Green anarchism

Green anarchism is a school of political thought that aligns the principles of anarchy with an environmentalist worldview. Anarchy is a theoretical social model that advocates for the abolition of formal government in favor of a loosely organized form of self-governance. Its key principles include opposition to all forms of social and political hierarchy and resistance to centralized authority. Green anarchism's mandate extends beyond human society to include the plant and animal kingdoms. The movement's ultimate goal is to institute an anarchist civilization oriented toward sustainable living and ecological protection.

The American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau is often cited as a strong early influence on the development of green anarchism. Although Thoreau himself did not explicitly advocate for such a social and political system, his writings promote respect for the environment and the adoption of a simple, sustainable lifestyle, both of which are core ideas in contemporary green anarchism.

Background

Along with Thoreau, writers and intellectuals, including Élisée Reclus and Leo Tolstoy, contributed to the rise of a movement known as anarcho-naturism, which became particularly popular in France, Portugal, and Spain in the late nineteenth century. In many respects, anarcho-naturism can be seen as a backlash against the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the era. It envisioned a society organized into small, self-sustaining villages configured to minimize their environmental impact. The philosophy also advocated a lifestyle that included nudism and simplicity.

Anarcho-naturism is sometimes classified as one branch of a larger school of thought known as anarcho-primitivism. According to the anarcho-primitivist worldview, human society has become increasingly hierarchical and authoritarian as it has moved further away from its hunter-gatherer origins. Modern practices—such as industrialization, technology, and the wage economy—are seen as tools of alienation that allow the few to control the many, which the anarcho-primitivist movement sought to correct by eliminating industrialized labor and returning to a simpler way of life.

The anarcho-primitivist and anarcho-naturist movements both became influential enough to draw mainstream attention during the late nineteenth century. They continued to inform related schools of anarchist thought in the twentieth century, with scholars and commentators noting that the primitivist political orientation extended anarchy's inherent antiauthoritarian philosophy beyond human society and into all aspects of life. In rejecting all forms of authoritarian thinking, anarcho-primitivists also believed that human beings have no innate right to claim jurisdiction over nature.

As a distinct movement, green anarchism first appeared in Europe and North America during the 1960s and 1970s. It was differentiated from its anarcho-primitivist origins by several defining features, including rejections of Marxist dialectics and enforced environmentalism, among other forms of social control with authoritarian characteristics. Green anarchism endorses a socialist brand of libertarianism, which is a political philosophy that endorses maximized individual freedom through restrictions on organized government. During the 1982 congress of the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA) in Oslo, Norway, green anarchism gained official recognition as a distinct school of anarchist thought.

Overview

The contemporary green anarchism movement is considered a fringe political philosophy. While it is often linked to groups that use ecoterrorist tactics to further their ends, the IFA's official position is that such associations are erroneous. In actuality, green anarchism rejects ecoterrorism as well as the concept of ochlocracy, or "mob rule," which is also frequently but inaccurately correlated with anarchist activism. Green anarchists consider both ecoterrorism and ochlocracy to be rooted in authoritarian thinking, which they fundamentally reject in all its forms.

According to the IFA, green anarchism endorses six core policy principles. First, it embraces scientific research with respect to ecology and the environment. This marks a divergence from forms of anarchy that view scientific thought as a major driver of stratified, centralized, and authoritarian social forces. Second, it endorses the humane treatment of animals used for food. Third, green anarchists believe that it is the responsibility of each successive generation to see that the environment is left in better condition than it was found. Green anarchists also believe that mitigating environmental damage is the sole responsibility of the individual, group, or organization that caused the damage. Fourth, green anarchists are wary of genetically oriented scientific research, believing that the potential future applications of such research could pose major threats to both individual liberty and to human society as a whole. For example, green anarchists fear that gene manipulation technologies might one day be used to create a dystopian society in which individuals with certain natural or engineered genetic characteristics are seen as inherently superior to others. Fifth, green anarchism holds that ecologically oriented resource management should form the basis of both the social and political economies. Finally, green anarchists endorse socialist libertarianism based on rationality and voluntary associations of people with similar aims, objectives, and beliefs. These core principles are underpinned by a philosophy best described by the popular motto "live and let live."

In the twenty-first century, the beliefs and goals of green anarchism are principally furthered by an organization known as the Green Anarchist International Association (GAIA). GAIA is a loosely structured confederation guided by a public declaration known as the Ecoanarchist Manifesto, which it officially adopted in 2002. In addition to the six aforementioned principles, the Ecoanarchist Manifesto also notes a belief in fundamental human rights and the economic equality of all people and rejects dominant capitalist values. In this context, capitalism is understood as a financial system that enables "rule by the rich." Green anarchism does not outright oppose systems of private property but rather believes that such systems should function so that wealth is concentrated in the hands of the common people rather than the hands of a small, elite class who use that wealth to maintain social control.

While the concept of self-sufficiency was central to the philosophies of Thoreau and others who inspired the anarcho-primitivist movement, the Ecoanarchist Manifesto notes that self-sufficiency is not an anarchist principle. Instead, the goal of anarchy is to make society more communal by upending the prevailing economic and political power structures. While self-sufficiency can be a strategy for liberating oneself from dependence on the current economic and political systems, it is not considered an end objective in and of itself. Thus, in green anarchism, self-sufficiency is not considered a primary goal. Instead, the movement seeks to decentralize resource ownership and management and use them to increase ecological accountability and achieve the political and economic equality of all members of society.

Bibliography

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