Ecology and Animals
Green Flame: Kropotkin and the Birth of Ecology
Author: Graham Purchase | File size: 330 KB
Download PDF
“The pre-eminence of environmentalism in the 21st century is a novel political and historical development. Ecology is a new body of scientific description and knowledge upon which social, economic, political and ethical ideas and practices have become premised. Ecosystem science suggests that political, social and economic arrangements must be compatible and ideally optimize natural ecological processes. Harming ecosystems is considered ethically, politically and ecologically wrong….”
From the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review #54, Summer 2010
Anarcho-Syndicalism and Principles of Urban Planning
Author: Scott Rittenhouse | File size: 517 KB
Download PDF
Urban Planning is neither boulevards for conquerors, nor a landscape for the palaces of the rich, nor an opportunity for land speculators, nor a design opportunity for artists, nor a conspiracy for social engineers.
Urban planning is conducted to promote the health, safety, and well-being of people living together in urbanized areas; to enable people in urbanized areas to use scarce resources efficiently (all natural resources are “scarce”: supply and demand equals scarcity); and to mitigate the impact of population growth on the health of the planet.
Under capitalism, planning has been used to service the interests of the rich who own property [real estate] and the means of production. Under Anarchism, these will be “socialized”: expropriated, collectively “owned” by the Free Commune / Community, used and self-managed by workers and residents, non-transferable, and non-saleable. People will be able to make the land use decisions which meet their needs and make their lives better. There will be no “property values” or land speculation….
Anarcho-Syndicalism, Technology and Ecology
Author: Graham Purchase | PDF file size: 219 KB
Download PDF | Read Online
In an anarchist society, the absence of centralised state authority will permit a radically new integration of nature, labour and culture. As the social and ecological revolution progresses, national boundaries will become cartographical curiosities, and divisions based upon differences in geography, climate and species distribution will re-emerge. This essay addresses the question of what role unionism will play in these changes.
Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism
Author: Anarcho | PDF file size: 246 KB
Download PDF | Read Online
Technology has an obvious effect on individual freedom, in some ways increasing it, in others restricting it. However, since capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power, it is a truism that technology will reflect those inequalities, as it does not develop in a social vacuum. No technology evolves and spreads unless there are people who benefit from it and have sufficient means to disseminate it. In a capitalist society, technologies useful to the rich and powerful are generally the ones that spread. This can be seen from capitalist industry, where technology has been implemented specifically to deskill the worker, so replacing the skilled, valued craftsperson with the easily trained (and eliminated!) “mass worker.”
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
Author: Alternative Libertaire | PDF file size: 263 KB
Download PDF | Read Online
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
* * * * *
Ecology and Animals
- Green Flame: Kropotkin & the Birth of Ecology by Graham Purchase
- Anarcho-Syndicalism and Principles of Urban Planning by Scott Rittenhouse
- Anarcho-Syndicalism, Technology and Ecology by Graham Purchase
- Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism by Anarcho
- The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary by Alternative Libertaire
- Radical Ecology and Class Struggle: A Re-Consideration by Jeff Schantz
- Class Struggle and the Environmental Crisis by the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
- Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology: A Challenge for the Ecology Movement by Murray Bookchin
Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism (web)
by Anarcho
Technology has an obvious effect on individual freedom, in some ways increasing it, in others restricting it. However, since capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power, it is a truism that technology will reflect those inequalities, as it does not develop in a social vacuum.
No technology evolves and spreads unless there are people who benefit from it and have sufficient means to disseminate it. In a capitalist society, technologies useful to the rich and powerful are generally the ones that spread. This can be seen from capitalist industry, where technology has been implemented specifically to deskill the worker, so replacing the skilled, valued craftsperson with the easily trained (and eliminated!) “mass worker.” By trying to make any individual worker dispensable, the capitalist hopes to deprive workers of a means of controlling the relation between their effort on the job and the pay they receive. In Proudhon’s words, the “machine, or the workshop, after having degraded the labourer by giving him a master, completes his degeneracy by reducing him from the rank of artisan to that of common workman.” [1]
