
Continuing on from https://anarchistnews.org/content/new-column-anarchism-21st-century
In a steel mill outside Newark, a man loses three fingers when a safety valve fails. He’s sent home with half pay and a fresh union pin. In Detroit, a worker in the paint shop organizes with younger comrades—until he’s reassigned to janitorial overnight. In Chicago, a union vote passes, but the women on the line get little in return.
It’s the late 1940s. The war has ended, but the class war hasn’t. The factories are booming, the cities are choking, and the union halls cheer men in ties who promise "stability." Strikes still happen, but more often end in quiet compromises. Demands are narrowed. Leaders are salaried. Resistance becomes performance.
On the left, Stalinist factions enforce party discipline. Trotskyist splinters debate theory while strike funds dry up. Anarchists are scattered, forgotten, or dismissed. Across the globe, so-called People's Democracies install new rulers while silencing dissent.
The machine isn’t broken. It works. And it turns dissent into management.
This was the world Murray Bookchin came up through. He worked in foundries, engaged in labor struggles, and passed through the Communist Party’s youth wing—until disillusionment set in. The unions were bureaucratic. The parties were authoritarian. The workers wanted relief, not revolution. Bookchin turned away.
At that time, anarchism around the world was in retreat. The CNT-FAI had been crushed in Spain. Anarchists in the Soviet bloc were imprisoned or disappeared. In Latin America, where anarchism had once flourished in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, it was largely eclipsed by Marxist-Leninist parties and military dictatorships. In Asia, movements in Korea, China, and Japan were driven underground or absorbed by nationalist and communist revolutions. In Africa, early libertarian tendencies were marginalized under colonial rule and post-independence one-party states.
Where it lived on in the Anglosphere, it lived on through the work of small publishers like Freedom Press and the Libertarian Book Club, anarcho-pacifists like Paul Goodman, Alex Comfort, Herbert Read. In scattered remnants of the IWW. It survived in fragments of counter-culture.
Bookchin sought to re-found anarchism as a living political philosophy. He linked it with Enlightenment ethics, dialectical thinking, and ecological science. This collided with many radical currents:
- Marxists called him utopian.
- Anti-civilization thinkers like John Zerzan accused him of moral authoritarianism.
- Those focused on autonomy and counterculture rejected his attacks on what he called "lifestyle anarchism."
Still, he reshaped the conversation.
Bookchin argued that Enlightenment ideals—rational ethics, universal human freedom—had been twisted, but remained essential. He warned that anarchism without ethics or reason risked collapsing into relativism or mysticism.
He also reclaimed dialectics as a flexible method for understanding transformation. Rather than rigid stages, his dialectics emphasized emergence and complexity. Anarchism, he argued, needed structure—not blueprints, but coherence.
His theory of social ecology reframed ecological crisis as a symptom of hierarchy, not just industrialism. He clashed sharply with deep ecologists and anti-civilization currents, defending cities, technology, and rationality as domains worth transforming rather than abandoning.
He was also part of a broader effort to recover anarchist history. Alongside Sam Dolgoff, Paul Avrich, George Woodcock, and others, Bookchin helped ensure anarchism was not erased by Marxist or liberal narratives. But where others preserved, Bookchin fought. He elevated communalist traditions and rejected what he saw as regressions into egoism or primitivism.
His legacy is still alive. Social ecology influences municipalist movements and democratic confederalism. His call for public, ethical, and constructive anarchism remains relevant.
He didn’t do it alone—but he made anarchism harder to ignore.
Discussion Prompts
- Is there still something anarchists can use from Enlightenment thought?
- Can dialectical methods help anarchists think through transformation?
- Has social ecology been eclipsed in ecological anarchism? Should it be revived?
- What does it mean to recover tradition in a decentralized movement?
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Comments
anarchism, enlightenment thought, social ecology
xxx (not verified) Tue, 04/22/2025 - 04:47
Rereading Bakunin, it's clear he has the statest enlightenment ideology, which Bookchin criticises; in which humanity uses reason to liberate it's self from animality, ultimately realising true human natures.
However still, the idea that reason (lowercase r) provides a path out of our present condition is still the path of anarchism, the one Bookchin tried to eliminate.
I believe dielectrics is now outdated, being replaced in serious discussions with modern scientific approaches, notably everyone favourite complex systems theory. For example how dielectical biology lead to the complex and dynamical approach of eco deck.
It this stands to reason that Bookchin's social ecology, founded on dielectrics ought be superseded by ecology of freedom based on complex systems and the like.
Xx
Enlightenment
hirco (not verified) Tue, 04/22/2025 - 11:01
Enlightenment thinking is precisely what prompted this hellscape of modernity. It is reliant upon the idea of dominion over life through rational/empirical thought. It is precisely what has facilitated the reduction of everything to utility and the subjugation of nature through technology. It has withered life down to the profane and left us with a mechanical imitation that's bloomed into our current cybernetic hellscape. Nietzsche and Rimbaud prophesied this and no one listened.
I'm not sure about that
SirEinzige Tue, 04/22/2025 - 11:39
In reply to Enlightenment by hirco (not verified)
Like any complex strain of thought you have different tendencies. The Spinozan strain of the enlightenment was very different from the Cartesian one. The former at its best and most radical does not lead to the subjugation that you speak of.
It's not as if arational POMOism has delivered the goods either. I like to think that a separation should be made between the enlightenment and modernity. I don't think Spinoza for instance leads to modern thinking in the same way Descartes and Bacon do. The current right wing irrational post-modernism is making rationality look really good right now.
Nietzsche and Rimboud are what happen when you take the best of the enlightenment and just ditch christianity and morality.
> Rimboud Brow, I think you…
anon (not verified) Wed, 04/23/2025 - 14:18
In reply to I'm not sure about that by SirEinzige
> Rimboud
Brow, I think you need to go to the doctor and get checked for microplastic buildup. Everything you said is just, like, your (or "you're" as you'd likely write) opinion, maan. You're just pooping your pants in the corner and saying other, more proven and revered, peoples' pants are smellier. I realize that with 4chan dead you've got fewer places to spend every minute of your day but, brow... nobody can take you seriously except for your many sockpuppets (anon and named). YOU BECOME MORE EMBARRASSING EACH TIME YOU COMMENT.
Another poster here, no, he…
anon (not verified) Wed, 04/23/2025 - 18:35
In reply to > Rimboud Brow, I think you… by anon (not verified)
Another poster here, no, he is closer to understanding the foundational aspects of the psychological orientation within cultures. You Cartesian minded automatons have poop ratios which defy logic, YOU ARE THE SMELLIER ONE!
This is so laughable... I…
anon (not verified) Wed, 04/23/2025 - 18:50
In reply to Another poster here, no, he… by anon (not verified)
This is so laughable... I don't recall such shitty ass-licking of jumping in defense of this SE idiot ever since that Azano troll who was glorifying Emile back in the days.
"He warned that anarchism…
lumpy (not verified) Wed, 04/23/2025 - 14:09
"He warned that anarchism without ethics or reason risked collapsing into relativism or mysticism."
... guess we gotta give him that one! can confirm!
in regards to the enlightenment, my opinion is that the anarchist position always offers the solves to the problems of the enlightenment. it has many, many problems but it only has those problems because of the acute lack of anti-authoritarian analysis.
for example: monarchy bad. there's a very basic, simple idea from the enlightenment but without a deep dive about WHY monarchy bad, you just get new monarchs who are smart enough not to wear the stupid hat and loudly proclaim themselves the voice of god on earth. now they just say so privately, amongst their "friends" instead! HUGE improvement! nice job everyone! glad we sorted that out!
or take "the subjugation of nature through technology". nobody much likes freezing or starving to death but once technology frees some of us from that fate, we might need to be able to imagine a reason to pump the brakes before we make the whole planet in to a radioactive desert?
anyway, it all feels pretty intuitive to this grumpy old anarchist but then i look around and it seems i'm on a very different trip than everyone else
Unfortunately my dear…
Capt'aN Arch (not verified) Wed, 04/23/2025 - 17:56
Unfortunately my dear brothers and sisters, anarchism has not faired well emerging out of the 20th century slaughterhouse. And there are severe bad bodings for this 21st century, for nothing has changed, only become more cloned and crass in its delivery. Only a small group of radical anarch prophets have maintained a resilient and mutinous psychological resistance to the dumbing-down bombardment of trivial information tsunamis flooding the bilges of SocNet (Social Network) hegemony.
Batten down the hatches my hearties, only time will tell.
NO
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 07:19
No, there is nothing anarchists need from Enlightenment thought. It claims to be for a universal humanity but bases humanity on cis white European males. Anyone who doesn't fit this category is unfit for consideration, such that Indigenous peoples, Africans, women, queers, the disabled, the natural world, . . . , are subjected to its violence without access to its protection. And if you think this is about identity politics you are very much missing the point. The spread of European enlightenment thought across the globe has to do with the horror of the violence it is happily willing to commit, not with the truth of its philosophy.
As for Reason, how reasonable is it to operate for 500+ years digging up and burning your only home because you can't find g_d in it? Then, when this mistake is no longer possible to ignore, and attempting repair would be most reasonable, you again decide to dwell in ignorance and continue to burn and foul your home.
Any anarchism still uncritically clinging to european enlightenment thought is not going to survive.
"It claims to be for a…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 17:04
In reply to NO by anon (not verified)
"It claims to be for a universal humanity but bases humanity on cis white European males."
You're an ignoramus retard. One could say the exact same as an excuse to reject philosophy as a whole.
Some of the most prominent feminist thinkers like Wollestonecraft were from the Enlightement movement. Also I'd like to see other rebuttals of universalism that doesn't come from some batshit racist semi-Malthusian POV claiming that "some humans are more equal than others... because racism!". There's a quite a few wrongs with Enlightement as its thinkers were not all on the same page, but rejecting it all is like throwing the baby with the bathwater.
Besides the funny trolling…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 20:36
In reply to NO by anon (not verified)
Besides the funny trolling above, didja fucking know the whole religious order couldn't be put into question before Enlightement? "Atheism" what was that? And "anarchism"!? Go down to the dungeon you antichrist! You shall work and mary and prey and obey as it is your duty to the Lord and the Nation, you dog.
"The spread of European enlightenment thought across the globe has to do with the horror of the violence it is happily willing to commit"
When was that? The Thirty Years War? The invasion and genocide of the Americas by Euro monarchies? The Succession War? Also were the Nazis the product of universalist, humanitarian Enlightement!? Or any other genocidal project since the rise of Western republics?
What a mind job.
"Besides the funny trolling…
anon (not verified) Sat, 04/26/2025 - 18:04
In reply to Besides the funny trolling… by anon (not verified)
"Besides the funny trolling above,,," huh? But I agree with the gist of your comment.
"were the Nazis the product…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:46
In reply to Besides the funny trolling… by anon (not verified)
"were the Nazis the product of universalist, humanitarian (sic) Enlightement!?"
Yes.
Nope they weren't. They were…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 11:06
In reply to "were the Nazis the product… by anon (not verified)
Nope they weren't. They were a product of Malthus/Gobineau's ultra-conservative theories and monarchist revivalism. It's got nothing to do with Enlightement, save perhaps Hobbes to some extent.
did not the nazis use state…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 11:10
In reply to Nope they weren't. They were… by anon (not verified)
did not the nazis use state of the art war and genocide technology brought to you by steam, petrol, and electrical first principles (rationally designed and applied, ofc)?
if the whole religious order…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 11:57
In reply to Besides the funny trolling… by anon (not verified)
if the whole religious order couldn't be put into question before the Enlightenment how did the Enlightenment come to be?
How can the post omit the…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 14:11
How can the post omit the fact that Murray wound up rejecting anarchism? Far from surviving into the 21st century, Bookchin's anarchism didn't even survive Bookchin himself.
Saying “Bookchin’s anarchism…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 15:04
In reply to How can the post omit the… by anon (not verified)
Saying “Bookchin’s anarchism didn’t even survive Bookchin himself” is a cute dunk, but it’s a pretty shallow read of what actually happened. Bookchin rejected certain trends in anarchism, mainly the individualist, lifestyle-focused stuff because he thought it couldn’t build anything. He didn’t wake up one day and say, “Oh no, collective self-management and stateless societies are bad actually.” If anything, his later work is still rooted in anarchism, but he’s pissed at how anarchism was being practiced around him at that time. Which is fair because a lot of it was just cosplay. Judging by your comment a lot of it still is.
Rooted in anarchism? The man…
anon (not verified) Sun, 04/27/2025 - 23:53
In reply to Saying “Bookchin’s anarchism… by anon (not verified)
Rooted in anarchism? The man adored and fetishized ancient Athens. A patriarchal slave-based state little different than the Confederate States of America. Let the mediocre fool die already.
Bookchin's rejection of anarchy
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:05
In reply to Rooted in anarchism? The man… by anon (not verified)
As well as host affinities for Athenian slaveocracy & zionism, his rejection of anarchism in the 1990s is well documented by one of his closest collaborators.
https://usa.anarchistlibraries.net/library/janet-biehl-bookchin-breaks-…
"Those of us who knew Murray personally understood that he had privately rejected anarchism as such in 1995, around the time he wrote “Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism.” In that booklet he essentially was saying, If anarchism continues in this vein, I’ll have to leave the movement. But in reality he had already left, emotionally and intellectually."
Note the frequent objections to his interest in participating in electoral politics.
Technically speaking,…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 05:01
In reply to Saying “Bookchin’s anarchism… by anon (not verified)
Technically speaking, Bookchin was a fascist, or what one could call inverted socialism. One must consider the psychological framework and the essential system of logical determination dedicated to organization and maintenance and use of human energy to define "doctrine", and unfortunately, fascist, nazi, communism, syndicalism, corporatism, Catholic, socialist ALL fall into the same Western blueprint for social management.
What is not a Western form…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 07:41
In reply to Technically speaking,… by anon (not verified)
What is not a Western form of social management... Monarchies, theocracies and other proto-totalitarian or tyrannical hierarchies?
There's some anarchy in more primitive societies, there's also piracy which may or may not be anarchistic, China has seen its own anarchistic ventures before the '30s and I have no doubts the "Zomia" could be a thing, but let's not overlook the predominance of ultra-conservative arrangements in non-Western societies, okay?
The edgy niche subculture…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 14:48
The edgy niche subculture type and the online LARPing revolutionary types seem to be the most prominent survivors. Both survive on a steady diet of social media virtue signaling and not much else so remain popular with the young folks.
Revolutionary Anarchism
Wayne Price@ (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 15:20
Some of these Comments seem to show contempt for anarchism, past and present. Rather than learn from previous anarchists they want to re-invent the wheel, start all over from scratch. This only guarantees repeating the errors made by earlier anarchists and failing to learn the positive lessons they have to teach.
Bookchin made significant contributions to anarchist theory, especially in integrating anarchism with ecological and environmental knowledge (continuing the work of Kropotkin and Elisee Reclus). However he also had his limitations.
The commenters seem to agree with Bookchin in rejecting the goal of an international revolution of the working class and all oppressed. This was the tradition of Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, Goldman, Makhno, Durutti--the anarchy-syndicalists and anarchy-communists. Instead many current anarchists have a program that harks back to Proudhon: gradual, mostly nonviolent, building of alternate institutions.
For anyone interested in considering a revolutionary perspective on Bookchin's approach, see:
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/28832?search_text=wayne+price
"Some of these Comments seem…
anon (not verified) Fri, 04/25/2025 - 16:53
In reply to Revolutionary Anarchism by Wayne Price@ (not verified)
"Some of these Comments seem to show contempt for anarchism, past and present."
So sez our infamous resident anarcho-nationalist/populist...
“In Africa, early…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 07:36
“In Africa, early libertarian tendencies were marginalized under colonial rule and post-independence one-party states.”
What tendencies were crushed & how?
Didn't ya know!? The entire…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:07
In reply to “In Africa, early… by anon (not verified)
Didn't ya know!? The entire world was a libertarian utopia before the Euro empires invaded!!! Bookchin and Krapotkin sed so!
Except they didn't
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:17
In reply to Didn't ya know!? The entire… by anon (not verified)
Except they didn't
tired of the anews cabal…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:29
tired of the anews cabal deciding whats allowed on this website. doesnt feel anarchist at all. yall posture as open but are anything but.
it's their website. forgoing…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:59
In reply to tired of the anews cabal… by anon (not verified)
it's their website. forgoing moral platitud, one may notice it's pretty anarchist to do whatever you want with your own shit, including ruthless censorship
the humorless trolls here don't get this. there's no moderation conspiracy. just pissed of individuals removing the birdshit from their rear windshields
Y'all both fuck need stop…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 09:59
In reply to it's their website. forgoing… by anon (not verified)
Y'all both fuck need stop complaining AND simping. We true nihilo-anarchs are impervious to these mundanities!
no, we do the pissing ;)…
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 12:03
In reply to Y'all both fuck need stop… by anon (not verified)
no, we do the pissing ;)
fucking sophist pussy
BEEP
anon (not verified) Mon, 04/28/2025 - 13:35
In reply to no, we do the pissing ;)… by anon (not verified)
BEEP
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