ABSTRACT
This chapter puts the climate and ecological crisis squarely at the centre of analysis. Combining insights from Earth System Science with post-national political analysis, it outlines a vision of a Planetary Socialism which would be planet-centred and which would prioritise the provision of ecological and social goods worldwide. This vision could be advanced by a new ‘Planetary Left’, understood as a heterogeneous mix of Old Left, New Left and Planetary Socialists, using different ideas and tools at different scales of action. At the local level, New Left activists could experiment with open space approaches to self-governance so that more anarchic modes of individual, municipal and regional emancipation can be developed. At the national-international intermediate level, Old Left activists could seek to win power in nation-states and international governance institutions in order to implement a democratic socialist world economy. And at the planetary level, Planetary Socialists could work to devise and implement the post-neoliberal and post-nationalist world state system which would enable long-term planning and planetwide cooperation necessary for managing the Earth system crisis. The chapter offers a plan of action and a roadmap for the stages that must be passed through on the way to achieving Planetary Socialism.
