Eco-Socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice

First Published in 2004. Capitalism continues to degrade ecosystems and create social injustice. The 1992 Earth Summit demonstrated that the powerful vested interests behind Western capitalism have no intention of radically changing their goals and methods to help create an environmentally sound or socially just global society. In order to confront this, the green movement must now develop coherent eco-socialist politics. People must control their own lives and their relationship with the environment. Drawing on Marx, Morris, Kropotkin and anarcho-syndicalism, David Pepper presents an anthropocentric analysis of the way forward for green politics and environmental movements. Establishing the elements of a radical eco-socialism, this study rejects biocentrism, simplistic limits to growth and over-population theses, whilst exposing the deficiencies and contradictions of green approaches to post-modern politics and deep ecology. Eco-socialism should provide students of ecology, politics and the environment with a thorough introduction to the ideologies of Marxism, anarchism and deep ecology, and the ways these can be synthesized into a radical green politics.