6) Further Reading

Radical ecologism or communism: further reading

For a more developed critique of the various radical ecologist theories, see our recent articles:

• Critique of Saito's "Degrowth Communism" [2]
• Andreas Malm: 'Ecological' rhetoric in defence of the capitalist state [3]

We respond to Saito’s claim that Marx’s researches into questions around ecology and pre-capitalist communal forms led him to abandon historical materialism and to adopt what Saito calls “degrowth communism”.  The article on Malm focuses on showing that, despite his radical, pseudo-marxist rhetoric, Malm insists on the need to work inside the framework of the existing capitalist state. In both cases, there is a systematic rejection of the proletarian revolution as the only solution to the ecological crisis.

Other articles by the ICC on the ecological crisis include:

• Capitalism is poisoning the earth [4] (International Review 63, 1990)
• The world on the eve of an environmental disaster, International Review, 135  [5]
• T [6]he world on the eve of an environmental disaster: who is responsible?, International Review 139 [6]
• No solution to the ecological catastrophe without the emancipation of labour from capitalist exploitation [7], ICConline, 2019, focusing on the method used by Engels to understand the relationship between humanity and its environment
• Bordiga and the Big City [8], International Review 166, 2020. A study of the work of the Italian left communist Amadeo Bordiga, who, already in the 1950s and 1960s, displayed an acute insight into capitalism’s destructive relationship with nature.

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