READING NOTES October 17, 2010

Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

Bookchin, Murray (2007). Social Ecology and Communalism. Oakland, Calif.: AK Press.
Ch. 4 – The communalist project (40 pp.)

KEY WORDS:

Municipal democracy, the minimal 'VS' the maximum program (P.114)

TERMS, CONCEPT, EVENTS AND DEFINITIONS (a personalized glossary):

(p. 94)
Politics “almost by definition, is the active engagement of free citizens in the handling of their municipal affairs
and in their defense of its freedom”.

(p. 94)
DEMOCRACY “the direct governing of the city by its citizens”.

(p. 95)
A STATE “the state is the instrument by which an oppressive and exploitative
class regulates and coercively controls the behavior of an exploited
class by a ruling class, a government”

(p. 97)
COMMUNALISM = liberitarian municipalism + dialectical naturalism

(p.104)
POLIS (the greek word for civic life) = "(w]hen several villages are united in a single complete community
(koinonan), large enough to be nearly or quite self sufficing: he continued, "the polis comes
into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life”
(Aristotle).
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

READING NOTES
Chapter or Personal Note
Page # Quoted Text and Notes

Social change depends on:

“the kind of social movement and program that social radicals create out of → depends on social
p.77 the theoretical, organizational, and political wealth that has accumulated movements such as the
during the past two centuries of the revolutionary era”. Transition Movement!!!

Two potential scenarios for the 21st century:

p.78 “ 'the end of history' or to move on to a path toward the true making of → on green-modernity
history, in which humanity genuinely progresses toward a rational world”.

p.79 “nearly everything is possible, at least of a material nature” → speaks of his technological
biases

According to Bookchin, reason is the way out of modern madness:

p.80 “the canons of reason, reflection, and discourse that → forms of anthropocentrism
uniquely belong to our own species”. can surely be disceerns here!

Social Ecology:
“a new theoretical springboard that has been created by the history of
p.80 ideas, one that provides the means to catapult an emerging radical
movement beyond existing social conditions into a future that fosters
humanity's emancipation”.

Capitalism growth or die ideology:

p.81 “capitalism is [...] a highly mutable system”

**********************
On capitalism and anti-systemic mouvement: Marx ideas that the true
“[Capitalism] has produced not only new commodities to create and feed proletariat is produced by
p.81-82 new wants but new social and cultural issues, which in turn have given rise capitalism's own
to new supporters and antagonists of the existing system”. contradiction

Marx and Engels, in The Communist Manifesto, predicted [that the → in other words, that the
p.82 bourgeoisie and the proletariat] would become dominant under "mature" gaps b/w the poor and the rich
capitalism class will get wider and wider.

p.82 The Bourgeois utopie: DO! the bourgeois the people

"consumption for the sake of consumption” who envisioned capitalism.
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

CAPITALISM TRANSFORMATION AFTER THE 2ND WORLD WAR

After the Second World War, capitalism underwent
an enormous transformation, creating broad new social issues
p.84 with extraordinary rapidity, issues that went beyond traditional → Economy 'VS' Environment
proletarian demands for improved wages, hours, and working
conditions: notably environmental, gender, hierarchical, civic, and
democratic issues.

AGAIN, THE 2ND CONTRADICTION OF CAPITALISM If it is to produce social

capitalism has produced a new, perhaps paramount contradiction: the clash change, social movements
p.85 between an economy based on unending growth and the desiccation of must more (or all) inclusive
the natural environment.

TO BE SUCCESSFUL, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS MUST BE ALL INCLUSIVE: → The limits of Marxism,

p.87 “a new revolutionary movement must learn from the past [ ] that it must Anarchism and Syndicalism
win over broad sectors of the middle class to its new populist program”.

THE LIMITS TO RADICAL MOVEMENTS

SUCH AS: MARXISM, ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM
“None of the professedly anticapitalist ideologies of the past - Marxism,
P.88 anarchism, syndicalism, and more generic forms of socialism - retain the → more relevant to his
same relevance that they had at an earlier stage of capitalist development historical context
and in an earlier period of technological advance”.

MARXISM LIMITS: Bookchin critique

“Marxist political ideas were eminently relevant to the needs of a terribly → Today's Marx limits in
p.88 disoriented proletariat and to the particular oppressions that the producing relevant
industrial bourgeoisie inflicted upon it in England in the 1840s [...]” emancipatory social change.
…
“Brilliant as a theory of the material preconditions for socialism, it did not
p.89 address the ecological, civic, and subjective forces or the efficient causes
that could impel humanity into a movement for revolutionary social
change”.

ANARCHISM LIMITS: Bookchin critique

• “a highly individualistic outlook”
p.91 • “it is simply not a social theory”
• often comes from Marxism

A NOT VERY NICE DEFINITION OF ANARCHISM

p.91 “the radical assertion of the individual over or even against society and the → if so, Anarchism is quite
personalistic absence of responsibility for the collective welfare” reactive and not pro-active
(thus cannot bring about
lasting emancipatory social
change”
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

ANARCHISM 'VS' SYNDICALISM

“Anarchism has often been confused with revolutionary syndicalism, a → def. of syndicalism ****
highly structured and well-developed mass form of libertarian trade
p.92 unionism that, unlike anarchism, was long committed to democratic
procedures, to discipline in action, and to organized, long-range
revolutionary practice to eliminate capitalism”.

LIMITS OF SYNDICALISM
• “lacks a strategy for social change beyond the general strike” …
• “general strikes are not equatable with revolution nor even with
p.94 profound social changes” …
• “no capacity to take "the next step" to institutionalize a workers'
and peasants' form of government”.

POLITICS is:
“the active engagement of free citizens in the handling of their
p.95 municipal affairs and in their defense of its freedom”.

DEMOCRACY is:
TM relevant ***
“the direct governing of the city by its citizens”.

A STATE is:
“the state is the instrument by which an oppressive and exploitative Hemm... I prefer the city's
p.96 class regulates and coercively controls the behavior of an exploited democracy over the State's
class by a ruling class, a government” one!

Another SOCIAL ECOLOGY definitions:

p.97 “a coherent vision of social development that intertwines the mutual
impact of hierarchy and class on the civilizing of humanity, has for decades
argued that we must reorder social relations so that humanity can live in a
protective balance with the natural world.”
…
p.97 “Social ecology is an ecology not of hunger and material deprivation → like permaculture and TM,
but of plenty ”; SE believes in an abundant
socio-ecological future, that is
what it strive for!!!
p.97 COMMUNALISM DEFINED =
liberitarian municipalism + dialectical naturalism

p.98 • communalism is 'unidisciplinary!'

• term originate from the Paris Commune of 1871

COMMUNALISM'S GOAL IS TO (as it originally meant):

“to create a nationwide confederation of cities and towns to replace the → like bioregional planning!
republican nation-state”.
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

“COMMUNALISM, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the

English Language, is "a theory or system of government in which virtually → Definition of Communalism
autonomous local communities are loosely bound in a federation”. from a dictionary
p.99 …
“Communalism seeks to recapture the meaning of politics in its broadest:
most emancipatory sense, indeed, to fulfill the historic potential of the
municipality as the developmental arena of mind and discourse. It
conceptualizes the municipality, potentially at least, as a transformative
development beyond organic evolution into the domain of social evolution”.
…
“Communalism seeks to recover and advance the development of the city → the city = the space for the
(or commune)”. advance of a green-modernity
...
“The concrete political dimension of Communalism is known
p.101 as libertarian municipalism, about which I have previously written → libertarian municipalism,
extensively”. key to communalism and
quite similar to TM

Communalists' attempts to restore the powers of towns and cities and to

p.102 knit them together into confederations can be expected to evoke increasing –> POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO
resistance from national institutions. THE TRANSITION MOVEMENT!

COMMUNALISM CHARECTERIS
“constitutes a critique of hierarchical and capitalist society as a whole”.

COMMUNALISM ULTIMATE'S GOAL:

“to municipalize the economy”. “It seeks to integrate the means of
p.102-103 production into the existential life of the municipality, such that every –> ≈ THE RE-LOCALIZATION OF
productive enterprise falls under the purview of the local assembly, which THE ECONOMY !!!
decides how it will function to meet the interests of the community as a
whole.

“Most importantly, in Communalist political life, workers of different

occupations would take their seats in popular assemblies not as workers -
p.103-104 printers, plumbers, foundry workers and the like, with special occupational
interests to advance - but as citizens, whose overriding concern should be
the general interest of the society in which they live”.

MUNICIPALISM + EDUCATION
“Municipal life should become a school for the formation of [rational] → Liberal municipalism, a
citizens”. … form of popula or (rational)
p.104 education!

THE IDEOLOGY OF MUNICIPLISM:

“the municipality's proper functions were [...] their potentiality for reason, SOCIAL ECOLOGY, an
self-consciousness, and creativity”. englihtnment education
project?
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

p.106 “Libertarian municipalism is an integral part of the Communalist

framework, indeed its praxis, just as Communalism as a systematic body of → both needs one another
revolutionary thought is meaningless without libertarian municipalism”.

p.108 “ Above all, Communalism is engaged with the problem of power”.

Communalism, in contrast to anarchism, decidedly calls for decision-making → Communalism does not
p.109 by majority voting as the only equitable way for a large number of people to believe in CONCENCUS
make decisions. DECISION PROCESSES!???
…
p.109 but... “the views of a minority would be treasured as a potential
source of new insights and nascent truths that, if abridged, would → SE values the edge!
deny society the sources of creativity and developmental advances
p.110 - for new ideas generally emerge from inspired minorities.”

A LIBERAL MUNICIPALIST movement should:

“demonstrate a serious commitment to their organization - an → Must be well organize and
organization whose structure is laid out explicitly in a formal have leaders to make it work...
p.112 constitution and appropriate bylaws. Without a democratically like the TM!
formulated and approved institutional framework whose members → TM relevant! ***
and leaders can be held accountable, clearly articulated standards of
responsibility cease to exist.

ON (GOOD) IDEAS
Ideas grow and mature best, in fact, not in the silence and controlled → that is right!
humidity of an ideological nursery, but in the tumult of dispute and mutual
criticism.

THE MINIMUM PROGRAM 'VS' THE MAXIMUM PROGRAM → TM aims the maximum
p.114 “The maximum program, by contrast, would present an image of what program! A transitional
human life could be like”. process (p.115)

“ 'direct action' is being confused with protests”

p.114 …
“On the whole, Communalism is trying to rescue a realm of public action
and discourse that is either disappearing or that is being reduced to often- → Mere protest and
meaningless engagements with the police, or to street theater that, resistance action
p.115 however artfully, reduces serious issues to simplistic performances that
have no instructive influence”. 'VS'
p.115 “Communalists try to build lasting organizations and institutions that can
→ Pro-active Communalism!
play a socially transformative role in the real world”.

p.116 Conclusion: COMMUNALISM:

–> On eco-rationalism
“a means of transforming our existing irrational society into a rational one”.
= dialectical rationalism =
systemic rationalism
socio-ecological rationalism
READING NOTES October 17, 2010
Fall 2010 MA reading course Jean Doyon

KEY REFERENCES

• Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto

PENDING QUESTIONS ?