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Degrowth in IV Movements

by Anitra Nelson on October 10, 2023

Degrowth in IV Movements

Anitra Nelson | October 10, 2023

Tags: degrowth poetry
degrowth, poetry
| 4 540

I

Growth proliferates — demanding

degrading, derailing, deficient

destroying, degenerating, detonating

demineralising

depressing.

 

Degrowth devolves — deconstructs

decentralises, deinstitutionalises, decolonises

dematerialises, demilitarises and

decommodifies.

 

Degrowth defuses

and designs.

 

Decide destination degrowth.

 

II

fast

slow

 

slower

 

very slow

 

per-fect-ly

slow

 

passionately

s…l…o…  w

 

III

momentarily

as individuals

singly

 

together, as a

group

collectively

 

as a community

communally

glocally

 

universally

 

infinitely

 

IV

No gladiators. No

meteors. We ignore

spectacle.

 

Earth’s hot molten

fire burned us

into existence.

 

We birthed underground

as termites turning

worming and

taking flight.

 

We are the untamed

heart of paradise.

 

Rain flows through

our veins, winds

expand, and escape

from, our lungs.

 

We tend and eat plants.

 

We are the compost

fertilising the future.

 

Poem written by Anitra Nelson for the 9th International Degrowth Conference, Zagreb, August–September 2023.

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Author: Anitra Nelson

Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar. Associate Professor, Honorary Principal Fellow, Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-), University of Melbourne, her publications include Beyond Money: A Post-Capitalist Strategy (2022), Small Is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (2018) and Marx’s Concept of Money: The God of Commodities (1999/2014); co-author of Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide (2020) and co-editor of Life Without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies (2011).

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Comments

  • Terry Leahy | Oct 10 2323

    Terrific, great poem

    1
    • Anitra Nelson | Oct 11 2323

      Wow, thanks!

      0
  • Brendan Gleeson | Oct 10 2323

    What a fab poem Anitra. A great evocation of the times and the struggle. Bravo!

    0
  • Anitra Nelson | Oct 11 2323

    Thanks so much Brendan.

    0

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  • Home
  • About
  • Manchester University Press Book Series
  • Past & Present Reading Group
  • A Political Economy of Australian Capitalism
  • Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE)
    • Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE)
    • JAPE Issues
    • JAPE Submission Guidelines
    • JAPE Young Scholar Award
  • Australian IPE Network (AIPEN)
  • Forums
    • Forums
    • Debating Anatomies of Revolution
    • Debating Debtfare States
    • Debating Economic Ideas in Political Time
    • Debating Making Global Society
    • Debating Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India
    • Debating Social Movements in Latin America
    • Debating The Making of Modern Finance
    • Debating War and Social Change in Modern Europe
    • Feminist Global “Secureconomy”
    • Gendered Circuits of Labour and Violence in Global Crises
    • Scandalous Economics
    • The Military Roots of Neoliberal Governance
    • Politicising artistic pedagogies
  • Literary Geographies of Political Economy
  • PPExchanges
  • Pedagogy
    • IPEEL Of The Environmental Crisis
    • Five Minute Honours Theses
    • Piketty Forum
    • Radical Economics Pedagogy
    • Unconventional Wisdom
    • Journal Club
    • Marxism Reading Group
  • Wheelwright Lecture
  • Events
  • Contributors
  • Links
    • Political Economy At Sydney
    • PHD in Political Economy
    • Master of Political Economy
    • Centre for Future Work
    • Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ)
    • Climate Justice Research Centre (UTS)
 

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