Comments, Questions and Criticisms of Green Anarchy,
Anarcho-Primitivism, Deep-Ecology and its Critics

1.Agriculture: Is it ‘Inherently Evil’ and if so, Why?

2.As a response to libcom’s critique of Primitivism,
most of the Third World is basically ‘Primitive’ in that the
majority of the poor are living effectively in the Iron Age,
obviously they practice agriculture; estimates for the
pre-Conquest population of the Americas run up to
200 million; Britain (as an island) could support 120,000
Hunter-Gatherers living in or near coastal areas while I
would estimate it could support 2 million people in
‘Sedentary non-Agrarian’ (sheep farming basically) communities.

3.If ‘Anarcho-Primitivism’ is to be basically reformist and not
revolutionary (i.e. over a generation) and is to avoid criticism
from Leftists, then it is to be ultimately voluntary. If it is to be
voluntary and not organized/ forced then
a) Why not have a voluntary/ gift economy i.e. anarcho-
communism,
b) Primitivism begs the same question as ‘Anarcho-Capitalism’
in that it requires everyone to be a Primitivist or a Capitalist,
again why not anarcho-communism
c) if large-scale co-operation is undesirable or a reflection of
evil industrialism, then how was Stonehenge built except
through large-scale co-operation over a large geographical
area (albeit the south-west of England and some of Wales)
d) with regards to the ‘individualism’ of
http://www.greenanarchy.info/left.php
then Individualism is possible through Industrialism, at least
in terms of producing all the products that were available a
hundred years ago with increased mechanization.

3.Deep-Ecology as a method is somewhat harder to criticize than
Anarcho-Primitivism as its voluntarism basically extends to a
restriction on lifestyle involving bearing fewer or no children.
This does produce something in favour of ‘Green Anarchy’ as
its exponents are obviously admitting to themselves what they’d
do in government so, from an Egoistic perspective, they are more
convinced ‘Enemies of the State’ than many self-proclaimed
Anarchists.

However, a scarcity mentality is even more evident than with the
Green Anarchies. In fact their reasoning almost does support
Capitalism, the main threat to the Ecological Balance, and
doesn’t say much in favour of Human Nature.

4.In favour of the above, yes we are going to have to sooner
or later give up on cars, planes and nuclear power. Some
of us are going to have to consume much less animal products
and, yes, agriculture’s reliance on fertilizer is unsustainable.
Also, we will have to cease reliance on mono-crops in favour
of more variety of foodstuffs being produced in the same area.

However, the problem with food supply isn’t agriculture, its
Global Capitalism, especially demand for cash-crops like coffee
as well as coca production and opium poppies which all take up
land which could be used to grow food crops.

5.To critics of so-called ‘Mass Society’ in favour of small
isolated communites-there is a lot to be said for the
workability of small communities, but this does not mean that
they isolate themselves from the rest of the world.

Communes (or whatever word one uses) do not have to be
geographical and, in an Anarchist society, one would be in
several: friends, neighbours, co-workers and correspondents.
What, mainly Workerist and Syndicalist, critics forget is
that a mass Anarchist society has never happened and,
unfortunately, membership of Trade Unions is never more
than a quarter of the working population in industrialized countries.

The CNT only achieved a membership of 2 million as a result
of war conditions. Compared to the membership of
‘Friendly Societies’, which totalled half of England in the 1700’s,
Syndicalism is very unpopular. I would even concede that, on the
hypothetical scenario of the 18^th century state collapsing, the
various FS’s
(which each had less than 200 members)
would have a better chance of running the economy than a
conglomeration of the reformist TU’s in a modern scenario.

http://libcom.org/thought/approaches/primitivism/

http://www.greenanarchy.info/left.php

http://www.greenanarchy.info/anarchy.php