Toward an Ecosocialist Degrowth

From the Materially Inevitable to the Socially Desirable

Alejandro Pedregal and Juan Bordera

We are facing today the most pronounced and remarkable of all contradictions: that between what ecosocialist Ian Angus calls “capital’s time” and “nature’s time.” As a result, a series of intertwined ecological and social crises have come together, posing existential threats to life on the planet. These are manifested at a human level in: (1) the increasing unequal ecological exchange between the Global North and South; (2) growing global socioeconomic inequalities; (3) persistent and threatening health emergencies and environmental disasters; and (4) the multifaceted expressions of the crisis of care. Everywhere, life, both human and nonhuman, is threatened, and the dangers of the imposition of capital’s time on nature’s time accelerate decade by decade at levels scarcely imaginable.

In the face of the current profound crises, social organisation and collective political action are necessary. We must activate the underlying links between climate action movements and the diverse needs and interests of those who bear the brunt of the unfolding crises. Repairing the unequal ecological An ecosocialist degrowth must be built on internationalist alliances where the periphery exchange between the Global North and Global South, between takes center stage. The political subjects and the powerful classes and the exploited and marginalised of the collectives in the North are called to humbly world, must be an inherent part of any struggle for climate assume the historical demands that the South justice. By recognising the link between the disproportionate has tirelessly and fairly made.emissions of the rich and the oppression of the poor, the core must assume that the looting of the periphery is constituent to the world’s ecological disaster and confront it. Otherwise, as historian Vijay Prashad has stated, the climate justice movement “will have no legs.” An ecosocialist degrowth must be built on internationalist alliances where the periphery takes center stage. The political subjects and collectives in the North are called to humbly assume the historical demands that the South has tirelessly and fairly made. Only then will we be able to look with hope not just to the future, but, above all, to the present.


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