Oneonta Eco-Socialists

By Alex Maurice

“As an ideology, Communalism draws on the best of the older Left ideologies-Marxism and anarchism, more properly the libertarian socialist tradition-while offering a wider and more relevant scope for our time. From Marxism, it draws the basic project of formulating a rationally systematic and coherent socialism that integrates philosophy, history, economics, and politics. Avowedly dialectical, it attempts to infuse theory with practice. From anarchism, it draws its commitment to anti-statism and confederalism, as well as its recognition that hierarchy is a basic problem that can be overcome only by a libertarian socialist society.”

Bookchin, Social Ecology and Communalism

In the 21st century It has become increasingly clear that our current social order is untenable. Despite the promises of the enlightenment and liberal capitalism to bring ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ to society, we find ourselves unable to place stock in such notions. A ‘liberty’ under a constitutional government is vitiated by unaccountable tyranny in the workplace and increasingly militarized police forces which act to defend property and power instead of human life. Any idea of ‘equality under the law’ is made merely formal by the endless growth of economic inequality. ‘Fraternity’ is mocked by sheer social disintegration and the abuses of a culture which fosters bigotry and stratification. Even more existentially frightening is that this social order is making the world increasingly hostile to life. Instead of using technology to harmonize people with nature, it destroys it on a scale never seen in recorded history, transforming rich natural environments into deserts of concrete, chemicals, and clear-cut forests. This ‘Anthropocene extinction’ is being punctuated by a climate crisis that has the potential to permanently turn back the clock on social and natural development.

In response to this reality, people have been going in increasingly radical directions politically. The historical vestiges of the left have been revived, with self identification as a socialist seeing an increase in the USA during the past 15 years (“Support for Socialism by Party Affiliation U.S. 2021”). However, this growth in the left has been outpaced by a growth in far right ideology. Emboldened by the openly reactionary politics of the likes of Trump in the USA and Milei in Argentina, the right has mobilized an increasingly militant and radical base of support. Queerphobia, national chauvinism, and misogyny have become mainstays in political life. Meanwhile, a disorganized left has allowed the unprecedented insurrections against police in 2020 to essentially vanish. As the police increasingly consolidate their power despite those surges in popular discontent, the limits of spontaneous protest have made themselves clear. Regardless of which party is in power, the rich concentrate more and more wealth at the cost of international and local working-class. Fear of layoffs, homelessness, and overwhelming debt are chronic, forcing us to compete against our fellows in a predatory economy designed to benefit a small ruling elite. The left is badly in need of strategic, well organized, coherent, and militant politics if it does not want to sit idly by in the face of ecological devastation, social crisis, and a rising fascism.

“Democratic confederalism presents the option of a
democratic nation as the fundamental tool to resolve the ethnic, religious, urban, local, regional and national problems caused by the monolithic, homogeneous, monochrome, fascist social model implemented by modernity’s nation-state.”

Abdullah Öcalan

In the face of this evident need, lifelong activist, ecological thinker, and radical theorist Murray Bookchin developed communalism. Communalism is a resolutely revolutionary perspective, based on three pillars: a philosophy of nature called dialectical naturalism, a method of analysis called social ecology, and the political strategies of libertarian municipalism and the new theory of democratic confederalism developed by the imprisoned Kurdish revolutionary Abdullah Ocalan. This revolutionary body of ideas present a new platform to create a free and ecological society.

The dialectical naturalist philosophy explores how humanity developed in the natural world and the ethical implications this has for our society. This starts with a novel outlook on what ‘nature’ even is. As opposed to a simplistic view of either wilderness or the sum total of matter, dialectical naturalism takes a developmental view of nature. In this view, nature is understood as the tendency of the material world towards increasing degrees of organizational complexity, diversity, and self-awareness. Nature really comes into being with the first subatomic particles, which organize into atoms, which themselves organize into molecules, and so on, in an ongoing process of differentiation and increased structural complexity. Each new level is both the consequence of the potential latent in earlier ones and yet goes beyond it, being more than the sum of its parts. It is this seemingly blind process that has generated living organisms capable of not just being transformed by their environments, but of consciously making choices to direct their own development. This cumulative tendency has found its most advanced expression in humans. Through our unique capacity to shape the world to meet our needs, we are increasingly directed by social forces rather than natural selection. This reality has created two domains of nature, a material first nature and a uniquely social second nature.

This philosophy leads to the analytical framework of social ecology. The most fundamental statement of social ecology is that “nearly all of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social problems” (Bookchin, Social Ecology and Communalism). At the heart of these is social domination. Hierarchy is principally the problem and must be understood as any institution of social rule by elites through “highly organized systems of command and obedience” (Bookchin, Remaking Society). Hierarchy, through its tendency to reduce the subjectivity and diversity in all it touches to the dictates of some elite, results in the radical reversal of first nature’s tendencies. Natural biodiversity is sacrificed to the dictates of ruling class agricultural institutions just as social diversity is eliminated by their governmental and business organizations. This process of reversal brings about human disempowerment and misery just as it destroys the first nature society is dependent on for its sustenance. As Murray Bookchin wrote “The homogenization of ecosystems goes hand in hand with the homogenization of the social environment and the so-called individuals who people it” (Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom : The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy). With this statement it is made clear that the elimination of social hierarchy is a precondition for the healing of the relationship between human and human just as it is for the relationship between humanity and nature.

It is with this in mind that the communalist politics of libertarian municipalism and democratic confederalism are developed. These are political programs based on the conscious creation of a diverse, directly democratic constellation of institutions at the base of society. These institutions would be an ethical and political challenge to the homogenizing institutions of capitalism and the state. The direct empowerment of the people, not their representatives, through various community organizations. Cooperatives, affinity groups, councils, a citizen’s militia, and various other civic bodies with legislative popular assemblies at their heart are the base of such a political project. These community institutions in a given municipality would hardly constitute a revolutionary body unless they were to be knitted together internally and with those in other municipalities by a confederal structure, acknowledging local self determination while also coordinating to take greater action. Once knitted together, these institutions would “re-empower our communities and cities so that they can effectively counteract state and corporate power” (Bookchin, Urbanization without Cities).

The communalist outlook, rejects the idea of spontaneous revolutionary potential of the exploited classes. Instead, it sees that the creation of such a rich democratic movement is dependent on the ability of communalists to create ideologically unified, well-organized cadres that would actively create this political landscape in line with a flexible program developed around a far-seeing strategy. As has been the case in revolutions around the world, such an informed revolutionary organization would start with study groups that “develop those interested in social and political change into fully competent individuals and leaders.” (Bookchin, Free Cities: Communalism and the Left). This is the objective of the writer for this article.

“The power of utopian thinking, properly conceived as a vision of a new society that questions all the presuppositions of the present-day society, is its inherent ability to see the future in terms of radically new forms and values.”

(Bookchin, Toward an Ecological Society)

Ultimately, communalism is a means of healing relationships between people and between society and nature. By its commitment to a grassroots domain of politics, it contains a unique potential for creativity. It draws on the latent potentials of a spiritually broken humanity to act in its social and natural environment to create positive change. In the face of heightening social and ecological crises of frightening scope, communalism’s potential to create a free world cannot be ignored. Murray Bookchin’s book “Remaking Society” is a vital introduction to the ideas only touched on in this article. It is my firm belief that a well organized group dedicated to instituting these ideas has the potential to make real change. This is a call to action to all those interested in exploring and implementing libertarian socialist ideas. A better future is possible, if only we have the will, patience, and ability to grow it in the present.

“The flames that threaten to engulf our planet may leave it hopelessly hostile to life — a dead witness to cosmic failure. If only because this planet’s history, including its human history, has been so full of promise, hope, and creativity, it deserves a better fate than what seems to confront it in the years ahead.”

Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom : The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy

Contact information

Want to get involved? Contact us at:

• OneontaEcoSocialists@gmail.com
• @OneontaEcoSoc on twitter

Works Cited

Abdullah Öcalan. The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan : Kurdistan, Woman’s Revolution and Democratic Confederalism. London, Pluto Press, 2017.

Bookchin, Murray. Free Cities: Communalism and the Left. AK press, 2007.

—. Remaking Society. Montréal, Black Rose Books, 1990.

—. Social Ecology and Communalism. Edinburgh ; Oakland, Ak Press, 2007.

—. The Ecology of Freedom : The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Edinburgh, Ak Press, 2005.

—. Toward an Ecological Society. Montréal ; Buffalo, Black Rose Books, 1980.

—. Urbanization without Cities. Black Rose Books, 1992.

“Support for Socialism by Party Affiliation U.S. 2021.” Statista, http://www.statista.com/statistics/1078448/support-socialism-party-affiliation-us/.