Brandon Laufenberg/istockphoto
DCL
There are a lot of misconceptions about what is and isn't socialism these days. It's gotten to the point where some folks can't tell the difference between Marxism and corporate capitalism. Then, you have the eco-socialists.
Also called Green socialism or Socialist ecology, Eco-socialism is an "ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, anarchism, Green politics, ecology and the anti-globalization movement. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansion of the capitalist system is the cause of social exclusion, poverty and environmental degradation through globalization and imperialism."
Ian Angus, editor of the blog, Climate and Capitalism, explains that eco-socialism has "grown out of two parallel political trends ? the spread of Marxist ideas in the green movement and the spread of ecological ideas in the Marxist left. The result is a set of social and political goals, a growing body of ideas, and a global movement."
In other words, capitalism would be replaced with a society that included the common ownership of the means of production and one in which the preservation and restoration of ecosystems will be central to all activity.
"As a body of ideas," writes Angus, "eco-socialism argues that ecological destruction is not an accidental feature of capitalism, it is built into the system?s DNA. The system?s insatiable need to increase profits ? what?s been called 'the ecological tyranny of the bottom line' ? cannot be reformed away." Contrary to most analysis of socialism, eco-socialism is not monolithic. For example, some now posit that social movements have replaced the working class as the engine of social change.
