Re: [Marxism] fwd: Ecosocialism: Dystopian and Scientific

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/29/19 10:56 AM, DW via Marxism wrote:


Since this was the topic it seems of the last two posts attempting to
counter the Huber article, here is the article.

David

Ecosocialism: Dystopian and Scientific

An effective ecosocialist politics can't just focus on dire threats to
scare us into action. It must also convince people that a better future is
possible.
*by* Matt Huber - Winter 2019


Climate change is bleak – coastal sea level rise, millions of climate
refugees and whole sections of the planet too hot for human life. Thus, for
good reason, ecosocialist politics often emphasizes a “dystopian” vision of
a future if capitalism is not replaced. The main mode of critique is laying
out what the science is telling us about current ecological collapse and
the projected worsening of planetary conditions (not just climate but mass
extinction, nitrogen dead zones etc.). However, part of socialist strategy
is also about convincing the mass of workers that a *better* future is
possible. Ecosocialist politics usually projects a dystopian future we must
avoid, rather than an emancipatory future worth fighting for.


This article is focused exclusively on energy and mechanization. It does 
not address the larger issues posed by Jason Hickel of resource 
utilization.


I got into a fracas with British SWPers over these sorts of questions on 
FB. Here's the initial post from Martin Empson:


While we were doing a SWP stall about climate change today a Nazi tried 
to provoke a fight with me... one of the things he repeatedly shouted 
was that "overpopulation" was the problem and fixing it would mean 
"starting" with the people on the stall. Interesting to see the 
over-population ecological narrative merge so clearly with fascist 
genocidal dreams and anti-socialist strategy.


---

When I pointed out that population reduction is necessary *but only 
after capitalism is abolished*, these SWPers simply kept repeating 
arguments I've heard a million times from people like Matt Huber and Joe 
Hansen long ago.


They predict a population of 11 billion by 2100. Socialism is good at 
dividing up the pie equally but it runs into problems by seeking to grow 
the pie without taking into consideration ECOLOGICAL LIMITS.


This was my last comment on the FB thread:

Ian Angus's book is a polemic against population control UNDER 
CAPITALISM. How many times do i have to tell you that this is an issue 
for socialist society, not something to address under capitalism. Maybe 
you think that there is a socialist technique for generating groundwater 
like the Ogalalla aquifer. There is only science, not "socialist 
science". Groundwater is disappearing across the planet. There is no 
such thing as socialist science or capitalist science. Unless you are an 
alchemist, this is something that is directly related to population 
dynamics.


https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/groundwater/
Edit or delete this








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[Marxism] fwd: Ecosocialism: Dystopian and Scientific

[DW via Marxism]

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Since this was the topic it seems of the last two posts attempting to
counter the Huber article, here is the article.

David

Ecosocialism: Dystopian and Scientific

An effective ecosocialist politics can't just focus on dire threats to
scare us into action. It must also convince people that a better future is
possible.
*by* Matt Huber - Winter 2019


Climate change is bleak – coastal sea level rise, millions of climate
refugees and whole sections of the planet too hot for human life. Thus, for
good reason, ecosocialist politics often emphasizes a “dystopian” vision of
a future if capitalism is not replaced. The main mode of critique is laying
out what the science is telling us about current ecological collapse and
the projected worsening of planetary conditions (not just climate but mass
extinction, nitrogen dead zones etc.). However, part of socialist strategy
is also about convincing the mass of workers that a *better* future is
possible. Ecosocialist politics usually projects a dystopian future we must
avoid, rather than an emancipatory future worth fighting for.

Recently my local socialist reading group happened to be reading Friedrich
Engels’s classic *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific*
. For
Engels, a “scientific” socialism must be grounded in an analysis of what
kind of socialist society is possible given historical and material
conditions. Engels emphasized utopian socialists imagine an ideal society
“invented out of one’s brain”, but failed to articulate how socialism could
be realistically built out of the present. I make a similar claim in this
essay. The dystopian vision of the future among much of the green left
prevents it from explaining how socialism can be built out of the material
conditions that confront us. Ecosocialists often make impressive use of
natural science to project a dystopian future, but this is not the
“science” Engels called for (his “science” is better described as *historical
materialism*).

FULL:
https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/winter-2019/ecosocialism-dystopian-and-scientific/
.
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