One academic reviewer commented that the book offered "valuable and often original information about the radical environmentalist movement" but "fails to provide a systematic analysis of the topic" and uncritically paid little attention to possible personal agendas of the activists interviewed.
[7] Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements (2005), looks at the history of anti-capitalism, including reformist capitalists (such as Joseph Stiglitz), anti-corporate critics (namely Naomi Klein and David Korten), monetary reformers, eco-socialists (especially Joel Kovel), Marxists, green localists (including Caroline Lucas, Mike Woodin and Vandana Shiva) and anarchists (particularly Michael Hardt and Toni Negri).
[3] Wall was also a prominent figure opposing the organisational changes by the group known as Green 2000 along with Penny Kemp and John Norris.
[11] Wall is an eco-socialist and anti-capitalist who believes that "an infinitely growing capitalist economy destroys nature, fuels injustice and leads to an alienated way of life".
"[12] He adds that "a world dominated by the need for constant growth puts people and the rest nature behind a blind economic system of accumulation.
[13] His critique of Green Party politics is that ambition tends to dilute policy, reduce democracy and lead to failure.
[3] He was narrowly elected as one of two Principal Speakers of the Green Party of England and Wales in November 2006, alongside Siân Berry.
The fear is that it could be part of a more extensive shift towards a new green politics of shallow environmentalism, rather than a thorough critique of an unequal, profit-motivated society.
[20] Nevertheless, Wall's opponents, the joint ticket of Adrian Ramsay and Caroline Lucas, continue to promote both reform of the party and a left-leaning politics.
Though he does not discount the "plots and plans" of the corporate lobby, American neo-conservatives, and free market liberals, which are "hardly secret", he criticises the tendency of many anti-capitalists to be attracted to "warm conspiracies" which "generate a personal enemy with a human face who can be challenged".
[8] Stating that "history does not march to a predictable narrative", Wall criticises the determinism of some Marxists, on the one hand, who promote "hyperglobalisation" in an attempt to move the world closer to the apparently inevitable socialist order, and, on the other hand, subsistence ecofeminists, who look to turn to clock back to the time of peasant societies.
He rejects productivism in favour of "in different contexts economic arrangements that fulfil need equitably, develop humanity, sustain ecosystems and lead to cooperation".
He cites the example of the Indian adivasis, who regained the land they originally inhabited and sold tea via the Fair trade system.
Wall is encouraged by the growth in Green consumerism, noting that "we cannot shop or work our way to utopia, but such projects ease present ills and point roughly to a different future".
[8] Taking on the work of Marx on the distinction between use-values and exchange-values, Wall stresses that "exchange values must be rejected", so that "economics can be bent towards serving the needs of humanity and nature rather than its own violent abstract growth".
This means building things to last and sharing resources: he advocates the increased use of libraries, permaculture and the localisation of economies where possible.
To this end, he wishes to "defend, extend and deepen" the commons against enclosure as a way of giving people back their means of production.
In the same vein, Wall supports Open Source Software as one of the "new commons regimes ... created with technological and social change", one which "is a stunning example of how both the market and the state can be bypassed by cooperative creativity".
[8] Wall stresses the importance of combining electoral politics and non-violent direct action to effect change.
Babylon and Beyond focuses heavily on unique and creative expressions of anti-capitalist economics and protest, and Wall tells protestors "to keep making noise".
[3] Wall practices zazen and is influenced by spirituality through "pursuing a pagan appreciation of the living world in a variety of ways".