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2023

Statues of Marx and Engels in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Frederick Engels: The First Marxist?

In the history of Marxism since Karl Marx’s death, Frederick Engels has cut a controversial figure across the centuries. Through an examination of their correspondence and collaborations, McFarlane presents Engels as not only a stalwart friend and colleague to Marx, but a fascinating organizer, editor, and strategist in his own right. | more…

Monthly Review Volume 75, Number 3 (July-August 2023)

July-August 2023 (Volume 75, Number 3)

Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, Frederick Engels foresaw that without disarmament, Europe would soon be plunged into war. Modern weaponry has made the question of disarmament even more urgent. In this month’s “Notes from the Editors,” the editors put forward the objectives for a contemporary socialist disarmament strategy. | more…

Illustration of Degrowth

Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development

In the introduction to this summer’s special issue on “Planned Degrowth,” John Bellamy Foster outlines the major themes of degrowth thought, including, above all, a recognition of the need to challenge current notions of “growth” and “prosperity” and move toward a more sustainable model of human development, one that meets the needs of individuals and communities. This, Foster writes, requires a massive revolutionary shift in the social relations governing the means production and the prioritization of planning our economy around the survival of the species, rather than the endless drive to accumulation that has devastated the planet. | more…

"DEGROWTH: COUNTER HEGEMONY NOW"

Degrowth and Socialism: Notes on Some Critical Junctures

Increasingly, scholarship around degrowth and socialism are coalescing around certain shared ideas, namely, that capitalism is at the root of our planetary crisis. Güney Işıkara and Özgür Narin draw out key points of convergence among these thinkers, as well as discrepancies in the two approaches to creating a future egalitarian and sustainable society. | more…

High-speed train at Taichung Station, China

On Technology and Degrowth

There is a common misconception among critics that degrowth proponents do not engage with the question of technology, instead leaving the implementation of technological solutions to the planetary crisis to green growth advocates. Jason Hickel shows that not only is this narrative false, it obscures the possibilities for technology unfettered by capitalism. | more…

AE Solar Factory in China (April 1, 2017)

Degrowing China—By Collapse, Redistribution, or Planning?

Minqi Li asks: How can China, the world’s largest energy consumer, be “de-grown”? What policies and institutions must change, and what are the potential social implications? How can social ownership of production, redistribution of wealth the working class, and democratically controlled planning bring the country closer to a zero growth scenario? | more…

Plan Pueblo a Pueblo food distribution activity at Mateo Liscano School, Quibor, Venezuela. Photo by Gerardo Rojas

‘Where Danger Lies…’: The Communal Alternative in Venezuela

Chris Gilbert examines the ecological aspects of Venezuela’s project of communal socialism, as well as its relation to the country’s inherited extractive economy. These democratically run communities present an alternative to the extractivist and productivist social relations driving the planet to ruin. | more…

Climate protest of Fridays for Future (FFF) in Heidelberg

Planning Degrowth: The Necessity, History, and Challenges

Kent Klitgaard surveys degrowth thought, starting with the essential contradiction of capitalism presented by Marx, which gives rise to our current planetary crisis. Through an understanding this contradiction and degrowth literature spanning twentieth century, the author presents a plan for a sustainable and planned future socialist society. | more…

Shipping containers in Montreal, Canada (May 16, 2017)

Capitalism, Global Poverty, and the Case for Democratic Socialism

The popular narrative that capitalism has led to a general improvement in human well-being over the last two hundred years is, historical data show, not supported by evidence. Jason Hickel and Dylan Sullivan enumerate the empirical and methodological problems on which this narrative is built and explore the potential benchmarks for truly understanding human welfare. | more…

Ferdinand Smith and Earl Dickerson meeting with Donald Nelson to promote African-American man-power in war production (circa 1945)

Planning an Ecologically Sustainable and Democratic Economy: Challenges and Tasks

As the impending planetary crisis looms ever-closer, Martin Hart-Landsberg proposes a new focus on the Second World War industrial conversion experience, in which production and consumption were guided by central planning agencies. These successes and pitfalls of this period provide many useful lessons for activists and organizers working toward planned degrowth. | more…

Construction workers complete electrical connections on phase 2 of a solar microgrid project at Fort Hunter Liggett, CA (March 12, 2013)

Planning and the Ecosocialist Mode of Cooperation

Economic planning, Nicolas Graham writes, was not, perhaps a major theme in Capital. However, Marx’s understanding of such planning—as yet unrealized societal capability—yields great insight into how we might reorient modes of production toward cooperation and coordination. “Despite bourgeois and neoliberal ideology,” he writes, “planning is both an urgent necessity and a liberatory potentiality.” | more…

Demonstration against the EPR, Lyon, March 17, 2007, Place Bellecour

Democratic Planning for Degrowth

Degrowth promises to liberate society from the imperative of capital accumulation. “So how,” Matthas Schmelzer and Elena Hofferberth wonder, “might planning beyond growth look?” It is not, they write, only a proposal for a postcapitalist society, but for a radical transformation of our institutions and social relations to create a more sustainable and just world. | more…