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Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

    • Issues
      • Health (Issues)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Issues)
          • AIDS / HIV (Health)
      • Individuals
        • Amilcar Cabral
          • Miguel “Moro” Romero
        • Antonio Gramsci
        • Baghat Singh
        • Benedict Anderson
        • C.L.R. James
        • Che Guevara
          • Che Guevara (obituary)
        • Clara Zetkin
        • Claude Jacquin, Claude Gabriel
        • Daniel Bensaïd
          • Daniel Bensaïd (obituary)
        • David Graeber
        • David Rousset
        • David Sanders
        • Diego Maradona
        • Ellen Meiksins Wood
        • Enzo Traverso
        • Eric Hobsbawm
        • Erik Olin Wright
        • Ernest Mandel
        • Fernando Cardenal
        • Fidel Castro
        • Franz Fanon
        • Franz Kafka
        • Gabriel Kolko
        • Gisèle Halimi
        • Görgy Lukács
        • Henk Sneevliet
        • Herbert Marcuse
        • Hugo Blanco
        • Immanuel Wallerstein
        • István Mészáros
        • James Cockcroft
        • James Connolly
        • John Lewis
        • Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
        • Ken Post
        • Lal Khan
        • Larry Kramer
        • Lenin
        • Leo Panitch
        • Leon Trotsky
          • Leon Trotsky (obituary)
        • Livio Maitan
        • Louis Althusser
        • Mahdi Amel / Hassan Hamdan
        • Malcolm X
        • Marielle Franco
        • Marshall Berman
        • Marta Harnecker
        • Martin Luther King
        • Michael Löwy
        • Michel Lequenne
        • MN Roy
        • Neil Davidson
        • Nelson Mandela
        • Norman Geras
        • Orlando Gutiérrez
        • Patrice Lumumba
        • Paul Levi
        • Peter Gowan
        • Peter Waterman
        • Pierre Granet
        • Randolf “Randy” S. David
        • Roland Lew
        • Rosa Luxemburg
          • Rosa Luxemburg (obituary)
        • Rossana Rossanda
        • Samir Amin
        • Sergio D’Amia
        • Stuart & Brenda Christie
        • Sultan Galiev
        • Troglo – José Ramón Castaños Umaran
        • Victor Serge
        • Walter Benjamin
      • Solidarity
        • Solidarity: ESSF campaigns
          • ESSF: Bangladesh
          • ESSF: Burma, Myanmar
          • ESSF: Funds
          • ESSF: Global balance sheets
          • ESSF: Indonesia
          • ESSF: Japan
          • ESSF: Malaysia
          • ESSF: Nepal
          • ESSF: Pakistan
          • ESSF: Philippines
        • Solidarity: Geo-politics of Humanitarian Relief
        • Solidarity: Humanitarian and development CSOs
        • Solidarity: Humanitarian Disasters
        • Solidarity: Humanitarian response: methodologies and principles
        • Solidarity: Internationalism
          • Solidarity: Pandemics, epidemics (health, internationalism)
        • Solidarity: Political economy of disaster
      • Capitalism & globalisation
        • History (Capitalism)
      • Civilisation & identities
        • Civilisation & Identities: unity, equality
      • Ecology (Theory)
        • Animals’ Condition (Ecology)
        • Biodiversity (Ecology)
        • Climate (Ecology)
        • Commodity (Ecology)
        • Ecology, technology: Transport
        • Energy (Ecology)
        • Energy (nuclear) (Ecology)
          • Chernobyl (Ecology)
        • Technology (Ecology)
        • Water (Ecology)
      • Agriculture
        • GMO & co. (Agriculture)
      • Commons
      • Communication and politics, Media, Social Networks
      • Culture and Politics
      • Democracy
      • Development
        • Demography (Development)
        • Extractivism (Development)
        • Growth and Degrowth (Development)
      • Education (Theory)
      • Faith, religious authorities, secularism
        • Family, women (Religion, churches, secularism)
          • Religion, churches, secularism: Reproductive rights
        • Abused Children (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • Blasphemy (Faith, religious authorities, secularism)
        • Creationism (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • History (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • LGBT+ (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • Marxism (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • Political Islam, Islamism (Religion, churches, secularism)
        • Secularism
        • The veil (faith, religious authorities, secularism)
      • Fascism
      • Gender: Women
      • History
        • History: E. P. Thompson
      • Labor & Social Movements
      • Language
      • Law
        • Exceptional powers (Law)
        • Religious arbitration forums (Law)
        • Women, family (Law)
      • LGBT+ (Theory)
      • Marxism & co.
        • Theory (Marxism & co.)
        • Postcolonial Studies / Postcolonialism (Marxism & co.)
        • Identity Politics (Marxism & co.)
        • Intersectionality (Marxism & co.)
        • Africa (Marxism)
        • France (Marxism)
      • National Question
      • Parties: Theory and Conceptions
      • Patriarchy, family, feminism
        • Ecofeminism (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Fashion, cosmetic (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Feminism & capitalism (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Language (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Prostitution (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Reproductive Rights (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Violence against women (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Women and Health ( (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
        • Women, work (Patriarchy, family, feminism)
      • Political Strategy
      • Politics: Bibliographies
      • Politics: International Institutions
      • Psychosociology and politics
      • Racism, xenophobia, differentialism
        • Jewish Question
      • Science and politics
      • Sciences & Knowledge
      • Sexuality
      • Social Formation, classes, political regime, ideology
        • Populism (Political regime, ideology)
      • Sport and politics
      • The role of the political
      • Transition: before imperialism
      • Transitional Societies (modern), socialism
      • Wars, conflicts, violences
      • Working Class, Wage labor, income, organizing
    • Movements
      • Analysis & Debates (Movements)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (Movements)
        • History of people’s movements (Movements)
      • Asia (Movements)
        • Globalization (Movements, Asia) (Movements)
        • APISC (Movements, Asia)
        • Asian Social Forum (Movements, Asia)
        • Asian Social Movements (Movements, Asia)
        • Counter-Summits (Movements, Asia)
        • Free Trade (Movements, Asia)
        • IIRE Manila (Movements, Asia)
        • In Asean (Movements, Asia)
        • People’s SAARC / SAAPE (Movements, Asia)
        • Social Protection Campaigns (Movements, Asia)
      • World level (Movements)
        • Feminist (Movements)
          • Against Fundamentalisms (Feminist Movements)
          • Feminist Movements: Epidemics / Pandemics (health)
          • Feminist Movements: Rural, peasant
          • Feminist Movements: World March of Women
          • History of Women’s Movements
        • Asia-Europe People’s Forums (AEPF) (Movements)
        • Ecosocialist Networks (Movements, World)
        • Intercoll (Movements, World)
        • Internationals (socialist, communist, revolutionary) (Movements, (...)
          • International (Fourth) (Movements, World)
          • International (Second) (1889-1914) (Movements, World)
          • International (Third) (Movements, World)
        • Internet, Hacktivism (Movements, World)
        • Labor & TUs (Movements, World)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (TUs, international) (Movements, World)
        • Movements: Indignants
        • Movements: World Days of Action
        • Radical Left (Movements, World)
          • IIRE (Movements, World)
          • Movements: Sal Santen (obituary)
          • Radical Parties’ Network (Movements, World)
        • Social Movements Network (Movements, World)
        • World Social Forum (Movements)
      • Africa (Movements)
        • Forum of the People (Movements)
      • America (N&S) (Movements)
        • Latin America (Mouvments)
        • US Social Forum (Movements)
      • Europe (Movements)
        • Alter Summit (Movements, Europe)
        • Anti-Austerity/Debt NetworksAlter Summit (Movements, Europe)
        • Anti-G8/G20 in EuropeAlter Summit (Movements)
        • Counter-Summits to the EUAlter Summit (Movements, Europe)
        • Free TradeAlter Summit (Movements, Europe)
        • Movements: European Social Forum
      • Mediterranean (Movements, MEAN)
        • Mediterranean Social Forum (Movements)
        • Political Left (Movements, MEAN)
      • Agriculture & Peasantry (Movements)
        • Women (Movements, Peasantry)
      • Antiwar Struggles (Movements)
        • History of antimilitarism (Movements)
        • Military Bases (Movements)
        • Nuclear Weapon, WMD (Movements)
      • Common Goods & Environment (Movements)
        • Biodiversity (Movements)
        • Climate (Movements)
        • Ecosocialist International Networky (Movements)
        • Nuclear (energy) (Movements)
          • AEPF “No-Nuke” Circle (Movements)
        • Water (Movements)
      • Debt, taxes & Financial Institutions (Movements)
        • IMF (Movements)
        • World Bank (Movements)
      • Health (Movements)
        • Women’s Health (Movements)
        • Asbestos (Movements, health, World)
        • Drugs (Movements, health, World)
        • Epidemics (Movements, health, World)
        • Health & Work (Movements, health, World)
        • Health and social crisis (Movements, health, World)
        • Nuclear (Movements, health, World)
        • Pollution (Movements, health, World)
      • Human Rights & Freedoms (Movements, World)
        • Women’s Rights (Movements, HR)
        • Corporate HR violations (Movements, HR)
        • Disability (Movements, HR)
        • Exceptional Powers (Movements, HR)
        • Justice, law (Movements, HR)
        • Media, Internet (Movements, HR)
        • Non-State Actors (Movements, World)
        • Police, weapons (Movements, HR)
        • Rights of free meeting (Movements, HR)
        • Secret services (Movements, HR)
      • LGBT+ (Movements, World)
      • Parliamentary field (Movements, health, World)
      • Social Rights, Labor (Movements)
        • Reclaim People’s Dignity (Movements)
        • Urban Rights (Movements)
      • TNCs, Trade, WTO (Movements)
        • Cocoa value chain (Movements)
    • World
      • The world today (World)
      • Global Crisis (World)
      • Global health crises, pandemics (World)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (economic crisis, World)
      • Economy (World)
        • Financial and economic crisis (World)
          • Car industry, transport (World)
      • Extreme right, fascism, fundamentalism (World)
      • History (World)
      • Migrants, refugees (World)
      • Terrorism (World)
    • Africa
      • Africa Today
      • African environment
      • African history
      • Women (Africa)
      • Africa: epidemics, pandemics
      • African economy
      • Angola
        • Angola: History
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cameroon
        • Cameroon: LGBT+
      • Central African Republic (CAR)
      • Chad
      • Congo Kinshasa (DRC)
      • Djibouti (Eng)
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Gambia
      • Ghana
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Ghana)
        • Ghana: LGBT+
      • Guinea (Conakry)
      • Ivory Coast
      • Kenya
        • Kenya: WSF 2007
      • Liberia
        • Liberia: LGBT+
      • Madagascar
      • Mali
        • Women (Mali)
        • Mali: History
      • Mauritania
      • Mauritius
        • Women (Mauritius)
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • Niger
        • Niger: Nuclear
      • Nigeria
        • Women (Nigeria)
      • Réunion
      • Rwanda
      • Senegal
        • Women (Senegal)
      • Seychelles
      • Sierra Leone
        • Sierra Leone: LGBT+
      • Somalia
        • Women (Somalia)
      • South Africa
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, South Africa)
        • On the Left (South Africa)
        • Women (South Africa)
        • Culture (South Africa)
        • Economy (South Africa)
        • Environment (South Africa)
        • History (Freedom Struggle and first years of ANC government) (South (...)
        • Institutions, laws (South Africa)
        • Labour, community protests (South Africa)
          • Cosatu (South Africa)
          • SAFTU (South Africa)
        • Land reform and rural issues (South Africa)
        • Students (South Africa)
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
        • Women (Sudan)
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
        • Uganda: LGBT
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • Americas
      • Ecology (Latin America)
      • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Latin America)
      • Indigenous People (Latin America)
      • Latin America: History
      • LGBT+ (Latin America)
      • Migrations (Latin America)
      • Women (Latin America)
      • Amazonia
      • Argentina
        • Economy (Argentina)
        • History (Argentina)
        • Women (Argentina)
          • Reproductive Rights (Women, Argentina)
      • Bahamas
        • Bahamas: Disasters
      • Bolivia
        • Women (Bolivia)
      • Brazil
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Brazil)
        • Women (Brazil)
        • Ecology (Brazil)
        • History (Brazil)
        • History of the Left (Brazil)
        • Indigenous People (Brazil)
        • Justice, freedoms (Brazil)
        • Labor (Brazil)
        • LGBT+ (Brazil)
        • Rural (Brazil)
        • World Cup, Olympics, social resistances (Brazil)
      • Canada & Quebec
        • Women (Canada & Quebec)
        • Ecology (Canada & Quebec)
        • Fundamentalism & secularism (Canada & Quebec)
        • Indigenous People (Canada & Quebec)
        • LGBT+ (Canada & Quebec)
        • On the Left (Canada & Quebec)
      • Caribbean
      • Chile
        • Women (Chile)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Chile)
        • History (Chile)
        • LGBT+ (Chile)
        • Natural Disasters (Chile)
      • Colombia
        • Women (Colombia)
      • Costa Rica
      • Cuba
        • Women, gender (Cuba)
        • Epidemics / Pandemics (health, Cuba)
        • History (Cuba)
          • Cuban Revolution (History)
        • LGBT+ (Cuba)
      • Ecuador
        • Women (Ecuador)
        • Ecuador: Ecology
        • Ecuador: Humanitarian Disasters
      • El Salvador
        • Women (El Salvador)
        • El Salvador: Salvadorian Revolution and Counter-Revolution
      • Grenada
      • Guatemala
        • Guatemala: History
        • Guatemala: Mining
        • Guatemala: Women
      • Guiana
      • Haiti
        • Women (Haiti)
        • Haiti: History
        • Haiti: Natural Disasters
      • Honduras
        • Women (Honduras)
        • Honduras: History
        • Honduras: LGBT+
      • Latin America: Left
      • Mexico
        • Women (Mexico)
        • Disasters (Mexico)
        • Epidemics / Pandemics (health, Mexico)
        • History of people struggles (Mexico)
      • Nicaragua
        • Women (Nicaragua)
        • Nicaragua: History
        • Nicaragua: Nicaraguan Revolution
      • Paraguay
        • Women (Paraguay)
      • Peru
      • Puerto Rico
        • Disasters (Puerto Rico)
      • Uruguay
        • Women (Uruguay)
      • USA
        • Women (USA)
        • Disasters (USA)
        • Far Right, Religious Right (USA)
        • Health (USA)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, USA)
        • On the Left (USA)
          • History: SWP and before (USA)
        • Secularity, religion & politics
        • Social Struggles, labor (USA)
          • Epidemics / Pandemics (health, Social struggles, USA)
        • Agriculture (USA)
        • Ecology (USA)
        • Economy, social (USA)
        • Education (USA)
        • Energy (USA)
        • Foreign Policy, Military (USA)
        • History (USA)
          • History of people’s struggles (USA)
        • Human Rights, justice (USA)
        • Human Rights: Guantanamo (USA)
        • Human Rights: Incarceration (USA)
        • Institutions, political regime (USA)
        • LGBT+ (USA)
        • Migrant, refugee (USA)
      • Venezuela
        • Women (Venezuela)
        • Ecology (Venezuela)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Venezuela)
      • West Indies
    • Asia
      • Disasters (Asia)
      • Ecology (Asia)
      • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Asia)
      • History
      • Women (Asia)
      • Asia (Central, ex-USSR)
        • Kazakhstan
        • Kyrgyzstan
          • Kyrgyzstan: Women
        • Tajikistan
        • Uzbekistan
      • Asia (East & North-East)
      • Asia (South, SAARC)
        • Disasters (South Asia)
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, South Asia)
        • LGBT+ (South Asia)
        • Religious fundamentalism
        • Women (South Asia)
      • Asia (Southeast, ASEAN)
        • Health (South East Asia, ASEAN)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, South East Asia, ASEAN))
      • Asia economy & social
        • Epidemics / Pandemics (health, Asia)
      • Afghanistan
        • Women, sharia, fundamentalism (Afghanistan)
        • Afghanistan: History, society
      • Bangladesh
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Bangladesh)
        • Ecological Disasters, climate (Bangladesh)
        • Fundamentalism & secularism (Bangladesh)
        • The Left (Bangladesh)
        • Women (Bangladesh)
        • Economy (Bangladesh)
        • History (Bangladesh)
        • Human Rights (Bangladesh)
        • Indigenous People (Bangladesh)
        • Labour (Bangladesh)
        • LGBT+ (Bangladesh)
        • Nuclear (Bangladesh)
        • Rohingya (refugee, Bangladesh)
        • Rural & Fisherfolk (Bangladesh)
      • Bhutan
        • LGT+ (Bhutan)
      • Brunei
        • Women, LGBT+, Sharia, (Brunei)
      • Burma / Myanmar
        • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Burma/Myanmar)
        • History of struggles (Burma/Myanmar)
        • Labor (Burma/Myanmar)
        • Natural Disasters (Burma/Myanmar)
        • Rohingyas (Burma/Myanmar)
        • Women (Burma/Myanmar)
      • Cambodia
        • Women (Cambodia)
        • History (Cambodia)
          • The Khmers rouges (Cambodia)
        • Labour / Labor (Cambodia)
        • Rural (Cambodia)
        • Urban (Cambodia)
      • China (PRC)
        • Health (China)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, China)
        • Gender equality and women’s movements (China)
        • Global Rise (China)
          • China Today
          • China & Japan
          • China & Latin America
          • China & North America
          • China & South Asia
          • China and Africa
          • China and Europe
          • China § Asia-Pacific (economy)
          • China, ASEAN and the South China Sea
          • China, Korea, & North-East Asia
          • Military expansion (China)
          • Silk Roads/OBOR/BRICS (China)
          • World Economy (China)
        • On the Left (China)
        • Political situation (China)
        • China § Xinjiang/East Turkestan
        • Civil Society (China)
        • Economy, technology (China)
        • Environmental struggles (China)
        • History (China)
          • Beijing Summer Olympic Games 2008
          • History pre-XXth Century (China)
          • History XXth Century (China)
          • History: Transition to capitalism (China)
        • Human Rights, freedoms (China)
        • Labour and social struggles (China)
        • LGBT+ (China)
        • Rural poverty and struggles (China)
        • Social Control, social credit (China)
        • Social Protection (China)
      • China: Hong Kong SAR
        • Hong Kong: Epidemics, pandemics (health)
        • Hong Kong: LGBT+
        • Hong Kong: Migrants
      • China: Macao SAR
      • East Timor
        • East Timor: News Updates
      • India
        • Political situation (India)
        • Caste, Dalits & Adivasis (India)
        • Fundamentalism, communalism, extreme right, secularism (India)
        • Health (India)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, India)
        • North-East (India)
        • The Left (India)
          • The Left: ML Updates (DISCONTINUED) (India)
          • Trupti Shah (obituary) (India)
        • Women (India)
        • Antiwar & nuclear (India)
        • Digital Rights (India)
        • Ecology & Industrial Disasters (India)
        • Economy & Globalisation (India)
        • Energy, nuclear (India)
        • History (up to 1947) (India)
          • Baghat Singh (India)
        • History after 1947 (India)
        • Human Rights & Freedoms (India)
        • International Relations (India)
        • Labor, wage earners, TUs (India)
        • LGBT+ (India)
        • Military (India)
        • Narmada (India)
        • Natural Disaster (India)
        • Refugees (India)
        • Regional Politics (South Asia) (India)
        • Rural & fisherfolk (India)
        • Social Forums (India)
        • Social Protection (India)
        • Urban (India)
      • Indonesia & West Papua
        • Epidemics / Pandemics (health, Indonesia)
        • Papua (Indonesia)
          • Pandemics, epidemics (health, West Papua)
        • The Left (Indonesia)
        • Women (Indonesia)
        • Common Goods (Indonesia)
        • Ecology (Indonesia)
        • Economy (Indonesia)
        • Fundamentalism, sharia, religion (Indonesia)
        • History before 1965 (Indonesia)
        • History from 1945 (Indonesia)
        • History: 1965 and after (Indonesia)
        • Human Rights (Indonesia)
          • MUNIR Said Thalib (Indonesia)
        • Indigenous People (Indonesia)
        • Indonesia / East Timor News Digests DISCONTINUED
          • Indonesia Roundup DISCONTINUED
        • Labor, urban poor (Indonesia)
        • LGBT+ (Indonesia)
        • Natural Disaster (Indonesia)
        • Rural & fisherfolk (Indonesia)
        • Student, youth (Indonesia)
        • Urban Poor (Indonesia)
      • Japan
        • Political situation (Japan)
        • Health (Japan)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Japan)
        • Okinawa (Japan)
        • Women (Japan)
        • Anti-war movement (Japan)
        • Disasters (Japan)
        • Ecology (Japan)
        • Economy (Japan)
        • Energy, nuclear (Japan)
          • History (nuclear, Japan)
        • History (Japan)
          • History of people’s struggles (Japan)
        • Human Rights (Japan)
        • Institutions (Japan)
        • International Relations (Japan)
        • Labor, TUs & the Left (Japan)
        • LGBT+ (Japan)
        • Migrants, Racism (Japan)
        • Military, Nuclear weapon (Japan)
      • Kashmir (India, Pakistan)
        • Kashmir: Pakistan
        • Kashmir: K&J, India
      • Korea
        • Antiwar, military bases (Korea)
        • History (Korea)
        • Korean Crisis (Geopolitics)
        • North Korea
        • South Korea
          • Epidemics (health, South Korea)
          • Women (South Korea)
          • Ecology, common goods (South Korea)
          • Free Trade, FTA & WTO (South Korea)
          • Labor & co. (South Korea)
          • LGBT+ (South Korea)
          • Migrant (South Korea)
          • Nuclear (South Korea)
          • Rural & fisherfolk (South Korea)
          • The Left (South Korea)
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
        • Women, family (Malaysia)
        • Clean elections, clean government! (Malaysia)
        • Ecology (Malaysia)
        • Health ( Malaysia)
          • Malaysia: Epidemics, pandemics (health, Malaysia)
        • History (Malaysia)
        • Labor, TUs & people’s movements (Malaysia)
        • LGBT+ (Malaysia)
        • Malaysian international solidarity initiatives
        • Migrant, Refugee (Malaysia)
        • Religion, law, fundamentalism (Malaysia)
        • The Left (Malaysia)
          • The Left: PSM (Malaysia)
      • Maldives
      • Mongolia
      • Nepal
        • Women (Nepal)
        • Nepal: Background articles
        • Nepal: Ecology, Climate
        • Nepal: Humanitarian Disasters
        • Nepal: Rural
      • Pakistan
        • Balochistan (Pakistan)
        • Gilgit Baltistan (Pakistan)
          • Baba Jan (Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan)
        • Health (Pakistan)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Pakistan)
        • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP - Pakistan)
        • Labor & Women (Pakistan)
        • Women, fundamentalism (Pakistan)
        • AWP (The Left, Pakistan)
        • China & CPEC (Pakistan)
        • Ecology, Nuclear (Pakistan)
        • Economy (Pakistan)
        • Fundamentalism, Taliban (Pakistan)
        • History (Pakistan)
        • Human Rights & religious violence (Pakistan)
        • Human Rights (Pakistan)
        • Labor & TUs (Pakistan)
        • LGBT+ (Pakistan)
        • Natural Disasters (Pakistan)
        • Nuclear, antiwar, solidarity (Pakistan)
        • Regional Politics (Pakistan)
        • Rural & fisherfolk (Pakistan)
        • Social Forum (Pakistan)
        • Student, youth (Pakistan)
        • The Left (Pakistan)
          • LPP (The Left, Pakistan)
          • The Struggle (The Left, Pakistan)
        • Urban (Pakistan)
      • Philippines
        • Health (Philippines)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Philippines)
        • Mindanao (Philippines)
          • Political Situation (Mindanao)
          • Epidemics, pandemics (health, Mindanao)
          • The Left (Mindanao)
            • CPP (killings) (Philippines)
            • CPP (Purges) (Philippines)
            • The Left and self-determination (Mindanao)
          • Bangsamoro Political Entity (Mindanao)
            • Moros Movements (history, Mindanao)
          • Clans & violence (Mindanao)
          • Climate (Mindanao)
          • Economy, social (Mindanao)
          • Humanitarian Disasters (Mindanao)
          • Lumad (Mindanao)
          • Peace process (Mindanao)
          • Secular, Politics & Churches (Mindanao)
        • Women (Philippines)
        • Antiwar, International Solidarity (Philippines)
        • Debt, poverty, Common Goods (Philippines)
        • Disasters (Philippines)
        • Ecology (Philippines)
        • Economy & trade, social (Philippines)
        • Education (Philippines)
        • Geopolitics and international relations (Philippines)
        • History, society, culture (Philippines)
        • Human Rights (Philippines)
        • Labor (Philippines)
          • Migrant, Migration (labor, Philippines)
        • LGBT+ (Philippines)
        • Military policy (Philippines)
        • Nuclear (Philippines)
        • Rural (Philippines)
        • Urban (Philippines)
      • Singapore
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  • Why Ecosocialism Today?

Why Ecosocialism Today?

Wednesday 1 August 2007, by KOVEL Joel

  
  • Capitalism (Eng)
  • Ecosocialism (Eng)

Homo sapiens has been contending with its effects on nature since Paleolithic days and the first great extinctions wrought by hunting bands. But it was not until the 1970s that these became experienced as a great ecological crisis threatening the future of the species. The modern environmental movement was born in that moment, with its Earth Days, green parties and innumerable NGOs signalling that a new, ecologically aware age had arisen to contend with the planetary threat.

The optimism of those early years has now quite faded. Despite certain useful interventions like greater recycling of garbage or the development of green zones, it is increasingly apparent that the whole mass of governmental regulations, environmental NGO’s and academic programs has failed to check the overall pace of ecological decay. Indeed, since the first Earth Day was proclaimed, the breakdown in crucial areas such as carbon emissions, the loss of barrier reefs and deforestation of the Amazon basin has actually accelerated and even begun to assume an exponential character.

How do we explain this grim fact, the awareness of which should inspire the most vigorous efforts to go beyond the limits of present-day environmentalism? Perhaps Margaret Thatcher should be heeded here. In the later years of the 1970s, the very decade that was to usher in the environmental era, the “Iron Lady” Prime Minister of the UK announced the rise of “TINA,” the acronym for her slogan “There Is No Alternative” to the given society, and certainly no alternative of the sort envisioned by the first wave of environmentalists.

What had happened was that environmentalism had missed the point, and was dealing with external symptoms rather than the basic disease. Thatcher did not spell it out in detail but there is no mistaking what she had in mind and stood for: There was to be no alternative to capitalism—to be exact, the born-again, harder-edged kind of capitalism which was being installed during the 70s in place of the welfare-state capitalism that had prevailed for much of the century. This was a deliberate response to a serious accumulation crisis that had convinced the leaders of the global economy to install what we know as neoliberalism. Thatcher was emblematic, along with Ronald Reagan in the US, of its political face.

Neoliberalism is a return to the pure logic of capital; it is no passing storm but the true condition of the capitalist world we inhabit. It has effectively swept away measures which had inhibited capital’s aggressivity, replacing them with naked exploitation of humanity and nature. The tearing down of boundaries and limits to accumulation is known as “globalization,” and is celebrated by ideologues like Thomas Friedman as a new epoch of universal progress borne on the wings of free trade and unfettered commodification. This blitzkrieg or bombardment simply overwhelmed the feeble liberal reforms which the environmental movements of the 1970s had helped put in place in order to check ecological decay. And as these movements have had little or no critique of capital, they drift helplessly in a time of accelerated breakdown.

Thus it is time to recognize the utter inadequacy of first-wave environmentalism’s basic premises and forms of organization. There is a certain urgency to this recognition, for nothing less than profound and indeed unprecedented changes in human existence are forewarned by the ecological crisis. And that this path has now opened before us can be attributed to capital itself, which places us on a track to ecological chaos. While there are many complexities corresponding to capital’s responsibility for the ecological crisis, there is but one overriding tendency: capitalism requires continual growth of the economic product and since this growth is for the sake of capital and not real human need, the result is the continual destabilization of an integral relationship to nature. The essential reason for this lies in capitalism’s distinctive difference from all other modes of production, that is, that it is organized around the production of capital itself—a purely abstract, numerical entity with no internal limit. Hence it drags the material natural world, which very definitely has limits, along with it on its mad quest for value and surplus value, and can do nothing else.

We have no choice about the fact that the ecological crisis portends radical change. But we can choose the kind of change, whether it is to be for life or death. As Ian Angus puts it in his listserve, Climate and Capitalism, the choice is simple enough: “EcoSocialism or Barbarism: There is no third way” (To learn about and/or join this list, contact Angus at ecosocialism gmail.com).

This is a paraphrase of the great Rosa Luxemburg’s saying of the early twentieth century, that the real choice before humanity was between “Socialism or Barbarism.” This is quite true. The failure of the socialist revolutions (both immediately as in the case of Luxemburg and the Spartacist uprising in Germany, and later with the failure of the other socialisms of the twentieth century, especially those organized around the USSR and China), has been a condition for the present triumph of barbaric capitalism, with its endless wars, nightmarish consumerism, ever-widening gap between rich and poor — and most significantly, ecological crisis. So the choice remains the same, except that capitalist barbarism now means ecocatastrophe. This is because the capacity of the earth to buffer the effects of human production has become overwhelmed by the chaos of its productive system. Any movement for social transformation in our time will have to foreground this issue, for the very notion of a future depends on whether we can resolve it or not.

For this reason, a socialism worthy of the name will have to be ecologically—or to be more exact, “ecocentrically”—oriented, that is, it will have to be an “ecosocialism” devoted to restoring the integrity of our relationship to nature. The distinction between ecosocialism and the “first-epoch” socialisms of the last century is not merely terminological, as though for ecosocialism we simply need worker control over the industrial apparatus and some good environmental regulation. We do need worker control in ecosocialism as we did in the socialism of the “first epoch,” for unless the producers are free there is no overcoming of capitalism. But the ecological aspect also poses a new and more radical issue that calls into question the very character of production itself.

Capitalist production, in its endless search for profit, seeks to turn everything into a commodity. Only in this way can accumulation continuously expand. By releasing us from the tyranny of private ownership of the means of production, socialism, whether of the first-epoch variety or as ecosocialism, makes it possible to interrupt the deadly tendency of cancerous growth, which is effectively driven by the competition between capitals for ever greater market share. But this leaves open the question of just what will be produced, and how, within an ecosocialist society.

It is plain that production will have to shift from being dominated by exchange—the path of the commodity—to that which is for use, that is for the direct meeting of human needs. But this in turn requires definition, and in the context of ecological crisis, “use” can only mean those set of needs essential for the overcoming of the ecological crisis—for this is the greatest need for civilization as a whole, and therefore for each woman and man within it.

It follows that human beings can only flourish in circumstances in which the damage to nature that capital has wrought is overcome, as for example, by ceasing to transfer carbon to the atmosphere. Since “nature” is the interrelated set of all ecosystems, production within ecosocialism should be oriented toward the mending of ecosystemic damage and indeed, the making of flourishing ecosystems. This could entail ecologically rational farms, for example, or—since we ourselves are natural creatures who live ecosystemically, in communities—ecologically directed human relationships, including the raising of children, the relations between genders and indeed, the whole spiritual and aesthetic side of life.

This article is far too brief to allow the development of these themes. But from what has been said so far it should be apparent that in talking of ecosocialism we are saying much more than that our economy or technology must change. Ecosocialism is no more a purely economic matter than was socialism or communism in the eyes of Marx. It needs to be precisely the radical transformation of society—and human existence—that Marx envisioned as the next stage in human evolution. Indeed, it must be that if we are going to survive the ecological crisis. Ecosocialism is the ushering in, then, of a whole mode of production, one in which freely associated labour produces flourishing ecosystems rather than commodities.

Most definitely, this raises far more questions than it answers, which is itself a measure of how profound the ecological crisis is. What, after all, would life look like if we stopped pouring carbon into the atmosphere and allowed the climate ecosystem to re-equilibrate, that is, be healed? How, really, are we to live fully human lives in harmony with nature given the tremendous horrors built into our system of society? There is no certainty of outcome. But there is one certainty we have to build: there must be an alternative.

There will be a meeting to found an International Ecosocialist organization this coming October 7th, in Paris. Please contact Joel at jskovel earthlink.net, or Ian Angus at ecosocialism gmail.com for further information.

P.S.

* From New Socialist: http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=1321

* Joel Kovel’s two most recent books are Overcoming Zionism (Between the Lines) and The Enemy of Nature (2nd edition forthcoming 2007, Zed).

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