warring groups. In some specific turns out, in practice, to be a division between support- cases fusions may be beneficial, but generally even get- ers and opponents of capitalism11. Rosa Luxemburg was ting all the groups in one country into one organisation right when she said: would not produce a party with significant roots in the People who pronounce themselves in favour of working class, and would run the risk of a permanent the method of legislative reform in place and in factional bun fight. One possible way may be contradistinction to the conquest of political power that in the course of major upheavals one particular ex- and , do not really choose a more isting revolutionary organisation, or even a new revo- tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, lutionary formation, makes the breakthrough to mass but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the or even large-scale support and this then resets the ter- establishment of a new society they take a stand for rain internationally. This, of course, is what happened, surface modifications of the old society.12

IRISH MARXIST REVIEW 34 5 We should reject the idea circulated by some on However, it may be possible to move beyond wheth- the left that socialists shouldn’t engage with Extinction er or not Russia was a degenerated workers’ state or Rebellion or other new and radicalising environmen- whether Dave McNally or John Molyneux was right talists on the grounds that they are ‘middle class’ or about party building or the debates on social reproduc- ‘not socialist’. In the first place, most people mobilized tion theory. If so, the standpoint of ecosocialism would by XR, etc. are white collar workers, not middle class, seem a good basis for such a realignment. This is not, and in any case this is crass ‘workerism’. Whether we it should be said, a scenario that is counterposed to the go back to Marx and Engels themselves or the student others outlined above, but it could interact with and revolts of the sixties, it is clear that a certain propor- complement them. In this context, the Global Ecoso- tion of ‘middle class’ people, especially when they are 13 cialist Network, founded earlier this year, is a modest young, can be won to socialism and the workers’ move- but useful initiative. It is explicitly anti-capitalist and ment and provide it, in Trotsky’s phrase, with ‘valuable pro-socialist, supportive of mass mobilization from be- yeast’. low, and committed against forms of oppression, but 6 For an attempt to put this into practice see Jess within that framework it allows for the exchange of Spears and John Molyneux, ‘What is Ecosocialism?’ ideas and the collaboration of socialists from different published by Rupture and Irish Marxist Review, Octo- traditions, tendencies, and organisations (as well as ber 2020. those affiliated with none) from across the globe. In ad- dition to its prime task of making the case for ecosocial- 7 Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, https:// ism in the here and now, it may help prepare the ground www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/ger- for future collaboration. man-ideology/ch01a.htm#a4 8 Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence, 190, Cited in John Bellamy Foster, Marx’s Ecology, 169, New York, 2000. 9 Engels, ‘The part played by labour in the transi- tion from ape to man’, https://www.marxists.org/ archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/ 10 I have argued elsewhere that the timescale and Endnotes nature of climate change will create conditions which make socialist revolution not only necessary but 1 For a good analysis of this term see Ian Angus, possible. See John Molyneux, ‘Is there time for system Facing the Anthropocene, Monthly Review Press, change?’ http://www.globalecosocialistnetwork. 2016. net/2020/08/21/is-there-time-for-system-change/ 2 See Rob Wallace, Big Farms Make Big Flu, 11 This assertion that the political issue of reform Monthly Review Press, 2016 and Mike Davis, The or revolution cannot be fudged in no way precludes Monster Enters, OR Books, New York, 2020. any amount of joint political work of revolutionaries 3 For a detailed critique of the notion that capital- with reformists in campaigns, united fronts, or within ism will save the planet through capitalist methods, see transitional organisations. Indeed, such joint work can Owen McCormack, ‘Is Capitalism Saving the Planet?’ be one of the best ways in practice of winning people to Irish Marxist Review 19, http://www.irishmarxistre- revolution. view.net/index.php/imr/article/view/255 12 Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution, 75, 4 See Asbjorn Wahl, ‘A -green new deal in Bookmarks, 1989. https://www.marxists.org/ar- transport.’ http://www.globalecosocialistnetwork. chive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/ch08.htm net/2020/05/11/a-red-green-new-deal-in-transport- 13 See www.globalecosocialistnetwork.net, where it workers-power-renewable-electrification-of-the- is possible for individuals to join and organisations to whole-economy/ affiliate.