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Libertarian Labor Review #14
Winter 1992-93, pages 29-30
The Syndicalist Ecology of Graham Purchase
Review by Jeff Stein
Anarchist Society & Its Practical Realization by Graham Purchase,
1990. See Sharp Press (Box 6118, San Francisco CA 94101), 15 pp.,
$1.50.
Anarchist Organisation: Suggestions and Possiblities by Graham
Purchase, 1991. Black Swan Press (c/o Jura Books, 110 Crystal St.,
Petersham 2049, Sydney Australia), 31 pp.
Social Ecology, Anarchism, & Trades Unionism by Graham Purchase,
1991. Monty Miller Press (Box 92 Broadway, Sydney 2007, Australia),
12 pp.
Graham Purchase is one of the most prolific writers in the
Australian anarchist movement, having been a frequent contributor
to the Rebel Worker and other journals for many years. These three
pamphlets represent his attempt to update anarchism by combining it
with radical ecology. Since Purchase is also an anarcho-
syndicalist, these pamphlets will no doubt interest many LLR
readers.
The first, Anarchist Society, is a fairly good summary of the
classical anarchist position: the state as an obstacle to liberty
and equality, voluntary association as a superior form of social
organization, the free commune and workers' self-management as
alternatives to the state, etc. To these standard themes, however,
Purchase adds an ecological argument, pointing out the disruption
of the ecosystem by imperialist expansion promoted by the state. As
a solution to this environmental destruction, he suggests that
"people will begin to organize themselves not according to
electoral and state boundaries but rather according to natural
geographical or ecological ones....[in order]....to persuade people
to deeply identify with the natural ecology of their local place -
and protect that place whilst devloping industrial and ecological
practices that are specifically adapted to its ecological
characteristics." (p.9)
In Anarchist Organisation, Purchase makes an even more
emphatic case for the addition of "ecological regionalism" as a
component of any future society. While suggesting that there would
still be a possiblity for communities and workplaces to federate
for cultural and economic reasons, Purchase insists that "political
space" should also be demarcated by "Changes in (a) species
distribution, (b) climate, (c) drainage and rainfall and (d)
physiography [and] the empirical data needed to produce a more or
less scientifically arrived at picture of natural or bio-regional
boundary." (p.20)
"Bio-regionalism" has a nice ring to it. It implies not only
decentralism, but a concern for the ecology of an area as well.
Yet, contrary to Purchase, one suspects that "bio-regionalism"
would deliver neither in practice. To divide up human society into
political units based upon the prevailing flora and fauna in the
area makes no more sense and is just as arbitrary as politicians
drawing straight lines on a map. It is a contradiction of the
anarchist principles of voluntary association and self-management,
since it would take away the right of people to federate according
to their self-perceived common interests and instead force them
into borders dictated by so-called "environmental scientists." Nor
is there any reason to suppose that once forced to live in these
"scientifically" contrived bio-regions, people would acquire any
more concern for the surrounding ecology than they had before.
Worse yet, bio-regional politics might even produce the opposite
effect: an anti-environmental backlash against what people would
see as a paternalistic attitude by the bio-regionalists.
Undoubtedly in some cases, communities do have strong
ecological reasons for federating. All the communities in a river
valley ringed by mountains, for example, would have a common
interest in coordinating their industries to control air and water
pollution, and soil erosion. On the other hand, a multitude of
communities spread out over the Russian steppes or the plains of
the midwestern U.S., not sharing the same water resources and
having less of an air quality problem, would not have as great a
degree of common ecological concerns, eventhough they were all part
of the same "bio-region." Rather than dictate to people what
political units they must live in, it would be better to allow
communities to decide these things for themselves. Where common
ecological interests are important, we can assume they will
federate without needing to be told to do so.
Social Ecology, a collection of essays on the works of social
ecologist and anarchist, Murray Bookchin, is by far the best
pamphlet of the three. Purchase gives Bookchin credit for his many
insights about ecology and its relationship to a free society, but
takes him to task for his anti-worker bias. As the author shows,
Bookchin's rejection of the labor movement is often based upon
stereotypes and a lumping together of all types of unionism, from
conservative business unions to the anarcho-syndicalists, as though
they were the same thing. Even worse, is Bookchin's rather sloppy
sociology, which by identifying workers as only those directly
engaged in full-time manufacturing, defines the working class right
out of existence. As Purchase argues, service workers are every bit
as much working class as their manufacturing brethren and in the
modern economy, need labor organization as much as ever:
How is one to travel or phone another city in Bookchin's
ideal world of liberated, self-sufficient city communes
unless we have to repair the roads, railway or telephone
cables? ...Economic and industrial life is unfortunately
global in nature and the idea that one could organize an
inter-continental railway network from the individual
town or city is as absurd as the proposition that one
could organize social life from the factory floor - an
idea that he mistakenly credits to industrial-
syndicalism.
The industrial proletariat, although it may certainly
never represent the force that it did a century ago is
hardly likely to disappear and Anarchism simply states
that in the absence of capitalism and the nation state
the workers in each industry must organize their affairs
for the good of themselves, their city, their ecological
region and the whole of humanity. (Pp. 5-6)
Bookchin, on one hand, points out all the short-comings of the
labor movement to conclude that it no longer has any revolutionary
potential. On the other hand, he glosses over environmental
opportunism and romanticizes the so-called "green movement." The
point that Purchase makes is not to deny the potential of the
ecology movement, but that it is not necessarily strong enough to
bring about social change by itself. Therefore the ecology movement
should not cut itself off from its working class supporters by
claiming that the greens alone represent the needs and interests of
everyone, and the workers are just a minority "interest group."
Graham Purchase in these pamphlets, and his numerous magazine
articles, has made a serious attempt to lay the foundation for a
synthesis of the classical anarcho-syndicalism of yesterday and the
emerging ecological anarchism of tommorrow. If it is not always
possible to agree with him in all the particulars, his works
certainly lead in the right directions.