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 InternationalistVon Christiane Kliemann Täglich berichten die Medien über neue Vorwürfe gegen VW. Seit sich die Krise um manipulierte Software zur Abgasmessung ausweitet, geht auch die Angst um, dass sie den Konzern, die deutsche Autoindustrie und somit die gesamte deutsche Wirtschaft in den Abgrund zieht. Das ist kein Wunder angesichts der weit verbreiteten Annahme – auch durch Angela Merkel – dass ungefähr ...
By Lyda Fernanda Forero There is an increasing consensus on the need and urgency to tackle climate change and its consequences. This consensus is reinforced by the human and environmental disasters (tragedies) that occur every year due to extreme climate events, such as the typhoons of growing intensity including Haiyan(2013) in the Philippines or the hurricanes that devastate Central America....
By Xavier Renou Civil disobedience shares a lot with the degrowth idea and movement. In the past, civil disobedience proved to be a powerful tool to fight for equal rights, labor rights, independence, peace and political liberation. Thanks to a growing awareness, an increasing number of struggles involving civil disobedience and non-violent direct actions have been influenced by if not conduct...