Against the Crisis Economy and Ecology in a Burning World

Capitalism produces crises and crises reproduce capitalism. We need an ecosocialist way out

If crisis defines our era, we need a coherent socialist policy in response. Ståle Holgersen delves into today’s economic  and ecological crises to demonstrate that they are not exceptions to an otherwise functioning system but integral to its  operation. It is naive to see these upheavals as opportunities for reform or revolution. They are the bedrock of the status quo. Fortunately, the vicious circle sustaining capitalism is not founded on an iron law. Our historical mission in the face of the climate crisis is to create a historical exception to the rule. It is time for ecosocialism against crisis.

Ståle Holgersen is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Örebro University, Sweden. He is a member of two research collectives: the Zetkin Collective (ecosocialist group working on political ecologies of the far right) published White Skin, Black Fuel on Verso in 2021 and Fundament (a housing research collective) published Kris i Bostadsfrågan on Daidalos in 2023. This is his first monograph in English.

Preface

Introduction: Crises Are Not Opportunities – They Are the Enemy

1 When the Economy Is Not Healthy...
Economic Crisis
A Century of Crises: In Theory and Reality
Solving a Crisis/Crisis as Solution
2 An Infected Wound
Ecological Crisis
Anthropocene: Th e Crisis of Man?
Not Solving the Climate Crisis
3 Rooted in Capitalism
Five Levels of Abstraction
To Shake and to Stabilise
4 The Class Character of Crises
Losing, Winning and Causing Crises
Crises Are Caused by One Class, but Another
Must Pay the Price
No One Is Punished, but Murder It Remains
5 Creating Crises in Its Image
6 Our Crisis Is Now
The Useless Decade
The Corona Crisis as Social Paroxysm
The Crisis of Neoliberalism, or: Thoughts on How the Crisis Reproduces Capitalism Th is Time
Epilogue: Optimism at the Edge of a Cliff
Ten Thoughts on Socialist Crisis Policy

Index