ABSTRACT
The orthodox socialist politics have eulogized the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the action of large social classes in bringing about the historic break with capitalism. Ecosocialist politics recognize the historic necessity of mass mobilization in preventing capitalism from causing environmental catastrophe affecting the planet earth. A further development of ecosocialist politics recognizes the space for green reforms under capitalism and individual actions to contribute to ecosocialist transition. If green reforms lead to making capitalism green, even if that is partial and cannot be complete, that greening creates the material foundations for socialist alternatives that would also be green. Dirty capitalism’s socialist alternative is also likely to be dirty. Understanding this perspective on green reforms enables us to also shed any possible illusion that capitalism as a whole can be greened. The fundamental macro conflict between capital and nature leaves no scope for such an illusion.
Since every individual action has an environmental implication in terms of resource use and waste creation, the awareness of this implication raises the importance of individual action which could not be captured in the orthodox pre-environmental phase of socialist politics where, to take an example, an individual worker going on a strike against a capitalist employer was not only meaningless and ineffective; it was also, in fact, counterproductive to the worker individually and to his trade union collectively. Ecosocialist politics have expanded the scope of a variety of individual actions in the sphere of economy, politics, and culture aimed at contributing to ecosocialist transition.
