Written By Michel
Löwy and published at Solidarity US
The passing
away of Joel Kovel is a great loss not only for us, his friends and
collaborators, but for the broad international ecosocialist movement, of which
he was a towering pioneer.
I first met
Joel at an International Marxist Conference at the University of Nanterre
(Paris), convened in 2001 by my friends of the Journal Actuel Marx. We
immediately sympathized, and found a common interest: the urgent need to bring
together the “Red” and the “Green”, under the aegis of a new concept:
Ecosocialism. We felt that the most of the Left had not yet understood the need
for an ecological turn, and we believed one should attempt to contribute to
such a reorientation. The Fourth International, with which I was associated,
had just decided to adopt an ecosocialist program, and Joel felt encouraged by
this decision.
Joel tells
the story of our meeting in The Lost Traveller Dream, but, in his unassuming
and modest attitude, does not tell that the idea of writing an International
Ecosocialist Manifesto was his… I immediately agreed with the proposition and
we worked out the document together, after several drafts. As he says, it was
as sending a message in a bottle thrown into the sea…
Curiously
enough some people picked the bottle up, and we were able to gather a meeting at
Montreuil (outskirts of Paris) in 2007, with the help of Ian Angus, and the
support of the well known Peruvian indigenous leader Hugo Blanco, who explained
to us: “We, the indigenous communities in Latin America, have been practicing
ecosocialism for centuries”.
At this
meeting, which was enlivened by Joel’s enthusiasm and energy, it was decided to
found an Ecosocialist International Network (EIN) — a short lived experiment,
but which had one great success: the Belem Manifesto. This Second International
Ecosocialist Manifesto, written in 2008 by Joel, Ian and myself, was signed by
hundreds of ecosocialists from 40 countries, and distributed — with the help of
our Brazilian ecosocialist comrades — in Portuguese and English to the
participants of the World Social Forum in the Amazonian town of Belem do Para
(North of Brazil, 2009).
By that time
Joel had already published his masterpiece, The Enemy of Nature (2002), one of
the most powerful ecological condemnations of capitalism ever written, a
classic of ecosocialism for the generations to come.
During all
these years we remained in contact, by mail, but also by occasional meetings,
in Paris, in Brazil or in New York. A real friendship developed, based on
mutual understanding, and a common desire to build ecosocialism as a network of
ideas and action.
During the
last years he invested his generous energy in developing ecosocialism in the
US; his decision to convert to Christianity brought us together in the interest
for liberation theology. I remember one of the last times we met: it was when
he organized, in a Church, a projection of a film on Monsignor Romero, the
archbishop of El Salvador, murdered by paramilitary gangs for denouncing the
brutal repression of the popular movements.
I have a
great debt towards Joel, I learned much from his writings and was inspired by
his inflexible anticapitalist commitment. When he wrote his autobiography, I
sent him a short notice for the back cover, which summarizes the importance of
his contribution to our movement:
Bringing
together radical spirituality, Marxist socialism and an ecological cosmovision,
Joel Kovel is an unrepentant fighter against “the Enemy of Nature” — and of
Humanity: Capitalism. By his thought and action, he is a pioneer of the
ecosocialist international movement. His dreams are open windows on a different
future.
In an
inscription in the copy of the book which he sent me in 2017 he called me “a
companion for those insane times”, and signed “Joel the Dreamer”. The times are
insane indeed, but with the help of Joel’s red and green message, the hope for
a sane future is not lost.
If Life in
the planet Earth is saved from the ecological catastrophe produced by
capitalist insanity, Joel Kovel will be remembered as one of the first who
raised a prophetic call for radical change, a rational and spirited call for
ecosocialism.
Michel Löwy
is the author of a number of books and co-wrote, with Joel Kovel, the First Ecosocialist
Manifesto.
An earlier
version of this article appeared in Ecosocialist
Horizons.
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