Ecosocialism and ecofeminism might be new phrases to some people, but they are growing movements in the United States. The U.S. is a latecomer to these topics in many respects because Ecosocialism is already an established movement in Europe and Australia and elsewhere. But finally the U.S. is starting to catch up. The video below was recorded at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit that was held at the end of June. It was a workshop titled Building Ecosocialism and led by environmentalist Joel Kovel. Described as, “Meeting at USSF in which ecosocialist activists discussed commoning, ecofeminism, the destruction of capitalism, strategy, convergence.” (I have to admit to lack of familiarity with “commoning”.) Here is just one of many websites about ecosocialism.
Ecosocialism is a growing movement because many people are asking themselves the question “What kind of world do we want to live in?”
If you are born in the United States, it’s a given that you grow up with certain things drilled into your head. One is that buying and selling, capitalism, and profits, having a job to make a lot of money, is the purpose of life on the path to the American Dream. We are told that capitalism equals freedom, and it’s the natural desire of every human being everywhere. (This is how they sell wars to us too).
Then we are told that this system, which is built on pursuing money (a human invention) as a life goal, is the dream of people everywhere, so we must help them pursue it. Think about how unnatural that all is. The system is based on a cutthroat philosophy that some people get rich (those who are successful) and some people don’t, (those who are failures) so you should try very hard to pursue this life goal of having a “good job” (i.e., one that pays you a lot of money) is the dream of all people everywhere. On the path to this “success” you must buy and discard and buy and discard many things, some of which are status symbols, like expensive cars and expensive clothes and jewelry, etc.
Of course a LOT of people don’t pursue jobs just for money, but those other jobs are simply not as valued in the U.S. as much because we are a super-capitalist country. An investment banker in the U.S. is much more admired by many people than a scientist, who’s status is somewhere between garbage collector and public school teacher. (Many right-wingers want to destroy public schools). Look at the scorn heaped on James Hansen, NASA Scientist and climate change expert — if Americans have heard of him at all. Look at the climate change deniers and who they hate — scientists. (Look at who they revere — religious leaders, even the most fake and perverted.)
This is all due to cultural brainwashing, in my opinion. But eventually as people grow older they realize that other things matter a lot more than business, profits, denying science they don’t understand, and stepping on people just to maximize profits. Things like the environmental matter more than a business’s profits, for instance, because the environmental is vitally important to every person and every living thing on earth. Things like our survival matter more.
Some people, usually pro-business people who are on the political right-wing, think that we are a great country because we have “freedom”. Freedom to them means “free markets” and spreading the myth that everyone is equally able to pursue the “American dream”. This “dream” has been defined for us as lots of money and a big house and lots of stuff. This leads to “freedom” in the minds of many.
It leads to thinking of slavery in the minds of many others. I consider capitalism a type of slave system because people are forced to be in such a relentless pursuit of money from childhood to end of life, just to buy the basics of life they need to survive, that everything else is secondary. People willingly pollute when they feel they have no choice because bills are due and they are in debt. That’s the reason why so many people are against an “energy” bill this year because their electricity might go up about $140 dollars a year. Even that amount is something they would give up clean air and water for. It’s also the reason people are so against a “gas tax”. They feel it’s not fair for them to pay more for transportation, because nearly every decision Americans make boils down to “How much does it cost”? Not, “Is this good for me or the environment or my health, etc.?”
None of us had any choice in having the capitalism is the best messages crammed down our throats, because we are bombarded with them from the time we are babies until the day we die. Wealth and business is a bedrock goal in U.S. culture, and few people question it. The growing eco-movements are all about questioning capitalistic pursuits that we really had no choice in prioritizing for ourselves. That’s why we really aren’t free people because we are expected to and force to live within the capitalistic system that was chosen for us. It’s really the only way to survive, if you live in America. What kind of world do we want to live in is the birth of a movement to question whether this is a good system for the future of us, for life on earth, for this country and the world. The system we have now gave us the never-ending BP oil leak that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico. This type of environmental disaster is inevitable in a country that values profits and “free markets” more than it values regular people and the very environment that we depend on for food and water and clean air.
The things that are taken for granted, like clean air to breathe, are being slowly destroyed by human activity in the pursuit of super-capitalism and “growth” — and that is what eco-socialism is trying to counteract. In the minds of many people, eco-socialism should replace capitalism. I think that is hundreds of years off, but it is inevitable if we are to survive. What happens in the next 30-40 years will determine how quickly it happens. More than one scientist is now saying that humans could be extinct in 100 years or less, and that is something that ecosocialism hopes to stop. One thing is certain, as the Pentagon is preparing for new types of wars due to climate change — this is going to happen and it’s not going to be a smooth transition. Our moment to transition into the future smoothly has probably already come and gone.
To those people who think “socialism” is a bad word, all I can say is that some day you will get it, and by then it will be too late for you. The Pentagon is definitely planning for climate change-related wars and on closing off Mexico and probably Canada completely and worse. Today’s Democracy Now contained a guest who discussed this. Read or watch the interview with geopolitical analyst Gwynne Dyer here. Here’s some real Futurism for you: His new book is called “Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats“. He said:
GWYNNE DYER: The military themselves have begun making plans and making provisions for the kind of roles they perceive themselves having in a warming world. Really what drives almost all of their scenarios is that the principal impact of warming on human beings is on the food supply. That the hotter it gets, the less food we can grow. About 1 degree Celsius average global temperature rise, you lose 10% of the supply, global grain production, rule of thumb. And there’s no slack in the system, we are eating all that we grow. And so what they see is a variety of ills arising from absolute shortage of food-–refugees coming up against borders that do not want to let them in, but you’re starving back home, their farm is dried up and blowing away. You are trying to get in some place where there is food and they do not want to let you in. It gets very ugly in that sort of border. Failed States, a government that cannot feed its own people does not survive. Job one, keep people alive. If you cannot do that, you’ve no credibility left. In some cases, real interstate wars. Because in very many parts of the world, several countries share the same river, which is fine when there is enough water to go around. When there is not, the upstream countries got a serious temptation to hold on to enough water for itself and the hell with the down Street countries. Then they have the choice of five or starve. India and Pakistan, Egypt and countries further up the Nile. Iraq vs Turkey. I think there may be a war between Iraq and Turkey today, if Iraq was not flat on its back, because the Turks are holding water back. There’s no water in the Euphrates River this year.
Below is an excerpt from a book discussed at the USSF, Ecology and Socialism by Chris Williams.
“The American way of life is non-negotiable.”
—George H.W. Bush, Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992“America is addicted to oil.”
—George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, 2008“The world’s energy system is at a crossroads. Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable— environmentally, economically, socially.” —International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook, Executive Summary, 2008
There is a giant death sentence hanging over much of our world. The once majestic polar bear, reduced to starvation due to dwindling sea ice in the Arctic, is only the latest forlorn poster child for the coming global ecocide that human civilization is visiting upon the earth. With rates of extinction running at a hundred to a thousand times the geological statistical norm, it is a species sadly far from alone. Thousands of species sit on Extinction Death Row awaiting the coup de grace, to be administered by a mutually reinforcing set of human-induced conditions.
At the forefront of these conditions rank habitat destruction and rapid, human- induced climate change. The human species seems well on the way to creating the Sixth Great Extinction as we exterminate other species faster than they can be classified; scientists estimate that we have classified less than 10 percent of all the species on earth. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest coalition of environmental organizations, of the nearly 50,000 on its red list of endangered species up to 17,000 face the prospect of immediate extinction. If nothing is done, the IUCN predicts the demise over the course of the twenty-first century of 50 percent of amphibians, 70 percent of botanic life, 37 percent of freshwater fish, 28 percent of reptilians, 21 percent of mammals, and 12 percent of all birds.
Species extinction is natural and nothing new; 99.999 percent of all species that have ever existed have become extinct. Sentient life, as represented by humans, is one outcome of this turnover. Over a period spanning millions of years, from our immediate bipedal forebears, Homo sapiens have evolved on a planet of stunning biodiversity, breathtaking vistas, and awe-inspiring feats of evolutionary development as biotic and abiotic factors have intertwined in a spectacular and ever-changing dance of mesmerizing beauty. However, we live within a social system intent on hacking, burning, and destroying the biosphere in a time period measured in mere hundreds. It is a social system predicated on endless expansion; one that sickeningly combines historic and gargantuan amounts of wealth alongside oceans of poverty and mountains of waste.
Continue at Scribd:Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis
It’s time for everyone in this country to start thinking about all of this now, and whether we want a new political system soon — because we need to start getting ready to live in a very different future. And if you think we don’t have the ability to make the choice — why not? This is our country, our government. We the people isn’t just for the Tea Baggers. It’s time to tell Washington that we don’t think this capitalistic system is working for us anymore. We can tell them through expressing our opinions and through our votes. Supporting Green and progressive candidates, for example. Reject those who want the U.S. to go on with business as usual. Those people will be relics soon anyway.
Climate change and social unrest are going to happen, even if Obama gets a climate and energy bill passed this year. The government has never really been serious about stopping climate change, and neither is Obama. They would rather prepare for new wars and try to get us in a position to adapt. Whether we can is not yet clear.
And last, because I mentioned it . . . you can read an introduction to Ecofeminism here.
As long as the auto dominates transport, regardless of what it burns, there will be waste. There is only one way to get rid of the private auto. Free Public Transit.
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