www.ecologicalcitizen.net LONG ARTICLE

What is eco-anarchism?

Eco- is the form of that situates the political most deeply in John Clark history and the crisis of the Earth. It can be traced back to the work of geographer- philosopher- 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 - educator. He is Director of-, 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 has two (www.laterreinstitute.org). major expressions. The first is 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 . 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 meaning ‘’ or ‘’, 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 is the way and the 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 of kind of community, and specifically, all . 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 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 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

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ourselves into fully responsible members analysis, we need at least three terms of the Earth Household. Such a vocation to specify the nature of the . 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 , 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 , 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 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 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. . 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 . 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

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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 and and sensibilities that constitute a way of ecotage, is necessary. Beyond this, we must “If the present life. The social imaginary refers to the sphere participate actively in the Earth’s processes system of social of the society’s ‘fundamental fantasy’, as of regeneration through ecological expressed in the prevailing self-images and restoration. determination dominant narratives. And the social Many other eco-defence movements have continues, we are denotes systems of ideas that purport to be been heavily influenced by eco-anarchism, doomed to live objective depictions of , but in fact especially those involving the protection of under the yoke of systematically distort reality on behalf of the water, the land, and local human and social domination particularistic interests. Under , ecological communities. A striking example all these spheres of determination are is the protracted resistance movement for a brief period in shaped in ways that support systems of against massive airport construction at Earth history, after hierarchical, dualistic power – which means, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near , which the system will today, global capitalism, the nation-state France. The movement recently emerged collapse, along with system, patriarchy and the technological victorious after forty years of direct-action megamachine. struggle that included the permanent the biosphere.” If the present system of social occupation of the contested area by a large determination continues, we are doomed community of resisters. Out of this effort to live under the yoke of social domination and others came the concept of the ZAD, for a brief period in Earth history, after or zone à défendre (). After which the system will collapse, along with construction was cancelled in January the biosphere. The solution to this problem 2018, the Zadistes chose to fight is obvious. We need to act, as rapidly as and remain on the land as an example possible, to replace the ecocidal social of an autonomous, post-capitalist eco- order with an Earth-affirming one that community (https://zad.nadir.org). encompasses ecological social institutions, an ecological social ideology (or anti- A politics of social transformation ideology), an ecological social imaginary In our age of global ecological crisis, and an ecological social ethos. resistance to the dominant ecocidal order is essential. However, the crisis cannot be A politics of direct action ended by resistance alone. It will require a Eco-anarchist politics has two primary vast social movement that is both integral aspects. The first consists of direct and regenerative. It must offer not only action to forestall the developing social a devastating critique of the dominant and ecological catastrophe. The second ecocidal system, but also a comprehensive

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and compelling vision of a free ecological with production for real need. This society, addressing all important realms, system will practice swadeshi, including the ethical and spiritual, the bioregional production rooted in the land. political and economic, the practical Such a subsistence or sustenance and personal. Further, it must, based on will end exploitation of the workers and the this vision, begin in a very powerful and land, preventing the ecological devastation tangible way to “build the new world that results from production for maximized within the shell of the old.” profit. In order to create such a system, Perhaps the most developed example in Sarvodaya established a campaign for recent history of what this might mean bhoodan (‘ of land’), in which land is the Sarvodaya, or ‘ of All’, was donated and pooled for cooperative Movement in India, also known as the village farming projects. Through this ‘Gandhian Movement’ (Vettickal, 2002; effort, 5 million acres of land were put into “Sarvodaya’s guiding Clark, 2013). Sarvodaya, whose members cooperative projects. The ultimate goal was moral and spiritual have been called “Gentle Anarchists” gramdan, or ‘gift of the village’, in which principles are focused (Ostergaard and Currell, 1971), is known for all localities would be transformed into leading the struggle to liberate India from self-governing, largely self-sufficient eco- on the pursuit of the the British Empire through satyagraha, or communities. common good and non-violent direct action. However, it was Another goal was to train a body of gram the elimination of from the outset a broadly-based movement sevaks, full-time Sarvodaya community domination.” for social and ecological . Its organizers. They were to go into each programme aimed at an ideal that Gandhi community to educate and assist it in self- himself described as “an ordered ” organization according to the Sarvodayan (Gandhi, 1940: 262). vision. The movement would also train a Sarvodaya’s guiding moral and spiritual shanti sena, that is, a ‘ army’, or body principles are focused on the pursuit of of mediators. As part of the effort to end all the common good and the elimination of forms of systemic violence, and to foster domination. The Sanskrit word ‘sarvodaya’ peaceful cooperation, the police power of can be translated as ‘realization for all.’ the state would be progressively replaced The movement’s key ethical principle, by such a non-violent force. ahimsa, means ‘non-harm’ (in effect, One of the movement’s most brilliant non-domination), and, stated positively, practical ideas was the creation of an connotes acting with a deep respect for the ashram in each village and neighbourhood. sacredness or intrinsic good of all living In the Sarvodayan sense of this term, beings. Thus, Sarvodaya shares the eco- this means a political and spiritual base anarchist ideal of a society based on non- community in which the members live domination and universal self-realization. communally and spread Sarvodaya Sarvodayan politics and economics aims teachings through education, and, above at a system of swaraj or democratic self-rule, all, the force of inspiring example. As a site focused at the level of the autonomous local for appropriate technologies and locally- community. In this system, the chaupal, or based production, the ashram might also traditional common space at the center be called a model . The hope of the village, becomes the focal point for was that every village and neighbourhood institutions of vigorous local . would contain a functioning example of the One is the panchayat, or five-person village kind of cooperative, caring, life-affirming council, a traditional element of local community that the entire society might governance. Another is the gram sabha, or become. village assembly, which is to become the ultimate repository of power in a developed An emerging ecological society system of communal democracy. Sarvodaya is invaluable as an example of a Swaraj also requires a democratic, vast social movement with both anarchistic community-controlled , and ecological dimensions that undertook

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institutional, imaginary, ideological and that is expressed in institutions ethotic transformation on the level of a such as local assemblies, councils and society of hundreds of millions. The point , in which power is situated is not to replicate it, but to look to both at the base. To take another example, in its great successes and its significant Rojava (western Kurdistan), the Democratic failures for lessons that can be used in the Autonomy Movement has inspired radical creation of a viable movement for social- social transformation among several ecological transformation. Thus, eco- million people (Knapp et al., 2016; Clark, feminist and her colleagues 2019). The anarchistic dimensions of the at Navdanya Biodiversity Farm and Seed movement are manifested in institutions Bank in Dehradun, India, consciously carry of decentralized such on many aspects of the Gandhian tradition as local assemblies, councils and citizen’s “Eco-anarchism while radically ecologizing them through committees, in non-statist confederal sees the goal of a more explicit emphasis on the centrality organization, and in a significant freedom for both of the Earth and the land. In addition, they ecological movement, Moreover, the stress much more heavily the importance Rojavan Revolution goes even beyond most humanity and other- of overcoming the destructive forces of anarchist movements in its commitment to than-human nature patriarchal domination and of liberating radical feminist social transformation and as synonymous with the feminine Shakti energy of birth, life the destruction of patriarchal domination. the realization of the and growth. In short, the eco-anarchist vision common good. There are today significant movements finds certain powerful expressions in ” that go even further in the direction of the contemporary world that can offer creating the kind of post-statist, post- inspiration to those who hope to see that capitalist, post-patriarchal ecological vision challenge the dominant ecocidal society envisioned by eco-anarchism. This order. is in part a retrieval and re-deployment of what was lost from previous pre-state, An awakened Earth community pre-capitalist, pre-patriarchal, Earth- Eco-anarchism sees the goal of freedom based . Communal, participatory, for both humanity and other-than-human radically democratic and consensus-based nature as synonymous with the realization institutions have been common in these of the common good. This means the societies. For this reason, eco-anarchism greatest flourishing of the local and global recognizes indigenous movements as eco-communities, and the elimination having a vastly greater significance than of all forms of domination that constrain their mere numbers would indicate. They that flourishing. The motto of the project bring to the world an ancient, living history with which I work, La Terre Institute for of communal democratic and consensual Community and Ecology, is appamāda, decision-making, recognition of the an ancient Pali term known as “the last natural world as our own world, a deep word of the Buddha.” It has many English sense of our kinship with all other living translations, but the best may be ‘mindful beings, remnants of economy and care.’ It expresses the idea that if we are to a clear recognition of the importance of save ourselves, and more importantly, save feminine, non-possessive values at the the world from devastation, we must allow centre of culture and community. ourselves, as persons and communities, to We find these traditions expressed today, awaken to the nature of all phenomena, for example, in the Zapatista movement, and – especially at this moment – to the which has created liberated municipalities nature of the suffering that the Earth is in Chiapas, Mexico, that have transformed undergoing. We must be acutely aware the lives of several hundred thousand that such mindfulness is only authentic if people (Fitzwater, 2019). The movement it is expressed in appropriate action. This is based largely on an indigenous, means, above all, mindful, engaged care communal, egalitarian, nature-affirming for the good of all beings in the biosphere,

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and for the good of all terrestrial goods, the Fitzwater D (2019) Autonomy is in Our Hearts: Zapatista good of the Earth. Hence, appamāda might autonomous through the lens of the Tsotsil well be taken as a synonym for the practice language. PM Press, Oakland, USA. of eco-anarchism. n Gandhi M (1940) An interesting discourse. Harijan, 25 August. Available at https://is.gd/cjAxc0 (accessed Notes October 2019). Also available in Gandhi M (1999) The Collected Works of , vol 79. 1 The term ‘megamachine’ is, of course, borrowed Government of India Press, New Delhi, India. from the seminal discussion in Mumford (1967; 1970). Knapp M, Flach A and Ayboga E (2016) Revolution in Rojava: Democratic autonomy and women’s liberation in References Syrian Kurdistan. Pluto , London, UK. Clark J and Martin C, eds (2013) Anarchy, Geography, Mumford, L (1967; 1970) The Myth of the Machine, 2 vols. Modernity: Selected writings of Elisée Reclus. PM Press, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, NY, USA. Oakland, CA, USA. Ostergaard G and Currell M (1971) Gentle Anarchists: A Clark J (2013) The common good: Sarvodaya and the study of the leaders of the Sarvodaya movement for non- Gandhian legacy. In: Clark J. The Impossible Community: violent revolution in India. Clarendon Press, Oxford, Realizing communitarian anarchism. Bloomsbury, New UK. York, NY, USA: 217–45. Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K et al. (2009) A safe Clark J (2019) Lessons of the Rojavan revolution. In: Clark operating space for humanity. Nature 461: 472–5. J, ed. Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene Vettickal T (2002) Gandhian Sarvodaya: Realizing a to the beloved community. PM Press, Oakland, USA: realistic utopia. Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi, 126–39. India.

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