Study On David Pepper’s Ecological Socialism Theory

Eco-Socialism:from Deep Ecology to Social Justice is a masterpiece of David Pepper, one of the major representatives of eco-socialism in the1990s. This book marked the maturity of both Pepper’s eco-socialism and the entire theory of eco-socialism, promoting and deepening the development of eco-socialism theory system. Studying this classic of Pepper is of great significance to have a systematic and comprehensive mastery of his eco-socialism theory.From the perspective of historical materialism, Pepper firstly challenges whether the green politics of green molecules can be regarded as a "new politics"’and solves the problem of social justice. In the presence of the incompatibility between the "Red" and the "Green", the green movement was at a low ebb and stagnant. Pepper argues that it is a must to go beyond the incompatibility and to advance "Red-Green Alliance". Based on this, by criticizing Capitalism, Eco-centrism, Environmental utopianism and Green anarchism, and rethinking the opposition between the "Red" and the "Green", Peeper asserts that it is necessary to combine the progressive aspects of Marxism and Anarchism. Finally, Pepper offers a blueprint for eco-socialism in which anthropocentrism is the basic principle, social and environmental justice is the value pursuit, and the working class is the key force for social change. Pepper uses Marxism to analyze the defects of eco-movement, which furthers the eco-criticism of capitalism, enriches the eco-socialism theory system, and expands the field of the theoretical research of Marxist theory. Nevertheless, many defects still exist in the realistic level of this theory, such as the inclination of Green anarchism, the choice of the way of political changes and the entanglement with utopia dilemma. Having a study of Pepper’s eco-socialism theory is helpful to grasp the essence of the eco-crisis and the meaning of eco-socialism, and to discover new perspectives on Marxism.