Was Karl Marx a Degrowth Communist?

Abstract

Brian Napoletano considers the implications of recent work by Kohei Saito, in which Saito argues that Marx's thought progressed from early productivism to middle-stage ecosocialism, and finally to degrowth communism. Where Saito misses, Napoletano concludes, is in emphasizing Marx's supposed break between growth-oriented capitalism and degrowth-oriented communism, rather than emphasizing a human- and sustainability-oriented dialectical ecosocialism requiring a true social and political revolution.