Marxian Ecology and Sustainable Human Development

John Bellamy Foster and Mahesh Maskey (an interview)

...It would be wrong to see ecosocialism as displacing socialism. Rather, ecosocialism stands for a particular set of concerns, emphases, paths of inquiry, and movement development within the larger realm of socialism. It is linked to issues of social reproduction, particularly emphasised in feminist struggles. It is thus all about a rediscovery of the full breadth of the struggle for socialism and human freedom. Ultimately, the struggle for socialism, now understood more comprehensively in line with Marx and Engels’s classical perspective, will be seen as necessarily encompassing both substantive equality and ecological sustainability. If humanity is to survive and prosper in the Anthropocene Epoch, it will be through the development of an environmental proletariat engaging simultaneously with the domains of production/social reproduction and the environment, bringing together the exploited and marginalised populations within every realm. This will be driven by a common concern for the future of what Marx called “the chain of human generations.”

For a full read of this brief, click here or on the picture to download the pdf file.