Libertarian Municipalism

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"An anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles."

Libertarian Municipalism, also known as Bookchin Communalism, is a far left, Libertarian Socialist, socially progressive, and sometimes Anarchist ideology with an extreme emphasis on Environmentalism, based on the political, philosophical, and sociological ideas of Murray Bookchin.

Libertarian Municipalism believes in a stateless, classless, society where hierarchy is reduced as much as possible and is organized into eco-communes that participate in federalism, most private property being made communal.

History

Murray Bookchin was born to Jewish immigrants and from a very young age was heavily influenced by his Socialist Grandmother. This led him to be involved with the Young Communist League USA and hold what he would later describe as Stalinist views. However, after studying more Marxist literature in his late teens he would shift to a Trotskyist perspective. He became a factory worker and unionizer through the 1940's and over that period of time his belief in Marxism–Leninism in general began to wane, moving towards a more general Marxist position.

He began taking inspiration from more Anarchist writers like Peter Kroprotkin, particularly liking their views on hierarchy, seeing it as more wholistic than contemporary Marxists. From here he developed his idea of post-scarcity, which he intertwined with his strong views in the growing Environmentalist movement. This would culminate in his book Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), in which he would outline these beliefs. His concept of Social Ecology, that the ecological crisis is actually a social crisis, would become one of the prominent focuses of his work premiering in his most well known work, The Ecology of Freedom (1982). In which he laid out that socially dominating societal structures (specifically the State and Capitalism) lead to a society which dominates and destroys nature, instead he proposed society be organized into federations/confederations of ecological, Directly Democratic, communes. This would later become known as Communalism. He thought the best way to achieve this society was to organize communities into revolutionary, confederated, municipalities that would adhere to Communalist principles; this is known as Libertarian Municipalism.

Bookchin would begin his break with Anarchism with his 1995 work Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism in which he harshly criticized what he called Lifestyle Anarchism. This break would be cemented in 2002 with The Communalist Project, in which he declared Communalism a unique revolutionary tradition that is distinct from, but takes the best parts of, Marxism and Anarchism. Although not all adherents of Communalism consider it separate from Anarchism and as such consider themselves Anarchists. In 2004, Bookchin had brief correspondence with Abdullah Öcalan, an imprisoned Kurdish revolutionary leader and student of Bookchin, who went on to formulate Democratic Confederalism as a practical application of Communalism in Kurdistan. However, Bookchin could not communicate much with Öcalan because of a mix of his declining health and Öcalan's solitary confinement, dying in 2006.

Beliefs

Social Ecology

Social ecology is a philosophical theory associated with Bookchin, concerned with the relationship between ecological and social issues. It is not a movement but a theory primarily associated with his thought and elaborated over his body of work. It presents a utopian philosophy of human evolution that combines the nature of biology and society into a third "thinking nature" beyond biochemistry and physiology, which is argued to be a more complete, conscious, ethical, and rational nature. Humanity, by this line of thought, is the latest development from the long history of organic development on Earth. Bookchin's social ecology proposes ethical principles for replacing a society's propensity for hierarchy and domination with that of democracy and freedom.

Variants

Municipalist Situationism

This ideology advocates for a social union between french workers, no matter their cultural alignment : in the Municipalist Movement, members can share traditionalist and progressive views, as long as they are not based upon identity politics, and as long as they advocate for a Municipalist ideology and praxis.

The Municipalist Situationism is a political movement portrayed by the "Mouvement Municipal" / Municipalist Movement.

This regional tendency considers the possibility of different transitional status inherent to Social Anarchism and Libertarian Socialism before achieving total Gift Economy. No matter the form it takes, the economy has to function through the Direct Democracy of the Councils and the Assemblies. This democracy hegemony can be attained by the creation of multiple democratic and popular assemblies. This can either be done through local elections or through local populations looking for political autonomy. The main goal is to radicalize the practice of Democracy in order to show to the people that autogestion is not an illusion nor impossible.

WIP

How to Draw

The Libertarian Municipalism design is based on the "Libertarian Ecosocialist flag" by u/TheIenzo. It is simply a mirrored anarcho-communist flag with a leaf across the center.

Flag of Libertarian Municipalism
  1. Draw a ball.
  2. Draw a thin leaf shape cutting across the ball from the stem at bottom right, to the tip at top left,
  3. Colour the left half of the leaf a lighter shade of green (#44AA00), and the right half, a darker shade of green (#008000).
  4. Colour the area below the leaf black (#141414), but not pure black.
  5. Colour the area above the leaf red (#D40E00).
  6. Add the eyes and congratulations, you have drawn Libertarian Municipalism!
Color Name HEX RGB
Light Green #44AA00 68, 170, 0
Dark Green #008000 0, 128, 0
Black #141414 20, 20, 20
Red #D40A00 212, 10, 0


Relationships

Friendly


Mixed

  • Marxism–Leninism - Overly economistic and authoritarian.
  • Environmentalism - I'm an ecologist, not an environmentalist! Environmentalism is liberal and rejects social ecology.
  • Marxism - Good analysis, though kind of outdated.
  • Soulism - Based views, but you are still too focused on yourself, and you are often sleeping, instead of doing something useful. Why not be at least a communal night shift janitor?
    • *waking up after long term "shift"*...Uhhh. What is that place? And why the hell is that weird guy looking at me?
  • Anarcho-Syndicalism - Certainly not all anarcho-syndicalists would be unsympathetic to, say, eco-anarchism or a communitarian anarchism that is concerned with confederations of villages, towns, and cities, but a degree of dogmatism and stodgy fixity persists among worker-oriented anarchists that I believe should hardly be characteristic of left libertarians generally.

Negative

  • Corporatocracy - REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, YOU DAMN DIRTY POLLUTER! EVEN YOUR ECO MASK IS AWFUL!

Further Information

For overlapping political theory see:

Libertarian Socialism, Eco-Anarchism, Localism, Democratic Confederalism,
Patchwork, Anarcho-Communism, Eco-Socialism, Marxism, Technogaianism, Social Anarchism, Anarcho-Transhumanism, Anarcha-Feminism, Total Liberationism, & Minarcho-Socialism

Literature

Online Communities

Wikipedia

Websites

Gallery

  • Original

    Original

  • Credit: u/TheLegend2T, source

    Credit: u/TheLegend2T, source

  • Credit: u/Duy_physics, source

    Credit: u/Duy_physics, source

Navigation


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