Murray Bookchin

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Murray Bookchin 1999

Murray Bookchin [ ˈmɝːi ˈbʊktʃɪn ] (born  January 14, 1921 in New York City , †  July 30, 2006 in Burlington , Vermont ) was an American libertarian socialist and the founder of anarchist and ecological thinking (see eco-anarchism ). He was the director and co-founder of the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE) in Plainfield , Vermont and a professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah . Bookchin was the author of numerous articles and books in Germany, among others, in Karin Kramer Verlag , in Still publisher and its magazine Black thread appeared.

Life

Bookchin's parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. At the age of nine he became a member of a communist youth group. Disaffected by the movement's authoritarian character, however, he resigned a few years later.

In New Jersey, Bookchin worked in a foundry and as a union activist before joining the US Army. He later worked in the auto industry, but left the industry and the unions after the General Motors strike of 1946.

His interests shifted to the environment and writing, he joined the circle around the magazine Contemporary Issues , former Trotskyists around the German émigré Joseph Weber. He published his first articles in Contemporary Issues (and in parallel in the German-language edition Zeiten Der Zeit ). a. to food chemistry. Bookchin is therefore one of the pioneers of the ecological movement. As a theorist, he felt closely connected to this movement, but he believed that the domination of nature by humans was always based on hierarchies and striving for power. In rejecting hierarchy and rule, Bookchin developed an anarchist ethic and philosophy .

Bookchin valued German philosophy from Immanuel Kant to Theodor W. Adorno . Trained in the Spanish Civil War and the Spanish Revolution , he developed a social ecology that is based on decentralization , dual counterpower, self-administration and self-organization , rejects the old-style class struggle and instead relies on neighborhood work, citizens' assemblies and direct democracy .

An important model for him was the polis of the Greek cities in antiquity , whose citizens' assemblies and equal decision-making options for full male citizens he saw as exemplary, even though he was aware that this early variant of democracy excluded women and was also based on slavery. In addition to this downside, however, he saw features that seemed worth imitating. He published his ideas and theories in books, interviews and articles.

From 1977 to 1981 he taught at Ramapo College in New Jersey.

In Burlington, Bookchin was the initiator of a green movement that dealt critically and negatively with the US Green Party . In 1971 he took part in the founding of the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, which exists to this day and temporarily became the organizational center of an international movement for " Libertarian Communalism ". The climax of these attempts at organizing a pragmatic anarchism that organizes itself internationally politically at the local level were the congresses in Lisbon in 1998 and Vermont in 1999. The approaches from Lisbon (August 26-28, 1998) could not be continued a year later than to "American" people who were potentially interested were excluded from participation in a screening process. The fear of having to receive saboteurs as participants at the conference ultimately led to the failure of the 2nd international conference and referred the ideas back to the interested groups. Nevertheless, the initiative showed that it is possible to discuss a provider internationally, to coordinate steps and to come to common positions and actions that could advance a new libertarian movement internationally.

He became known in Marxist circles for his criticism of the pure Marxist doctrine. Bookchin was a radical anti-capitalist and advocate of decentralization. His ideas and writings had a great influence on the anti-globalization movement and on the US ecological movement , as well as on the radical wing of the US-American Greens.

The democratic confederalism of Abdullah Öcalan is a model of society inspired by Murray Bookchin, which was included in the party program of the Kurdistan Workers' Party at a meeting in May 2005.

Fonts

  • Our Synthetic Environment , 1962 (published under the pseudonym Lewis Herber )
  • The forms of freedom. Essays on ecology and anarchism (including anarchism in the post-scarcity society , some remarks on "classical" anarchism and modern ecology , the May / June events in France 1968 ). Verlag Büchse der Pandora, Telgte-Westbevern 1977
  • Listen to a Marxist! (in: Under the plaster is the beach Volume 1, pages 49-109), Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 1975, 2nd edition 1980
  • The boundaries of the city (1977), Jakobsohn Verlag, Berlin
  • Murray Bookchin, Luciano Lanza u. a., ed. by Wolfgang Haug: self-administration. The basis of a liberated society , anyway publishing house, Reutlingen 1979
  • Hierarchy and rule (including: The way out of the ecological crisis , self-administration and new technology , Beyond Neo-Marxism ), Karin Kramer Verlag, 1981.
  • Nature and Consciousness , Winddruck Verlag 1982
  • The ecology of freedom. We don't need hierarchies. Beltz Verlag, 1985, ISBN 3-407850573 .
  • 1990: The reorganization of society. Paths to an ecological future. (en: Remaking Society , Boston 1990.) anyway publishing house, Grafenau 1992, ISBN 3-922209351 .
  • Libertarian Municipalism: An Overview. In: Green Perspektives, No November 24, 1991
  • The agony of the city. Nevertheless publisher, Grafenau 1996, ISBN 3-92220967X .
  • Re-enchanting Humanity: A Defense of the Human Spirit Against Antihumanism, Misanthropy, Mysticism and Primitivism , London / New York 1995, ISBN 0-304-32843-X
  • The question of the future of cities , in: Schwarzer Faden, No. 50 (1994)
  • Anarchism has become very trendy , interview with Bookchin in Burlington / Vermont by Wolfgang Haug, in: Schwarzer Faden, No. 52 (1995)
  • The Murray Bookchin Reader ( Introduction ), Edited by Janet Biehl. Cassell, London 1997, ISBN 0-304-33874-5 .
  • The unity of ideal and practice , in: Schwarzer Faden No. 61 (1997)
  • We are not at the mercy of the blind process of evolution (on communism , anarchism and biocentrism; an interview by Jutta Ditfurth / Manfred Zieran), brochure FAU Moers / Verlag Syndikat A, Moers 2004.
  • Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left (Interviews and Essays, 1993-1998) , AK Press, Edinburgh / San Francisco 1999, ISBN 1-873176-35-X .
  • Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971) , AK Press Edinburgh / Oakland 2004 ISBN 1-904859-06-2 .
  • The next revolution. Libertarian Communalism and the Future of the Left . Edited by Debbie Bookchin and Blair Taylor, Unrast, Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-89771-594-3 .

literature

  • Janet Biehl: The social ecofeminism and other essays (approach influenced by Bookchin, translated by Wolfgang Haug) anyway publishing house, Grafenau 1991, ISBN 3-922209-34-3 .
  • Janet Biehl : Libertarian communalism. The political practice of social ecology (including an interview with Bookchin), anyway Verlag, Grafenau 1998, ISBN 3-931786-07-2, review in GWR No. 222 and No. 232
  • Cornelia Wicht: The ecological anarchism Murray Bookchins - an introductory text, Frankfurt / M .: Verlag Freie Gesellschaft, 1980. - 73 pp. (1st edition), DA-L0001420.
  • Rolf Cantzen: Less State - More Society. (Freedom – Ecology – Anarchism) , however publishing house, Grafenau 1995 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-922209-81-5 .
  • Peter Marshall: Bookchin and the Ecology of Freedom , in: “Demanding the Impossible. A History of Anarchism, "Fontana Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-00-686245-4 .
  • Selva Varengo: La rivoluzione ecologica. Il pensiero libertario di Murray Bookchin , Zero in condotta, Milano 2007, ISBN 978-88-95950-00-6 .

About Libertarian Communalism:

  • Wolfgang Haug (Lisbon report): Libertarian communalism - a renewal of anarchism , in: Schwarzer Faden No. 66 (1998)
  • Wolfgang Haug: The new movement for a libertarian communalism is about to be in crisis. The Plainfield Conference 1999 , in: Schwarzer Faden, No. 69 (1999)

Web links

Commons : Murray Bookchin  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Murray Bookchin  - Quotes
Obituaries
Texts by Bookchin
Essays on Bookchin's theories

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See a detailed text under [1] Accessed December 17, 2019.
  2. ↑ https://monde-diplomatique.de/artikel/!5430635
  3. ↑ Therein u. a .: The concept of social ecology, the emergence of hierarchy.
  4. ↑ Bookchin 1990 (redesign) - with a 42-page bibliography, 1950 to 1991.
  5. ↑ Therein u. a .: From politics to the raison d'être, social ecology of urbanization, guidelines for a new local policy, interview with Bookchin.
personal data
SURNAME Bookchin, Murray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lewis Herber; MSShiloh; Robert Keller
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anarchist
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 2006
Place of death Burlington , Vermont , United States