The degrowth manifesto

Abstract

This text consists of a review of Kohei Saito's book entitled "Slow Down: the degrowth manifesto" published in English in 2024. The work was originally published in Japanese in 2020 and in Portuguese, in Brazil, at the end of 2024. In summary, the book aims to make a fusion between Marxism and degrowth and presents criticisms and propositions both to the field of Marxist theory and to the ideas around degrowth. Until the third chapter, the author outlines the ecological limits of the capitalist mode of production, and then presents his ideas about what he calls degrowth communism. The review aimed to capture the originality of the work - which Saito considers an update of Capital for the Anthropocene - and possible contributions to the understanding of Marxian and Marxist theory and Social Work. In conclusion, the work offers rich and original reflections on the aforementioned themes, concomitantly with the incorporation of ecological criticism in the face of the societal crisis of our times.