From ResearchGate by Alexander Dunlap
The solutions are already here: tactics for ecological revolution from below, by Peter Gelderloos, London, Pluto Press, 2022, 204 pp. + Endnotes and Index, £16.99 (Paper Back), ISBN 9780745345116
It should be apparent by now that governments are not taking ecological and climate crisis seriously. If this statement sounds controversial, then The Solutions are Already Here: Tactics for Ecological Revolution from Below by Peter Gelderloos emerges as a valuable book. Participating in various societies-in-movement for over two decades, Gelderloos remains an influential movement intellectual. This is Gelderloos' eighth book that, like his others, foregrounds anarchist perspectives. How Nonviolence Protects the State (2007), Anarchy Works (2010), The Failure of Nonviolence: From the Arab Spring to Occupy (2013) and Worshiping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation (2017) provides an important anti-authoritarian voice from the frontlines of various struggles. The Solutions are Already Here offers a proposal to counter the dominating, unrealistic and halfhearted authoritarian programs on the table today. Covering an immense amount of ground, the book asks important questions, reveals existing anticapitalist practices and imagines revolutionary socio-ecological transformations. While potentially having some stylistic drawbacks for academics, this work can remain a source of inspiration and reflection for a wide audience, from hardened academics to Extinction Rebellion partisans. This book contributes greatly to a praxis of taking socio-ecological catastrophe seriously.
The Solutions are Already Here begins by foregrounding how governments and corporations have created the present ecological catastrophe. Artfully weaving the connection between colonial warfare, industrial development and present-day pollution, Gelderloos links the reproductive failures of Orca whales to pesticide runoff and Boeing Aerospace Company dumping PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) into the Washington state watershed, a situation made possible by the US's war waged against the Great Plains Native nations (1850s-1870s) and the buffalo that were fundamental to their food ecology. This counterinsurgency war opened up the West for intensive colonization, with the transcontinental railroad and boom of industrial agriculture that culminated in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and subsequent agricultural disasters, biodiversity degradation and Orca population declines. Gelderloos, echoing Hannah Holleman's work, links local and national ecological catastrophes together, arguing: 'The cause of global ecological crisis is colonialism' (34), as colonialism is the process that entrenches industrial capitalism. Gelderloos roots himself in the anarchist theory of 'social war', defined
as an extension on class war to deploy an analysis of how all of society - even the organization and ideas of the workers' movement - was structured to pacify and recuperate resistance and perpetuate the needless parade of alienation and commodification. (22)
Linking in this chapter government and corporate roles in crises of extreme weather, oceanic dead zones, the Superfund system (which is charged with remediating 40,000 toxic sites across the US), and toxifying mining, the author also reminds us that the US alone is colonized by 160,000 square km of lawn and 158,000 square km of pavement (4).
Unflinching criticism continues in Chapter 2, which covers an enormous breath of topics. The chapter moves between critiquing 'climate reductionism - reducing the ecological crisis to a simple (and technocratic) question of atmospheric carbon' (38) - and revealing the negative role of NGOs. Gelderloos reminds readers that colonial-capitalist induced climate change has been an issue for a long time, noting anarchist geographer Peter Kropotkin in 1876 made an early connection between industrial pollution and the melting of Siberian glaciers. Gelderloos demonstrates the complicity of corporate science, NGOs and so-called 'low-carbon' infrastructures in socio-ecological catastrophe, calling into question government policy failures, huge salary increases among high-level staff at large NGOs, and the promises of hydrological, solar, geothermal, nuclear and wind power. 'Are we buying more time for endangered species, threatened habitats, and vulnerable human populations', Gelderloos asks (55), or 'buying more time for governments and companies to continue enriching themselves and to slowly wean themselves off of fossil fuels when it is convenient to their profit margins and geopolitical strategies?' This turns to juxtaposing the materialism and anthropocentrism of Western science with Buddhist, Sami, Mushkegowuk, Metis-Cree, Dine, Hawai'ian and Sioux approaches to nonhuman natures, existences and law. This theme is animated by a vignette by Adrianna Quena from the food and agricultural moment in Venezuela, which discusses the problem of the 'expert', which so often harbors the dominant prejudices and imperatives of the state (64). Adrianna reveals how the expert obstructs socio-ecological harmony. The remainder of the chapter threads a narrative between different land defenders, anti-border actions and Indigenous resistance, while discussing the realities of repression they suffer and the role NGOs play to consolidate this repression.
Chapter 3 dives into the practices already taking place to support ecosystems and people. The chapter leaps between different contexts, offering interviews of people in struggle in West Kalimantan (Indonesia), Sami territory (in Finno-Scandinavia), and the Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) Zone to Defend (ZAD) in France, before transitioning into examining 'food sovereignty and ecological healing' (110). There is significantly more time dedicated to the interview with the ZAD, which transitions to exploring food sovereignty through interviews with Erahsto Felicio of the Teia dos Povos network (Brazil), the anarchist collective Cultive Resistencia (Brazil) and Ana Felicien in Venezuela. Gelderloos then discusses pastoralism in Catalunya, interviewing Edu to discuss the hubris and violence of policy, the agro-climatic benefits of herding and the struggle for commoning. Finally, the chapter switches to examine urban struggles. This consists of reviewing various urban uprisings and resulting political dynamics within them, criticizing the approaches of politicians and NGOs and their reduction of social justice and decolonization to 'buzz words' (132). This includes an interview with chaotic forest gardeners in the US accessing federal funds, the Anarchist Federation of Gran Canaria (FAGC), and Greek anarchists conducting migrant support actions. The interviews highlight the state as the root of socio-ecological problems, revealing the importance of territorial knowledge amid the already existing remedies and practices mitigating ecological catastrophe.
Reflecting on the hardships of repression, Chapter 4 discusses 'common characteristics' across struggles that should spread and connect with each other (147). This entails brief explorations of 'territoriality', 'ecocentrism', 'survival', 'lawlessness', 'communal being', 'heterogeneity', 'intersectionality', 'anticolonialism' and 'autonomy' (148-152). Gelderloos then analyzes the shortcomings of nonviolence (research), and proposals for 'Green New Deal(s)' and 'War Communism'. 'The New Deal set the stage for the weakness of revolutionary movements after World War II', explains Gelderloos, and '[t]hat's exactly what the Green New Deal does. It prevents a real solution, it kills off our best chance for a better world, in order to save capitalism' (160). This turns into a critique of Andreas Malm's state-centered proposition of 'War Communism' - remembering the Soviet experience and how states, thinking of Venezuela and Bolivia, inject the program of 'technocratic control' and 'centralization' that usurp and appropriate the energies of social movements (164). 'Governments are machines designed to allow the upper classes to exert pressure on the rest of society', explains Gelderloos. This point is extended by revisiting Felicio, who reflects on state interventions into agroecology. Experts, Felicio explains,
don't see the potential of an agro-ecosystem beyond what is written in their manual from the Netherlands or Canada. Their recipe requires bringing in almost everything from the outside, sweeping away that which already exists, forgetting local knowledge, the comprehension of the relation that exist there .... (166)
The chapter continues Gelderloos's critiques of governmental institutions, NGOs and academics, while stressing the importance of 'the decentralization of intelligence' to develop revolutionary transformations (169).
The last chapter advocates 'situated imagining' (173); here Gelderloos imagines a future situated in Cataluyna. This imaginative revolutionary description puts into practice the contentions of the book, from banning (and planned decommissioning) of extractive industries, the 'spontaneous regrowth' of marine and forest ecosystems as a result (174-178), all the way to appropriating roads, airports, luxury condominiums, energy systems and productive industries. The author attempts to provide as much detail as possible to what a revolutionary transformation might look like, addressing climate change, income inequality, extractive industries, xenophobia and racism. Following this imagined future, Gelderloos offers a review of judicial processes. Punitive justice procedures are reviewed, starting with the Nuremberg trial as an example, but also the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and, to a lesser degree, Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission and Canada's 'reconciliation bandwagon' (197). '[T]here can be no justice if the power relations that generated oppression and unleashed atrocities are not dismantled', argues Gelderloos. The conclusion asks critical questions for transformational praxis, meanwhile encouraging the switch from technocratic approaches to the crisis towards 'the networking of thousands of empowered territories, each one approaching the horizon of a complex imagined future that prioritizes the health and happiness of the territory and its inhabitants' (199).
The Solutions are Already Here engages, stimulates and, consequently, revives marginalized events and struggles lost on popular and academic audiences. This book is timely, important and necessary, yet academic readers should brace for its popular stylistic prose. The book, undoubtedly, would have benefited from being broken into ten chapters, rather than five. The holistic approach of the book begins to feel exhausting in Chapter 2 and 3, yet the highly engaging and insightful content mitigates these feelings. This approach, likewise, leaves the book open to accusations of being superficial in its topic development. Related, the book would have benefited from a brief methodological discussion and providing more context and background to the Venezuelan, Brazilian and Indonesian interviews, or offering more sustained attention to specific NGO and armed group dynamics or the various struggles mentioned (Sami, Mapuche, Wet'suwet'en, Hambach, Cheran K'eri, etc.). This lack of sustained attention will likely remain a gripe from audiences working with and close to these struggles, even if they will agree - in whole or in part - with the concerns and analysis presented by the author.
This stylistic approach, however, should not undermine the book's message and strengths. Gelderloos makes visible numerous life-or-death struggles across the globe ignored or sanitized by the mass media. Gelderloos' narrative gives acknowledgment, remembrance and honor to so many struggles that are frequently invisibilized and marginalized (also within academia). This, in itself, makes this book a worthwhile read. For instance, in 2016, I attended an event titled: Global Governance/politics, Climate Justice & Agrarian/social Justice: Linkages and Challenges. I recall being shocked how combative political struggle within Europe were largely ignored within the conference, and it was only Olivier De Schutter - the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food - who supportively acknowledged the ZAD! It was peculiar how many people were not talking about the ZADs spreading across France, NoTAV (No to the High Speed Train) and NoTAP (No Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) struggles in Italy, NoMAT (No Very High Tension lines) in Catalonia or the Hambach Forest struggle 3.5 hours southeast from there in Germany, which are all active land and anti-infrastructure struggles.
This book thus has four important threads: (anti-authoritarian) anti-colonial struggle, the limitations of Western Science, the pacifying role of NGOs and the importance of imagining revolutionary socio-ecological horizons through active struggle. Altogether, this book provides an intervention against the authoritarian solutions promoted by governments and Leftist academics alike. Space does not permit me to elaborate on each thread, but I will discuss the problematic relation of NGOs to land defenders. Drawing on examples including the 1995 murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Gelderloos reveals the stabilizing - or counter insurrectionary - role NGOs play by only categorizing certain political action (e.g. non-violent and mass movement) as acceptable, while directly and indirectly criminalizing militant self-defense. 'By not celebrating every bit as vociferously the lives and the resistance of those who make the hard choice to resist with illegal and revolutionary methods', Gelderloos explains,
these NGOs are signaling who is legitimate and who is subhuman, they are creating the division between good actors and bad actors that the militaries, death squads, and counterinsurgency experts rely on, and they are doing so in a way that most people who think they care about the environment or human rights will find credible.
In response, we must call into question the organizational role of not only NGOs, but also the academy, in terms of how we relate to conflict, impose normative ideologies and conceive of political struggle. Violent struggles are not ideal and should be avoided, yet the book raises important questions regarding differential relationships to conflict, institutional power and devising cultures of resistance capable of advancing revolutionary socio-ecological transformations. How can we empathize with those who are fighting back, if not learn to take an active part in resistance ourselves?
Alexander Dunlap
for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway
Comments
See, book reviews can be
sporks (not verified) Sat, 07/23/2022 - 08:40
See, book reviews can be informative, critical and readable!
Saying "Violent struggles are not ideal and should be avoided" as a conclusion though, is odd after all that. We are always already in violent struggle, it's just we have the big weapons pointed our way, and trying to be 'good' by not using violence in return is, frankly, a sort of suicide. Still, there is a time & place for particular tactics, yes?
"it's just we have the big
anon (not verified) Sat, 07/23/2022 - 14:38
In reply to See, book reviews can be by sporks (not verified)
"it's just we have the big weapons pointed our way, and trying to be 'good' by not using violence in return is, frankly, a sort of suicide"
=====
--it's just we have the big tables of food pointed and handshakes pointed our way, and trying to be 'bad' by not using friendly gestures and compassion in return is, frankly, a sort of anti-capitalist/corporatist methodology. ---
Auto-correct typo
anon (not verified) Sat, 07/23/2022 - 14:41
In reply to "it's just we have the big by anon (not verified)
Auto-correct typo dictatorship!
--a sort of capitalist/corporate methodology--
Friendly gestures and
sporks (not verified) Sat, 07/23/2022 - 17:07
In reply to "it's just we have the big by anon (not verified)
Friendly gestures and compassion to the friendly & compassionate.
No one said otherwise.
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