destroying notions of green capitalism:
‘Exploring Degrowth’ by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson
Written anonymously
In Exploring Degrowth Liegey and Nelson have provided activists, scholars and environmentalists a no bullshit, easy to engage with toolkit in understanding the connections between capital and the ecological crisis through the lens of the degrowth movement. As well as a history of how degrowth came to be, what it means and where the movement is going. With a critical lens which talks praxis, theory and history for anybody on the left to gain a solid foothold and understanding of degrowth itself, a fundamental part of any ecosocialist politics (which while under the existential threat of biosphere collapse, must be explored and taken seriously by any serious left wing project or organisation) that everyone can benefit from learning about.
The degrowth project aims to build solidarity across the radical intelligensia and activists on the ground to create and put into practice real, effective solutions to the destruction of the environment, guaranteeing the means of subsistence, strengthening the world’s ecosystems and food chains, and directly fighting the ways in which capital holds us hostage within it’s profiteering grasp without any sacrifice in social justice, decolonisation or the class struggle. The authors attack the notion of growth which is foundational to all capitalist economics including that within “socialist” states, with very few exceptions in history like Burkina Faso. Degrowth by necessity also comes with critiques of economism and the nature of alienated work itself, critiques which we desperately need to normalise while the ALP and similar parties worldwide have co-opted the institutional labour movement at the expense of any effective climate action. Exploring Degrowth simultaneously destroys the notions of green capitalism/growth, so called “sustainable” development and “steady state economics” with ruthless critique that any reader can pick up and engage in with no prior study in political theory and climate science required to follow along.
The movement formed out of academia and while its class composition and that of the myriad of ecology movements it engages with is varied, it’s built very strong ties within the radical left from its origins in France and now worldwide. Everyone involved is committed to fighting capitalism as the source of ecological and social devastation. Drawing from an array of indigenous land defense and relationships to the biosphere and society alongside the political theories of Marx, Gramsci, autonomism and anarchism alongside the bleeding edge of ecological sciences, this little guide is the perfect introduction and in itself a useful toolkit for everyone on the left in facing capital’s onslaught against what sustains us.
An overall accessible, engaging, directly useful read providing a perfectly minute window into many concepts currently underdeveloped in most of the world’s revolutionary left, Exploring Degrowth is everything I could have asked for as an ecosocialist to recommend to people looking for real solutions to our current conditions. I recommend checking out some of the other books from Pluto Press’ Fireworks series alongside it, most especially The Politics of Permaculture from Naarm/Melbourne-based activist Terry Leahy which NIBS also stocks.
For further reading on ecosocialist politics, here are some reads I can personally suggest to everybody worried about the climate crisis which provide clear and direct tactics, strategies and solutions which I’d recommend to anybody on the left no matter their tendency:
Anitra Nelson – Small Is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (in stock at NIBS)
Franklin Rosemont – Karl Marx & the Iroquois
Peter Gelderloos - The Solutions Are Already Here: Tactics for the Ecological Revolution from Below
Hugh Warwick – Cuba’s Organic Revolution
Geronimo - Through Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement
Sylvia Wilde – A Forest Garden Primer
Bob Black – The Abolition of Work
ISBN: 9780745342023
In-store ONLY
Written anonymously