Murray Bookchin

[[File:Murray Bookchin in Burlington.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Murray Bookchin in Burlington, VT in 1990]]{{anarchism|1}}
'''Murray Bookchin''' {{lived|January 14, 1921|July 30, 2006}} was an [[United States|American]] social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. A pioneer of social ecology, Bookchin greatly influenced modern day anarchist, libertarian socialist, and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books covering topics in politics, philosophy, history, urban affairs, and ecology. Among the most important were ''Our Synthetic Environment'' (1962), ''Post-Scarcity Anarchism'' (1971), ''The Ecology of Freedom'' (1982) and ''Urbanization Without Cities'' (1987).<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/aug/08/guardianobituaries.usa "Murray Bookchin Obituary"], ''[[The Guardian]]''</ref>

Murray Bookchin was a prominent social theorist whose work on libertarian municipalism and social ecology has influenced various environmental and political movements.

Despite being known for his contribution to [[anarchism]], he broke with the label and pursued his own philosophy known as [[Communalism]] in the late 1990s.<ref>[http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/janet-biehl-bookchin-breaks-with-anarchism.html "Bookchin Breaks with Anarchism"], Janet Biehl</ref>

==Influence on Rojava==

Bookchin's work had a huge influence on the thought of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan founded the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey under rigid Marxist-Leninist lines in the 1980s, but broke off into libertarian anarchism in 1999 after reading Bookchin's work in prison. Drawing heavily on Bookchin's libertarian socialist idea of [[communalism]], Öcalan fashioned his ideal society of "democratic confederalism"<ref>[http://new-compass.net/articles/bookchin-öcalan-and-dialectics-democracy 'Bookchin, Öcalan, and the Dialectics of Democracy'] Janet Biehl</ref> which ultimately underpinned the political outlook of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), more commonly known as Rojava.

==Environmentalism==
Throughout his career, Bookchin sought to bridge the gap between ecological sustainability and social justice, advocating for a harmonious relationship between humans and nature before all else.

Bookchin felt that our environmental predicament is the result of the cancerous logic of capitalism, a system aimed at maximising profit instead of enriching human lives. As he claimed in The Next Revolution, 'by the very logic of its grow-or-die imperative, capitalism may well be producing ecological crises that gravely imperil the integrity of life on this planet.'<ref name="The Next Revolution">'The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy', Murray Bookchin (2015), London: Verso, ISBN 978-1-78168-581-5.</ref> Bookchin believed that his theory of [[Communalism]] offered a solution to humankind's need for 'a constant awareness that a given society's irrationality is deep seated, that its serious pathologies are not isolated problems that can be cured piecemeal but must be solved by sweeping changes in the often hidden sources of crisis and suffering—that awareness alone is what can hold a movement together, give it continuity, preserve its message and organization beyond a given generation, and expand its ability to deal with new issues and developments.'<ref name="The Next Revolution"/>

==Direct democracy and anarchism==

Bookchin created a theory he called [[Communalism]]: a directly democratic political organization anchored in loosely confederated popular assemblies, decentralization of power, absence of domination of any kind, and replacing capitalism with human-centered forms of production.<ref name="The Next Revolution"/>

Bookchin sought throughout his life to dispel the myth that revolutions (especially the French Revolution)  'are made by tightly disciplined cadres, guided by a highly centralized leadership'.<ref name='AnarchyOrganization'>[https://amityunderground.com/anarchy-and-organization-a-letter-to-the-left-by-murray-bookchin-new-left-notes-1969-anarchism-organisation-communalism-anarchos-magazine/ 'Anarchy and Organization'], New Left Notes (1969)</ref> He wrote in response to an attack on anarchism by Huey Newton that: "All the great social revolutions are the work of deep-seated historic forces and contradictions to which the revolutionary and his organization contributes very little and, in most cases, completely misjudges."<ref name='AnarchyOrganization'/>

Despite his critiques of [[Marxism]], Bookchin acknowledged its influence on his early intellectual development and later sought to synthesize anarchist and Marxist ideas.

==Lewis Herber==

Bookchin occasionally wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Herber, most notably for an article titled Ecology and Revolutionary Thought for the British monthly Anarchy in 1965.<ref>[https://amityunderground.com/ecology-and-revolutionary-thought-by-murray-bookchin-anarchyuk-195-lewis-herber-communalism/ 'Ecology and Revolutionary Thought'], Murray Bookchin, Anarchy</ref>

==See also== 
* [[Murray Rothbard]] - Another Murray that's both very different and very similar in his approach

==External links==

*[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bookchin/reader/intro.html The Murray Bookchin Reader] (1999; edited by Janet Biehl) Black Rose Books. ISBN 978-1551641188

*[https://amityunderground.com/the-meaning-of-confederalism-by-murray-bookchin-left-green-1990-democratic-confederalism-abdullah-ocalan/ The Meaning of Confederalism] by Murray Bookchin (Left Green, 1990)

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bookchin, Murray}}

[[Category:Anarchists]]
[[Category:Atheists]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Environmentalism]]
[[Category:Feminists]]
[[Category:Historians]]
[[Category:Jews]]
[[Category:Left-wing activists]]
[[Category:Libertarians]]
[[Category:Philosophers]]
[[Category:Socialists]]

Categories: Anarchists, Atheists, Authors, Environmentalism, Feminists, Historians, Jews, Left-wing activists, Libertarians, Philosophers, Socialists