DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

The Tragedy of the Worker

Towards the Proletarocene

China Miéville author Richard Seymour author Jamie Allinson author Rosie Warren author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Verso Books

Published:13th Jul '21

Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date

The Tragedy of the Worker cover

This thought-provoking work, The Tragedy of the Worker, critiques capitalism's failures and advocates for a transformative approach to climate change and social justice.

In The Tragedy of the Worker, the authors confront the urgent reality of irreversible climate change, emphasizing that our planet is on a path toward potential apocalypse. They explore the profound implications of this crisis, urging readers to recognize the staggering inaction that has characterized our response. The book raises critical questions about why we aren't mobilizing communities to hold weekly emergency meetings to address this existential threat.

The authors delve into the concept of Salvage Communism, proposing a radical shift in our approach to the climate crisis. They challenge the reader to envision a future where a communist horizon replaces the bleakness of our current trajectory. What does it mean to embrace communism in a world that has already crossed significant climate thresholds? This pamphlet serves as both a call to action and a philosophical exploration of our collective responsibilities.

The Tragedy of the Worker critiques capitalism's inherent flaws and its entanglements with fossil fuels, while also addressing the alarming rise of fascism. The authors advocate for a new framework—the Proletarocene—focused on restoration and reparation, which is essential for overcoming the destructive legacies of capitalism and fostering a healthier planet. This work demands a reimagining of our future, one that prioritizes environmental justice and collective action.

Salvage is the most exciting journal to appear on the anglophone left over the past decade: avant-garde Marxism with no illusions, perfectly pitched to our dismal times. Here the formidable Salvage Collective tackles the defining question of those times: the ecological crisis. The result is the most beautiful and urgent essay yet written on what climate catastrophe means for the struggle for communism, in the past, present and future. This is one for the ages. -- Andreas Malm, author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The kind of realism we need to meet this moment: eyes wide open. Strangely poetic, as befitting a tragedy. I never want to read books about the ecological crisis twice, but this one I will return to many times, because it's layered. Layered but legible; bold and without pretention - this is a book you can't wait to pass along to a friend, because despite its grimness, it evokes that feeling of common cause. -- Holly Jean Buck, author of After Geoengineering
A book that ought to be essential reading for all ... detailed, convincing and critically important. -- Andy Hedgecock * Morning Star *

ISBN: 9781839762949

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 9mm

Weight: 120g

112 pages