Join a global movement on the ecosocialist horizon! From worker coops to climate justice, from human rights to nature’s rights, from soil science to soul science, this convergence hosted by Ecosocialist Horizons will explore and expand the connections between diverse organizations and individuals working toward social and environmental justice. The convergence will begin on Friday, November 30th at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, MA, with a public event from 7 to 9pm.

On May 5th, 2012, Scientific Soul Sessions (SSS), a collective of revolutionary artists, farmers and organizers based in New York City, will launch a campaign to free RUSSELL MAROON SHOATZ, a 70-year-old political prisoner who has spent the last 40 years of his life in various penitentiaries across the United States.

This essay by Joel Kovel is a revised version of a lecture at St. Mary’s Church in Harlem, 2008.

The global majorities face a horizon of catastrophe, and will have no choice in the coming years but to meet it head on. In the meantime, many are trying to escape from the realities of our times with subjective decisions and arguments. If the global majority has no such option, history permits a significant minority of us the breathing room that is today. But make no mistake: a hundred years from now we will all be naked, in stark silhouette before the future, in our actions and our inactions.

In the literal wake of COP17, ‘saving the world’ can no longer be dismissed as a vague proposition. It must be understood as a specific struggle against capitalism, and it is the birthright of us all to take up the challenge.

Many arrived in Durban with high hopes. They hoped that the sheer urgency of climate change, especially in Africa, would persuade world leaders and their representatives to take the necessary action to avert global catastrophe. They hoped that dissent inside the meetings would pressure the big polluters to atone for their sins.

There are two kinds of globalization in the world today. There is the globalization of the 1%, the globalization of power and money; of politicians, transnational corporations, and the kingdom of experts who do their bidding. And there is the globalization of the 99%, diverse and diffuse, from grassroots masses to massive NGOs, which converges for moments of tenuous but hopeful solidarity, to promote programs of both reform and revolution. They are clashing here in Durban, at a meeting which presides over the fate of human civilization as we know it.

To understand what is happening in Durban today, especially if you are in another part of the world, it is essential to take a step back to understand the local, national and continental context.

On December 1st, the Democratic Left Front, a movement of movements based in Johannesburg, South Africa, inaugurated its arrival in Durban with an all-day conference on ecosocialism at the University of KwaZulu Natal. This event was a turning point for me personally, and as I will outline below, a powerful message to us all that an ecosocialist movement is not only growing on the horizon, but has already begun.

A poem by Jen Pearson.

A poem by Jen Pearson.

An essay by Joel Kovel.

Welcome to the beginning and the end of the world. This is the historic gauntlet of 2011: Unprecedented demonstrations of popular power have inspired a common sense of hope and promise on every continent. Yet if the beginning seems near for humanity, global ecology is simultaneously disintegrating toward a point of no return. Social movements for justice are growing fast, but natural ecosystems are in even more rapid decline. This paradox culminates today in the city of Durban, South Africa.

“Ecosocialism signifies a revolutionary response to an unprecedented crisis of world-historical proportion, though one with ancient roots.” An essay by Joel Kovel.