Eco-socialism, green socialism or socialist ecology is an ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, green politics, ecology and alter-globalization. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansion of the capitalist system is the cause of social exclusion, poverty, war and environmental degradation through globalization and imperialism, under the supervision of repressive states and transnational structures.

Eco-socialists advocate the dismantling of capitalism and the state, focusing on common ownership of the means of production by freely associated producers and restoration of the commons.

Eco-socialists are critical of many past and existing forms of both Green politics and socialism. They are often described as Red Greens - adherents to Green politics with clear anti-capitalist views, often inspired by Marxism (Red Greens should be contrasted with Blue Greens).

The term Watermelon is commonly applied, often as an insult, to describe professed Greens who seem to put "social justice" goals above ecological ones, implying they are "green on the outside but red on the inside"; the term is usually attributed to either Petr Beckmann or, more frequently, Warren T. Brookes, both critics of environmentalism, and is apparently common in Australia,New Zealand and the United States

Joel Kovel (born 27 August 1936) is an American politician, academic, writer, and eco-socialist. A practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst until the mid-1980s, he has lectured in psychiatry, anthropology, political science and communication studies. He has published many books on his work in psychiatry, psychoanalysis and political activism. Kovel is a member of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS). He is a Marxist and an anti-Zionist Jew, whose work Overcoming Zionism was a cause of controversy.

In 1936, Kovel was born in Brooklyn, New York, and spent his childhood between Brooklyn and Long Island. He first attended Yale College and then studied medicine at Columbia University, where he gained a medical degree in 1961. Following this, he studied psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, becoming Director of Residency Training (1977–83) and Professor of Psychiatry (1979–86) at the college. He also holds a diploma in psychoanalysis from the Downstate Medical Center Institute.

Jill Stein (born 1950) is an American physician and candidate for President of the United States in 2012 with the Green Party of the United States. Stein was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in the 2002 and the 2010 gubernatorial elections. Stein is a resident of Lexington, Massachusetts and a 1979 graduate of Harvard Medical School. She serves on the boards of Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility and MassVoters for Fair Elections, and has been active with the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities.

In October 2011, Stein announced her candidacy for the presidential nomination of the Green Party in the 2012 general election.

Stein advocates for the creation of a "Green New Deal", the objective of which would be to employ "every American willing and able to work" to address "climate change...[and the] converging water, soil, fisheries, forest, and fossil fuel crises" by working towards "sustainable energy, transportation and production infrastructure: clean renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, intra-city mass transit and inter-city railroads, “complete streets” that safely encourage bike and pedestrian traffic, regional food systems based on sustainable organic agriculture, and clean manufacturing of the goods needed to support this sustainable economy". The initial cost of the Green New Deal would be funded by various mechanisms, including "taxing Wall Street speculation, off shore tax havens, millionaires and multimillion dollar estates" as well as a 30% reduction in the U.S. military budget. She cites a study of the economic effects of the 1930s New Deal projects by Dr. Phillip Harvey, Professor of Law & Economics at Rutgers School of Law as academic evidence for the Green New Deal.

Christian Parenti is an American investigative journalist and author. His books include: Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis (2000), a survey of the rise of the prison industrial complex from the Nixon through Reagan Eras and into the present; The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror (2003), a study of surveillance and control in modern society. The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq (2004), is an account of the US occupation in Iraq. In Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011), Parenti links the implications of climate change with social and political unrest in mid-latitude regions of the world . Parenti has also reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ivory Coast and China.

Parenti's writing is usually published in The Nation, and he frequently appears on Doug Henwood's radio show, Behind The News, on KPFA in Berkeley, to discuss his work. He also writes for many other publications, including the London Review of Books, Mother Jones and Condé Nast Traveler. He was a visiting fellow at CUNY's Center for Place, Culture and Politics, as well as a Soros Senior Justice Fellow. Parenti has taught at the New College of California and at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.