What Is Eco-Anarchism?
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www.ecologicalcitizen.net LONG ARTICLE What is eco-anarchism? Eco-anarchism is the form of political ecology that situates the political most deeply in John Clark Earth history and the crisis of the Earth. It can be traced back to the work of geographer- philosopher-revolutionary Jacques Élisée Reclus, who depicted Earth’s history as a struggle About the author for the free flourishing of both humanity and nature, and against the forces of domination John is an eco-anarchist that constrain that flourishing. Eco-anarchism as a form of radical communitarianism has a theorist, activist and primary ecological commitment to promoting the flourishing of the entire global community- educator. He is Director of-communities, and a primary anarchic commitment to defending that community from of La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology all destructive forces that would crush and extinguish it. Eco-anarchist politics has two (www.laterreinstitute.org). major expressions. The first is direct action to prevent the developing social-ecological catastrophe, and the second is the struggle for a comprehensive programme for social and Citation ecological regeneration and the creation of a free ecological society. These two approaches Clark J (2020) What is eco- are illustrated here through the radical eco-defense organization Earth First! and through anarchism? The Ecological the Sarvodaya Movement for non-violent social transformation. Citizen 3(Suppl C): 9–14. “Humanity is Nature becoming meaning ‘household’ or ‘home’, and anarche, Keywords self-conscious.” from an, meaning ‘without’, and arche, Direct action; meaning loosely ‘rule’ or ‘principle’, and eco-anarchism; Élisée Reclus (Clark and Martin, 2013) more precisely, ‘domination.’ Further, it is an societal change; visions abbreviated form of ‘ecological anarchism’ and thus presupposes a third term, logos. The co-anarchism is the form of political logos of any being is the way and the truth ecology that situates the political of that being, its mode of attaining its good. Emost deeply in Earth history and in Eco-anarchism thus respects profoundly the crisis of the Earth. It holds that both the logos of the oikos, its immanent order our own future and the future of the planet and self-development, and seeks to defend it depend on our ability to fulfil our destiny from every arche, or form of domination. as a means through which the Earth But what is our oikos? The oikos is a thinks and acts for the common good of kind of community, and specifically, all beings. This is the vision developed by the kind with which we identify as our the 19th century French geographer and home. Eco-anarchism is thus a form of philosopher Jacques Élisée Reclus (1830– communitarianism in the strongest sense of 1905), the founder of modern eco-anarchist the term. It recognizes that we are members thought (Clark and Martin, 2013). He was of communities within communities. the first thinker to develop in extensive Our oikoi include the primary intimate detail the story of the Earth as a struggle community of the family and small circle for the free flourishing of both humanity of close friends. They include our local and nature, and against the forces of and regional communities, both human domination that constrain that flourishing. and more-than-human. And they include, This is the vision that is carried on today by finally, and most importantly, the oikos of the eco-anarchist tradition. all oikoi, our global household, our home The core meaning of eco-anarchism is planet, Earth. evident from the etymology of the term. Eco-anarchism holds that we must, with It derives from the Ancient Greek oikos, the utmost urgency, begin to transform The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 Suppl C 2020 9 What is eco-anarchism? www.ecologicalcitizen.net ourselves into fully responsible members analysis, we will need at least three terms of the Earth Household. Such a vocation to specify the nature of the causality. To is an ‘eco-anarchism’ in that it expresses specify the major determinants of crisis we a primary ecological commitment to will need ‘Capitalocene’ to identify Capital, promoting the flourishing of the Earth ‘Technocene’ to identify the technological community, and a primary anarchic Megamachine (including the primordial commitment to defending that flourishing Megamachine, the State), and, not least of from all destructive forces that would crush all, ‘Androcene’ to identify Patriarchy.1 and extinguish it. Yet, none of these terms describes precisely the nature of the transition from Entering the Necrocene the previous geological era, the Cenozoic. Any political movement that is founded on ‘Cenozoic’ means ‘new era of life’ and a minimal level of sanity must be resolutely describes what occurred in the biosphere focused on the fact that we are in a period and was recorded directly in the fossil of extreme crisis in the history of the record. Its successor must therefore focus Earth. The Stockholm Resilience Centre not on what we or our institutions are very helpfully developed the concept of doing, but on what the Earth itself is now “planetary boundaries,” beyond which undergoing. Thus, the most accurate, there is a high likelihood of ecological Earth-centered, term is ‘Necrocene’, the disaster (Rockström et al., 2009). The ‘new era of death.’ Ours is the age of die-off, researchers identified such boundaries of mass extinction of life on Earth, and this in the areas of climate change, ocean is what the fossil record will record. acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, A synonym for the Necrocene is the biogeochemical nitrogen and phosphorus ‘Thanatocene.’ This term suggests that cycles, global freshwater use, rate of Earth’s history has been a struggle between biodiversity loss, land-system change, the forces of life, regeneration and creation, chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol or Eros, and those of death, degeneration loading. They concluded that transgressing and domination, or Thanatos. The evolving even one planetary boundary might be richness and diversity of life on Earth has “To be an eco- catastrophic, but that three boundaries had expressed the creative and liberatory work anarchist is to already been transgressed and most others of Eros. The disappearance of species, recognize the were being approached rapidly. Reports populations, ecosystems, cultures and now appear daily of accelerating global communities under the exterminist reign urgent need in crisis tendencies in many of these areas. of Empire manifests the destructive and the Necrocene to It has been widely suggested that the dominating work of Thanatos. In a world in transform all major gravity of the global ecological crisis which the all dominant political ideologies spheres of social should be expressed by the idea that we constitute the Party of Thanatos, eco- have entered a new geological era called anarchism is the Party of Eros. determination. ” the ‘Anthropocene’ in which humans are identified as the cause of the crisis. An eco- Understanding causes and anarchist approach rejects this strategy, conditions since describing ‘the’ cause as a generic To be an eco-anarchist is to recognize the Anthropos or homogeneous humanity is urgent need in the Necrocene to transform an ideological distortion of specific global all major spheres of social determination. realities. In recognition of this distortion, It means realizing that at this point in others have suggested that we instead Earth history it is too late to settle for the call our era the ‘Capitalocene’, in order demonstrably ineffectual ‘ambitiousness’ to identify the real underlying cause as of Climate Summits and similar exercises capitalism. This is a distinct advance towards in the politics of the gesture. It means a deeper, more concrete understanding. recognizing that the reigning system However, if we take such a ‘real cause’ of domination is incapable of effective approach, and follow an eco-anarchist steering and self-correction. This means 10 The Ecological Citizen Vol 3 Suppl C 2020 www.ecologicalcitizen.net What is eco-anarchism? simply that it is incapable of preventing encompasses a comprehensive programme collapse, because it operates according for systemic change and the creation of a to structural rules that are themselves at free ecological society – a politics of social the root of the problem. It follows that we transformation. must become acutely aware of how the The eco-anarchist approach of direct major spheres of social determination action is exemplified by the work of operate, work diligently to develop our the radical ecological movement Earth moral imagination and moral courage, and First! It is epitomized in the group’s find ways to change the way those spheres slogan, “No compromise in defense of operate. Mother Earth.” The movement’s self- While the processes of social determination description begins with its concern about are inseparable and mutually determining, mass extinction and the devastation of we can divide them for analytical purposes the Earth and of the Earth-based ways into four spheres. Stated briefly, the social of life (https://earthfirstjournal.org/about). institutional sphere consists of the material It recognizes that the dominant order and organizational structures of social has done nothing to reverse the ecocidal determination. The social ethos denotes the course of history, and that militant direct constellation of social practices, feelings action, including civil disobedience and and sensibilities that constitute