Myles Lennon, "Subjects of the Sun: Solar Energy in the Shadows of Racial Capitalism" (Duke UP, 2025)

• Myles Lennon shares his experience working as a sustainable energy policy advocate in NYC for eight years.
• He witnessed ambitious climate justice policies failing due to a disconnected market-based approach and complex implementation challenges.

Solar energy is often idealized as a clean, green, and natural power source, but this masks its extractive, exploitative production conditions involving forced labor and toxic materials, particularly in places like Xinjiang and the Congo.

The sun’s powerful cultural and affective imagery cloaks these harsh realities, creating a commodity fetishism distinct from classical Marxist theory, where solar panels appear almost divinely born rather than human-made.

This abstraction extends into the labor and politics around solar energy, where digital "screen work" seduces workers and activists alike, blending anti-capitalist ideals with corporate technocratic practices, resulting in an ideological muddling called "equocrat" politics.

Furthermore, the physical, often hazardous labor of installing solar panels is overlooked in favor of policy metrics and virtual management, disconnecting eco-socialist ambitions from the lived realities of workers.

An equitable energy transition requires re-centering attention on sensory, corporeal engagement with local environments, exemplified by grassroots initiatives like BK Rot, which integrate solar tech with hands-on ecological stewardship.

• The sun's sublime, life-giving image masks the exploitative, racialized labor behind solar panel production.
• This challenges Marx's commodity fetishism by adding the sun's cultural power to how solar is idealized.