Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin Biography

Murray Bookchin is an American social and political theorist. He was born in 1921¹ in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants who participated in the Russian Revolutionary Movement, which he later joined. He was an American Young Communist League member until the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939. Then, he was expelled from the party for his anarchist views, which aligned more with Trotskyism than Stalinism.

His education consisted in the Worker’s School, where he studied Marxism. Afterwards, he worked a series of jobs as a labour organiser. He dedicated himself to writing essays and political activism, leading to his becoming a professor. He continued teaching until he died of congestive heart failure in 2004².

Bookchin is renowned for his books tackling environmental issues and anarchism. Some of his works are his ecology-oriented writings, such as “Our Synthetic Environment” (1962), the “Ecology of Freedom” (1982), and “Urbanization Without Cities” (1992).

His most famous works tackling anarchism and anti-capitalism are “Post-Scarcity Anarchism” (1971) and “The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years” (1977). These works contain the ideas that will be discussed below.

Murray Bookchin is also recognised as a prominent activist. He participated in the following movements:

• After leaving the Young Communist League, he joined the Social Worker’s Party, where he worked as a recruiter.

• He participated as a writer and editor for a newspaper published by the Movement for a Democracy of Content. This revolution-oriented organisation rejected the notion of class struggle, which is characteristic of Marxism.

• He volunteered to speak at the Congress of Racial Equality. He constantly protested racism at national events like the World’s Fair.

• He supported the Students for a Democratic Society as an advisor.

• He also joined the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance, where he published several essays on ecology and the dangers of nuclear arms.

While these organisations enjoyed his active participation, many leftist movements and political societies were inspired by his writings. Among these is the New Left Movement, the anti-nuclear and anti-globalisation movements, Occupy Wall Street, Turkey’s People’s Protection Units, and the Kurdistan Communities Unions.

Murray Bookchin and the Concept of Social Ecology

Murray Bookchin introduced the concept of social ecology in his paper "What is Social Ecology?” Through this essay, he challenges the standard views of environmentalists who consider the preservation of wilderness and the achievement of planetary unity as the main ecological problem of our times.

He believes that society remains divided because humanity is divided. Therefore, there is no unity of wisdom, technology, science, and creativity to protect the natural world.

Social ecology starts from the conviction that most of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social issues. Consequently, these environmental problems cannot be understood, let alone solved, without a careful understanding of society and its economic, ethnic, cultural, and gender conflict issues. These problems, he believed, lie at the core of the most severe ecological dislocations we face today.

Social Ecology condemns hierarchies and the western organisation of power. Bookchin believes that the hierarchies existing within society are the source of all dysfunctions of human society and the environment.

Thus, if ecological issues are rooted in societal problems, the only way to solve them is by creating an alternative society free of hierarchy. Ecological principles such as organic unity in diversity and mutual respect for the interrelationship of all aspects of life must be at the core of this new society. This is why he was considered an anarchist.

Bookchin argues that social ecology must involve a democracy where people are more involved with political decisions and decentralising power. He also asserts that social ecology must seek the liberation of humanity by repurposing technology as a tool instead of an extension.

Marxist ideas are present throughout Bookchin’s proposals. As an anti-capitalist himself, he agreed with Marx’s critique of capitalism. He boldly claimed that capitalism was the disease of society. However, Bookchin considered exploitation and class struggle secondary to hierarchy and domination.

Murray Bookchin’s Political Views

Besides social ecology, Bookchin took a stance on several political ideas and concepts that are controversial.

Murray Bookchin and Marxism

As mentioned, Bookchin led the Young Communist League of the US Communist party until he was expelled. He then organised the Socialist Workers Party, believing that the Second World War would bring a workers' revolution.

Ultimately, workers never revolted, and a disillusioned Bookchin concluded that the working class was not revolutionary. This realisation led him to believe that proletarian socialism was a fallacy and turned away from Marxism.

Bookchin felt that the workers never had revolutionary potential, meaning the conflict between classes was impossible. Instead, he theorised that anarchism was more prone to revolution as it challenged hierarchies. He believed hierarchy was more prominent than economic exploitation, as it exists in families and work environments. Therefore, there would be more revolutionary potential in anarchism than in communism.

Communalism

Bookchin’s communalist view is highlighted in his historical studies on social organisation, in which he explained that “forms of freedom” could be found in new communal lifestyles.

For example, Bookchin did not perceive freedom in an individual way, but as a process of “communalisation.” This is expressed in the capacity for collective self-organisation that emanates directly from individuals’ freedom.

In this theory, to achieve communalism, a broad municipal movement of people determined to work in their immediate environment had to be set in motion. So he encouraged libertarians to participate in local elections with programs that set the path for municipalities to become governed by popular assemblies and direct democracy. Without this possibility, Bookchin encouraged the creation of extra-legal bodies acting as a counter-power.

Confederalism

Bookchin believed that a broader principle of social organisation was needed to achieve decentralisation and self-sustainability. To do so, he proposed confederalism.

Confederalism is a network of administrative councils with members or delegates elected in popular and democratic face-to-face assemblies. They do so in various villages, towns and neighbourhoods of large cities.

The elected members of these confederal councils would be held accountable by the assemblies that elected them. They would be strictly mandated to coordinate and administer the policies formulated by their respective communities. Their function would be purely administrative and practical.

A confederalist perspective implies a clear distinction between the creation of policies and the coordination and execution of the policies assumed. Bookchin’s view suggests that policy creation is the exclusive right of popular communal assemblies, based on the practices of participatory democracy. Therefore, administration and coordination are the responsibility of confederal councils. Through these, you could interconnect villages, towns, neighbourhoods, and cities in confederal networks.

Power, accordingly, flows bottom-up rather than top-down. In confederations, the bottom-up flow of power diminishes with the reach of the federal council from localities to regions and from regions to ever-widening territorial areas.