ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that the anti-imperialist left cannot destroy the imperialist world order through strategies that mimic the imperialist understanding of sovereignty, in which states advance the interests of national bourgeoisies, often against the interests of national communities and nature. Instead, they need to formulate an alternative conceptualisation of sovereignty which foregrounds peoples, citizens and nature. In the context of contemporary ‘green colonialism’, based on critical minerals needed for renewable energy technologies, the chapter proposes the concept of ‘ecological sovereignty’, which suggests that a people or territory is only really sovereign if it has the ability to exist and thrive under durable and sustainable ecological conditions. By shifting the concept of sovereignty away from states, and towards peoples and nature, this new conceptualisation can inform a new non-capitalist type of thinking, based on de-growth and eco-socialist frameworks, which will prioritise global immunity to catastrophe over profits or comparative advantage. Based on this approach, communities and social movements in multiple geographical spaces and scales can be mobilised in practices of ‘eco-territorial internationalism’ which can transform and connect different scales of political action in the shared quest to ensure mutual survival and livability on the planet.
