The Rise of the Green Left: Inside the Worldwide Ecosocialist Movement

Derek Wall, The Rise of the Green Left: Inside the Worldwide Ecosocialist Movement London: Pluto, 2010 ISBN: 978-0745330365, £13 This little book by Derek Wall is essentially a primer and manifesto of eco-socialism advocated by the Green Party. Wall seems to have replaced Jonathon Porritt as the principal intellectual guru of the Green Party, although it is unclear whether Wall is still an active member or 'principal speaker' of the party. In many ways this is an excellent text, lucidly written, well-researched, engaging and informative, and Wall's heart is clearly in the right place as he describes and supports social movements and the struggles of indigenous peoples across the globe. He is supportive of any movement, organization or political party that is conducive to radical or 'positive social change', embracing both struggle for social justice and ecological integrity. The book consists essentially of four topics: the politics of climate change, a manifesto and advocacy of Marxist eco-socialism, an outline and history of green anti-capitalist thought, and a brief discussion of eco-socialism in Latin America. The basic premise of the book is that eco-socialism can be found amongst 'green parties, socialist movements, socialist groups and indigenous networks'; that it has its origins in the politics of Karl Marx (p.2); and that it is necessary to gain 'state-level power' in order to transform capitalism, and thus achieve the transition to an ecosocialist society (p.143). It is, however, not really a manifesto for eco-socialism; it is rather a plea for ecostate socialism, and state socialism, like anarcho-capitalism, is essentially a contradiction in terms. Like many Marxists, Wall tends to conflate socialism with Marxism. He thus envisages some kind of dichotomy between socialism and anarchism. Yet apart from a brief mention of Edward Carpenter and Murray Bookchin, anarchism - that is, libertarian socialism - is hardly mentioned in the entire text. Bookchin, of course, is dismissed as a 'sectarian' and for his alleged 'rejection' of socialism (p.85). Bookchin was no more 'sectarian' than the anarcho-primitivists, or those who fervently advocate the parliamentary politics of the Green Party - he just happened to be rather abrasive and strident towards those he disagreed with. Wall disagrees with those who reject electoral politics, or belong to what he describes as the 'purist left' (which includes the anarchists), but he does so in a more benign fashion. To suggest that Bookchin rejected socialism is quite untrue. He rejected Marxist authoritarian socialism. For most of his life Bookchin was an anarchist, that is a libertarian socialist. This he affirmed in one of his last essays on 'communism'. Even so, in his last years, he was reluctant to call himself an anarchist, mainly because in the United States anarchism had become identified with primitivism, anarcho-capitalism, Stirnerite individualism, and the obscurantist mysticism of Hakim Bey. …