Joe Herbert

INTERVIEW with Jason Hickel: "Degrowth is a gateway into socialist thought for the 21st century" The limits of liberal climate politics, Jason Hickel on the last five years of debating degrowth, and a glimpse into a the dawn of a 'new Arctic'

“Degrowth is a gateway into socialist thought for the 21st century”

To mark the 5-year anniversary of his book, Less is More, @jasonhickel.bsky.social spoke to @andrewonearth.bsky.social for the first edition of the BREAK–DOWN newsletter

Somewhat staggering in 2025 to see politicians claiming an enlightened approach "beyond left or right".

It's exactly this approach that has in the past 10 years seen left and green parties all over Europe drift into institutionalised centrism - one thing that is almost universally despised

Reeves to say cuts to City red tape will bring trickle-down benefits to households Chancellor to announce raft of deregulation changes as City regulators move to pare back transparency rules

"It feels like groundhog day. The 2008 crash and what followed should have been a very strong lesson to everybody in not completely letting the financial services sector off its leash."

@chaitanyakumar.bsky.social on Reeves' plans to cut red tape for City firms
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Starmer doesn't recognise the scale of economic transformation required to address climate breakdown, vast inequality and poverty. The government’s growth obsession isn't the right strategy poorly executed, but a reflection of the absence of a transformative vision: positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

Supposedly growth *is* this government's “number one mission” and “obsession”, and we just need to wait for it to arrive. In reality, there is much wider set of structural factors at play that is making growth increasingly hard to come by in global North economies: positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

Creating economic growth is not the most important question of all. The most important question is how to transform economies to achieve social wellbeing for all within ecological limits, which infinite growth cannot do.

We *need* to make zero-sum decisions. Growth is hoarded by elites and drives ecological degradation. We need wealth taxes urgently to rein in the social and ecological damages caused by extreme wealth, and industrial strategies which scale down damaging industries: positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

The roots of the British malaise lie in a sick economy Political responses to a bad situation tend towards either charlatanism or timidity

Centrist economists - like the UK government - are obsessed with the hammer of growth, and see every problem as a nail. We need to move beyond this failed orthodoxy.

Some responses to Martin Wolf’s piece in the FT today 🧵:

www.ft.com/content/8a49...

Creating economic growth is not the most important question of all. The most important question is how to transform economies to achieve social wellbeing for all within ecological limits, which infinite growth cannot do.

We need to make zero-sum decisions. Growth is hoarded by elites and drives ecological degradation. We need wealth taxes urgently to rein in the social and ecological damages caused by extreme wealth, and industrial strategies which scale down damaging industries: positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

Tony Blair’s staff took part in ‘Gaza Riviera’ project with BCG Former UK prime minister’s institute participated in meetings on plan to turn shattered enclave into trading hub

Outfit of criminal who should be in the Hague making ethnic cleansing plans with genocidial regime shock.

on.ft.com/404IEXK

Parliament in a nutshell:

Yesterday MPs, including Yvette Cooper, celebrated the suffragette legacy of civil disobedience that won women the right to vote..

Only to then vote to designate non-violent direct action group Palestine Action as terrorists.

Westminster is broken.

Free Screening and Local Discussion of 'Can Degrowth Save the World'? Watch the film and join a local discussion about 'democratisation of the economy' and collective managing of key resources, like housing.

Another screening of the BBC degrowth documentary in London! This time in Peckham on Weds 23rd July, organised by Aylesham Community Action. The director Alvaro will be there for a Q and A. Follow link to register.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-scree...

Had a brilliant week at the international #degrowth and ecological economics conference in Oslo, meeting familiar faces and new ones, presenting a critique of the UK govt's financialised growth drive on behalf of @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social, and seeing the unbelievable degrowth cabaret! 🐌

Great short explainer on green credit guidance, which shares many of the recommendations we make in @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social's Green Central Banking Scorecard

@rethinkecon.bsky.social @sheridanvk.bsky.social @meadwaj.bsky.social @macrodosepod.bsky.social @neweconomybrief.bsky.social @danielagabor.bsky.social @cusp.ac.uk @weallscotland.bsky.social

📝The final blog in my three-part series on #growth is online now

🏦Part three discusses Reeves' move away from 'Securonomics', the government's drive for financialised growth, and why it won't deliver wellbeing

➕Read all three parts at the @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social website

#postgrowth #degrowth

A Rising Tide Won’t Lift All Boats: The Social and Environmental Harms of Growth This blog considers some of the social and environmental harms caused by growth

Part 3, out next week, looks at the UK government's approach to growth

Read part 1 here: positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

A Rising Tide Won’t Lift All Boats: The Decreasing Feasibility of Growth Growth is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve in the current economic context.

📝Part 2 of my blog series on growth is out now at @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social

📉Having discussed social and environmental harms of growth in part 1, this one focuses on the decreasing feasibility of growth in the current economic context

positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

#degrowth #postgrowth

14,000 babies could die in 48 hours without aid. That’s the warning from the UN.

This is genocide in real time and Keir Starmer's government is complicit.

Still arming Israel and running surveillance flights. No sanctions or expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador.

Shame on them.

The gall of the UK govt, having called a genocide 'self-defense' and allowed thousands of weapons to be supplied to Israel

Stop selling arms to Israel then.

@rethinkecon.bsky.social @doughnuteconomics.bsky.social @neweconomybrief.bsky.social @neweconomics.bsky.social @the-breakdown.bsky.social @macrodosepod.bsky.social @sheridanvk.bsky.social @meadwaj.bsky.social @timjackson.org.uk @rbaernthaler.bsky.social @zackpolanski.bsky.social

@degrowthuk.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy @degrowthinfo.bsky.social @degrowth.bsky.social @destinationdeg1.bsky.social @postgrowth.org @weallscotland.bsky.social @modernmoneylab.org.uk @steadystatemcr.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy @cusp.ac.uk @pef-online.bsky.social @solidarityecon.bsky.social

📉Part 2, out next week, explores the decreasing feasibility of growth in the current economic context

🌄As the political and media establishments venerate growth at all costs, we need an alternate programme which addresses inequality and builds a just ecological transition domestically and globally

A Rising Tide Won’t Lift All Boats: The Social and Environmental Harms of Growth This blog considers some of the social and environmental harms caused by growth

📝I have a new blog series on the @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social website offering a critical analysis of #growth, the UK govt's self-declared "obsession"

🌍Part 1 of 3 is out now, discussing how growth impacts ecological breakdown and inequality

positivemoney.org/uk/update/th...

#postgrowth #degrowth

Degrowth London is organising a solidarity fundraiser for @iwgbunion.bsky.social!

Join us at Pelican House on 31st May for food, music, drinks, and community building ✊

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/solidarity...

BREAKING 🇵🇸 The UK has sent more than 160,000 munitions to Israel since October 2023.

Today, a groundbreaking new report from the PI, the Palestinian Youth Movement and Workers For A Free Palestine reveals the extraordinary scale of UK arms exports to Israel since the start of the Gaza genocide.

The United Nations' food stocks for families in Gaza depleted a week ago. Children are being deliberately starved by Israel, and it is all being done openly.

So the UK now has a "Labour" government that is simultaneously supporting a genocide in Palestine, bombing Yemen, imprisoning climate protestors, and imposing austerity on their own citizens. Got it 👍