Anarchism and Social Ecology
!anarchism@slrpnk.net
A community about anarchy. anarchism, social ecology, and communalism for SLRPNK! Solarpunk anarchists unite!
Feel free to ask questions here. We aspire to make this space a safe space. SLRPNK.net's basic rules apply here, but generally don't be a dick and don't be an authoritarian.
Anarchism
Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.
Social Ecology
Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.
Libraries
Audiobooks
- General audiobooks
- LibriVox Public domain book collection where you can find audiobooks from old communist, socialist, and anarchist authors.
- Anarchist audiobooks
- Socialist Audiobooks
- Social Ecology Audiobooks
Quotes
Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.
~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom
People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.
~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
~Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.
~Murray Bookchin, "A Politics for the Twenty-First Century"
There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal. A society based on self-administration must be achieved by means of self-administration.
~Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism
In modern times humans have become a wolf not only to humans, but to all nature.
The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution...
~Abdullah Öcalan
Social ecology advances a message that calls not only for a society free of hierarchy and hierarchical sensibilities, but for an ethics that places humanity in the natural world as an agent for rendering evolution social and natural fully self-conscious.
~ Murray Bookchin
Network
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100% agree, right wing "anarchism" is authoritarianism with extra steps. It'll always end up with a few people holding the most power.
I call myself a libertarian socialist, while not technically the same it's clearer than just saying anarchist.
We shouldn't let the "an"caps claim anarchism, be proud of it
Anarchism is an ideology that promotes peace, equality and i'm not sure if we can reach this type of world without some amount of violence. I myself am a pacifist to my ideology, but that is only ideally. Seeing people especially excited about the violence part is a little weird to me (i.e. thinking revolutions have to be bloody and civil war like, when it could be just as effective as syndicalism puts it)
You can't argue with tyrants. You can't tell the Sauds to peacefully resign, you need action and violence as disheartening as it may be. People will die, but it's better than millions suffering in silence for decades, even centuries.
I do think it is often possible to force despots to resign through nonviolent conflict. Their power ultimately stems from obedience of others—if that obedience is removed they are just as powerless as any of us.
So the question is: can that obedience be undermined through nonviolent resistance? I think the answer is often yes, and we have seen such things before in history.
On the other hand, even many pacifists acknowledge the righteousness of self defense. So if nonviolent efforts fail and the tyrant comes for you and yours and you have to fight back I won’t fault anyone for this. On the other hand, you can’t and shouldn’t want to engage overwhelming military force on its own terms. That’s not a fight we can ever win head on.
Their power comes from us, and it is possible to force them to resign without violence.
Yes, i think so. But this heavily depends on if the people can even organize or not. In the french revolution the people revolted due to mass poverty. We don't have that now, tyrants have gotten smarter. They know if they condition us to the horrible lives we live then increase our wealth ever so slightly it'll discourage revolution, because who'd revolt against their benefactors?
You must understand, i do not come from the west where, despite all its faults you can at least criticize it. I live in Saudi Arabia; all forms of protest are dealt with brutally and swiftly, and criticizing the ruling family can get you executed or jailed for decades.
It's practically suicide to try to revolt in any way. You'd need the mass approval of the people while doing it in private. The military is a joke but the real scare is the SANG, the national guard. The sauds are paranoid of a coup or revolution, so they fund the national guard way more than the military. When i read animal farm, i was spooked by the similarities between the Sauds and Napoleon.
We have tried to overthrown our oppressive governments before but...
That must be very difficult. I can’t imagine living in such a way as I’ve been an outspoken critic of my government from a young age.
I’ve read that sometimes organizing in such places can be focused on building power that is independent of the state, even if that power has a conciliatory stance towards the regime initially. However, that independent power can be used in a critical moment when the regime’s power weakens. I am not familiar with Saudi society—is there hope for such a strategy?
Another strategy is tiny acts of resistance that are too small to detect or punish but that introduce friction into the workings of society. The impact is small but again, it may help tip the scales towards liberation. And it has the advantage of being safe enough for anyone to engage in and being actionable for an individual—meaning no one can report you.
Finally I am curious if you have advice for how people in the West can help advance a liberatory cause in your country. Obviously our military and financial support is a huge malignant force in your society, so seeking to remove this support might help. Do you agree with that assessment?
The sauds have an incredibly high approval rate without much disagreement (my father's colleague dared to criticize the monarchy and "disappeared", turns out he was taken to riyadh and executed). The closest thing to an independent state is: https://the-naas.com/en (an exiled political party) and it is a droplet of ink compared to the Sauds.
This is also a good thing, but it's hard to pull off. A huge amount of infrastucture workers are actually slaves imported from India/Pakistan and other parts of Asia, and they wouldn't dare to mess things up.
Absolutely, protest. Protest against ties with Saudi and encourage sanctioning us. It'll affect us and you, but the weaker the sauds get, the stronger the people. (it'll encrease unrest, too) And criticize the monarchy as much as you can, in the face of saudis or non-saudis.
This is especially important in the US, most of the SANGs weaponry is imported from the US, so without it, it will be severely weakened, leaving them vunerable to a revolution.
I should clarify that the organizing I’m discussing does not need to be openly political. Religious institutions, civic organizations, charities, etc. anything that is not directly subservient to the state can be turned against it when the time comes. Especially if the purpose of the organization attracts people who might be naturally skeptical of the ruling powers.
While I obviously support the things you describe here, Joe Biden’s weak response to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder made me realize that the royal family actually has a very strong bargaining position with the US due to their influence on OPEC. Americans are addicted to oil and, as we saw in the last election, very willing to punish leaders who aren’t able or willing to secure their cheap access to it. I am not sure this problem can be solved without first breaking this addiction. I also think the oil economy is one that very much favors autocracy, so destroying global demand for oil could have very positive effects even beyond the influence over US policy.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I hope you have an eye to your own safety as you participate in these conversations but I assume you know better than I do what is safe and what isn’t.
Yeah, he said we'd be a "pariah state", where's that promise joe? you almost made me excited.
The move to electric power and EVs make me very hopeful, but we in the kingdom are actually trying to decrease reliance on oil... hopefully it fails.
You are actually right on this, i know a thing or two about this type of stuff. You should see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse#Democracy_and_human_rights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrostate
How and when morally acceptable is the use of violence has always been the subject of deep debate mostly among anarchists. Pacifism is often misunderstood on this point: pacifism can precede forms of self-defense - and therefore violence - when it comes to self-preservation.
Liberalism is another thought to dismantle, as it has long moved historically on the right side of the political pendulum. Today's democracies show that either you reduce it at least to bring some socialism or you create the inconveniences that we see daily from its inefficiency.
I agree, but some of our "peers" think it's necessary to cause a mass revolution that'll cause thousands of death. When i think of revolution i think of something along the lines of syndicalism. We have the power of the workers, why not use it? why would we have to construct an entire military and fight a powerful one?
Liberalism has infected modern political debates. While it is better than ultraconservatism that is not a high bar. And decades of red scare propaganda from the US and the failures of ""AES"" have completely tarnished our reputation. People see socialism as this scary thing when at its basis it is literally just the workers owning the means of production. I find people are less uncomfortable when you mention Market Socialism, and show them how it's not too radical.
Cool theory. Still Capitalism (and still creates all the same problem capitalism does).
That's objectively wrong, but okay. Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production, market socialism is the social ownership of the means of production while still keeping markets. Looking at both it's clear who the winner is.
And do you expect people to pop out of the womb as anarcho communists? Baby steps, market socialism is a gateway to other leftist thought.
You can't have Capitalist elements like, commodity production, wage-labor, money, markets, and call that "socialism". All of the inherent contradictions and harms of capitalism remain (because its capitalism), like theft of surplus value, imperialism, and alienation.
I agree, but it's a stepping stone. Both as an ideology, and as for the status quo. If people transition from social democracy to market socialism, it opens the gates for them to learn of other ideologies and understand why capitalism and markets are dehumanizing.
I'd rather live in a market where it's all co-ops and we own the means of production than corpos and private ownership. Even better, communism. But let's be realistic, that's not going to happen any time soon. That's why we need steps like this.