Kōhei Saitō’s Ecological Marxism and Degrowth Communism
A Review
Keywords:
ecological Marxism, degrowth, communism, degrowth communism, ecosocialism, Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, metabolism, New Marx-ReadingAbstract
While editing and studying Marx’s excerpts and notes of 1864-1872, which were published in 2019 as part of the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA2), Kōhei Saitō found the ‘last Marx’. From these notes Saitō has produced novel pathways to contemporary readings of Marx in the form of two scholarly works and a political manifesto articulating an evolution in late Marx of the rudiments of what he calls ‘degrowth communism’. This extensive review article reconstructs Saitō’s position across his published work, paying particular attention to the rich and diverse contexts from which Saitō develops his non-productivist eco-Marxism and eco-communist politics. We deal firstly with Saitō’s method and theoretical construction of concepts such as metabolism and the human-nature dualism, while remaining puzzled by his attempt to exorcise philosophy from Marx. Secondly, we celebrate Saitō’s politics, while arguing that degrowth communism is more material, more real, and more revolutionary than he admits. In any case, Saitō has done an invaluable service by meticulously revisiting the writings of Marx and others, and in doing so opening new and important ways to combine ecology, degrowth, and communism.
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