An “intersection set” of the various left and green movements
Climate and Capitalism previously published an interview with John Rice, one of the initiators of the Ecosocialist Network, in Adelaide, Australia. Rice was a speaker at recent very successful Climate Change | Social Change conference organized by Green Left Weekly — an audio recording of his talk is available online.
This week, the group launched a blog, The Ecosocialist. The following is part of the first post — “Introducing The Ecosocialist” by John Rice.
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The aim of The Ecosocialist is to be an “intersection set” of the various left and green movements, drawing on the energy and ideas of those who are interested in exploring and discussing the current ecological and social crises from a political perspective.
Why the necessity for so much politics? We believe that solving the world’s environmental and social problems, which are inextricably linked, will require a mobilization of communities of such magnitude that it will necessarily be a political process. The dominant global business interests have, over the decades, created these problems we face, and they are not likely to readily adopt the necessary solutions. It will take concerted political pressure exercised by majorities around the world to bring about the needed changes. This will involve struggle against vested interests, powerful institutions and ways of doing business.
Big capital has got us into this mess, and it’s primarily anti-capitalist solutions, we believe, that will extract us. Just what form these will take is open to debate – and this debate is just what we need to be able work our way forwards.
To achieve this, it’s essential that the environmental movement develop an advanced political understanding, and a deep knowledge of the history of struggles that have already taken place against these powerful interests. We can learn much – both practically and theoretically – from those who have gone before, and we can learn a great deal from each other through discussion and sharing resources. Given the paucity of political and historical pedagogy in our educational institutions, it’s incumbent upon us – the movement itself – to establish networks, resources, and processes by which we construct our own knowledge through questioning, discussion and resource exchange.
We need a rich and vibrant left intellectual culture to take on the enormous challenges the planet confronts. We need, in the face of a hegemonic mass media, to give each other cogent and succinct arguments. Though your contributions we hope The Ecosocialist can play a small part in developing this.