Editing Left-wing politics (section)

=== Environment ===
{{see also|Eco-socialism|Green anarchism|Green politics}}
One of the foremost left-wing advocates was Thomas Paine, one of the first individuals since ''left'' and ''right'' became political terms to describe the collective human ownership of the world which he speaks of in Agrarian Justice.<ref>{{cite web |author-last1=Paine |author-first1=Thomas |title=Agrarian Justice |url=http://thomaspaine.org/major-works/agrarian-justice.html |publisher=Thomas Paine National Historical Association |access-date=13 July 2019 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527075134/http://thomaspaine.org/major-works/agrarian-justice.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As such, most of left-wing thought and literature regarding environmentalism stems from this duty of ownership and the aforementioned form of cooperative ownership means that humanity must take care of the Earth. This principle is reflected in much of the historical left-wing thought and literature that came afterwards, although there were disagreements about what this entailed. Both Karl Marx and the early socialist philosopher and scholar [[William Morris]] arguably had a concern for environmental matters.<ref name="Foster2000">{{cite book|author-last=Foster |author-first=J. B. |title=Marx's Ecology |year=2000 |location=New York |publisher=Monthly Review Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Burkett |author-first=P. |title=Marx and Nature |year=1999 |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0312219406}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://leonora.fortunecity.co.uk/WilliamMorris.html |title=William Morris: The First Green Socialist |publisher=Leonora.fortunecity.co.uk |date=14 December 2007 |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413181212/http://leonora.fortunecity.co.uk/WilliamMorris.html |archive-date=13 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Moore |author-first=J. W. |year=2003 |url=http://www.jasonwmoore.com/uploads/Moore__Capitalism_as_World-Ecology__Braudel_and_Marx_on_Environmental_History__O_E__2003_.pdf |title=Capitalism as World-ecology: Braudel and Marx on Environmental History |journal=[[Organization & Environment]] |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=431–458 |doi=10.1177/1086026603259091 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713090801/http://www.jasonwmoore.com/uploads/Moore__Capitalism_as_World-Ecology__Braudel_and_Marx_on_Environmental_History__O_E__2003_.pdf |archive-date=13 July 2011 |citeseerx=10.1.1.472.6464 |s2cid=145169737}}</ref> According to Marx, "[e]ven an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not the owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations".<ref name="Foster2000" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13676 |title=Marx and ecology |publisher=[[Socialist Worker#United Kingdom]] |date=8 December 2007 |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326154510/http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13676 |archive-date=26 March 2010}}</ref> Following the Russian Revolution, environmental scientists such as revolutionary [[Alexander Bogdanov]] and the [[Proletkult]] organisation made efforts to incorporate environmentalism into Bolshevism and "integrate production with natural laws and limits" in the first decade of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] rule, before [[Joseph Stalin]] attacked ecologists and the science of ecology, purged environmentalists and promoted the [[pseudoscience]] of [[Trofim Lysenko]] during his rule up until his death in 1953.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Gare |author-first=A. |chapter=Soviet Environmentalism: The Path Not Taken |editor-last=Benton |editor-first=E. |title=The Greening of Marxism |year=1996 |location=New York |publisher=[[Guilford Press]] |isbn=978-1572301184 |pages=111–128}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Kovel |author-first=J. |title=The Enemy of Nature |year=2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Arran |author-last=Gare |title=The Environmental Record of the Soviet Union |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |volume=13 |year=2002 |issue=3 |pages=52–72 |doi=10.1080/10455750208565489 |hdl=1959.3/1924 |s2cid=144372855 |url=https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/e3c56de5-1863-4df1-a825-b18c351f40c3/1/PDF%20(Accepted%20manuscript).pdf |access-date=20 September 2019 |archive-date=14 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200314063154/https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/e3c56de5-1863-4df1-a825-b18c351f40c3/1/PDF%20(Accepted%20manuscript).pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, [[Mao Zedong]] rejected environmentalism and believed that based on the laws of historical materialism, all of nature must be put into the service of revolution.<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Judith |author-last=Shapiro |title=Mao's War against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2001}}</ref>

From the 1970s onwards, environmentalism became an increasing concern of the left, with social movements and several unions campaigning on environmental issues and causes. In Australia, the left-wing [[Builders Labourers Federation]], led by the communist Jack Mundy, united with environmentalists to place [[green ban]]s on environmentally destructive development projects.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Burgman |author-first=Meredith |title=Green Bans, Red Union: Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation |publisher=[[UNSW Press]] |location=Sydney |date=1998}}</ref> Several segments of the socialist and Marxist left consciously merged environmentalism and anti-capitalism into an [[eco-socialist]] ideology.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Wall |author-first=D. |title=Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements |date=2005}}</ref> [[Barry Commoner]] articulated a left-wing response to ''[[The Limits to Growth]]'' model that predicted catastrophic [[resource depletion]] and spurred environmentalism, postulating that capitalist technologies were the key cause responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to human population pressures.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Commoner |author-first=B. |title=[[The Closing Circle]] |date=1972}}</ref> Environmental degradation can be seen as a class or equity issue, as environmental destruction disproportionately affects poorer communities and countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/articles/file/The+Argentimes.pdf |title=Poor Bear Burden of Industrialisation |work=[[Blacksmith Institute]] |date=19 October 2007 |access-date=16 April 2016 |author-first=Sanra |author-last=Ritten |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184856/http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/articles/file/The+Argentimes.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Ms. magazine Cover - Spring 2007.jpg|thumb|Global warming was the cover story of this 2007 issue of the ''[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]]'' magazine.]]
Several left-wing or socialist groupings have an overt environmental concern and several green parties contain a strong socialist presence. The [[Green Party of England and Wales]] features an eco-socialist group, the [[Green Left (UK)|Green Left]], which was founded in June 2005. Its members held several influential positions within the party, including both the former Principal Speakers [[Siân Berry]] and [[Derek Wall]], himself an eco-socialist and Marxist academic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml |title=Green Left homepage |publisher=Gptu.net |access-date=13 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311004501/http://gptu.net/gleft/greenleft.shtml |archive-date=11 March 2009}}</ref> In Europe, several [[green left]] political parties such as the [[European United Left–Nordic Green Left]] combine traditional social-democratic values such as a desire for greater economic equality and workers rights with demands for environmental protection. Democratic socialist [[Bolivian president]] [[Evo Morales]] has traced [[environmental degradation]] to capitalist [[consumerism]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cc.com/video-clips/7qwmpn/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-president-evo-morales |title=President Evo Morales |work=[[The Daily Show]] |publisher=[[Comedy Central]] |date=25 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923114559/http://www.cc.com/video-clips/7qwmpn/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-president-evo-morales |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> stating that "[t]he Earth does not have enough for the North to live better and better, but it does have enough for all of us to live well". [[James Hansen]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Raj Patel]], [[Naomi Klein]], [[The Yes Men]] and [[Dennis Kucinich]] hold similar views.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/how-solve-climate-problem|title=How to Solve the Climate Problem|author=James Hansen|magazine=[[The Nation]]|date=31 December 2009|author-link=James Hansen|access-date=6 October 2010|archive-date=9 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109011949/http://www.thenation.com/article/how-solve-climate-problem|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chomsky|first1=Noam|title=Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order|date=1999|publisher=Seven Stories Press|location=New York|isbn=9781888363821|edition=1st|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrLv4surz7UC&q=profit+over+people|access-date=3 June 2017|language=en}}{{page needed|date=June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Trisha |url=http://rajpatel.org/2010/08/06/we-have-yet-to-see-the-biggest-costs-of-the-bp-spill |title=The Nation: We Have Yet to See The Biggest Costs of the BP Spill |publisher=Raj Patel |date=6 August 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=26 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326124941/http://rajpatel.org/2010/08/06/we-have-yet-to-see-the-biggest-costs-of-the-bp-spill/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtrSql3vss |last1=((policyalternatives)) |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/2FtrSql3vss |archive-date=28 October 2021 |title=Naomi Klein- Climate Debt (Part 1) |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=26 February 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/07/26/the-yes-men-fix-the-world/ |title=The Yes Men Fix the World  |publisher= Scrutiny Hooligans |date=27 July 2011 |access-date=3 June 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727110443/http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/07/26/the-yes-men-fix-the-world/ |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ph9rSRY3Q |last1=DJKucinich |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/S4ph9rSRY3Q |archive-date=28 October 2021 |title=Kucinich responds to BP Oil Spill |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=26 May 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In [[climate change mitigation]], the Left is also divided over how to effectively and equitably reduce [[carbon emissions]] as the center-left often advocates a reliance on market measures such as [[emissions trading]] and a [[carbon tax]] while those further to the left support direct government regulation and intervention in the form of a [[Green New Deal]], either alongside or instead of market mechanisms.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/41735 |title=Rudd's carbon trading — locking in disaster |newspaper=Green Left Weekly |date=23 May 2009 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=20 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320062310/https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/41735 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.solidarity.net.au/22/carbon-tax-not-the-solution-we-need-on-climate |first1=Chris |last1=Breen |title=Carbon tax not the solution we need on climate |publisher=Solidarity Online |date=10 March 2010 |access-date=15 November 2016 |archive-date=21 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421110723/http://www.solidarity.net.au/22/carbon-tax-not-the-solution-we-need-on-climate/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/43410 |first1=Simon |last1=Butler |title=James Hansen and climate solutions |newspaper=Green Left Weekly |date=13 March 2010 |access-date=16 October 2017 |archive-date=19 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319033414/https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/43410 |url-status=dead }}</ref>