Joel Cowell: Our View of Ecosocialism, Capitalism and the Ecological Crisis: Capitalism Is a Cancer of Humanity
Translator: Ferdi Bekir
The author: Joel Cowell, Bard College, USA.
This article is a conference paper submitted by Professor Joel Kovel to the International Academic Symposium on Marxism and 21st Century Socialism hosted by the School of Marxism at Wuhan University (December 7-8, 2013).
Introduction: Who are we, as ecological socialists?
The term ecosocialism first emerged in Brazil in the 1980s, referring to a way of combining the struggle for the integrity of the Amazon with the socialist revolutionary tradition. Ecosocialism is therefore the heir to the specter of communism that haunted the European continent as Marx and Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto. Although a young specter, it has a long lineage and a wide influence. Ecosocialism’s main battleground is the earth, which is being ravaged by an unprecedented ecological crisis. Most people think of the ecological crisis as “climate change,” but climate change is only the most striking aspect of the ecological crisis. The ecological crisis is linked to a myriad of ecological disorders, including species extinction, the emergence of new diseases, unprecedented pollution, and more.
Traditional socialism sees capitalism as the enemy of humanity and seeks to overthrow it. Ecosocialism also sees capitalism as the enemy, and it believes that nature, like humans, is a victim of capitalism, and overthrowing capitalism is the only way to overcome the ecological crisis. To do this, it is necessary to introduce the ecosystem as a natural unit and link it to humans and human society.
Nature on Earth is a collection of countless ecosystems, each of which is an organic whole of natural elements. These ecosystems follow different laws, one of which is the second law of thermodynamics, which applies to the entire universe. Its entropy principle has a huge impact on the emergence and prosperity of organisms. The second law of thermodynamics states that as the probability of occurrence of any array of elements in a closed system, entropy must increase over time. Therefore, unless organisms can achieve eternal existence through self-replication, the randomness and disorder of this probability will always exist. In contrast, death symbolizes the victory of randomness and the destruction of the structure of life. From another perspective, death tends to equilibrium, while the characteristics manifested in human production labor, namely life activities, are in a dynamic state of tension with other things in nature.
Ecosystems are not in equilibrium because this would eliminate their specific forms. When ecosystems enter a certain unbalanced dynamic mode, life will appear in the form of “self replicating”. Such ecosystems, as well as those that protect life forms, can be called “integral ecosystems”, and their existence is necessary for the evolution of life.
Man is a natural being, and his life activities (in other words, his “nature”) are the transformation of nature realized in social production activities. In the process of man’s transformation of nature, the situation of man’s domination of man and man’s domination of nature emerged, and with it the class society as the construction principle of the mode of production. The most fatal stage is the currently dominant capitalist system, which originated in ancient times, evolved into the world-conquering empires in the 16th century, manifested in colonialism, and in the current era manifested in the branches of neo-postcolonialism and the globalized economy and mass culture system. History has witnessed its entire development process, magnificent and stupid.
The Universal connection between the elements of the ecosystem allows each ecosystem to extend far. At present, we live in an ecological crisis, which means that the dominant capitalist society is destroying the balance of the universally connected ecosystems on an ever-increasing scale and in a nonlinear and chaotic way. The consequences are extremely terrible, and may be the destruction of civilization and even the extinction of humans and other species. Humanity is facing the possibility of the end of history.
The Extreme case of this state of affairs may be difficult to accept, but if we want to survive and successfully deal with it, we must recognize the existence of this possibility. Ecosocialism is, in any case, an exploration of unknown territory. Although traditional discourses of natural or social science, or even radical political theory, are essential to the basic information provided by ecosocialism, they are also limited by the existing mode of production in which they are rooted. They can neither understand nor overcome this nonlinear, exponential, worldwide crisis. Ecosocialism is premised on the commitment to transcend existing society and existing ways of knowing, even at the risk of being “left”. It will be a radical, fundamentally revolutionary doctrine that must have a global vision or it will be useless.
Although its origins can be traced back more than 20 years, the “creed of ecosocialist vision” was not finally established until 2011. We believe that everyone has the innate spiritual and practical ability to transform the world in an ecosocialist way. Although this spark is often suppressed by various social forces, its potential still exists, especially among young people. This potential works in various contexts, uniting different individuals and working together towards the ecosocialist goal of a global society living in harmony with nature. We want to promote this goal through the widespread implementation of various so-called “ecologically integral processes”. We are well aware of the gap between ourselves and the goal, so a basic concept of the ecosocialist vision is “prefiguration”, which allows us to understand the temporary nature of current struggles, use our imagination and maintain hope.
Ecosocialism is neither an NGO nor a political party. We belong to the left, but we often criticize the left because it fails to correctly understand the basic characteristics of the ecological crisis and even colludes with capitalism and various reformisms to make the ecological crisis worse. The ecological crisis has deep historical roots. It appeared with the industrial revolution and began to attract people’s attention in the second half of the 20th century. However, it was not until the last 10 years that environmental disasters and some unfavorable scientific data awakened sporadic awareness in international organizations and official media. At the same time, the growing public voice against the destructiveness of the ecological crisis has also brought these issues into public consciousness. As a result, the idea of ecosocialism has begun to appear in progressive movements.
This is a positive progress, but it also brings new challenges. Given the current anxiety, confusion, and severity of the crisis, it is easy for the idea of ecosocialism to become a slogan that weakens or confuses people’s insight into the basic characteristics of the ecological crisis, or even leads to a superficial thinking that avoids the depth of the problems we face and the need to solve them. We should not follow Marx blindly, but nothing can better summarize the urgency of the current situation than the young Marx’s call for “ruthless criticism of everything that exists.” Criticism will not be shaken by the power of the authorities or by the possibility of disturbing effects. Nor should we forget Marx’s conclusion in 1846 that laws or any other administrative measures will not bring about major political and economic changes. On the contrary, “nations must at least completely change their industrial and political conditions of existence, that is, their whole way of life, before they can make such laws.”①
Like other concepts, ecosocialism can be used by humans, but it still should be ruthlessly criticized for its use and abuse.
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