Socialist States and the Environment: Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures

by Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro

More than thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the critique of state socialism is still used to deny alternatives to capitalism, irrespective of global capitalist ecological and social devastation. There is seemingly nothing worthwhile salvaging from decades of state socialist experiences.

As the climate crisis deepens, Engel-Di Mauro argues that we need to re-evaluate the environmental practices and policies of state socialism, especially as they had more environmentally beneficial than destructive effects. Rather than dismissing state socialism’s heritage out of hand, we should reclaim it for contemporary eco-socialist ends.

By means of a comparative and multiple-scaled approach, Engel-Di Mauro points to highly diverse and environmentally constructive state socialist experiences. Taking the reader from the USSR to China and Cuba, this is a fiery and contentious look at what worked, what didn’t, and how we can move towards an eco-socialist future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Politics, Ecology, History

280 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2021

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Editors today are usually either too ruthless and too micromanaging (American magazines) or too forgiving and too hands-off (British book publishers) and this falls into the latter in a big way. Shave off 100 pointless pages of Socialist History: The Basics (if we have bought this book we do *not* need to be told who Trotsky is!) and there's a penetrating compararive study here on the ecology in USSR/Eastern Europe, the PRC and Cuba (other African and Asian states are mentioned but only briefly - perhaps that editor could have asked for that to be expanded, perhaps with much more on social democracy, too). What there is here when the book is doing what it's meant to be doing is good and nuanced, never crassly 'tankie' (eg, Cuba comes off well, the DPRK very much not) but takes failed socialist experiments seriously, as they deserve to be taken. One might dissent from its particular brand of antipromethean ecosocialism; in the long run, I wonder if BYD cars or Chinese solar panels will turn out to be more decisive, if we manage to survive as a civilisation, than, eg, the fact, breathlessly reported here, that Cuban agronomists have managed to use earthworms to make hummus.

[Pfairbanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in ecology and sustainability would benefit from reading this book and wrestling with the legacies and actualities of the relationship between socialist states and the environment. Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro expertly articulates why we cannot afford to simply cast aside past and present state socialisms as a failed model and juxtaposes their successes and shortcomings with the alternative: the brutal global neocolonialist capitalism which has wrought unparalleled destruction the world over. We do not have the time to start from the beginning. Now more than ever we must learn from models such as the Cuban example to reorganize our economic systems to meet human needs while implementing ecologically responsible practices.

[Mark Agard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Occasionally felt like a textbook. I found it to be extremely informative and thought-provoking once I made peace with the density. Absolutely worth the read.

[Toby Crime · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential case against the propaganda of the environmental harm of state socialism in the 20th century. When possible it's pretty readable, though this is balanced against the desire to present an extremely thorough popular case. Although not the most thrilling start, the discussion of methodologies of comparison was useful and thought provoking. Sometimes I struggled to fully comprehend the graphs and terms, but I don't think this was to the detriment to the book overall- I just didn't feel the need to put the work in to fully get these pretty technical bits. Would 100% recommend if you're interested, though may not be giving anybody for light holiday reading

[Jody Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to recommend to people more suspicious/propagandized about socialist states. Could have used a bit more editing- there's some bad math, charts that don't quite match the text, and an unnecessary amount of repetition. He also uncritically accepts some claims of the anti-communist historians that I don't think are well proven (though this could be tactical to cede those arguments to solidify his broader point). Overall an interesting text, reminds me that I really need to read Levins' works on Cuba.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really recommend this book! Thoughtful, thorough, dead interesting

[Olivia Benedict · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Political Ecology Class

Well written, repetitive

[Sofia Tjia]

another political ecology read