Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism

Facing global climate crisis, Marx’s ecological critique of capitalism more clearly demonstrates its importance than ever. Marx in the Anthropocene explains why Marx’s ecology had to be marginalized, and even suppressed by Marxists after his death, throughout the 20th century. Marx’s ecological critique of capitalism, however, revives in the Anthropocene against dominant productivism and monism. Investigating new materials published in the complete works of Marx and Engels (Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe), Kohei Saito offers a wholly novel idea of Marx’s alternative to capitalism that should be adequately characterized as degrowth communism. This provocative interpretation of the late Marx sheds new light on recent debates on the relationship between society and nature and invites readers to envision a post-capitalist society without repeating the failure of the actually existing socialism of the 20th century.