Kohei Saito

"[A] well-reasoned and eye-opening treatise . . . [Kohei Saito makes] a provocative and visionary proposal." —Publishers Weekly, (starred review) "Saito’s clarity of thought, plethora of evidence, and conversational, gentle, yet urgent tone . . . are sure to win over open-minded readers who understand the dire nature of our global. . . . A cogently structured anti-capitalist approach to the climate crisis." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to health care, working multiple jobs and are nevertheless unable to make ends meet, with no future prospects, while the planet is burning? In his international bestseller, Kohei Saito argues that while unfettered capitalism is often blamed for inequality and climate change, subsequent calls for “sustainable growth” and a “Green New Deal” are a dangerous compromise. Capitalism creates artificial scarcity by pursuing profit based on the value of products rather than their usefulness and by putting perpetual growth above all else. It is therefore impossible to reverse climate change in a capitalist society—more: the system that caused the problem in the first place cannot be an integral part of the solution. Instead, Saito advocates for degrowth and deceleration, which he conceives as the slowing of economic activity through the democratic reform of labor and production. In practical terms, he argues for: the end of mass production and mass consumption decarbonization through shorter working hours the prioritization of essential labor over corporate profits By returning to a system of social ownership, he argues, we can restore abundance and focus on those activities that are essential for human life, effectively reversing climate change and saving the planet.

The Degrowth Manifesto

Slow Down

Reveals the ideal of a sustainable ecosocialist world in Marx’s writings Karl Marx, author of what is perhaps the world’s most resounding and significant critique of bourgeois political economy, has frequently been described as a “Promethean.” According to critics, Marx held an inherent belief in the necessity of humans to dominate the natural world, in order to end material want and create a new world of fulfillment and abundance—a world where nature is mastered, not by anarchic capitalism, but by a planned socialist economy. Understandably, this perspective has come under sharp attack, not only from mainstream environmentalists but also from ecosocialists, many of whom reject Marx outright. Kohei Saito’s Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism lays waste to accusations of Marx’s ecological shortcomings. Delving into Karl Marx’s central works, as well as his natural scientific notebooks—published only recently and still being translated—Saito also builds on the works of scholars such as John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett, to argue that Karl Marx actually saw the environmental crisis embedded in capitalism. “It is not possible to comprehend the full scope of [Marx’s] critique of political economy,” Saito writes, “if one ignores its ecological dimension.” Saito’s book is crucial today, as we face unprecedented ecological catastrophes—crises that cannot be adequately addressed without a sound theoretical framework. Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism shows us that Marx has given us more than we once thought, that we can now come closer to finishing Marx’s critique, and to building a sustainable ecosocialist world.

Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy

Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism

The book reveals unknown aspects of Marx's vision of post-capitalism that is adequate to the Anthropocene.

Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism

Marx in the Anthropocene

Facing global climate crisis, Karl Marx's ecological critique of capitalism more clearly demonstrates its importance than ever. This book explains why Marx's ecology had to be marginalized and even suppressed by Marxists after his death throughout the twentieth 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), 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 lights on the 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 twentieth century.

el ecosocialismo de Karl Marx

La naturaleza contra el capital

A runaway bestseller in Japan and in the spirit of big idea books by Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, Saito delivers a bold and urgent call for a return to Marxism in order to stop climate change. Why, in our affluent society, are so many people living in poverty, without access to health care, working multiple jobs and still unable to make ends meet, with no good prospects for the future as the planet is burning? In his international bestseller, Kohei Saito argues that while unfettered capitalism is often blamed for inequality and climate change, calls for “sustainable growth” and a “Green New Deal” are a dangerous compromise. Capitalism creates artificial scarcity by pursuing profit based on the value of products rather than their usefulness and by putting perpetual growth above all else. It is therefore impossible to reverse climate change in a capitalist society—more: the system that caused the problem in the first place can not be an integral part of the solution. Instead, Saito advocates for degrowth and deceleration, which he conceives as the slowing of economic activity through the democratic reform of labor and production. In practical terms, he argues for: the end of mass production and mass consumption decarbonization through shorter working hours the prioritization of essential labor over corporate profits By returning to a system of social ownership, he argues, we can restore abundance and focus on those activities that are essential for human life, effectively reversing climate change and saving the planet.

Teinosuke Otani

Timm Graßmann

In Band IV/18 werden fünf Notizbücher sowie fünf Exzerpthefte von Marx zur Landwirtschaft, Agrikulturchemie, Agrarverfassung und Grundrententheorie aus dem Zeitraum 1864-1868 in einem Umfang von rund 1400 Druckseiten erstmals publiziert. Marx’ Studium der Bodenertragsdebatte beginnt mit einer erneuten Lektüre der Werke Justus von Liebigs und führt ihn zu einer Rezeption auch der Liebig-Kritiker, insbes. des Agrikulturphysikers Carl Fraas. Im Zentrum des Bandes stehen somit "ökologische" Fragen nach Bodenerschöpfung, Klimawandel und den Grenzen natürlicher Ressourcen, die Marx in den Zusammenhang einer zunehmend kapitalistisch betriebenen Landwirtschaft rückt. Die Exzerpte bieten neue Quellen für die Diskussion, ob Marx durch seine vertiefte Auseinandersetzung mit den Naturwissenschaften eine Flucht vor dem "Kapital" eingeleitet oder vielmehr seine Kritik der politischen Ökonomie um eine ökologische Perspektive erweitert hat. Außerdem bezeugen die Hefte Marx’ anhaltendes Interesse an Fragen des fixen Kapitals sowie des Geld- und Kreditwesens, deren neueste Theoretiker Marx in Vorbereitung seiner Weiterarbeit am "Kapital" exzerpiert.

Februar 1864 bis Oktober 1868, November 1869, März, April, Juni 1870, Dezember 1872

Exzerpte und Notizen

Marx’ Ökologie – dieser Ausdruck klingt wie ein Oxymoron. Hat Marx nicht die absolute menschliche Herrschaft über die Natur propagiert? Angesichts der heutigen globalen ökologischen Krise ist es unumstritten, diese im engen Zusammenhang mit dem kapitalistischen System zu analysieren. Für die Gestaltung einer breiten »roten« und »grünen« Bewegung im 21. Jahrhundert ist deshalb eine Aktualisierung der Marx'schen Theorie unerlässlich. Kohei Saito rekonstruiert systematisch die unvollendete Marx’sche ökologische Kritik des Kapitalismus anhand der neuen Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. Diese gibt unbekannte naturwissenschaftliche Exzerpte von Marx preis sowie seinen Versuch, den Widerspruch des Kapitalismus als ökologische Krise zu thematisieren.

Kohei Saito

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