Ajl’s critique is not confined to easy philanthropic targets such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The first one is concerned with what Ajl calls Capitalist Green Transitions (p.16) or “ruling class agendas” (p.20), while the second part sketches his vision of a People’s Green New Deal.Ĭhapter 1 provides a bird’s eye view to various ‘green social control’ programs, which aim to mitigate the worst consequences of climate change, and mobilize an ‘emergency’ discourse to do so. Correspondingly, the book is divided into two parts. Some GNDs aim to preserve or strengthen capitalism, while others are designed to attack or abolish it (p.3).

Theoretically, its foundations are found in the “inherently polarizing” frameworks of dependency theory, world-system analysis, and (environmentally) unequal exchange (p.14).Ījl evaluates GND proposals not only on the basis of targeted changes in physical production, but also in terms of their systemic implications. Politically, it constructs a consistent, uncompromising, anti-imperialist vision, well aware of the fact that tamed horizons are easily coopted and rearticulated by the ruling classes thanks to the elasticity of capital accumulation. Max Ajl’s A People’s Green New Deal is the best leftist response I have read to the discussions whirling around this notion. It comes as no surprise that so much political confusion accrues around the concept of a GND. On the other hand, the term GND was first made public by Thomas Friedman in his NY Times column as a capitalistic and patriotic project which serves as “the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century” (p.4). On the one hand, conservatives, as well as some leftist circles, designate the AOC-Markey resolution as “socialist”.

Following the resolution introduced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey, the term Green New Deal (GND) has become the gravitational center of climate action debates.

A people's green new deal max ajl