“It is not merely humans that are the victims of State, capitalist, and – more generally – hierarchical destruction: the common victims of this complex of domination are ultimately all forms of life on Earth. Peter Kropotkin once said: “Equality in all things, the synonym of equity, this is anarchism in very deed.” It seems that Kropotkin, perhaps the single most celebrated hero of anarchism, recognised the essence of anarchism: equality in all things. What he perhaps did not recognise, as might instead be a deed reserved for the anarchists of today’s world, is what it means to follow this essence to its logical conclusion. If we are going to take the idea of equality seriously, should we not ask whether, rather than being confined by the boundary of our own species, our struggle should emphatically transcend it?”

As the labor historian Erik Loomis has written about many times for Lawyers, Guns and Money and the human and animal liberation video essayist Mexie has discussed, you can’t regard as discrete issues the way powerful people in society treat animals and treat the vulnerable people directly responsible for animal husbandry and slaughter. Capitalists literally seem to view workers as animals, so why would they care if a pandemic spreads between workers when they already don’t care about pandemics that spread between animals?

Green Anarchism feels like an extreme or unnecessary further step to go, but it’s hard to make any argument against extending anarchist principles to non-humans, whether arguing consistency, empathy, or naked self-interest.

Audio:

Full Text:

• https://freedomnews.org.uk/green-anarchism-towards-the-abolition-of-hierarchy/
• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/corin-bruce-green-anarchism-towards-the-abolition-of-hierarchy