Background Before the
Industrial Revolution, the only occurrences of
ecological crisis were small-scale, localised to areas affected by
natural disasters,
overproduction or
war. But as the
enclosure of
common land increasingly forced dispossessed workers into factories, more wide-reaching ecological damage began to be noticed by
radicals of the period. During the late 19th century, as
capitalism and
colonialism were reaching their height, political philosophers first began to develop critiques of
industrialised society, which had caused a rise in
pollution and
environmental degradation. In response, these early environmentalists developed a concern for
nature and
wildlife conservation,
soil erosion,
deforestation, and
natural resource management. Early political approaches to environmentalism were supplemented by the
literary naturalism of writers such as
Henry David Thoreau,
John Muir and
Ernest Thompson Seton, whose best-selling works helped to alter the popular perception of nature by rejecting the dualistic "
man against nature" conflict. In particular, Thoreau's advocacy of
anti-consumerism and
vegetarianism, as well as his love for the
wilderness, has been a direct inspiration for many eco-anarchists.
Ecology in its modern form was developed by
Charles Darwin, whose work on
evolutionary biology provided a scientific rejection of
Christian and
Cartesian anthropocentrism, instead emphasising the role of
probability and
individual agency in the process of
evolution. Around the same time,
anarchism emerged as a political philosophy that rejected all forms of
hierarchy,
authority and
oppression, and instead advocated for
decentralisation and
voluntary association. The framework for an ecological anarchism was thus set in place, as a means to reject anthropocentric hierarchies that positioned humans in a dominating position over nature.
Roots The ecological roots of anarchism go back to the classical anarchists, such as
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and
Mikhail Bakunin, who both conceived of
human nature as the basis for anarchism. Drawing from Charles Darwin's work, Bakunin considered people to be an intrinsic part of their environment. Bakunin rejected
Cartesian dualism, denying its
anthropocentric and
mechanistic separation of
humanity from
nature. However, he also saw humans as uniquely capable of self-determination and called for humanity to achieve a mastery of its own natural environment as a means to achieve
freedom. Bakunin's
naturalism was developed into an
ecological philosophy by the geographers
Peter Kropotkin and
Éliseé Reclus, who conceived the relationship between human society and nature as a
dialectic. Their
environmental ethics, which combined
social justice with
environmental protection, anticipated the green anarchist philosophies of
social ecology and
bioregionalism. , an early environmentalist figure and a predecessor of the green anarchist tendency Like Bakunin before him, Kropotkin extolled the
domestication of nature by humans, but also framed humanity as an intrinsic part of its natural environment and placed great value in the natural world. Kropotkin was among the first environmentalist thinkers to note the connections between industrialisation, environmental degradation and
workers' alienation. In contrast to
Marxists, who called for an increase in industrialisation, Kropotkin argued for the
localisation of the economy, which he felt would increase people's connection with the land and halt environmental damage. In
Fields, Factories and Workshops, Kropotkin advocated for the satisfaction of human needs through
horticulture, and the
decentralisation and
degrowth of industry. He also criticised the
division of labour, both between
mental and
manual labourers, and between the
rural peasantry and
urban proletariat. In
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, he elaborated on the natural basis for
communism, depicting the formation of
social organisation among
animals through the practice of
mutual aid. Reclus himself argued that environmental degradation caused by industrialisation, exemplified to him by mass
deforestation in the
Pacific Northwest, was characteristic of the "barbarity" of modern
civilisation, which he felt subordinated both workers and the environment to the goal of
capital accumulation. Reclus was also one of the earliest figures to develop the idea of "
total liberation", directly comparing the
exploitation of labour with
cruelty to animals and thus advocating for both
human and
animal rights. Kropotkin and Reclus' synthesis of environmental and social justice formed the foundation for
eco-socialism, chiefly associated with
libertarian socialists who advocated for a "
return to nature", such as
Robert Blatchford,
William Morris and
Henry Salt. Ecological aspects of anarchism were also emphasised by
Emma Goldman and
Alexander Berkman, who, drawing from the work of Henry David Thoreau, conceived of anarchism as a means to promote unity between humans and the natural world. These early ecological developments in anarchism lay the foundations for the elaboration of green anarchism in the 1960s, when it was first taken up by figures within the
New Left.
Development Green anarchism first emerged after the dawn of the
Atomic Age, as increasingly
centralized governments brought with them a new host of
environmental and
social issues. During the 1960s, the rise of the
environmental movement coincided with a concurrent revival of interest in anarchism, leading to anarchists having a considerable influence on the development of
radical environmentalist thought. Principles and practices that already formed the core of anarchist philosophy, from
direct action to
community organizing, thus became foundational to radical environmentalism. As the threats presented by
environmental degradation,
industrial agriculture and
pollution became more urgent, the first green anarchists turned to
decentralisation and
diversity as solutions for
socio-ecological systems. , a founding figure of green anarchism and the chief proponent of
social ecology Green anarchism as a tendency was first developed by the American social anarchist
Murray Bookchin. Bookchin had already began addressing the problem of environmental degradation as far back as the 1950s. In 1962, he published the first major modern work of
environmentalism,
Our Synthetic Environment, which warned of the ecological dangers of
pesticide application. Over the subsequent decades, Bookchin developed the first theory of green anarchism,
social ecology, which presented social
hierarchy as the root of ecological problems. In 1973, Norwegian philosopher
Arne Næss developed another green anarchist tendency, known as
deep ecology, which rejected of
anthropocentrism in favour of
biocentrism. In 1985, this philosophy was developed into a political programme by the American academics
Bill Devall and
George Sessions, while Australian philosopher
Warwick Fox proposed the formation of
bioregions as a green anarchist alternative to the
nation state. Following on from deep ecology, the next major development in green anarchist philosophy was the articulation of
anarcho-primitivism, which was critical of
agriculture,
technology and
civilisation. First developed in the pages of the American anarchist magazine
Fifth Estate during the mid-1980s, anarcho-primitivist theory was developed by
Fredy Perlman, David Watson, and particularly
John Zerzan. It was later taken up by the American periodical
Green Anarchy and British periodical
Green Anarchist, and partly inspired groups such as the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF),
Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and
Individualists Tending to the Wild (ITS).
From theory to practice by the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in
Israel By the 1970s, radical environmentalist groups had begun to carry out
direct action against
nuclear power infrastructure, with mobilisations of the
anti-nuclear movement in France, Germany and the United States providing a direct continuity between contemporary environmentalism and the New Left of the 1960s. In the 1980s, green anarchist groups such as
Earth First! started taking direct action against
deforestation,
roadworks and
industrial agriculture. They called their sabotage actions "monkey-wrenching", after
Edward Abbey's 1984 novel
The Monkey Wrench Gang. During the 1990s, the
road protest movements in the United Kingdom and
Israel were also driven by eco-anarchists, while eco-anarchist action networks such as the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and
Earth Liberation Front (ELF) first rose to prominence. Eco-anarchist actions have included violent attacks, such as those carried out by cells of the
Informal Anarchist Federation (IAF) and
Individualists Tending to the Wild (ITS) against nuclear scientists and nanotechnology researchers respectively. (AGM) in
Poland As environmental degradation was accelerated by the rise of
economic globalisation and
neoliberalism, green anarchists broadened their scope of action from a specific environmentalist focus into one that agitated for
global justice. Green anarchists were instrumental in the establishment of the
anti-globalisation movement (AGM), as well as its transformation into the subsequent
global justice movement (GJM). The AGM gained support in both the
Global North and Global South, with the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) becoming a key organisation within the movement. It also gained a wide range of support from different sectors of society, not only including
activists from
left-wing politics or the environmental and peace movements, but also people from
trade unions, church groups and the agricultural sector. Trade unionists were the most prominent presence at the
1999 Seattle WTO protests, even outnumbering the environmentalists and anarchists. Drawing from its anarchist roots, the AGM adopted a decentralised and non-hierarchical model of
horizontal organisation, embracing new "anarchical" technologies such as the
internet as a means to network and communicate. Through the environmental and anti-globalisation movements,
contemporary anarchism was ultimately able to achieve a "quasi-renaissance" in anarchist ideas, tendencies and modes of organisation.
Contemporary theoretical developments Writers such as Murray Bookchin and
Alan Carter have claimed contemporary anarchism to be the only political movement capable of addressing
climate change. In his 1996 book
Ecology and Anarchism, British anthropologist
Brian Morris argued that anarchism is intrinsically environmentalist, as it shared the ecologist principles of decentralisation, non-hierarchical social organisation and interdependence. By the 21st century, green anarchists had begun to move beyond the previous century's divisions into social ecologist and anarcho-primitivist camps, establishing a new body of theory that rejected the dualisms of humanity against nature and civilisation against wilderness. Drawing on the biocentric philosophy of deep ecology, in 2006,
Mark Somma called for a "revolutionary environmentalism" capable of overthrowing
capitalism, reducing consumption and organising the
conservation of biodiversity. Somma championed a form of
solidarity between humanity and the non-human natural world, in a call that was taken up in 2009 by
Steven Best, who called for eco-anarchists to commit themselves to "
total liberation" and extend solidarity to animals. To Best,
morality ought to be extended to animals due to their
sentience and capacity to feel
pain; he has called for the abolition of the hierarchy between humans and animals, although he implicitly excludes non-sentient plants from this moral consideration. Drawing from
eco-feminism,
pattrice jones called for human solidarity with both plants and animals, neither of which she considered to be lesser than humans, even describing them as "natural anarchists" that do not recognise or obey any government's laws. In 2012, Jeff Shantz developed a theory of "
green syndicalism", which seeks to use of
syndicalist models of workplace organisation to link the
labour movement with the
environmental movement. ==Branches==