Philip Clayton - Organic Marxism: An Alternative to Capitalism and Ecological Catastrophe

E NDORSEMENTS FOR O RGANIC M ARXISM

Organic Marxism is a fresh, energetic, and revolutionary manifesto. Clayton and Heinzekehr offer a combative stand against the genocidal features of the modern project and develop a series of constructive resources drawing from the common historical lineage between ecology and the critique of political economy. By combining process philosophy with developments in China they find solutions beyond traditional colonial dualisms (West vs. East) and make possible otherwise unimaginable spaces for dialogue. This book is a must-read for all interested in religion and globalization, process studies, intercultural conversations, and critique of political ecology.

Santiago Slabodsky
Assistant Professor of Ethics of Globalization
Claremont School of Theology
author, Decolonial Judaism

What an unexpected, discomforting and important work! If Marxism seemed to be abandoned in the West to a few academic leftists and nostalgic activists, the authors bring it roaring back into relevance. In the face of an obscenely widened income gap and an insanely amplified climate threat, the critique of capitalism has never been so necessary. But far from returning to a reductive mechanics of revolution, the authors demonstrate how to graft socialismnever a static systemonto an ecological model of dynamic interdependence. If their proposal has a chance, it is through its mobilization of a potential China, where Marx is a given and ecological civilization a stated ideal.

Catherine Keller
Drew University

Globalization has linked China and the West as a community of shared destiny. Dealing with ecological crisis has become the common goal of constructive postmodernism, traditional Chinese culture, and Marxism. Organic Marxism is a timely guide for responding to the pressing issues facing us. In contrast to deconstructive Marxism, Organic Marxism can help us not only to reinterpret traditional Marxism, but also to reconstruct it. For all who wish to understand the future development of China and the world, this book provides profound insight.

Qiang Naishe, Senior Editor of Philosophical Trends,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Organic Marxism will not only enrich the academic landscape in both China and the West. It will also play an important role in creating a new kind of civilizationan ecological civilization.

Dr. Wang Zhihe, Executive Director,
Institute for the Postmodern Development of China

In this highly original and provocative book, Clayton and Heinzekehr show how postmodern (organic) Marxism can be integrated with postmodern process philosophy and traditional Chinese thought into a worldview that provides the basis for a hopeful response to the coming climate chaos. The hope is not that our civilization can be spared; it is already too late for that. The hope is that the new worldview could lay the foundations for a newan ecologicalcivilization.

David Ray Griffin
author, Whiteheads Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy

In Organic Marxism Philip Clayton and Justin Heinzekehr argue that Marxism constitutes a rich world of ideas and practices: a dialectic of social transformation embodying many vernaculars in many different countries. As such it remains the main hope of all those seeking to free the world from the destructiveness of capitalism, which now increasingly threatens planetary life itself. This is an unusual and provocative book. Dont miss it.

John Bellamy Foster, editor, Monthly Review;
author, Marxs Ecology

As a constructive alternative for a world hurtling full-speed towards planetary destruction, Clayton and Heinzekehr offer a compelling, context-specific, and highly readable vision. Weaving together Marxism, process philosophy, and Chinese thought, they highlight capitalisms fundamental relationship with environmental destruction as well as the inability of the free market to accurately value the planet and account for ecological risk. Organic Marxism should become a resource for all those who profess to love the world and those who dwell upon it as their neighbor.

Timothy Murphy, Executive Director,
Progressive Christians Uniting

A widespread reluctance to engage the full range of intellectual options has severely damaged the imagination not only in the United States but globally. For too long the orthodoxies of capitalism have successfully suppressed alternatives in all areas of life and thought, including religion. Clayton and Heinzekehr are part of a turning of the tide, as they provide the first sustained engagement of process and Marxian thought, set in conversation with key challenges and developments of our time. The resulting emphasis on organic perspectives, in contrast to abstractly imposed solutions, sets the stage for further engagements.

Joerg Rieger, Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

Ive been looking for this book. Perhaps you have, too. Weve been looking for a book that is clear in its examples, grounded in history, stretching in its ideas, amazing in its breadth, and hopeful in its projected possibilities. Weve sought an alternative to capitalism that is flexible, good for people, good for communities, and good for the earth. Weve wanted something that could make sense to people from many walks of life: academics, poets, farmers, and, yes, businesspeople. Who would have thought that this alternative could be called Organic Marxism? Who would have thought that it could provide hope for China and for other parts of the world, even North America? Dont let the word Marx scare you. Youll be on board early on and want, like me, to get going with the great work of helping build local communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory and diverse, with no one left behind. Philip Clayton and Justin Heinzekehr have given us a framework, a springboard, for doing our part in serving the common good.

Jay McDaniel, Willis Professor, Hendrix College

O RGANIC M ARXISM : An Alternative to Capitalism and Ecological Catastrophe

2014 Process Century Press

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior permission from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-940447-05-6

Process Century Press
An Imprint of the Center for Process Studies
A Program of Claremont School of Theology
1325 N. College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711

Organic Marxism

An alternative to capitalism
and ecological catastrophe

P HILIP C LAYTON
J USTIN H EINZEKEHR

F OREWORD BY J OHN B . C OBB, J R.

Toward Ecological Civilization Series

P ROCESS C ENTURY P RESS
C LAREMONT, C ALIFORNIA 2014

Series Preface:
Toward Ecological Civilization

We live in the ending of an age. But the ending of the modern period differs from the ending of previous periods, such as the classical or the medieval. The amazing achievements of modernity make it possible, even likely, that its end will also be the end of civilization, of many species, or even of the human species. At the same time, we are living in an age of new beginnings that give promise of an ecological civilization. Its emergence is marked by a growing sense of urgency and deepening awareness that the changes must go to the roots of what has led to the current threat of catastrophe.

In June 2015, the 10th Whitehead International Conference will be held in Claremont, CA. Called Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization, it claims an organic, relational, integrated, nondual, and processive conceptuality is needed, and that Alfred North Whitehead provides this in a remarkably comprehensive and rigorous way. We propose that he can be the philosopher of ecological civilization. With the help of those who have come to an ecological vision in other ways, the conference will explore this Whiteheadian alternative, showing how it is sufficiently advanced to provide the shared vision so urgently needed.

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