What is Eco-Socialism? Who is an Eco-Socialist?

9.06.2017

Dear friends,

A few days ago I read an interview that Prof. John Bellamy Foster had given to a leftist journal. Prof. Foster is a renowned American Marx scholar and a leading eco-socialist theoretician. Among other things, he expressed in the interview his high regard for Ms. Naomi Klein, who had, 2–3 years ago, published a best-seller entitled This Changes Everything –Capitalism vs. the Climate. Prof. Foster also said: "She is aligned with eco-socialism". Richard Smith, another leading American eco-socialist theoretician, took this rather unclear sentence as meaning Klein is an eco-socialist. According to Smith, however, she is not an eco-socialist. He criticized Prof. Foster for thinking so, probably meaning thereby also that Foster was thus diluting the content of eco-socialism.
    For me, this throws up the question

What is Eco-Socialism? Who is an Eco-Socialist?

This is the title of a short text that I have today posted in my blog site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope you would find it interesting and would be much obliged if you forward it to your political friends and other activists and/or get it published in other political journals.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

Giving Rights to Trees, But Forgetting the Forests

20/25.05.2017

Dear friends,

you have seen that in my last blog I have commented on a rather abstract question, namely whether a river really becomes a "juristic/legal person/living entity" simply because a judge of a court declares it to be so. And I have also commented on the question of the practical significance of the court ruling for real environmental protection.
    In today's blog I have commented on another such abstract discussion in the same google discussion group (in which the rights of rivers discussion took place), namely  on the rights of individual non-human living beings like animals, e.g. chimpanzees, or even trees.

    I have posted it on my blog site

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

under the title

Giving Rights to Trees, But Forgetting the Forests

I hope you would find it interesting and request you to forward it to politically interested friends and eco-activists.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

Rights of Rivers? -- Are They Realizable?

29.04.2017 

Dear friends, 

in March of this year, a High Court judge of the province of Uttarakhand in north India has issued a ruling giving the rivers Ganga and Jamuna, both considered holy by the Hindus, the juristic status of a person or "living entity". That means, these rivers or their legal representatives on their behalf can sue anybody or any juristic person if they feel aggrieved and seek redress.

    Is it good news for the environment? How realistic is it that, in case of pollution of their waters, the rivers can sue the government and a court would order the latter to stop all industrial development and dam building activities in their catchment areas?

    These and other related questions are now being discussed in India. I have taken part in the discussion by means of comments and letters, which I have now published in my blog site 

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com 

under the title  

Rights of Rivers? – Are They Realizable? 

I hope you are interested in the question and would read the texts. If you find them helpful for understanding the issues, may I request you to forward them to your political friends and other political activists?

 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar

Nafeez Ahmed's Book: Failing States, Collapsing Systems, Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence

5.03.2017

Dear friends,

I know you as a politically interested person. You may even be a political activist. If you know me and my writings (www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com), then you know that I have been writing since long about limits to growth, peak oil, unviability of renewable energies, the general ecological crisis, crisis of capitalism, the danger of collapsing states etc.
    Recently, Johny Rutherford, a young friend from Australia, informed me about a publication which has pleased me very much. It is a small book, just 94 pages, by Nafeez Ahmed entitled

Failing States, Collapsing Systems, Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence.

In it the author has collated all the relevant biophysical data – global as well as from various problem countries – that explain why countries like Somalia or Yemen have failed and why he thinks that even such a rich country like Saudi Arabia is in danger of becoming a failed state. Ahmed thinks that even China, the second biggest economy of the world today, and India, a self-styled emerging economic superpower, may suffer the same fate.
    After reading a review-summary of the book made by Alice Friedman (see below), I find Ahmed's reasoning very convincing.
    The book is very dear, but the review-summary is available free of cost in the internet. I appeal to all politically interested and active people to read at least the latter and forward it to all political decision makers and opinion leaders of their country (add also your appeal to them) plus to all those who are worried about the fate of their native country and humanity at large. I am going to do the same.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar
-----------------------------------------------

Alice Friedmann:

http://energyskeptic.com/2017/book-review-of-failing-states-collapsing-systems-biophysical-triggers-of-political-violence-by-nafeez-ahmed/

John Foran's Response

13.02.2017 

Dear Friends, 

after I posted my essay The Ecology Movement is Not a Social Movement – A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question, Resilience.org, an online journal sponsored by the Post Carbon Institute (PCI) published it too. Thereupon, Foran published his response to my response in the said journal in the form of a letter to me. It is not just a comment, it is an article. I thought I should post the link to the article in my own blog, so that my readers who generally do not access Resilience.org are made aware of it. Here it is: 

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-02-08/the-current-crisis-letter-to-a-comrade/ 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar

 

The Ecology Movement is Not a Social Movement -- A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question

1.02.2017

Dear friends, 

what I call the "how-question", i.e. how we could attain our goal(s), is very difficult to answer, particularly for ecologists, environmentalists, eco-socialists, eco-anarchists and others like them. I have been discussing this question with my friends and readers for many years now. There are some disagreements even among us.

    So I read with great interest a recent article by Prof. John Foran, in which he published his thoughts on this question. Here too there are points on which I disagree. I am particularly unhappy about how Foran reduced the goal itself to merely climate justice.

    I have now published my response to his article in my article entitled

     
 The Ecology Movement is not a Social Movement – A Response to John Foran's Article on the How-Question 

I have posted it today on my blogsite 

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

 I hope you would find it interesting, and would be much obliged if you would distribute it among your political friends. A publication in other journals – unabridged and unaltered – is most welcome.

 

With best wishes

 

Saral Sarkar

 

Trump's Victory -- What it Says to Us, What it Makes Me Think

12.12.2016

Dear friends,

Trump's election to the office of the President of the USA has rattled many among us – leftists, socialists, ecologists, eco-socialists, liberal democrats, simply progressives etc. The first reactions are now over. Now is the time to analyze how a candidate with Trump's views and political positions could win. As we know, such election results are also possible in Europe. That is why a deeper than usual understanding of this phenomenon is needed. Otherwise, we can pack up our things and retire.
    Actually, generally speaking, a deep analysis of the current world situation is necessary before we can even begin to discuss what to do in this situation. My latest contribution to this analysis is the essay

Trump's Victory – What It Says to Us, What It Makes Me Think,

which I have published today in my blogsite

www.eco-socialist.blogspot.com

I hope this essay would prove to be useful. I would be much obliged if you distribute it among other interested people and/or publish it – unaltered and unabridged – in some other website.

With best wishes

Saral Sarkar

PS. My friend Bruno Kern, with whom I founded the Initiative Eco-socialism, would be very glad to hear from you. His e-mail address is

info@www.oekosozialismus.net