Ted’s Reviews > Organic Marxism: An Alternative to Capitalism and Ecological Catastrophe > Status Update

It's idealistic to think the rich and powerful, governments and multinational corporations, will suddenly feel compassion for the poor and choose to redistribute their wealth. In the best case, systemic changes will come about through treaties and democratic processes. In the worst case, overthrowing dynasties of wealth will come through violent revolutions, a protracted period of social chaos/economic collapse.

At the heart of the Manifesto of Organic Marxism stand three central claims: capitalist justice is not just; the "free market" is not free; and the costs of global climate disruption will be most severe among the poor. Recognizing these truths, we call on global leaders to reorganize human civilization according to ecological and socialist principles.
...
It's to the praxis of Organic Marxism that we now turn.

"Marxism and Ecology". The chapter relies for part of its argument on John Bellamy Foster's book Marx's Ecology (see). The author's dispute opinions expressed in Worker's Vanguard: "It is utopian to write only about raising the standard of living for lower-class workers when the planet is reaching the limits of consumption - to hold out the prospect of unlimited growth in the name of Marxism denies reality."

Three philosophies - traditional Chinese philosophy, process philosophy, and Organic Marxism - are beginning to grow together in the postmodern world... It may be that the world is producing a school of socially oriented thinking strong enough and attractive enough to undercut the liberal philosophies that have dominated the West, and from there most of the planet, over the last four centuries.

The first Enlightenment in modern Europe may have intertwined freedom, human rights, democracy, and justice with capitalist assumptions. But a Second Enlightenment is under way, one that seeks to purify these basic human aspirations from the mistakes of the modern era. Organic Marxism seeks to [transplant Marx's] program of reform into the context of a postmodern, ecological world.

Marx spoke for the heart of socialism when he included the good of society as a basic goal and not merely as a byproduct of property owners' pursuit of wealth... The global community has gradually accepted its responsibility to support educational and cultural activities that raise the quality of life of all citizens... With the awareness of green rights, social theory is now moving [towards] ecological civilization.

Derida, Zizek and [David] Harvey represent three of the most well-known Western interpreters of Marxism of the last few decades. The first two embed Marxism in the context of European postmodernism in order to encourage radical political imagination, whereas Harvey uses it scientifically to uncover the underlying structure of capitalism.
We worry that these approaches do not produce a constructive version of Marxism

Today the global context is characterized by ever greater inequality between rich and poor, limits on economic growth imposed by the depletion of resources, and a disruption of the planet's climate patterns that is now affecting ecosystems and their inhabitants ... around the world. As grave as it is, this crisis also provides humans with a new opportunity: to implement Marxist principles "for the common good."

Nothing less than a shift in the global economic paradigm will allow human nations, cultures, and civilizations to survive in anything like the forms in which we have known them.

At the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party wrote the task of building an ecological civilization into the Chinese constitution.

Making this task a goal is part of the natural evolution of Marxist thought.

Author a prof at Claremont School of Theology. Book bases its thesis on the writings of Marx (amended for a post-industrial society, and cleared of wrong assumptions) and (Surprise!) Alfred North Whitehead. Aim is to develop a view of postmodern science which can meld with social justice, to show a way to avert the catastrophes ahead. [Written to provide a Marxist basis for China leaders to help change the future.]