Kohei Saito’s “Start From Scratch” Degrowth Communism
jacobin.com
Kohei Saito’s degrowth rewrite of Marxist theory is not only incorrect — if taken seriously, it would lead to political disaster for both the socialist left and the environmental movement.

Degrowth is a popular concept among solarpunks. This Jacobin article discusses some of its flaws from a Marxist standpoint. In particular, Jacobin reminds us an interpretation of Marxism which blames the Western working class for exploiting the Global South, and lectures the ever-more-exploited Western worker on the need to consume less, divides international labor against itself and sabotages its own best hope of success.

  • xylem@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Here’s a critique of another anti-degrowth Jacobin article, and the stance Jacobin seems to take on degrowth in general - https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-03-04/a-response-to-daniel-driscoll-another-slice-of-degrowth-bashing/

    The crux of the argument is

    • Planetary boundaries are hard boundaries, so the economy can’t go on growing no matter what. We can either plan this ourselves or be faced with climate disasters planning it for us.
    • Degrowth is not “everyone gets less” - no one will disagree with the goal of lifting the global south out of poverty. It means diverting the unnecessary consumption (and carbon budget) of the most wealthy people in the global north to help those who actually need the economic growth.