Libertarian Municipalism

Not to be confused with the fictional Communalism.

Bookchin Communalism
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Basic Information
Aliases	Social Ecology Libertarian Municipalism Bookchinism Real Communalism
Alignments	LibLeft Cultural Left Libertarians Anarchists Environmentalists Socialists Communists Internationalists Feminists
Ideological Influences
Influenced by	Anarcho-Communism Marxism Environmentalism Libertarian Socialism Eco-Socialism Eco-Anarchism
Influenced	Democratic Confederalism
Ideological Information
Foundation	Murray Bookchin (1921-2006)
Character Information
Likes	The Environment Communes Decentralisation
Dislikes	Capitalism Hierarchy

Bookchin Communalism is a far left, Libertarian Socialist, socially progressive, and sometimes Anarchist ideology with an extreme emphasis on Environmentalism.

Bookchin Communalism 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 influence 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.

How to Draw

The Communalism design is based on the "Libertarian Ecosocialist flag" by u/TheIenzo.

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 Communalism!

Relationships

Friendly

• Anarcho-Communism - Your takes on hierarchy are based, but sometimes not practical.
• Marxism - Good analysis but needs updating.
• Environmentalism - The ecological crisis is a social crisis!
• Democratic Confederalism - My child and an attempt at applying me.

Mixed

• Marxism–Leninism - Overly economistic and authoritarian.

Negative

• Communalism - GIVE ME MY NAME BACK, YOUR IDEOLOGY DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!
• Capitalism - The cancer cell ideology that is killing the environment.
• Anarcho-Individualism - Lifestylist trash!
• Deep Ecology - Fake Ecology.
• Eco-Fascism - Malthusian garbage!

Further Information

Literature

• The Ecology of Freedom (1982) by Murray Bookchin
• The Communalist Project (2002) by Murray Bookchin
• Post Scarcity Anarchism (1971) by Murray Bookchin

Online Communities

• r/Communalists
• r/TOTALCOMMUNALISM

Organizations

• Institute for Social Ecology
• Symbiosis
• Harbinger Journal

Wikipedia

• Murray Bookchin
• Communalism
• Social Ecology

Gallery

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  Credit: u/TheLegend2T, source

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  Credit: u/Duy_physics, source