Different paradigms, differing discourses

Steven Welzer
1 min readApr 19, 2021

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There are plenty of overlaps, especially in regard to general conceptions of egalitarianism, democracy, social responsibility, anti-discrimination, and demilitarization. And these days Red-leftism acknowledges the importance of sustainability. Nonetheless, reading the literature of the two movements indicates how distinctive they are.

Discourse typical of the Red-leftist movement that you’ll rarely see employed by Deep Greens:
. revolution
. collectivization
. proletariat
. bourgeoisie
. national economic planning
. development of the productive forces
. historical stages of progressive development

Discourse typical of the Green movement that you’ll rarely see employed by socialists:
. decentralization
. degrowth
. bioregion
. permaculture
. regeneration
. communitarianism
. critique of industrialism
. ecovillage
. reinhabitation
. relocalization
. re-indigenization
. re-wilding
. downscaling
. living lightly

My contention is that the discourse of the former is misguided and retrograde, while the discourse of the latter shows the direction we need to go in.

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Steven Welzer
Steven Welzer

Written by Steven Welzer

A Green Party activist, Steve was an original co-editor of DSA’s “Ecosocialist Review.” He now serves on the Editorial Board of the New Green Horizons webzine.

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