Critical Conjunctures, Socialist Unity, Radical Prospects

Abstract

The current conjuncture is critical—socially and geo-ecologically (that is, environmentally and ecologically). Globally, decades of capitalist grand theft and destruction of workers’ gains in most countries overwhelm the major social achievements characterising countries like the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Cuba (Baracca and Franconi 2016; Cereseto and Waitzkin 1986; Fitz 2020; Foster 2015; Ghodsee 2018; O’Connor 1998; Prashad 2019; Trinder 2020; Xu 2018). The militarily most powerful liberal democracies persist in wreaking havoc on much of the rest of the world through imperialist and neo-colonial interventions while veering increasingly rightwards. Environmentally, climate change has continued to intensify unabated, with extreme weather events becoming ever more commonplace. Ecologically, net biodiversity decline, deforestation, pathogen outbreaks, and soil destruction keeps rising alongside cases of shortand long-term contamination and pollution. Such a critical conjuncture beckons the unification of forces worldwide that share broadly defined socialist objectives and concerns over the state of ecosystems and environments. For the sake of brevity, I call such objectives and concerns ecosocialist, realising such a term encompasses a much wider political spectrum than the term ecosocialism currently covers. The point is to discuss, first, the tremendous overarching challenges and obstacles to ecosocialist prospects and, second, the sort of socialist responses that appear prevalent. By socialist, I mean anyone striving for the realisation of state-free, classless society. This is an admittedly (and purposefully) wide definition that can accommodate a variety of existing convictions or visions that are not necessarily ecologically mindful or supportive of decolonisation, but that can be transformed into perspectives aligned with ecosocialism. I conclude by identifying strategies conducive to unifying socialist forces and realising ecosocialist objectives. The overarching challenges are unprecedented and of two general kinds. One challenge is geo-ecological and the other social. They are intimately