What is Socialism in England in the early 2020s: Part Two - Ecosocialism - Marxism for the 21st Century
Further to my previous blog on the subject, a brief introduction to how I see socialism in contemporary England. Part Two brings the conversation up-to-date with an overview of ecosocialism as encapsulated in the slogan 'System Change Not Climate Change'.
I've been involved in the UK ecology movement since the 1970s when the current crisis was first flagged up, at that time mostly to the utter indifference of the majority of the population and pretty much all of the global corporate world.
However, since the start of the twenty first century and especially in the last decade or so, ecosocialism has developed into what is now the dominent thesis of the English left and in fact all around the world. Things have changed.
The reason for this environmental refocus has been the growing realisation that the current system of production and reproduction is quite simply unsustainable, the effects of climate change and pollution are now undeniable, whether we believe the climate crisis to be the result of human activity or not, there is no doubt that the global weather systems have changed and with rising sea levels and other phenomena now present a significant threat to human life all over the world.
There has been a strong element of ecological systems theory in English socialism since the end of the 19th century, personified most famously by William Morris, but also other Fin de siècle and early 20th century English Marxist and socialist theorists as Edward Carpenter, J.D. Bernal, J.B.S. Haldane, Joseph Needham, Lancelot Hogben, E. Ray Lankester, Arthur Tansley and others. This is where the story really begins, although its origins can also be said to go back as far as the mid-Seventeenth century Protestant non-conformist revolution, especially the Diggers (or True Levellers as they called themselves) and the communalist pastoralism of its founder Gerrard Winstanley, during the period of the English republic (1649-1660). Even these early expressions of English pastoralism and ideas of social justice have roots that go further back, to the 14th century proto-socialism of John Ball, the ideological inspiration for the Peasants Revolt of 1381, and later in that century the martyr and English proto-Protestant William Tyndale (1494-1536).
In many ways then, ecosocialism is both the oldest expression of English social radicalism and also the newest manifestation of Marxism in the early 21st century. Obviously, the evolution of ecosocialism is a global phenomenon but this overview is concerned with how it developed in England and not without good cause, ecosocialism is I think hardwired into English socialism where many of its founding principles were first expounded, if not necessarilly always by natives, but also by 19th century immigrants and political exiles - particularly German emigrés Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and also by the Russian anarchist thinker and celebrated geographer, Peter Kropotkin who was exiled in London between 1886 and 1917.
The discovery, or rediscovery and translation into English of Karl Marx's Paris and London notebooks since the 1980s have also shown the huge contribution of Marx and Engels to the development of ecosocialst thinking underlying their ever evolving critique of liberal political economy, Malthusianism and the social relations of capitalism. This reappraisal of the Marxian project is still ongoing and some of the notebooks are yet to be fully translated and published in English, so we can expect further elucidation of Marx's nascent ecosocialism, some of which as I understand it, is currently in the academic pipeline.
Deconstructing the distorted relationship that capitalism imposes between human beings and the rest of nature, Marx analysed developments in the agricultural science of his day to argue that by radically transforming socio-economic relations, it is possible to repair the rift between humans and nature. Sustainability and environmental protection is then made possible only by the evolution of scientific socialism and according to Marx and Engels the overthrow of capitalism by the inevitability of communism.
Marx and Engels were witnesses to, and analysts of environmental impacts of 19th-century capitalism. They documented such ecological issues as the depletion of coal reserves, the destruction of forests and paricularly diminishing soil fertility - following the pioneering footsteps of celebrated German organic chemist, Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) as one of the most pressing issues of their own day and which remains unresolved today.
For futher discussion of Marx and Engels concept of metabolism and why Marx’s concept of metabolic rift wasn't recognized until quite recently - please see this short, but helpful piece by Ian Angus in Climate and Capitalism (2018)
https://climateandcapitalism.com/2018/05/01/marx-and-metabolism-lost-in-translation/
Today such authors as the American sociologist John Bellamy Foster, English phenomenological Marxist Ian Angus and Japanese political economist Kohei Saito have done much to add to our understanding of Marx and Engels ecosocialist mission at the heart of their theory of metabolic rift and is in their estimation the engine of catastrophic social alienation of workers under the social realtions of the capitalist mode of production. A growing literature on the ecological impacts of capitalism from a Marxian perpesptive have become available in the English language over the past few years.
So What is So English About English Socialism Today?
Marxism and scientific socialism generally is of course, an internationalist movement and conception of class antagonisms, exploitation and alienation under capitalism and therefore it's a global purveiw that transcends national boundaries.
Nevertheless, the evolution of ecosocialism in England for some of the reasons already outlined above, has a particular flavour that goes back to the development of early English Protestantism in a dialectical relationship with capitalist social production and the emergence of modernity after the 16th century Protestant Reformation and its antithesis in the Catholic Counter-Reformation that took place in western Europe at the end of the Middle Ages.
The revolutionary nature of protestantism was not only breaking with the Church of Rome, but in the eyes of its critics with the word of God itself, caused shock waves all across western Europe.
The English Revolution of 1642-1651 saw the unprecedented execution of the sitting monarch, Charles I in 1649 which caused alram and condemnation in Europe from both Protestants and Catholics alike. The politcal isolation of England in Europe that began with Henry VIII was further deepened by the parliamentarian regicide.
The English Revolution was a model for both the later American (1765-1783) and French (1789-1799) Revolutions and it both directly and indirectly changed the world. The English Revolution was the dawning of the modern era, primarily a bourgeois revolution which restricted the powers of the English Crown, which brought about an explosion of social experimentation and new ways of being in the world. The Leveller party, largely a product of the civil war and the formation of the New Model Army arose at that time demanding democratic rights initially for men, but also for women as well. The shocking revolutionary nature of women's voices in politics cannot be overstatated in the context of 17th century Europe.
These earth shattering events of the mid-17th century England created the fertile soil out of which socialism grew as did liberalism and capitalism in the tumult of devastating civil war that gave rise to the early stirrings of both direct and representative democracy, plus as noted above, nascent feminism, republicanism and egalitarianism. The Protestant creed had given new life to independent thought, including now communalism as well as individualism, freedom of religious expression and new political demands - the social mores of revolutionary England were at this time literally 'turned upside down'.
These social changes lead a century later to an aggrarian revolution producing food more efficently with the arrival of such technological innovations as the seed drill and other inventions and methods that supported increasing population growth, which in turn provided the brain power and the muscle power to eventually ignite the 19th century industrial revolution in which Britain led the world for a time and England became the power house of the industrial developments that mechanised and modernised the empire and eventually the whole world.
These were the circumstances that created the rise of urbanisation the appearance of crowded cities and industrial towns that flourished up and down the land. Between 1800 and 1850 Britain's polulation doubled and then between 1850 and 1900 it doubled again. The workers of the Industrial revolution became what Marx was to call the proletariat who were seen as a growing political force during the nineteenth century. Toward the end of the Victorian era trade unions had greatly increased their influence and since the mid-19th century political aggitation of first the Chartists and then later the sufragette movement agitated for greater political sovereignty including voting rights for the working class of both sexes. Full adult franchicse came about incrementally and in Britain was finally achieved in 1928.
This thumbnail sketch of the evolution of English socialism and some of its precursors of course cannot avoid big gaps and ommissions. Some of the gaps may be covered in subsequent posts, but for now this brief overview has attempted to lay out a rough sketch of the evolution and the unique development English socialism since the time of the Reformation.
The central point here is that ecosocialism is written into English history and runs through the history of modernity itself as a recurring leitmotif.
Now after yet another revolution in the accessibility of information ecosocialism continues to address the conradictions and crises of capitalism in a new and more environmentally aware way. The ecological concerns first raised by 19th century socialists like Marx and Engels have now grown to threaten humanity with the catastrophic prospect of mass extinction.
Our struggle today is a continuation of earlier democratic struggles in society and in the workplace to bring the benefits of technology and science to the physical relief and intellectual edification of the global working class, which with very few exceptions includes almost everyone alive in the world today.
If we don't know how our history progressed we can't contextualise our current situation, nor project into the future a vision based upon the world we have inherited from our forebears. Much has changed and still is changing, but the roots of our ongoing struggle today are the foundations of the future of the sort of society we hope to build and it gives our lives meaning and purpose.
In 2021 we have the technologies to create sustainable, fulfilled and better lives for all, it is only the political will of the collapsing old world order (which incidentally includes what globalist liberals call the new world order) holding us back. It is I think, the role of contemporary ecosocialism like all preceeding socialisms to overcome the impediments to social justice we face and create a better, cleaner and a more inclusive world. It is I think from the springboard of history that we rise to the task of saving the world for future generations, because all too soon we will be that history ourselves - we will only get one chance at achieving what American systems theorist R. Buckminster Fuller called livingry - the sand in the egg timer is now almost run out.
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