Planetary Crises: Capital vs. the ‘Free Gifts’ of Nature

The MEP’s Ecosocialist Study Group welcomes new participants as we read and discuss a range of important new works on the science and politics of the climate emergency, the nature of economic and ecological crises, the status of freedom with respect to environmental constraints, and related topics. The recently published books we are reading include:

• Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World, by Ståle Holgersen
• Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature, by Alyssa Battistoni
• Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown, by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm
• The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, by Carton and Malm
• Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, by Thea Riofrancos
• Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy, by Laleh Khalili
• The Alibi of Capital, by Timothy Mitchell
• Anthropocene Communism: Land and Capital in the Age of Disaster, by Paul Guillibert

Facilitated by Fred Murphy. Since 2015 Fred has led numerous MEP study groups on ecosocialism, science and technology, political economy, the history of capitalism, and Latin American politics. He studied and taught historical sociology at the New School for Social Research and reported from Latin America for several socialist publications.

These sessions are dedicated to the memory of Steve Knight, who co-led the Ecosocialist Working Group for nearly ten years, guiding our conversations on degrowth and ecomodernism, world-ecology and the metabolic rift, science, technology and capitalism, and related topics.