An international bestseller translated from the Japanese by Brian Bergstrom, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kōhei Saitō (Marx in the Anthropocene) establishes an indisputable causal link between capitalism and the climate crisis, and advocates for a radical transformation of our current economic system to prevent a complete environmental collapse. The most effective path forward, the author reasons, is a strategy of "degrowth" that, at its core, prioritizes fulfilling people's basic needs over increasing the GDP. Saitō, a celebrated Marxist scholar, makes an eloquent, persuasive argument for moving beyond our era of mass production and mass consumption, where capitalism swaddles us with "greenwashing" initiatives while encouraging us to escape the pangs of our conscience via consumerism. To stem ecological destruction, he contends, we must embrace a "use-value" economy that limits the use of precious natural resources to produce goods that have actual utility, instead of "status symbol" commodities whose only value is how much profit they generate.
In this, the author endorses Karl Marx's later-in-life unpublished writings on community-centric social reforms, and proposes what he realizes is a controversial alternative to capitalism: "degrowth communism," the principles of which are described in impressive detail and include elevating care work. Higher value must be placed on essential jobs like caregiving, because--in addition to being kind to the environment--they enable humans to thrive. Saitō's stellar work offers examples of bold climate-friendly initiatives, such as Detroit's community-led urban farming spaces and Copenhagen's successful transformation of public land into bicycle-friendly "edible" cities, to inspire in readers a courageous citizen-led, post-capitalist revolution that will help the Earth heal and endure. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer