For an Existential Ecofeminist Democratic Socialism

The 21^st century is the century of the Anthropocene, that awe- and fear-inspiring transformation of the Earth wrought by the contradictions of two centuries of fossil capitalism that have witnessed the dangerous pushing of several Earth systems beyond “livable” boundaries – most notably biodiversity (we have entered the age of the Sixth Great Extinction) and climate change.

At the same time, the 21^st century – if we are to survive the changes in motion above – must the same time become the stage for the end of capitalism. New realities have always called for new paradigms, and both Marxism and the sociology of revolutions are due for an update, if not an overhaul. The most obvious and relevant development along these lines has been the cluster of perspectives that fly under the banner of “ecosocialism,” and we are in the first two decades of the elaboration of this promising new paradigm.

My presentation will explore the potential of an “Existential Ecofeminist Democratic Socialism” as a constituent part or thread of an ecosocialism for the 21^st century. The relevance of Sartre’s contributions to Marxism, the rise of an ecological-feminist critique of capitalism, and the elaboration of various democratic paths to socialism will be critically investigated as a promising synthesis of theory and practice for an ecosocialist understanding both of the climate crisis in the context of capitalism, and the radical climate justice movement as the only historical agent with the scope, creative ideas, and post-capitalist alternative visions capable of rising to the occasion we face, and by so doing, helping to secure the “least worst” outcome humanity might hope for by the middle of this fateful century.