Over the past three decades, US-based Marxist journal Monthly Review has stood out as a major source of ecosocialist analysis. This has been especially evident in recent months, with the publication by Monthly Review Press of three pathbreaking books:
- Kohei 厂补颈迟辞鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;;
- Ian Angus鈥檚 ; and
- Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams鈥 .
厂补颈迟辞鈥檚&苍产蝉辫; is an extraordinarily important work that deepens and extends our analysis of how Marx sought to integrate ecological materialism and an understanding of ecological crisis into his critique of political economy.
Saito gives new significance to what has been called Marx鈥檚 theory of metabolic rift, by showing how Marx used his concept of social metabolism to ground his value analysis in the ecological conditions of production, incorporating a conception of natural limits.
At the same time, he brings new evidence to bear by exploring the ways Marx continued to develop this ecological critique, as revealed in his little-known or still unpublished natural-scientific notebooks.
Karl Marx鈥檚 Ecosocialism thus represents an enormous expansion of our understanding of Marx. It reinforces and extends the interpretations offered in earlier works such as Paul Burkett鈥檚 (1999) and John Bellamy Foster鈥檚 (2000). The widespread failure for many years to recognise Marx鈥檚 contributions to ecology was mainly a product, Saito argues, of the biases of so-called Western Marxism.
Following his major work (Monthly Review Press, 2016), Angus鈥檚 consists of a set of elegant and needed interventions in debates related to ecosocialism and science.
It is divided into five parts: (I) 鈥淣atural Science and the Making of Scientific Socialism鈥. (II) 鈥淩esponding to the Anthropocene鈥, (III) 鈥淣umbers Are Not Enough鈥, (IV) 鈥淪aving Species, Saving Oceans鈥, and (V) 鈥淭oward an Ecological Civilization鈥.
Over the course of the book, Angus takes on critical issues such as Marx鈥檚 relation to science and Darwin; the denial of the Anthropocene concept by some on the left; the growth of ecomodernism; 鈥淭he Return of the Population Bombers鈥; biodiversity; and 鈥淭he Myth of 鈥楨nvironmental Catastrophism鈥.鈥
The brilliance and succinctness of this analysis and its concrete engagement with crucial debates make at once a useful introduction to ecosocialist thought for the uninitiated and a valuable corrective for readers already well-versed in ecological Marxism.
Magdoff and Williams鈥 is perhaps the most comprehensive, yet accessible analysis available of the changes needed to cope with the world鈥檚 growing ecological and social crises.
Written by scholars equally versed in natural and social science, it is full of considerations of the radical changes demanded by the depredations of capitalist society. It is a book full of revolutionary hope. It not only rejects business as usual, but emphasises the needed rupture with existing social relations that this would require.
As they write: 鈥淭he word revolution is currently used by all manner of people in very different contexts 鈥 It is therefore important to define what we mean by revolution, which to us means the total rearrangement of social power and its reconstitution on the basis of substantive equality. In other words, the only way to create an ecologically based society is by creating a classless society based on cooperation and the democratic decisions of the entire population.鈥
Taken together, these books offer a powerful, historically grounded argument and a way forward.
[Abridged from .]
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