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Will green capitalism save the planet? Is it even trying? Not when the very logic of the capitalist system pits it against Earth's life-support systems, as the Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito demonstrates in this astonishing international bestseller.
Drawing on cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines, Saito shows how nothing but a transformation of our economic life can save us from climate collapse. Karl Marx himself reached this breakthrough at the end of his life, long before climate change had even begun. It radically altered his vision of proletarian revolution. Now that we are entering our own end-game, we must grasp Marx's final lesson before it is too late.
If we are to avoid the most terrible political prospects of of climate change, the future must belong to degrowth communism, a fair and humane existence within the limits of nature. There is no alternative: the endless acceleration of capital has run out of road. We must slow down.
Kohei Saito is an associate professor at the University of Tokyo and the youngest-ever winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize for scholarship in the Marxist tradition. He is an editor on MEGA, an ongoing project to publish critical editions of the complete writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Slow Down was a huge bestseller on publication and has been credited for inspiring a resurgence of interest in climate economics in Japan.
"Slow Down has an almost magic ability to formulate complex thoughts in clear language, as well as to combine strict conceptual thinking with passionate personal engagement. What this means is that Saito's book is not just for anyone interested in ecology or in the problems of today's global capitalism, it is simply indispensable for those of us who want to SURVIVE in short, to all of us"
– Slavoj Žižek, author, The Sublime Object of Ideology
"Marxist philosopher Kohei Saito calls us to reject the logic of economic growth and embrace a different kind of plenty [...] The key insight, or provocation, of Slow Down is to give the lie to we-can-have-it-all green capitalism [...] In place of a command economy, Saito puts forth a model based on local experimentation"
– E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker
"Kohei Saito is one of the most important scholars in the world. In Slow Down, he delivers a Karl Marx for the climate crisis and a vision of communism for the 21st century. No work could be more vital today"
– Malcolm Harris, author, Palo Alto
"Saito has emerged as the [degrowth] movement's public face [...] His uncompromising provocations are undoubtedly part of the appeal [...] Even degrowth's sceptics may find that Saito's examples of grassroots organising sound agreeably democratic and improvisational [...] such experiments offer something crucial: an enlarged sense of what's possible"
– New York Times
"Saito unites Marxism with ecology and lights a path out of our present crisis. A powerful book from one of the most compelling young thinkers of our time"
– Jason Hickel, author, Less Is More
"This necessary and energizing 21st Century manifesto is a truth mirror inviting us to see ourselves and our place in the metastatic growth engine that is our current economic system. Saito is a well-read soothsayer – one who loves this world, who has done his homework, and who is eager to share a viable way forward"
– John Vaillant, author, Fire Weather
"A masterpiece"
– Ryuichi Sakamoto, composer and music pioneer
"In a stagnant world where it is difficult to formulate visions for the future, the liberation of imagination offered by Capital in the Anthropocene [...] is a much-needed antidote"
– Asia Book Awards 2021
"Saito has tapped into what he describes as a growing disillusionment in Japan with capitalism's ability to solve the problems people see around them, whether caring for the country's growing older population, stemming rising inequality or mitigating climate change [...] His vision for the future is one in which people – less consumed by their endless pursuit of growth for growth's sake – have the leisure time to spend a workday pursuing new interests"
– New York Times
"A richly researched, deftly wrought manifesto [...] The acuity of Saito's argument lies in his defense of degrowth as the only viable option to combat climate change"
– Hannah Bonner, Los Angeles Review of Books
"A glimmer of hope shining through otherwise dark times [...] Saito challenges us not to just think in terms of numbers, but for a new way of life in a different civilisation [...] Slow Down is a major contribution to the fields of degrowth, Marxist ecology, and ecosocialism"
– Andrew Ahern, Resilience
"Saito's book taps into deep concern about runaway global heating and dire threats to our life-sustaining biosphere [...] his connection of Marxism, particularly identifying the importance of production and the exploitation of labour in the fight for the future of the planet for a wide audience is welcome"
– Tempest Mag
"Saito's clarity of thought, plethora of evidence, and conversational, gentle, yet urgent tone – even when describing the most alarming aspects of the climate crisis – are sure to win over open-minded readers who understand the dire nature of our global situation and that 'green capitalism is a myth.' A cogently structured anti-capitalist approach to the climate crisis"
– Kirkus (starred review)
