Review by Michael Löwy of Reclaiming the Future. A Beginners Guide to Planning the Economy,  by Simon Hannah (Pluto Press)

Writer,  socialist activist and trade-unionist,  Simon Hannah succeeded in this remarkable book   to present a convincing case for a  democratic ecosocialist planning.   Is this Utopia ?  Yes,  but grounded on a sober and realistic assessment of the contradictions of our world today.

The first of these is of course the dramatic contradiction between the blind logic of capital –  a monster that we created but cannot control –  and the natural environment.   The capitalist economy is destroying the ecological basis for our own existence,   causing a runaway global warming that threatens to put an end to the human species.  (This part of the argument should have been more developed).

How can we dismantle this dystopian nightmare ?

The struggle against capitalism  must become a broad movement,  not limited to just workers :  it is a political fight,  which goes beyond the work-place.  It’s aim is a new,  post-capitalist society,  based on democratic ecosocialist planning :  decisions on production and consumption will not be left to the “market” – i.e. the invisible leviathan of the law of value –  but taken by the people themselves,  at the local,  regional  and  global levels,  according to the principle of subsidiarity.  As Marx once wrote,  “being” will predominate over  ” having” :  universal (free) public services and free time will replace  “growth” and the accumulation of commodities.  And thanks to an emergency climate plan,  the process of decarbonizing   and changing the whole structure of the economy can begin. 

The failure of bureaucratic planning in the USSR is not an argument :  by focusing  on output,  in a competition with the West,  this undemocratic productivist model led to extensive destructions of the environment in the Soviet Union.  Market reforms in Russia and China led finally to the reintroduction of outright capitalism.  Democratic socialist planning can include a limited role for market exchange –  consumer choices –  but not for investment decisions,  which require conscious planning. 

A quote from Greta Thunberg opens the chapter on ecosocialism and degrowth :

“The climate and ecological crisis can no longer be solved within today’s political and economic systems.  That’s not an opinion.  It’s just simple maths”.

An interesting mathematical figure illustrates this argument :  hundred big capitalist companies are responsible for 71% of the total of planetary greenhouse gas emissions.  The ten top polluters are of course all fossil fuel and petrochemical companies such as China Coal,  Saudi Aramco,  ExxonMobil Corp.,  Royal Dutch Shell,  etc.  As ecologist Michael Mann said,  seven and half billion people must pay the price of the climate crisis,  so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can make record profits.  The capitalist methods to “fix the problem” – carbon credit,  cap and trade,  etc –  failed miserably to deal with global warming.

Until the 90′ socialist were for massive expansion of productive forces :  the ideology of productivism and growth has dominated throughout the 20th century.  Today,  ecosocialists are increasingly raising the need for degrowth,  with a selective approach :  some activities must be suppressed or drastically reduced.  For instance : fossil fuel extraction,  petrochemicals, unnecessary plastics,  deforestation,  industrial mass fishing,  military spending,  etc.  Of course,  degrowth policies must take into account the needs of the poorer countries of the Global South for better roads, electricity,  more schools,  organic food,  etc.  This does not mean,  of course,  to imitate the wasteful consumerist pattern of the imperialist countries.

The call for ecosocialist degrowth is grounded on a concept of happiness different from the capitalist one :  endless accumulation of consumer goods.    Ecosocialist abundance means the production of use-values for  real human needs,  and the development of universal, free public services. Instead of owning more and more commodities, people will have more time to do things for themselves.  The real needs are those that will emerge after advertisement  (1.588 trillion in 2022) is suppressed,  and replaced by genuine information provided by consumer associations.  Capitalist productivism means  “buy -cheap -and-discard” :  goods are unrepairable,  and with planned obsolescence.  In ecosocialism there will be less goods,  but they will be of better quality,  durable,  and repairable.  This will make possible a substantial degrowth of the consumption of energy and raw materials. 

In his conclusion,  Simon Hannah emphasizes that one cannot just fight for higher wages and wealth distribution :  a revolutionary change is needed to put an end to the capitalist system.  This will require  mass education,  mainly through collective struggles. We are compelled by the disaster of the present to press ahead for something different :    ecosocialism .  It will not be a perfect society,  but a rational economy based on human values :  the beginning of a whole new world. 

Reclaiming the future is an excellent book, that deserves to be read widely,  and a major contribution to the growing debates on post-capitalist alternatives.