A Comparative Study Between O’Connor And Foster’s Ecological Marxism

James O’Connor and John Bellamy Foster are representative of contemporaryAmerican Ecological Marxism, and their Ecological Marxist thoughts are importantecological Marxism components. The past20years, their groundbreaking and moresystematic theories of ecological Marxism attracted a number of scholars in theiracademic communities which formed around. O’Connor academic community andecological Marxism Foster academic community all are original and systematictheoretical thoughts, however, their research paradigms are fundamentally different.In the relation with Marx, O’Connor denied that Marx had ecologicalthoughts, advocated that ecology should be injected into Marx’s theoreticalfoundation, to establish new historical materialism of nature, labor and culture;However, Foster thought Marx’s view of the world was the systematic ecology, thenhe used material conversion to explain Marx’s ecology. In the critique of capitalism,O’Connor reinterpreted the concept of production conditions, put forward the secondcontradiction theory of capitalism and emphasized the contact between capitalistproduction conditions and ecological crisis; From the material change betweenhuman and nature, Foster thought the material transformation crack producing fromcapitalist conditions which finally cause the ecological crisis. In the solutions of theecological crisis, O’Connor considered that eco-socialism will be achieved throughthe combination of the labor movement and the new social movements, but hestressed the role of the new social movements; Foster advocated solving theecological crisis by the political, cultural and strategic ecological revolutions, andthen towards to sustainable development and communism.In this paper, the ecological crisis as an unique real problem, which isregarded as the breakthrough point of the theory. The author read the classics ofO’Connor and Foster, including relevant theories of Marx, ecology Marxism. Byfocusing on the "Selected Works of Marx and Engels," and Foster’s "Marx’s Ecology-Materialism and Nature" and O’Connor’s "Natural Reason: Ecological MarxismResearch", on this basis, by comparative analysis of O’Connor and Foster’secological Marxist theories, to find the common points and different points. From the classic texts of Marx’s, comparing their ideas systematically not only is theexploration on a new form of Marxist theory, but also bring a lot of useful lessons forthe study and construction of ecological civilization and contemporary ecology, evenhas positive significances about solving today’s eco-environmental problems andbuilding a harmonious socialist society.