Why We Need to Grow an Ecosocialist Party in America: Part 1
America has no idea how to live after the end of fossil fuels. When the country is ready to listen, ecosocialism can provide the answers it needs.
Don’t get me wrong. Third parties normally suck. They are consistently unsuccessful in American politics, from Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party to this year’s ridiculously transparent “No Labels” party. Third parties usually have only one purpose — to disrupt one of the two main parties — and nothing beyond that. But that’s not what I want to discuss here. Instead I want to introduce a different kind of third party. Borrowing from recent work by degrowth advocate Jason Hickel, I call this new party the “Ecosocialist Party”. The name is not perfect, but it will do for now. The purpose of this party is not to win elections, at least not right away, but to provide an alternative agenda and blueprint for how Americans can live after the end of fossil fuels.
In the near term, this Ecosocialist Party will have two missions. First, it will be an intellectual center for developing a detailed political action plan for transitioning America and the world to a post-carbon, post-growth, lower-energy future, one that can hopefully be arrived at while minimizing disruption, suffering, and…
