Communism, the Highest Stage of Ecology

by Guillaume Suing, Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Henry Hakamäki (Translator)

A clear-eyed call to dismantle capitalism at its root—because survival demands more than reform.

Is communism inherently anti-ecological? Or is it the only real solution to today’s planetary crisis?

Communism, The Highest Stage of Ecology makes a bold intervention in contemporary environmental debates, refuting the myth that socialism and ecological responsibility are at odds. Instead, Guillaume Suing argues that planned economies—unlike capitalist market systems—offer the necessary framework for sustainable resource management, food sovereignty, and scientific agricultural advancements.

Drawing on historical case studies from the Soviet Union and Cuba, Suing explores the successes and contradictions of socialist environmental policies, from agroecology to energy planning. He critically engages with ecosocialist currents and exposes the limitations of “green capitalism,” ultimately reaffirming the centrality of dialectical materialism in understanding and confronting the climate crisis.

Translated into English for the first time, with a foreword and scholarly contextualization by Henry Hakamäki and Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, this book is an essential contribution for scholars, activists, and all those seeking a radical path toward ecological and social liberation.

Genres: Theory, Climate Change

220 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2025

Reviews

[Adam]

Got what I wanted in the first half: analysis of historical case studies of socialist environmental policies (mainly the USSR, with comparisons to Cuba). The book is worth reading for this section alone, which provides really interesting context and refutations of widely accepted 'environmentalist' anti-communist messaging.

Then two thirds of the way in it veers into a lengthy tangential discussion of Lysenko, epigenetics, and evolutionary philosophy—which I found incredibly dense and hard to parse—that is then the remainder of the book. This section isn't mentioned anywhere on the blurb, and felt a frustrating distraction and made me put the book down for months.

I also don't think the conclusion did a satisfactory job as conclusion, and it included a rather unfair and incurious seeming dismissal of 'degrowth' ideas, never previously mentioned and here just swiftly simplified egregiously then rejected.

The appendixes provided interesting context, though I wish appendix four ('Cuban Socialism and Agroecology') was longer with a better description and analysis.

[Jared Palencia]

The book is very good at making the argument that communism/socialism, historically and contemporaneously, is the only viable political and organizational force that can and will lead us to preserving the environment and human life on earth. The only minus I had for the book was the breakdown of the Lysenko affair as I simply have no knowledge about it and Suing dedicates a good amount of time to the historical significance of it; that part I basically skipped through but Suing's breakdown and application of dialectical materialism is very insightful and resourceful for applying dialectical and historical materialism to analyzing phenomenon and nature.

[Alex Bookbinder]

Very interesting and informative, though the content was not exactly what I expected. The first section matched my content expectation, but the later parts went much deeper than I expected into both the dialectical materialist basis of biology and distortions around the legacy of Lysenko. Besides the author's preoccupation about the role of cloud cover and the solar cycle in climate change, everything else is gold.

[aati]

When you used to dunk on Lysenko but realize he isn't all bad.

Hyvä kirja jos haluaa lukea Kuuban ja Neuvostoliiton viljelytyyleistä. Muuten ehkä vähä liian specific.