The WCCA Has Withdrawn its Membership from the International Degrowth Network

With members spanning the global North and South our perspectives are diverse – sometimes vastly so. What brings us together are common principles and class solidarity – so long as someone seeks to do no harm and their beliefs are grounded in fundamental principles such as anti-classism, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and for the abolishment of class structures, all are welcome.

To reflect the diversity of our members’ views and to show our willingness to co-operate with broader movements (one of our priorities for 2024), the WCCA is part of external networks and is always keen to consider expanding these affiliations with others elsewhere. In doing so we are effectively endorsing their raison d’etre and recognising the common values that brings us into alignment with each other, even where small or large differences are present between collectives. Our approach to movement building is to find the commonalities that makes it possible for different groups to work together – we do not see people as the sum total of their ideas for the economy, nor are we interested in fragmenting into ideological cliques. Why? Because it is one of the most basic principles of common decency – kindness, solidarity, and egalitarianism.

Due to a chronic lack of these basic principles within the degrowth movement the WCCA has withdrawn its membership from the International Degrowth Network (IDN). Of course, all movements have their problems, and I am not suggesting that there are no inclusive spaces within the degrowth movement. However, what is problematic is its centralised European influence: a fairly small collective of white middle class academics exert a disproportionate influence over degrowth’s overall trajectory. Despite decades of criticism – both from within and outside of the movement about the supremacism of white, middle class, academically-educated global North voices, working class, decolonial, global South and other under-represented perspectives continue to be sidelined.

The WCCA would not have withdrawn its membership if doing so was out of step with working class attitudes towards the devaluation of their perspectives by the movement. To protect the confidentiality of the WCCA’s members I will not allude to conversations I have had with them about this and I will speak more generally, by drawing upon conversations I have had with working class people over the last five years. The dominant consensus is that  working class people do not feel welcome in the degrowth movement – they have seen discussions about classism shut down as ‘bad faith’, they do not see people ‘like them’ represented in the movement’s most visible outputs such as conferences, articles and books. There are a lot of working class people who agree with degrowth in principle, but they see no value in joining a movement that they feel remains hostile to their perspectives and desires. People recognise and greatly appreciate the people working hard to make the movement an inclusive space, but such efforts are not reflected in all areas when they should be, and when it is within the capabilities of others to do so. As the Director of the WCCA – and as a decent human being, I have a duty of care to never knowingly bring people into spaces of exclusion.

Let us consider the upcoming 10^th International Degrowth Conference in Pontevedra, Spain, later this month. Why does an international conference only have keynote speakers from global North institutions? Why does a conference centred around the major theme of technology have virtually no global South, working class or trade union presence? Who is going to be responsible for physically building these new technologies, and who will be most vulnerable to redundancies through the reorientation of production – will it be the academics, students, policymakers and politicians? Of course not. It will be the working class, and it will be broadly driven by the co-operation of trade unions. And what about the global South – would it not be wise to invite these very people to speak too? Do they not deserve a voice, considering that their voices have always been overlooked by the global North and that technological advances have, and continues to wreck havoc upon their homelands?

The WCCA is not withdrawing from the IDN due to this one event – that would be beyond petulant. Rather, the Pontevedra conference can be considered as the final straw. The lack of diversity at this event reflects broader issues that the degrowth movement carries in this regard: for many years now, conferences spark up conversations relating to the hegemonic nature of whose voices are heard, and for many years, virtually no progress has been made. Furthermore, I simply do not believe that it was beyond the capabilities of the conference organisers to establish some kind of notable working class, trade union or global South presence at this conference – are you telling me that not a single person representing the working class/trade union/global South was available to speak?

Many of us have comrades within the IDN and degrowth movement more broadly, and we appreciate the hard work people are doing to make these spaces more inclusive for under-represented perspectives. So why is the WCCA not following suit – surely the fact that we are working class makes us best-placed to report on working class needs? Technically, yes. However after decades of criticism pertaining to a lack of diversity – commentary which has mostly fallen on deaf ears, there is nothing left for us to say or do. At this point, all that we can do is to try and appeal to people’s goodwill, to ask nicely for inclusion, when all that has ever happened is that our concerns, frustrations and ideas have gone unacknowledged or been dismissed. Fuck that.

This does not make us an anti-degrowth organisation. As I mentioned at the start the views of our members are diverse and as I have communicated to them, the fact that the WCCA has left the IDN does not mean that they are no longer welcome, or that new members to the organisation will not be able to bring it up in discussion, in any way shape or form. Additionally, the WCCA’s existing involvement in degrowth and post-growth projects will still continue – if anyone we are working with has any concerns (if they are reading this), please get in touch to discuss further.

It is not the responsibility of the working class to carve out spaces of inclusion in areas that we have been excluded from. If anything, it is egregiously insulting and arrogant to expect those with the fewest resources to do the greatest legwork. A key component of class consciousness is the collective self-realisation of our worth – if this worth is not acknowledged, then we will take our common asses elsewhere until people have come to their senses.