Ecosocialism from the Margins

NACLA Report on the Americas

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rnac20

Sabrina Fernandes

To cite this article: Sabrina Fernandes (2020) Ecosocialism from the Margins, NACLA Report on the Americas, 52:2, 137-143, DOI: 10.1080/10714839.2020.1768731 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2020.1768731

Published online: 09 Jun 2020.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rnac20 REPORT

SABRINA FERNANDES Ecosocialism from the Margins Hope for revolutionary change requires urgent climate action now. The energy transition must be as radical as possible to ensure the conditions for future struggles to overcome capitalism.

he 21st century is a century of crisis. continent put everyone at risk of sinking deeper Capitalist economic collapse dovetails with into climate emergency. The Bolsonaro government T dire inequality, international and civil wars is openly anti-environment—he is even intent on drive displacement and humanitarian catastrophe, allowing industrial mining in Indigenous territories. xenophobia creeps into laws, and rising biodiversity When nature is perceived only through the lens of loss imperils the planet’s equilibrium. Climate exploitable natural resources, biodiversity becomes change threatens to worsen every other aspect of easily commodified. It is no coincidence, then, that these interlocking crises, making decarbonization the largest and most impactful social movements in the most urgent task on our to-do list. It’s hard to Latin America are tied to land and territory, environ- fathom successfully tackling all other socioeconomic mental protections, food sovereignty, and a strong problems—let alone the gargantuan undertaking opposition to multinational corporations, foreign of overcoming capitalism—without coordinated investment, and their history of harmful dealings international action. with right-wing—and sometimes moderate left— A deep civilizational change, as Michael Löwy governments. These movements demonstrate that puts it, is needed to craft a truly just and free society ecosocialism must be based on praxis. Those suffer- within the ecosocialist paradigm. Such a transfor- ing the most from capitalism’s exploitation know all mation will not be possible unless we guarantee the too well that full commodification of nature means material conditions on which to build any and all private profits and socialized impacts. revolutionary prospects. Ecosocialists are well aware Political projects rooted in developmentalist and that only a revolutionary path can take us beyond the productivist ideologies are still common in socialist capitalist system. But they also understand that other circles. Many in the progressive and even socialist clusters of change and reforms must garner support Left in the countries at the periphery of capitalism, in their radical forms before a pre-revolutionary sce- or the Global South, perceive their development nario appears on the horizon. and lifting millions out of poverty as antithetical to Climate scientists agree that we must take radical a rapid, clean energy transition and climate action. action by the end of this decade to prevent global Current resources only enable one or the other, their temperatures rising over the 1.5ºC limit. Leftists logic suggests. However, even if developed countries organizing around ecological issues share a similar take the lead by zeroing out their carbon emissions consensus, but the situation changes when we con- and helping finance an energy transition in the sider the Left more broadly. As I write from Brazil, South, a true great transition depends on fostering it is evident that the far-Right’s recent gains in the and organizing peripheral countries’ will to change

NACLA_52-2.indd 137 6/1/20 11:43 AM as well. Those who have contributed the least to the In contrast, the ecocapitalist way, also known as crisis are most likely to suffer the deepest impacts. “green economy” solutions, proposes a false path This contradiction makes social movements, collec- for protecting the environment. It aims to reverse tives, unions, and political parties at the margins of some of the impacts of climate change while maxi- capitalism important voices in the call for change. It mizing profits through the creation of new markets is paramount that we listen. and the generalized commodification of ecological transition. Institutional spaces tasked with negoti- Building Ecosocialism in and from the South ating the terms of climate change mitigation have cosocialism, a recent development in socialist normalized ecocapitalism, including by promot- E history, first emerged to tackle modern envi- ing the market-friendly REDD+ approach to forest ronmental issues, as articulated since the 1970s. It management and carbon trading as solutions, by promoted a critique of productivist perspectives and encouraging the participation of business and experiences within socialism, proposing that the industry NGOs in UN climate change events, and socialist view of abundance prioritize quality over by supporting the idea that the private sector ought quantity. Later, in what political economist Kohei to be a crucial—if not the crucial—partner in reduc- Saito calls the second stage of ecosocialism, the ing emissions. The result has been a very slow crawl tradition incorporated the foundations of Marxist toward decarbonizing energy, amounting to less of a Ecology and Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism’s met- proper transition than a diversification of the private abolic rift. This perspective offers a Marxist analysis and public infrastructure of energy provision. of the profound way the current mode of produc- This is particularly evident in countries that tion has altered nature, explicitly identifying that it have promoted new investments—both public and is impossible to confront the ecological crisis—also a private—in renewable energy sources while con- crisis of human society—within the capitalist system. tinuing to exploit dirty fuel in the name of trade and Now, the third stage of ecosocialism is being built from praxis As the far-Right advances in Latin America, that deals with the con- it is valuable to understand how grassroots tradictions from the current system, pushing campesino, Indigenous, and ecosocialist for alternatives to begin movements have boldly denounced right away. Within this conversation, dispos- human exploitation as inseparable from the sessed peoples at the exploitation of nature. margins of the system have a lot to teach us in terms of values and organizing practices. As the economic growth. For example, in January 2020, far-Right advances in Latin America, it is valuable to Germany announced a plan to phase out coal, but understand how grassroots campesino, Indigenous, the end date is 18 years from now. China has grown and ecosocialist movements have boldly denounced its solar and wind capacity steadily for years, but human exploitation as inseparable from the exploita- investment recently dropped due to cuts to public tion of nature. Pushing for radical alternatives, these subsidies. China also has invested in hundreds of marginalized groups ought to be protagonists in new coal plants at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the constructing ecosocialist praxis. private sector is eager to market itself as the provider

138 NACLA — report on the Americas | VOL. 52, NO. 2

NACLA_52-2.indd 138 6/1/20 11:43 AM Xingu leader Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna speaks during a protest against the Belo Monte dam in Brazil in 2011. (PEDRO BIONDI/FLICKR)

of “clean” energy, a variation of what anticapitalist by fostering democratic planning of production activists have long slammed as greenwashing. Elites around the questions of why, where, what for, how are cashing in on the renewable energy market— much, and for whom. expected to hit a global value of $1.5 trillion by However, much of the theoretical develop- 2025—by selling technology to governments and ment around ecosocialism has taken place among private citizens. intellectual-activists of the North. Although there Ecosocialism criticizes market-based solutions, are ecosocialist organizations throughout the world, but it also condemns the slow pace of transition—if the majority of the Left, including the socialist any—set by governments that still prioritize tradi- Left, remains far from an ecosocialist synthesis in tional, dirty industries as sources of GDP growth. the South. Even discussions around buen vivir and This entails critiquing developmentalism and pro- Pachamama in Ecuador and Bolivia must simulta- ductivism as national ideologies. Ecosocialism neously consider these concepts’ limits and political breaks apart the meaning of development in order appropriation. Campesino and Indigenous social to rid it of its capitalist and colonial facets and movements, whose values are deeply linked to the enrich it with qualitative—rather than merely quan- metabolism of nature, are well-respected and can titative—notions of a good life. It also aims to scrap be great leaders for change. Yet, when it comes to productivism—whose influence may limit social- the economy, most of the Left in peripherical coun- ism to a change in the ownership of the means of tries continues to rely on the separation between production without changing the paradigm of pro- humans and nature in order to secure an image as duction—by eliminating planned obsolescence and

Summer 2020 | NACLA — report on the Americas 139

NACLA_52-2.indd 139 6/1/20 11:43 AM the representative of the urban proletariat, champion the margins and set an example for the big players of industry, and master of local natural resources. that continue to pit their financial targets against However, dependency theory shows us that per- the planet’s future. The challenge for the third stage ceiving nature simply as a source of commodities of ecosocialism is to lead the way by developing makes workers in places such as Brazil and Bolivia through decarbonization while strengthening public more vulnerable. Worse yet, movements that stand sector and working-class organizations to create the up to large, socioeconomically destructive projects material foundations for overthrowing the capitalist led by leftist governments—as is the case of the Belo system once and for all. Monte hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon— are commonly vilified by leftist parties and unions 21st Century Metabolism that promote a productivist perspective of progress key ecosocialist discussion revolves around and job creation. Coal and oil continue to be major A Karl Marx’s concept of the metabolic rift, which elements in leftist depictions of social and economic demonstrates how the inherent logic of the capitalist development, which is unsurprising when underde- mode of production is unsustainable. The true “realm velopment still deprives millions of working-class of freedom,” ecosocialists argue, must overcome this people around the globe of electricity, sanitation, and dynamic through the rational regulation of nature’s other basic infrastructure and services. metabolism. It is impossible to really grasp capital- Although developmentalism and productivism’s impacts on the global ecosystem without deep ism remain the norm, the impacts of the climate consideration of colonial extraction and plunder. crisis push the dispossessed to confront how the global economic It is impossible to really grasp capitalism’s system has pressured impacts on the global ecosystem without nature to an unprece- dented level. Suffering deep consideration of colonial extraction the bulk of the nega- and plunder. tive consequences, the working classes at the margins of capitalism have the most to lose from To take Brazil as an example, the rise of the ecological collapse—and the most to gain by leading far-Right, embodied in Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, the world towards a braver stance. The Left must pay clearly is entangled with agribusiness and indus- attention and give enough room to groups that have trial mining. As soon as he took office, Bolsonaro long denounced the impending disaster. Certainly, reduced the budget for climate change mitigation there can be no socialist struggle without Indige- by 95 percent. The Ministry of the Environment is nous struggle. headed by Ricardo Salles, previously convicted of So far, most underdeveloped and developing environmental fraud. Deforestation is on the rise, countries have tried to catch up with developed ones and environmental officers struggle to do their through the rules of the capitalist system. This has jobs without proper resources. When thousands produced a continuously dependent relationship. of barrels of oil from an unknown source contami- A radically different, ecosocialist-driven, devel- nated beaches across 11 states in 2019, the Brazilian opment program that focuses on quality of living, government largely neglected the disaster. Bolson- full employment, carbon-free activities, and eco- aro even tried to blame the spill on a Greenpeace nomic autonomy can rescue these countries from boat, alleging sabotage. The government only took

140 NACLA — report on the Americas | VOL. 52, NO. 2

NACLA_52-2.indd 140 6/1/20 11:43 AM action when most of the damage was done, leaving flooding, illness, and death. Business as usual means response efforts up to local volunteers who risked that as long as the multinational mining company their own health to remove oil and rescue animals. Vale can extract iron ore, the economy is relatively It is also well-known that Brazil’s 2006 discovery of safe, and the social and environmental impacts— its rich offshore pre-salt oil reserves has affected geo- including dam collapses unleashing floods of mining political pressures, especially around the national oil waste—are just the expected externalities. company Petrobras. Thus far, the Left in such countries has taken the Like many other developing and underdeveloped wrong approach to overcoming dependency by countries, Brazil experiences a dependency dynamic. thinking it possible to challenge capitalism while Resource extraction accounts for a large share of the maintaining its logic of production. Some have economy and attracts superpowers looking to profit intensified extraction to take advantage of com- off cheap primary goods, from crops to oil. Bolivia’s modity prices but have failed to make the necessary Evo Morales, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and even gains in domestic industrial capacity. Others have the previous Workers’ Party (PT) government in invested in such a capacity, but they still fall prey to Brazil have had contradictory approaches to environ- a few dire consequences of continuous reliance on mental issues, pursuing economic growth through extraction: the continuous enrichment of old elites, extractivism and tying social redistribution to the over-specialization that maintains dependence and influx of commodity revenues. Their perspectives, conflicting geopolitical relations, and the perpetua- common across the Pink Tide, fluctuated between tion of the metabolic rift, whereby the unregulated a greater respect for nature compared to right-wing use of nature leads to an array of short-, medium-, governments and an unbalanced focus on an idea of and long-term impacts. sustainable development that treated environmen- A different approach to development—focused tal costs as an after-thought to large projects and on autonomy and the creation of favorable ecologi- economic production. This type of negotiation with cal conditions for further organizing working-class extractive interests can keep traditional national interests—could help overcome dependency while elites in a comfortable position of economic power leading the way towards a global ecological transi- while compromising national autonomy due to the tion. This transition, then, could have the power to economy’s overreliance on commodity exports. reconcile and unite all oppressed people around the Such countries are uniquely positioned when it ecosocialist paradigm. comes to resistance and the construction of radical alternatives. In most cases, if not for their depen- Decarbonize and Organize! dence on the resource extraction that fuels the cology is a pivotal point of convergence for economic superpowers, these countries would con- E the world’s oppressed and dispossessed. Envi- tribute little to climate change. This dependency—the ronmental impacts fall disproportionately on the root of their contribution to climate crisis—impedes poor. Women are more likely to take on extra social real development that moves away from environ- reproduction burdens after environmental disasters. mentally degrading practices and builds resilient, Cities designed around capital lack infrastructure in climate-ready infrastructure. In a country as unequal their peripheries and are very racialized. Ecological as Brazil, the cities are not made for the people, but connections foster not only solidarity, but deep syn- divided by class and the interests of each local elite. theses between struggles. The result is too many cars, precarious public tran- The banner of food sovereignty, for example, sit infrastructure with expensive individual fares, connects landless workers to healthcare profession- and so much concrete that rain inevitably leads to als to animal liberation activists. Climate activists,

Summer 2020 | NACLA — report on the Americas 141

NACLA_52-2.indd 141 6/1/20 11:43 AM policymakers, and every labor union interested in renewables. This transition requires change in many full employment, training, and better jobs all share areas, but it is not what socialists call a transitional a concern for radical change in the energy system. program, let alone a socialist revolutionary endeavor. Ecosocialists understand the power of organizing the Decarbonization is both an immediate necessity and working class in a metabolic way—that is, through a material prerequisite for any transitional program an understanding that if class and oppression are and the very prospect of organizing to abolish private inseparable from ecological conditions, then strug- property. To be successful, decarbonization efforts gles must act accordingly. Rather than different need to be highly coordinated, but in a bottom-up struggles simply marching alongside each other, the fashion. Third-stage ecosocialism calls for mobilizing horizon calls for making connections around the entire working-class sectors while also growing the ecological underpinnings of the material conditions Left by attracting those concerned about the viability for survival—and even revolution. We can no longer of life into the next century. separate labor organizing from feminist, anti-racist, Of course, green capitalists have also tried to pres- LGBTQI+, animal liberation, prison abolition, ent their own version of decarbonization. This vision anti-imperialist, and self-determination struggles. revolves around private property and profit margins, The metabolic ecological view shows that they don’t allows for more extractivism, takes a slow pace, and simply share similar interests, but root causes. demonstrates a dangerous optimism for undeveloped As environmental concerns become ever more technologies that may solve our carbon problem one pressing, a few sectors of the Left have finally real- day without altering production. Unless matters ized their importance. We must be strategic. Higher such as pollution and biodiversity loss can be com- sensitivity to environmental issues presents an modified, these approaches neglect elements of the opportunity for politicization so that we can, at the ecological crisis other than carbon. The ecosocialist same time, reject inherently flawed “green” capital- task in the face of the Green New Deal is to make the ist proposals and learn to build the conditions for a proposal—its goals, speed of implementation, and radical horizon. involvement of workers and their interests—as radi- At some level, this requires ecosocialists to con- cal as possible. This also demands an internationalist sider reform and revolution. Ecosocialism is a perspective that considers the transfer of financial revolutionary perspective, yet it must be aware of resources—as an incentive but also as a kind of repa- the mediations required to guarantee the ecological ration—to support colonized and affected countries conditions for a revolution. The urgency of climate in transitioning away from carbon. This process change calls for decarbonization while still under must also ensure local autonomy, making way for capitalism. This does not mean, however, accepting the South’s political contributions to ensure that the such a plan on capitalist terms. The logic must be to system will indeed change. decarbonize fast, with a focus on the public system, The challenge is how to bring the whole Left to fighting privatization at all costs, and strengthening this understanding—and not just in terms of con- popular movements and organizations. A decar- vincing arguments, but as praxis. Brazil’s Petrobras bonized mode of production is necessary to ensure offers an important example. It is paramount that that when workers are ready to overthrow capitalist the oil reserves in the pre-salt layers—found thou- structures, there is still a healthy planet on which to sands of yards deep in the ocean’s subsoil and very build socialism. expensive to extract—stay as put as possible. Foreign, This is why projects aimed at outstripping the private sector pressure aims to weaken the state’s role carbon economy, such as the Green New Deal, pro- in Petrobras, and this has affected the company’s pose a transition from a carbon-based economy to workers as well as consumer prices for oil and gas. A

142 NACLA — report on the Americas | VOL. 52, NO. 2

NACLA_52-2.indd 142 6/1/20 11:43 AM common perspective, shared by the Petrobras union, control of energy resources, and it will only be just if argues for complete nationalization of the company it focuses on improving people’s lives. Besides avert- so that the reserves support national sovereignty— ing climate collapse, this kind of decarbonizing deal rather than imperialist interests—by guaranteeing contributes to the ecosocialist horizon: There can be Brazil 100 years of energy autonomy. From a standard no just energy transition without organizing, and developmentalist perspective without any ecological the fruits of this organizing can move towards over- regard, this sounds like a dream workers’ sovereignty coming capitalism. Restructuring the economy away argument. It is, however, unrealistic, as it puts the from carbon while centering the working class makes whole world in danger of a sped-up climate catastro- it possible to dream of cities with efficient housing, phe. This demonstrates the importance of fostering better modes of transportation, preventive health ecosocialism in Brazil and the urgency of developing care, an agricultural system built on food sovereignty, a decarbonization program. industry without planned obsolescence, and more Privatization evidently would lead to intense time for leisure and rest. extractivism without any rewards for the workers or We cannot decree or simply vote the capitalist the country, so it must be fought on all fronts. Yet, it system away. To ensure an ecologically and polit- is also important for countries like Brazil to produce ically sustainable post-capitalist society, we must their own decarbonizing “deal” so that labor unions build the conditions to make such a future possible in carbon-based industries can become involved. and enduring. A viable revolutionary alternative Only a fully nationalized, worker-controlled Petro- takes the conditions it can build under capitalism, bras will be able to posit the necessary steps for a just preserves the gains, changes what is necessary, and transition based on: a moratorium on new explora- then transcends the barriers capitalism has imposed tions, fast diversification of the company’s activities on emancipation. In sum, to truly abolish capitalism, into renewables, and job training, compensation, and we must make it obsolete. A society whose mode of a jobs guarantee. production attends to peoples’ necessities and quality This is not entirely novel—Norway’s national oil of life without exploitation or destruction renders the company Equinor has expressed a commitment to capitalist way outdated, irrelevant, and undesirable. bringing the country’s emissions close to zero by Organizing away from carbon can be a valuable 2050. Petrobras invested in renewables in the past as a step towards wide, international organizing away way to “prepare the company for a low-carbon econ- from capital, too. A just energy transition in the South omy future,” but it is currently disinvesting from those will push us in this direction by hitting capitalism at sectors, including by selling its wind power plants in the root of extraction, exploitation, and coloniza- early in 2020. Private interests in the pre-salt layer tion—none of which have any place in an ecosocialist and the government’s privatization intentions have society. Coordinated action from the margins may be set Petrobras back. A radical decarbonizing program just what we need. nn that includes the national oil company, with new priorities led by unionized workers, would have the Sabrina Fernandes is an ecosocialist activist based in potential to not only reclaim Petrobras’ earlier renew- Brazil. She is the lead editor for Jacobin Brasil, a post- ables plans, but also go even further than Equinor’s doctoral fellow at the International Research Group on targets. This change would empower other national Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies of the Rosa Lux- oil companies in the region as well and could help to emburg Stiftung and the University of Brasília, and she runs reroute the future of Mexico’s Pemex, among others. the radical left YouTube channel Tese Onze. As the authors of the 2019 book A Planet to Win put it, a just transition depends on seizing public

Summer 2020 | NACLA — report on the Americas 143

NACLA_52-2.indd 143 6/1/20 11:43 AM