Ecosocialism 2023 - A World Beyond Capitalism

We are in the midst of a climate emergency and there is no way out without radically changing the way society is organised.

Ecosocialism 2023 on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 June, 2023 will bring together ecosocialists from around the world, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region examining the intersection between the ecological, economic and political crises of this time and draw together activists from various progressive social movements to discuss how we campaign for a world beyond Capitalism.

Featuring Japanese Marxist academic Kohei Saito, the author of Capital in the Anthropocene as a keynote speaker.

Saito is an associate professor at Tokyo University, building on the pioneering work on Karl Marx’s early ecological insights by other Marxist scholars, such as John Bellamy Foster.

Other exciting guest speakers at the Ecosocialism 2023 conference in Naarm / Melbourne July 1-2 have been announced.

They include: independent First Nations Senator Lidia Thorpe; leading Indian socialist Clifton D’Rozario, veteran Pakistani socialist and global South climate activist Farooq Tariq, Malaysian socialist Cheong Huei, Ting Kurdish feminist leader Nilüfer Koç; Kurdish writer, journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani; veteran Filipino socialist activist Sonny Melencio; Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John; Burmese human rights activist Maung Zarni; Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity co-founder Ruchira Talukdar; Aorearoa/New Zealand Unite Union founder Mike Treen; West Papuan activists Paula and Cindy Makabory; Liam Flenady, campaign manager for Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather’s successful Griffith campaign; and Aishik Saha, an activist with All India Students’ Association and a researcher on labour and the digital economy.

Guest speakers will be joined on various panels by a number of leading Socialist Alliance activists including Green Left co-editors Susan Price and Pip Hinman, Sam Wainwright, Sue Bull and Peter Boyle.

There will be rich discussions about ideas and visions for a post-capitalist society and about the intersecting struggles for liberation and ecological sustainability that have the potential to take us there.

Those interested in an ecosocialist future should check out the conference agenda and read the Links insert on page 21 of Green Left 1381 for an insightful article by Gareth Dale.

Dale said Japanese Marxist academic Kohei Saito has a “compelling case”.

Because “the growth imperative is innate to capitalism” we need to struggle for a post-capitalist, ecosocialist alternative based on “democratically planned resource allocation, common ownership and solidarity ethic, appears uniquely able to manage the downscaling of rich-world material and energy use”.

Ecosocialism 2023 will be held at the Victorian Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton — walking distance from the CBD.

Ecosocialism 2023 is organised by Green Left and co-sponsored by Community Radio 3CR, Links journal, Resistance Books and the Socialist Alliance.

For more information please visit the Ecosocialism website.