Refusing Ecocide

To place the ongoing disaster of climate breakdown in political-economic context and explore future possibilities, this article mobilizes three concepts central to historical materialism which form a “trifecta of power”: accumulation, imperialism, and hegemony. These are applied to the current regime of obstruction, comprised of an amalgamation of the deeply seated project of fossil capitalism and the emergent project of climate capitalism. Three alternative projects—Green New Deal, Degrowth, and Buen Vivir (“living well”) —move us toward real solutions, but need to be braided into a wider transformative project that addresses the trifecta of power that reproduces capitalism as a way of life. Eco-socialism provides such a synthesis. It offers a just, viable economic alternative to capitalism capable of addressing the climate emergency. It provides an alternative hegemonic project capable of unifying a post-capitalist historical bloc. It challenges the geopolitical economy of ecological imperialism and opens toward a world order organized for cooperation, solidarity, and peace. These gains stem from three important elements in the historical materialist theory informing eco-socialism. First, a comprehension of the dialectical relation between forces and relations of production as central to socio-ecological transformation. Second, an emphasis on the imperative to replace the anarchy of the market, capital’s governing mechanism with democratic planning. Third, identification of the social forces that can be brought together to form an historical bloc capable of leading the transformation. Our current trajectory is perilous, but there is still time to correct course.