Education

These are some useful books and articles that you might be interested in (quite a long list but we hope it is a useful resource!) Podcast links are at the bottom of the page. If you have any suggestions for useful reading, listening or viewing material please email us at info@ecosocialism-conference.org.

An Ecosocialist Strategy to Win the Future by Sabrina Fernandes

To save the Earth and abolish capitalism, we need to think seriously about how to transition

Why the world needs ecosocialism by Max Ajl

Max Ajl makes the case that a just transition means rejecting the failed electoralist strategies of social democracy and instead building a radical movement of movements.

An Ecosocialist Program: A First Take by Climate Vanguard

Moving through three central themes – democratise, decommodify, decolonise – this program offers a vision of society in transition. A society still wrestling with the capitalist scars of the old world while negotiating the emancipatory potential of the new. But it is a world of liberation and material improvement for the majority, all nested within planetary boundaries. Recalling Lenin, “in revolutionary times the limits of what is possible expand a thousandfold.”

Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition by Kai Heron and Jodi Dean at Spectre Journal

“Transition is revolution. Transition’s push and pull, retreats and advances, are at the core of Marxist and non-Marxist revolutionary traditions. Despite this, today’s movements and theorists seldom give it much attention.”

Ecosocialism for Realists: Transitions, Trade-Offs, and Authoritarian Dangers by Michael J. Albert

Albert looks at some of the political problems that ecosocialists need to address for their politics to win mass appeal.

The Left Is Losing Because We’re Not Confrontational Enough by Jordan Bollag at Current Affairs

Leftist policies are popular, yet the progressive agenda is stalled. What’s missing is a fighting, movement-backed strategy. Congressional progressives should learn from Seattle’s Kshama Sawant

Degrowth debate

Video where Economic anthropologist, Jason Hickel, one of the leading degrowth researchers leading the charge for ecosocialism, explains the case for a degrowth strategy. He says if we limit the energy demands of the elite and hungry multinational corporations, reimagining economics to support and nurture human dignity, we could stay within our planetary boundaries—and lift the entire world out of poverty. Jason Hickel’s book Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World is available here from Penguin

Neither Productivism or Degrowth by Ståle Holgersen in Spectre Journal

Eco-Marxism and eco-socialism are currently haunted by a polarisation between a socialist eco-modernism and degrowth

The problem with degrowth by Matt Huber in Jacobin

We need radical change to address climate change. But degrowth needlessly shackles its vision of a socialist future to a program of aggregate reduction. Huber’s book Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet is available here from Verso

Bananas for Socialism by Arun Gupta

Following on from an intense debate on social media about whether there would be an abundance of mono-crops like Bananas under socialism, Arun Gupta argues against one sided thinking

Would degrowth socialism mean forced austerity? by Richard Seymour

Following on from Gupta’s article, Richard Seymour develops the argument around degrowth politics. Some leftists argue that ‘degrowth socialism’ would mean mass deprivation. Seymour replies that socialism aims for better ways of life, and that could well mean making less stuff.

First and Third world ecosocialisms by David Camfield in Spectre Journal

Although the two perspectives of ecomodernist and Third Worldist degrowth or degrowth-adjacent strands of ecological marxism are the most prominent in recent English-language discussions, their limitations call for the further development of a different approach.

Degrowth strategies: thinking with and beyond Erik Olin Wright By Joe Herbert, Nathan Barlow, Jacob Smessaert, Carol Bardi

Degrowthers have recently seemed to find a lot of inspiration in Erik Olin Wright’s framework of political strategies for transformations beyond capitalism.

The Far right and ecological crisis

Fascism and Global Heating: Why they go together by George Monbiot

George Monbiot has a warning for us all about how the stress of warming planet is empowering fascists around the world.

Populists vs. the planet: How climate became the new culture war front line on politico.eu

An article examining the strategy of the far right across the world who are arguing global warming is either fake or is merely a ‘culture war issue’

Podcasts

The Green Transition by Upstream part 1 and part 2 on Spotify

“Degrowth means power for the working class” with Jason Hickel on Spotify  (A good introduction to ecosocialism in general)

The Green Transition needs Land | Max Ajl by Planet: Criticalon Spotify

Ecological Leninism with Kai Heron by Cosmopod on Spotify