A new Left has to be an ecological Left, or it won’t be left at all. Environmental change ‘changes everything’ for the Left too, Naomi Klein argued. Capitalism requires constant expansion, an expansion predicated on exploitation of humans and non-humans, that irreversibly damages the climate. A non-capitalist economy will have to sustain itself while contracting. But how can we redistribute or secure meaningful work without growth? There is not yet a concrete ‘economics of degrowth’. Lamentably, Keynesianism is the most powerful tool the Left, even the Marxist Left, has for dealing with issues of policy. But this is an economics of the 1930s when unlimited expansion was still possible and desirable.
Read the whole article in the New InternationalistThe fifth international Degrowth Conference is over, the call to host the sixth has been opened. A lot could be said about the conference, yet I do not intend to give a comprehensive overview, nor examine how it stands in relation with the former conferences. Instead, I want to share five aspects of the conference, which I found particularly insightful. 1. A Degrowth Conference in Hungary? ...
By Monica Picavea Brazil is an amazing country, full of natural richness and blessed with many beauties. It has, however, a terrible sin on his shoulders: the thought that everything has to be done in a different, shorter, and faster way - in a way that takes advantage of everything. This is also why Brazil is currently undergoing a huge economic and political crisis, particularly reflected by...
Überall auf der Welt fahren die Leute gerne Mercedes. Auch andere Produkte „Made in Germany“ sind beliebt. Das herrschende Argument: Gute Qualität überzeugt eben. Deshalb exportiere Deutschland viel mehr als andere Länder. Im Jahr 2013 soll der deutsche Leistungsbilanzüberschuss (Exporte minus Importe) bei ca. 200 Milliarden Euro liegen. Dabei ist das nichts Neues: Deutschland erwirtschaftet seit [...]
