A-Infos (en) Ireland, Anarchist journal, Workers Solidarity #94 - Book review - BCome to your planet’s rescue.

Anarchism and Ecology by Graham Purchase Black Rose Books, (available from WSM 
Books, P.O. Box 1528, Dublin 8)
Hearing or reading about ecology or our natural environment isn’t an exciting 
proposition for most of us. The inevitable emphasis on destruction and likely 
catastrophe isn’t what we want to face into when our day-to-day lives are 
already tough enough. Graham Purchase in this book never dwells too long on the 
possible or likely results of centuries of disregard for ecology in the pursuit 
of profits, resources and land. Instead, we get a convincing outline of the easy 
relationship anarchism has to the natural world, the anarchist emphasis on 
decentralisation, autonomy and diversity contrasting sharply with the 
centralised uniformity of the state. He makes convincing arguments for his 
vision of an ecologically appropriate planet, organised in a federation of 
“bio-regions”, that is communities or city-regions sharing cultural and 
ecological traits and supplying most of their own needs, water, food, building 
materials and the like.

We are left in no doubt as to the need for revolutionary social anarchism and 
for destroying nation-state capitalist-individualism. There’s little mention, 
however of the enormous social and political struggle involved, building mass 
movements, industrial trade unions as well as political and propaganda 
organisations. Nothing either to advise us on defending our revolution - the 
newly dispossessed statist and capitalist class is unlikely to share our 
affection for harmonious eco-regionally organised anarchism.

Given the heavy nature of the subject matter, this book (a collection of essays 
from over the past 20 years but fitting very well together) makes for a 
surprisingly cheery read.

At 20.00 it weighs in on the pricey side but it’s seldom we get top-drawer 
writing on this exact subject and it makes clear the necessity of combining 
ecological sustainability with class-struggle anarchism in tackling the global 
environmental crisis.

It’s worth the cost, however, if only for his mercilessly efficient take on the 
futility of parliamentary Green politics. It’s not backward-looking either and 
is clear in not arguing for a return to some sort of tribal lifestyle but for 
redistribution of wealth and power.

Anarchists need to learn from environmentalists and need to become such. The 
reverse also applies.
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This article is from Workers Solidarity 94 Nov/Dec 2006
Download the PDF file of WS 94 http://struggle.ws/pdfs/ws/ws94.pdf
Read the other articles from WS94 online http://www.wsm.ie/story/1660
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