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The world is entering a new age of catastrophe. The exceptional is becoming normal. The last such crisis, between 1914 and 1945, witnessed two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Holocaust. Now humankind faces fresh existential threats – the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events caused by accelerating climate change, and the danger of nuclear war in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
These threats, argues Alex Callinicos, have their common source in a multidimensional crisis of the capitalist system, which is hitting the buffers, hurling us towards societal collapse. It embraces the increasing destruction of nature and the degradation of labour, a world economy stagnant since the global financial crisis, and escalating inter-imperialist conflicts between the United States, China, and Russia.
So far, the main political beneficiary has been the far right, which may capture the White House again. But the new age of catastrophe is also an age of revolt. Following on from Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo protests, and the revolts in Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Iran, multiple faultlines in the system will provoke still more mass movements that can challenge myriad forms of oppression and open the way to a just and sustainable world.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 Antechamber to the Present
Chapter 2 The Destruction of Nature
Chapter 3 Economic Stagnation
Chapter 4 Hegemonic Decline and Geopolitical Antagonism
Chapter 5 Revolt and Reaction
Chapter 6 Pulling the Emergency Cord
Select Bibliography
Alex Callinicos is Emeritus Professor of European Studies at King's College London.
"This splendid new book by one of the world's foremost Marxist thinkers is essential reading to understand the permanent state of emergency that characterises contemporary politics, its history, its causes and the path to an alternative. Callinicos's lucid effort to reflect from a unified perspective on the multiple crises – environmental, economic, geopolitical, social – the world confronts is as intellectually rewarding as it is politically urgent."
– Lea Ypi, London School of Economics
"A timely, informative and highly readable commentary for anyone wanting to make sense of the turmoil of world affairs today."
– Justin Rosenberg, University of Sussex
"COVID. Economic immiseration. War. We are living in a time of perpetual crisis. Crisis is inherent to capitalism, and as Alex Callinicos compellingly argues in his new book, to avert catastrophe, we must confront capitalism."
– Paul A. Passavant, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
"Vital reading for anyone who wants to be part of the struggle for a future we can live in."
– Socialist Worker
