Response #3 re: the creation of a Green Eco-Socialist Network

Commentary re: the establishment of a Green Eco-Socialist Network

This was a contribution to a dialogue that appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Green Horizon Magazine concerning the 2020 launching of a Green Eco-socialist Network (GEN):

https://stevenwelzer.medium.com/whats-the-alternative-to-capitalism-c2f5b3f434d8

Below is my own response . . .

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De-growth by design, not disaster

By Steve Welzer

I was among a group of Deep Greens who issued a Declaration in the pages of this magazine two years ago. It said the following about socialism:

“The Green perspective has emerged as an alternative to all the old ideologies — conservatism, liberalism, nationalism, capitalism, socialism, etc.”

“[In regard to the term ‘eco-socialism’] we believe such a label channels our thinking into old ruts.”

“Green politics arose on the basis of a new-paradigm critique of the industrial state. That paradigm is, in some ways, more radical than socialism.”

“The problematic ‘progress and development’ trajectories of our civilization pre-date capitalism and have been evident in every attempt to implement socialism in the modern era. On this basis we believe that the source of the problem goes deeper than simply economic relations.”

Those are important and insightful comments, but I’ve since come to think that they were written in reaction to a certain type of eco-socialism, a Red-leftist variant. That particular orientation to the idea of eco-socialism is prevalent — so it was not surprising, though I feel unfortunate, to see that it characterized the Green Party’s national campaign in 2020. But upon examining the movement more closely I’ve noticed that there are other orientations . . . Greener orientations.

Deep Greens need to acknowledge the recent emergence of a new New Left as indicated, over the last ten years by (for example): the Occupy movement (2011); the popularity of Jacobin Magazine (established 2010); the dynamic growth of the organization Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) since 2016; the resonance of the Bernie Sanders campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

There are several ideological currents within this new New Left. The main one is the kind of left-social democracy exhibited by DSA; but another strong current is eco-socialism. There’s an eco-socialist caucus within DSA; the youth group of the Green Party renamed itself “Young Ecosocialists;” and now we have the initiation of the Green Eco-Socialist Network.

I believe an important and healthy general transition of the left “from Red to Green” is in process, but it will take time to accomplish. After all, the Red-leftist ideology developed over a period of more than a century and was extremely influential for a whole historical period. Its failure was broadly disappointing. For that reason I’m sympathetic when some Greens recommend that we avoid any association with socialism. I felt that way myself for many years — and I remain somewhat skeptical. To date, most implementations of socialism have resulted in a misguided concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the state, with problematic consequences.

But I’ve come around to thinking that a period of eco-socialism might be needed in order to de-fang the utterly ruinous globalized industrial capitalist system — and open pathways toward the process that I call “the greening of society.”

The critical discussion about how to subvert The System is ongoing.

THE SYSTEM

“The U.S. and the U.S.S.R., I understood, were the two portions of the Empire as divided by the Emperor Diocletian for purely administrative purposes; at heart it was a single entity, with a single value system.” — Philip K. Dick, Radio Free Albemuth

The System, currently, is comprised of capitalism in conjunction with the industrial state. During the twentieth century it had a supposedly “Second World” alternative. We can debate which world was worse, but it was instructive to see in 1990 that the Soviet people didn’t make much of a fuss when theirs collapsed.

The heart of The System is the industrial state irrespective of economic relations. Our liberation depends upon deconstructing it — devolving power, culture, identification, and meaning back to sane-scale polities, institutions, and technologies. The capitalist system may be the current manifestation of what’s problematic, but a more comprehensive perspective recognizes that we’re talking about a civilization gone haywire over a period of millennia.

That insight can be the basis for an alternative kind of eco-socialism, a more sophisticated one, devoid of the Marxist delusions about where humanity has been and where we’re headed. I would not be averse to seeing the Green Party associated with an eco-socialism that embraces an ultimate bioregionalist vision — concordant with our key values Decentralization and Community-based Economics. In his recent essay, “Socialism and the Green Party,” theorist B. Sidney Smith asserts that the transformational policies in the Economic Justice and Sustainability section of the national Green Party’s platform, taken altogether, “should be understood as a project to soften our landing from the crash of industrial civilization, and to provide a means of working toward sustainable ways to live with a greatly reduced use of energy overall . . . In the near term, and for at least the foreseeable future, it is relentless and sometimes rapid de-growth that will characterize the human economy. Population and economic activity alike will be on the decline until some sort of equilibrium is once again reached. The economic challenge of the future is no longer managing growth or limiting its harm, but instead ensuring that the catabolism of de-growth is managed in such a way as to ensure economic and social justice, and preserving as much as possible a viable future for humanity.”

Simplicity Institute co-founder Samuel Alexander, a research fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, similarly talks about eco-socialism within the context of “de-growth and devolution by design rather than disaster. To resolve the mounting social and ecological crises, the world’s wealthiest nations need to initiate a process of planned economic contraction, in order to leave some ecological room for the poorest to meet their needs.” His idea of “by design” includes both micro-level initiatives to build the new society within the shell of the old and macro-level governmental policies to foster such — while, at the same time, directly addressing the dominance of the mega-corporations. The latter would involve an eco-socialist program to use any and all tools in the mitigation arsenal: effective regulation; high taxation; anti-trust enforcement (even to the point of breaking up the goliaths); and socialization.

Socialization might sometimes involve nationalization, but more often would mean municipalization or the creation of community-based public utilities and cooperatives. In all cases the objective would be the eventual re-localization of economic life — an ultimately bioregionalist proposition.

On that basis I’ve joined the Green Eco-Socialist Network. I hope to find there some Deep Green co-thinkers who can influence its current discourse and presentation.

Here’s what I mean: In his article in this issue Howie Hawkins shows how Red-leftism still looks favorably on progressive development: “We say ecological socialism because nineteenth and twentieth century socialism was focused on increasing production to end poverty. We now have more than enough productive capacity to end poverty. The problem now is equitably distributing production.” This is reminiscent of what you might hear from a Marxist: “Industrial development created the material basis for equitable distribution.” I think a Deep Green would say that both capitalist and socialist industrial development were fundamentally problematic.

The greening of society might involve, might even require, a period of eco-socialist “de-growth by design.” The Green Party could recommend such as a means toward an end. But the essence of our ultimate vision should be eco-communitarian. Responding to socialism’s universalism and social-engineering mentality, Sid Smith writes: “The Green Party is not a socialist party, not in the sense in which that term has historically been understood. The world we are headed toward is a new one, de-industrialized, de-globalized, as wonderfully diverse both culturally and politically as present-day global commercial society is depressingly uniform. A fire is sweeping the garden, and afterward new things will grow. No one will tell them how.”