Open Letter to the Hawkins for President Exploratory Committee

I’ve always supported Howie’s campaigns. If he becomes the nominee, I’ll support him again. Howie is exemplary in many ways. He’s committed and articulate. He’s been one of the best builders of the Green Party. He’s always been a reasoned, composed, constructive force in our movement. I’ve appreciated all of that, very much. I transitioned from DSA into the Green politics movement after reading Howie’s Toward a New Politics manifesto in 1990.

But. I wish he could “get it” about Green truly being “new paradigm.”

I realize that few on the left appreciate what it means to be transitioning into a post-socialist era. I’m glad to see Howie and his ecosocialist allies at the annual Left Forum in New York advocating for Green Party support. But I’m disappointed that they fail to convey the key idea that Green politics is based upon an alternative ideological worldview.

The socialist movement rose during the 19th century, swept the world during the 20th century, failed to liberate, and now is fading, both in its communist and social-democratic manifestations. How many generations will it take for the left to recognize that failure? Should the Greens contribute to the delusions of the retrograde left?

The consequence of those delusions is that the left has been stagnating for decades. Wake up: There will be no socialist revolution. The perspective of “next system” or “next higher stage of history” is flawed. History is not progressing toward socialism. The agency of social change is not “the working class” (Marx’s idea of the proletariat becoming a class-for-itself is totally chimerical). Labor unions are defensive organizations for wage workers. We should support them as such, but, at the same time, acknowledge that they have little potential to foster the kind of social transformation that’s so badly needed as we face climate catastrophe and mass extinction of species. Likewise in regard to identity politics.

I understand that the “greening of society” / “new paradigm” perspective is inchoate. It’s not fully grasped. It’s challenging to translate into a platform for a political campaign. But that’s no reason to fall back into espousing an outmoded socialist model.

Our programs and campaign platforms need to convey, or at least suggest, how to transition toward:
. deconcentration of wealth
. devolution of power
. rejuvenation of local community life
. bioregional polities
. regionalized economics (envisioning cultural diversity, including diversity of property relations)

The above should give a sense that a Green world would not be a socialist world. The important work for us now is to shift our orientation away from the old left-right spectrum and figure out how to convey the steps that can lead in a very new direction . . . a direction much closer to the “Great U-Turn” Edward Goldsmith wrote about than anything Marx or Luxemburg or Debs or Harrington had (or Wolff, these days, has) in mind. All the latter espoused retrograde socialism. The Greens need to leave it behind.

Green politics originated as an alternative to socialism. We have to flesh out what that entails. My hope is that a Hawkins for President campaign, as with any of our campaigns, would well-represent what’s most significant and distinctive about the vital movement for Green politics.