Libertarian Municipalism, also known as Bookchin Communalism, is a far left, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Libertarian Socialist, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination socially progressive, and sometimes Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarchist ideology with an extreme emphasis on Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Environmentalism, based on the political, philosophical, and sociological ideas of Murray Bookchin.
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 influenced by his Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Socialist Grandmother. This led him to be involved with the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Young Communist League USA and hold what he would later describe as Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Stalinist views. However, after studying more Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Marxist literature in his late teens he would shift to a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Trotskyist perspective. He became a factory worker and unionizer through the 1940's and over that period of time his belief in Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Marxism–Leninism in general began to wane, moving towards a more general Marxist position.
He began taking inspiration from more Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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 Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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 Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination State and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Capitalism) lead to a society which dominates and destroys nature, instead he proposed society be organized into federations/confederations of ecological, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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 Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarchism with his 1995 work Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism in which he harshly criticized what he called Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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 Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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.
Variants
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination French Municipalism
The French Municipalism is a political movement portrayed by the "Mouvement Municipal" / Municipalist Movement.
This ideology advocates for a social union between french workers, no matter their cultural alignment : in the Municipalist Movement, members can share Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination traditionalist and Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination progressive views, as long as they are not based upon identity politics, and as long as they advocate for a Municipalist ideology and praxis. This school of thought considers the possibility of a Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Mutualism transitional status before achieving Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Communism.
How to Draw
The Communalism design is based on the "Libertarian Ecosocialist flag" by u/TheIenzo. It is simply a mirrored Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination anarcho-communist flag with a leaf across the center.
- Draw a ball.
- Draw a thin leaf shape cutting across the ball from the stem at bottom right, to the tip at top left,
- Colour the left half of the leaf a lighter shade of green (#44AA00), and the right half, a darker shade of green (#008000).
- Colour the area below the leaf black (#141414), but not pure black.
- Colour the area above the leaf red (#D40E00).
- Add the eyes and congratulations, you have drawn Communalism!
| 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
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Communism - Your takes on hierarchy are based, but they have no historical context.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Democratic Confederalism - My child and an attempt at applying me to the real world.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eco-Anarchism - We're basically the same ideology, although I'm a bit more leftist.
Mixed
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Marxism–Leninism - Overly economistic and authoritarian.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Environmentalism - I'm an ecologist, not an environmentalist! Environmentalism is liberal and rejects social ecology.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Marxism - Good analysis, though kind of outdated.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination 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?
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination - *waking up after long term "shift" (time ratio 1 CR min = 5 years in DR)*...Uhhh. What is that place? And why the hell is that weird guy looking at me?
Negative
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Communalism - GIVE ME MY NAME BACK, YOUR IDEOLOGY DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Capitalism - The cancer cell ideology that is killing the environment.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Individualism, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Egoism & Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Post-Leftism - Lifestylist trash!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Deep Ecology - Fake ecology.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eco-Fascism & Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Antinatalism - Malthusian garbage!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eco-Authoritarianism - Oxymoron.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Eco-Capitalism - Another oxymoron.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Nihilism - Lifestylist, misanthropic, doesn't care about society and the environment? Die.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Illegalism - Worst lifestylist scum, fuck you.
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Anarcho-Primitivism & Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Primalism - Your analysis of primitive life is completely ahistorical!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Avaritionism - FUCK YOU YOU STUPID GREEDY EGOIST MURDERER WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABORTED! IF SOMEONE NEEDS TO COMMIT SUICIDE IT SHOULD BE YOU AND YOUR MICROSCOPICAL BRAIN WITH LEUKEMIA!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Corporatocracy - REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, YOU DAMN DIRTY POLLUTER! EVEN YOUR ECO MASK IS AWFUL!
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
- Ecology and Revolutionary Thought (1964) by Lewis Herber (Murray Bookchin)
- Listen, Marxist! (1969) by Murray Bookchin
- Social Ecology Pamphlet (2018) by Emily McGuire
- Social Ecology and the Right to the City Towards Ecological and Democratic Cities (2019) by the Transnational Institute of Social Ecology (TRISE).
Online Communities
Wikipedia
Websites
Gallery
