Annoucing: The Emergence of Ecosocialism!

October 15, 2019

Ecosocialist Horizons is honored to announce the publication of:
THE EMERGENCE OF ECOSOCIALISM: COLLECTED ESSAYS BY JOEL KOVEL
edited by Quincy Saul, published by 2Leaf Press!
Available for order now from the University of Chicago Press!

In 2001, Joel Kovel co-authored “An Ecosocialist Manifesto,” launching a global movement with ancient roots and prophetic horizons. Since that time, dozens of books and hundreds of articles have been published on the subject. More importantly, explicitly ecosocialist movements and organizations have emerged on every populated continent. To paraphrase an earlier manifesto, it is high time that ecosocialists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, and their tendencies. Here for the first time, this book compiles Kovel’s essays on ecosocialism, chronicling the emergence of its theory and practice. From the original manifestos and declarations, to undelivered speeches and unpublished essays, to classics from the journal of ecosocialism which Kovel edited, this is a 360 degree orientation guide to ecosocialist praxis written by one of its founding fathers.

[Joel Kovel in Harlem, on the Ecosocialist Horizons Hour radio show, photo by Kanya D’Almeida]

GLOBAL ACCLAIM for “THE EMERGENCE OF ECOSOCIALISM”:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: “This book of essays by Joel Kovel, brilliantly curated by Quincy Saul, is a great gift during the moment of looming climate crisis and ecological collapse. Kovel pioneered the understanding and analysis that environmental degradation is inseparable from capitalist exploitation and commodification of the natural world. Brilliantly and compassionately written, the essays reflect the life work of a giant among us and addresses the difficult work ahead.”

Hugo Blanco, editor of Lucha Indigena, leader of the Campesino Confederation of Peru: “Right now not only the survival of the human species is in danger, but so are all living beings. Who is to blame? Big transnational capital, whose only interest is to gain the greatest possible quantity of money in the least possible amount of time. One person who, due to these threats, dedicated his life to combating them, and to warning humanity that it must be conscious of this danger and act collectively to stop the attack on nature, was Joel Kovel. Unfortunately he passed away very recently. Fortunately, his companions have published his teachings in a new book ‘The Emergence of Ecosocialism.’ We have the responsibility to read it and to act – in defense not only of humanity but all living beings.”

Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, and Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons: “The Emergence of Ecosocialism is an invaluable collection of essays charting Joel Kovel’s development of a Marxist perspective on ecology and the simultaneous creation of an ecosocialist movement. Time and again the essays demonstrate the breadth of Kovel’s theory and the depth his experience as a psychotherapist gave to his work. The book is also about Kovel himself. In a moving section called “Tributes,” friends and comrades provide a powerful biography showing how consistently bold he was in his approach and unafraid of self-criticism. Reading this book, then, you meet not only a movement but a deeply committed, inspiring comrade. Don’t miss him.”

Peter Linebaugh, author of The Magna Carta Manifesto and Stop, Thief!: “Like a hawk catching a thermal in the upper reaches of the sky, or like an ice-skater crossing a frozen pond in winter, or like a tennis player or baseball player who having smacked the ball then gracefully continues to follow through, Joel Kovel smoothly glides from the high philosophy of dialectics, to the warm critique of the frigid politics of neo-liberalism, to the actualities of collision with whatever Nobodaddy throws at him. Skillful, joyful, deep, and friendly, these essays are essential to the growth and well-being of our movement, our humanity, our earth.”

Paul Buhle, senior lecturer at Brown University, activist, author, authorized biographer of C.L.R. James: “A brilliant work by a real visionary. Joel Kovel was erudite but eminently readable, in the vital contributions he made to our insights into and understanding of the great crisis of our time. This volume brings material hidden in a scholarly journal into the light.”

Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University: “This is an essential book for socialist struggle in the new millennium. Kovel’s indebtedness to Marx and his firm embrace of a socialist politics did not incline him to shy away from embracing spirituality. Kovel did not tred the tremulous trail from the “city on a hill” as interpreted in Ronald Reagan’s storied “Vision for America” to William Blake’s Golgonooza by imbibing the dominant theistic orthodoxy of Rust Belt evangelicals, or, conversely, the pantheistic “all is God and God is all” footpath of barefoot Wiccans invoking nature spirits. Kovel’s spiritual perspective was, rather, at least to me, panentheistic—all is not God, one thing is not another, yet God is in all and all is in God, and creatures and God are irrevocably and everlastingly intertwined. At the same time, his ontological and historical vocation, not unlike my mentor Paulo Freire, was to become more fully human. This magnificent collection of Kovel’s essays, edited by Quincy Saul, with incisive and heartfelt tributes by Anthony Allen Marcus, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Quincy Saul and Michael Lowy, help to focus the reader’s imagination, infusing the most urgent political project of our time—ecosocialism!—with the lifeblood of Kovel’s many contributions to repristinating the planet and planting seeds of the socialist revolution to come.”

Claudia von Werlhof, PhD, Prof. for women´s studies and political science, University of Innsbruck, Austria, CNS-author and member of its ecofeminist collective and advisory board, founder of the “Planetary Movement for Mother Earth”, and of BOOMERANG, journal for the critique of patriarchy: “This collection is the broadest, deepest and most dedicated document of a whole epoch – but something is lacking that could have been essential for its success as a whole: The enemy of nature is not just capitalism, because this capitalism has a deep structure – patriarchy – with its irrational and systemic hatred of life. We do not only have to invent a new mode of production, but also to abolish patriarchy, the military and most modern technologies as well. I, in spite of my critical comment, wish this book to be an international best-seller.”

David Schwartzman, professor emeritus at Howard University, activist, and co-author of The Earth is Not for Sale: “This is a magnificent collection of Joel Kovel’s essays, which along with his books will illuminate the ecosocialist path forward to overcome fossil capitalism now threatening human civilization and global biodiversity. We find the vision of Blochian Marxism and liberation theology in this collection, burning bright as ever.”

Ariel Salleh, author of Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx, and the Postmodern: “From climate change, to the theology of Bohme; from quantum mechanics, to racism in Africa; Joel Kovel’s eco-socialism is dialectics in action. Kovel speaks the individual inside the sociological; the spiritual inside the material. For myself, having come through a time when Marxists dismissed ecology or feminism as “bourgeois” concerns, it was a joy to encounter Joel and to work alongside him on Capitalism Nature Socialism. He was immediately open to the idea of an “ecological feminist” editorial collective for the journal. Kovel recognises interconnection, mutual recognition, and reciprocity, as foundational principles of nature, and acknowledges these universals in women’s labour as appropriated by capital. He would even name one of his pieces “The Ecofeminist Ground of Eco-Socialism”. Now in the 21st century, with “the world historic defeat of women” still enacted daily across the globe, we turn to Kovel for a gender-aware understanding of eco-socialism, renewing our hope and political courage while reading his essays.”

Huajie Cai, Associate Professor, Fujian Normal University (China): “This is an excellent book in which Joel Kovel clearly demonstrates that capitalism is inherently linked to environment damage. If you want to know the emerging alternative “ecosocialism”, then this is your book.”

Nnimmo Bassey, director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, author of To Cook a Continent – Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa and Oil Politics – Echoes of Ecological Wars. (Nigeria): “It is one thing to diagnose a malaise such as the terminal sickness of the present dominant civilizations, but quite another to clearly point the pathway forward. Joel Kovel has done both with great clarity. He shows where we stand and provides the building blocks for the bridge that must be constructed to keep us from plunging into precipice. Ecosocialism or barbarism!”

Leigh Brownhill, Senior Ecofeminist Editor, Capitalism Nature Socialism, author of Land, Food and Freedom: Struggles for the Gendered Commons in Kenya: “I love this book. When Joel explained the use-value of bread as something contained in everything from its taste and nourishment to its smell, look, feel, history, ingredients, making, its assembled eaters, our own relation to the bread, “and so on, out to the edge of the universe,” Beatles songs started playing in my head. His next line had me humming Pink Floyd: “The commodity form isolates these filiations through its wall of exchange-value; restored use-values begin to break down this wall, and open toward larger horizons.” It is a beautiful thing when every line of a beloved friend’s collected writings provides such musical accompaniment. It is even better when those lines also point presciently towards radical strategies for stopping today’s racist border walls and fascist defenders of late-stage capitalism, while preparing for ecosocialism’s dawn.”

Salim Washington, professor at the University of Kwazulu-Natal (South Africa), author of Clawing at the Limits of Cool: “Here we have an astonishing array of essays, deep in analytical power, profound in thought, and wide in its extensions and relevance. In addition to all of this, Joel Kovel is important as an activist because of his wide compassion and deep humanity. Joel Kovel is surely one of the treasures of modern day revolutionary thought and praxis.”

Lang Tingjian, teacher at Wuhan University (China): “Joel Kovel, an outstanding representative of ecosocialist, lived a legendary and wonderful life. His masterpieces, The Enemies of Nature and An Ecosocialist Manifesto, have great world influence. He regards capital as the enemy of nature and believes that capitalism is the cancerous change of human being, and holds the view that overthrowing capitalism is the only way to overcome ecological crisis, which has been widely recognized. Based on the collection of Kovel’s ecosocialist literature, this book of collected essays by Joel Kovel that edited by Quincy Saul concentrates on explaining Kovel’s thought of ecosocialism, which is profound, connotative and worth reading.”

Christian Parenti, Department of Economics at John Jay College, author of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence: “Joel Kovel modeled a life time of critical thinking, and rethinking, and in the process helped guide a generation of readers to eco-socialist thought and politics.”

Brian Tokar, author of Toward Climate Justice and lecturer at the University of Vermont: “Joel Kovel was a uniquely compelling voice for an ecosocialism that is inclusive, forward-looking, and profoundly ethical in character. He was among the first to restore a deep appreciation of the natural world to a Marxist tradition that had overlooked the ecological dimensions of Marx’s writings for much of the twentieth century. Kovel’s work was informed by his insights into philosophy, poetry, and human subjectivity, his commitment to radical democracy, as well as the rich traditions of political economy. This new collection of Joel Kovel’s ecosocialist essays, commentaries and editorials is infused with his intellectual rigor, generosity of spirit, and his wealth of important contributions to an emerging ecological left. It is essential and enlightening reading for all who wish for a progressive politics that is deeply infused with a holistic ecological sensibility.”

Anitra Nelson, Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) Author of Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (2018); lead editor of Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018) and Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011): “A remarkable collection reflecting its author’s analytic reading of our contemporary crisis — a crisis of our collective selves within capitalist practices, a crisis of our relationship with our very source of being in planetary nature. A wise physician and psychiatrist, Joel Kovel is incisive and phlegmatic: his prognosis is collective suicide, the recommended treatment ecosocialism. This is Marxism with therapy. Read it. It will give solace to your soul. Then act — the world needs you.”

Qingzhi Huan, professor in comparative politics, Peking University: “A must read to understand why eco-socialism is a globally important red-green approach and how to make it to become a world movement.”

Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh / Vikalp Sangam / Radical Ecological Democracy (India): “Joel Kovel was amongst the first to break the unfortunate schisms between ecologists and socialists (or other kinds of Marxists). And then, go beyond to show the crucial importance of a wide ranging alliance between anti-capitalists, advocates of the social control over means of production, and planet-savers. Whether one agrees fully with the ecosocialist vision or not, anyone engaged in finding pathways out of our multiple planetary crises would have enough in common with it to find Kovel’s work rich with insights and inspiration. Quincy Saul does us a big favour by ably putting together these essays, which he rightly calls a “radical celebration of life”.

Chang An Lu, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Hubei Administration Institute (China): “Joel Kovel is my respected friend. He is not satisfied with explaining the world and is trying to change the world. He is both a famous scholar and a life-long revolutionary activist. Joel has left us with a valuable spiritual legacy. The best commemoration is the best progress, and I hope that the causes of ecosocialism will be passed on and carried forward through this book.”

Arran Gare, author of The Philosophical Foundations of Ecological Civilization, Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia): “The “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice” published in December, 2017 vindicates the eco-socialists. Environmental problems are not being effectively addressed. Modern civilization, driven by the endless quest of its ruling elites for more profits is on a trajectory to global ecological destruction. Only by replacing capitalism will this catastrophe be averted. This book collects together the most important essays written over more than twenty years by Joel Kovel, co-author of An Ecosocialist Manifesto, a founder of ecosocialism, former editor of the main ecosocialist journal, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, and the author of The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World. Ordered in the sequence of their publication, they provide a superb history of the struggles and advances of ecosocialism. They reveal the developments in ecosocialist thinking, the vast range of issues being taken up by ecosocialists, what they are confronted by, the insidious ways in which capitalism is penetrating every facet of life around the world to expand and cripple opposition to it, and the relationship between ecosocialism and other environmental movements. The essays explain why environmentalists who want to harness the dynamics of capitalism to generate technical solutions to environmental problems have failed and will continue to fail. Understanding the theoretical and practical issues and the engagements as they have taken place reveals very clearly the nature of the struggle going on, the obstacles to be overcome and what is required to meet current challenges to life and civilization. Perhaps most importantly, these essays indicate what ecosocialism entails and what life would be like in an ecosocialist society. This book should be essential reading for anyone concerned with the future life on Earth, and this should be everyone.”

Miguel Angel Nuñez, former director of the Latin American Institute of Agroecology, author of Venezuela Ecosocialista: “This copious and emergent compilation of works, reflections, ideas, proposals and committed declarations of high spiritual content, which have been systematized in Joel Kovel’s text (The Emergence of Ecosocialism) constitute fundamental references for the permanent political and ideological formation not only for eco-militants, who bet on and have pledged themselves to the construction of a new civilization for our planet earth. These readings and learnings, timely and epochally, also come to all of us, to fill the contemporary deep ideological void, manifested in the organizations and political parties of the left of the world, who are called to re-signify their ideologies, discourses and strategic programs. Apparently, it is presaged and clearly justified by Joel Kovel: Ecosocialism.”

Victor Wallis, author of Red-Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism: “Joel Kovel has a unique sense of the interrelatedness of all aspects of life, both human and non-human. He recognizes the inseparability of what we seek and how we need to pursue it. His experience ranges across a broad span of human endeavor, from existential introspection to political/economic analysis. He looks to the wellsprings of human motivation to find hope for our collective capacity to surmount the gravest threat to our species-existence. He weaves together the strands of his exploration in a manner that does honor to the concept of dialectics. The result, in every piece of his writing, is an exposition of distinctive intensity, in which the moral force of his engagement emerges in each sentence.”

Ana Isla, Professor of Sociology and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, Brock University: “The Emergence of Ecosocialism, divided into two sections, shows Joe Kovel in his true dimension. The first places Kovel in the context of the ecological crisis, as he prefigures the actual contours of an ecosocialist project that cuts across nature and labour. He develops the intermediate steps toward the transformation of the current order by rethinking several Marxist concepts, among them the notion of dialectic that entails subjectivity; as a result, “we feel with the river as well as the people who live on and by it as victims of pollution.” He revises the nature of wealth by adding the realm of intrinsic value to build ecosystem integrity. Furthermore, he incorporates the multiplicity of movements, such as race and ethnicity, religion and spirituality, red-green, Israel and Palestine, gender and the provisioning of ecofeminism as integral to ecosocialism. By exposing how capital affects all creatures, he concludes that ecosocialism’s struggles against capital have an ecocentric valuation of life itself to direct the way out of the ecological and social crises. The second part is a tribute to Joe Kovel that speaks about the victorious person and intellectual that many of us have called friend and admired.”

Jorge Riechmann, essayist and poet, Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid: “The publication of The Emergence of Ecosocialism is an event. Few thinkers in recent decades have contributed as much as Joel Kovel to the comprehension of the ecological-social crisis, and to the ways to construct a culture which is friends with nature, and this compilation of essays opens many practical paths. Writing from Spain, I can only hope that a translation to our language – and to the language of hundreds of millions of Latin Americans – will be available as soon as possible.”

sneak preview of the
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Editor’s Preface by Quincy Saul
Introduction by Kanya D’Almeida
Ecological Marxism and Dialectic (1995)
The Struggle for Use Value: Thoughts about the Transition (2000)
An Ecosocialist Manifesto (with Michael Lowy, 2001)
The Dialectic of Radical Ecologies (2003)
Racism and Ecology (2003)
Amandla! (2006)
A Materialism Worthy of Nature (2007)
Grace Paley and the Dark Lives of Women (2007)
The Time Has Come (2007)
Facing End-time (2007)
Ecosocialism, Global Justice, and Climate Change (2008)
Liberties and Commons for All (2008)
Thinking Like an Ecosocialist (2008)
A Speech that Didn’t Get Delivered (2008)
The Ecosocialist International Network (2008)
The Ecosocialist International Network, Part 2: What is to be done? (2009)
The Belem Declaration (with Michael Lowy, 2009)
Imperial Blues (2010)
Dark Satanic Mills: William Blake and the Critique of War (2010)
Suffering a Sea-change (2010)
Marx and Ecology (2011)
The Ecosocialist Credo (2011)
The Future Will Be Ecosocialist – Because without Ecosocialism there will be no Future (2011)
Five Theses on Ecosocialism (2011)
You are the Light of the World (2011)
Religion, Spirituality and Socialism (2012)
Ecosocialism as a Human Phenomenon (2014)
The Emergence of Ecosocialism (2017)
In Memoriam (by Michael Lowy)
Welcome to Golgonooza (by Salvatore Engel-DiMauro)
Joel Kovel versus the New York Times (by Quincy Saul)

JOEL KOVEL (1936–2018) was an American scholar and author, and known as a founder of the worldwide ecosocialist movement. He was the author of a dozen books, including White Racism (Columbia University Press, 1984), and The Lost Traveller’s Dream (Autonomedia, 2017). A former professor at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and at Bard College, and a life-long revolutionary activist, Kovel has lectured on every populated continent, and his writings have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese. Originally trained as a physician and psychoanalyst, Kovel played a leading role in the emerging ecosocialist movement through his book, The Enemy of Nature (2002, 2007), editing the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism (2003-2011), and co-founding organizations such as Ecosocialist Horizons. His other books include History and Spirit (1991) and Overcoming Zionism (2007). In the 1980s, he began working with radical priests in Nicaragua, and in 2012 converted to Christianity through baptism into the Episcopal Church.

QUINCY SAUL, a cofounder of Ecosocialist Horizons with Joel Kovel, is the co-editor of Maroon the Implacable: The Collected Writings of Russell Maroon Shoatz (2013), the author/editor of Truth and Dare: A Comic Book Curriculum for the End and the Beginning of the World (2014), and Maroon Comix: Origins and Destinies (2018). He is also a musician and the co-producer with Fred Ho of The Music of Cal Massey (2011).

[Joel Kovel and Quincy Saul in the Bronx, raging against the dying of the light, photo by Matt Meyer]

[image designed by Pablo Mayayo for the First International Gathering of Sowers and Guardians of Water, in Cochabamba Bolivia]

THE EMERGENCE OF ECOSOCIALISM: COLLECTED ESSAYS BY JOEL KOVEL
edited by Quincy Saul, published by 2Leaf Press!
Available for order now from the University of Chicago Press!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THE PUBLICATION OF THIS BOOK POSSIBLE!