AGAINST A STATE THAT WILL NEVER RESOLVE CLIMATE CHAOS, AND ITS VIOLENCE WHICH FORCE CANNOT OVERTHROW TODAY, WHAT REMAINS FOR ENVIRONMENTALISTS? ~ Vincent Lucchese, Reporterre ~ The myth that the state serves the public interest is crumbling on all sides. Seeing the state stubbornly defend projects as economically and environmentally disastrous as the A69 motorway, and witnessing its police unleash violence against opponents of ecocidal private mega-reservoir projects, more and more environmental activists are becoming disillusioned. For citizens who are abruptly learning to “mourn the state,” a series of essays and books in recent months have contributed to dusting off this hypothesis: what if it were possible. At the heart of anarchist thinking for two centuries, this idea is making a strong comeback today, given the obvious impasse of other possible paths. On one hand, the reformist path, that is to say the social-democratic project of reforming capitalism from within to make it socially and environmentally viable, is ‘doubly dead, doubly zombie-like’, as Alessandro Pignocchi sums up in his fascinating Perspectives terrestres (Seuil, 2025). The author continues, the ecological crisis ‘sweeps away the philanthropic belief at the heart of the social democratic project’ of possible infinite economic growth which promised the elevation of all social classes within the capitalist regime. The realisation that this crisis is precisely caused by the economic structures that ensure the ruling class’s dominance is radicalising other social classes. The capitalist elite is tightening the screws to protect its faltering model, rendering any prospect of social-democratic compromise obsolete. On the other hand, the revolutionary perspective is hardly any better. Past experiences have revealed its two symmetrical pitfalls: overthrowing the ruling power requires comparable armed force, which if inadequate, risks being swept away as brutally as the Paris Commune was in 1871. When this proves sufficient, it threatens to lead to a ‘capture phenomenon’, meaning that the new power itself serves only its own particular interests, as was the case in the USSR, Maoist China, and after the Arab Spring. A STATE THAT CANNOT BE REFORMED OR OVERTHROWN The observation of this double impasse, of a state that can neither be reformed or overthrown, is shared by Irish philosopher John Holloway, whose latest book has just been translated into French: Penser l’espoir en des temps désespérés (Thinking Hope in Desperate Times, Libertalia, 2025). He adds this definitive analysis: the state is, by its very nature, at the service of capitalism, and trying to make it an ally is a complete waste of time. The modern state, he explains, survives only through the taxes it levies on capital accumulation. Its mission and survival are, therefore, intrinsically linked to capitalists’ insatiable quest for accumulation. John Holloway develops an argument that follows in the long tradition of analyses by thinkers of the “capitalist state”, which was already clearly summarised by the American sociologist Erik Olin Wright (Anti-Capitalist Strategies for the 21st Century, La Découverte, 2020). Historically, he explains, the state can be described as the institutional form that has been deployed to ensure the reproduction of capital: the “rule of law” guarantees the inviolability of private property — largely derived from the appropriation of commons, colonisation, and the exploitation of workers and nature — and its capitalist development within the market framework. The Paris Commune ended in the large-scale massacre of the Communards by the Versailles army. After Félix Philippoteaux (1815-1884), Public domain Furthermore, the mechanisms for recruiting state elites create a privileged caste and a convergence of interests between them and the capitalist elites, to the detriment of the general interest. It is an understatement to say that the political dynamics of recent years have provided fertile ground for this type of analysis. We are witnessing a rise in “illiberalism” in France and many other so-called democratic states, fuelled by media propaganda from far-right billionaires. Across the Atlantic, the capitalist barons of American tech are openly allying themselves with the proto-fascist power of Donald Trump. All of this supports the thesis that capitalist states are becoming more authoritarian as the scarcity of natural resources and crises caused by climate change make governing populations more uncertain. RETURN TO THE LOCAL So what can be done? These authors suggest competing with the state by building on local roots and local struggles. From a strategic perspective, this is first and foremost a quest for autonomy: developing local subsistence agriculture and reclaiming technical know-how to reduce dependence on the state is a prerequisite for resisting it. ‘Material autonomy and political autonomy reinforce each other,’ summarises Pignocchi. For him, ‘liberating territories is therefore the first condition’ for moving towards what he calls ‘terrestrial perspectives’. Namely, a political project based on local autonomy and the renewal of ties with non-human living beings. The virtues of this approach are its broad potential to mobilise people in a unifying struggle based on love for the land, the rediscovery of powerful and joyful emotions in connection with living things, and values of respect, care and coexistence between species and between humans. It places the dynamic at the opposite end of the spectrum from reactionary localism. In practice, this strategy works and is even becoming increasingly widespread. This is what journalist Juliette Duquesne recounts in her comprehensive investigation, Autonomes et solidaires pour le vivant, S’organiser sans l’autorité de l’État (Le Bord de l’eau, 2025). From the French ZADs (Zone à Défendre) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique) and Les Lentillères (Dijon) to the long-term experience of Longo Maï, the Zapatistas of Chiapas in Mexico and the Kurds of Rojava, among others, she has documented and examined numerous experiences of struggle. Her proposition: the conditions for victory are complex and constantly need to be reinvented, but it is possible to organise without the state. Historically, anarchism has already proven its organisational viability on a large scale, she points out, recalling the little-known Spanish experiment of 1936, ‘often forgotten in history books because it was denigrated by capitalists and communists’. From July 1936 to spring 1937, Juliette Duquesne summarises, 3 million people in Catalonia and Aragon reinvented collective life without a state: collectivised economic activities, self-managed education and health systems, communities with local currencies, and others abolishing money altogether. A cultural, social, anarcho-syndicalist and political context unique to Spain at that time allowed for this profusion of experimentation, before the civil war and then Francoism brought this adventure to a tragic end. Among the lesser-known achievements, the Makhnovshchina, the anarchist Ukraine between 1917 and 1921, is also worth mentioning. The victories of the ‘Black Army’, a peasant and worker guerrilla force, against reactionary forces enabled the establishment of agricultural communes throughout the country. A lack of military resources and Soviet repression brought this large-scale libertarian and egalitarian experiment to an end. Anita Garbín Alonso, anti-fascist and anarchist militiawoman in Barcelona in 1936. Antoni Campañà i Bandranas, Public domain Ecological and social emancipation may work locally, but can it be generalised? ‘Imagining that we can stop the ravages of accumulation by multiplying the number of ZADs is probably no more serious than thinking we can stop global warming by accumulating small gestures,’ noted The Earth Uprisings (Les Soulèvements de la Terre) in their strategic work Premières secousses (First Shocks, La Fabrique, 2024). ” ‘Unless, perhaps,‘ they continue, ’we connect the dots.‘ This is the idea towards which all the authors mentioned converge: the “territories liberated” from the state, even partially, if they multiply and unite, could reach a critical mass sufficient to compete with, or at least undermine, the sovereign authority of the state. KAIROS For Alessandro Pignocchi, it is a question of ‘piercing’ the state with autonomous territories, of ‘gradually building something parallel to capitalism’, united within a ‘terrestrial internationalism’. Juliette Duquesne writes that ‘contagion must spread through capillary action’ so that ‘the state and capitalism become increasingly marginalised’ until they reach a ‘threshold’ that allows for a turning point. In other words: the exit from capitalism and the entry into a true democracy. Obviously, the state will not allow itself to be attacked without reacting: the fierce repression of the ZADs at Notre-Dame-des-Landes is a prime example. But, paradoxically, it is also proof that victory is possible if anarchist activists know how to seize the kairos, that is, take advantage of favourable circumstances. This is the other essential strategic lever. Pignocchi, Duquesne and Wright agree with the conclusion reached by the Earth Uprisings: achieving autonomy outside the state requires allies within the state. It is necessary to hybridise the state, rely on civil servants or elected officials who sympathise with the cause, and take advantage of the electoral victories of the least hostile political forces to gain the advantage in the conquest of territories. The task, however, seems monumental. It may well inspire scepticism given that the eco-anarchist and sustainable overthrow of a capitalist state has never historically taken place. To avoid the pitfall of discouragement, John Holloway emphasises that this capitalist state is a colossus with feet of clay. Throughout the lengthy and sometimes complex development of his work, the philosopher reinterprets Marxist theory on the internal contradictions of capitalism. Capitalism’s insatiable need for accumulation drives it to transform everything into commodities and, ultimately, into money. However, this need to exploit humans and nature ever more intensely is now coming up against physical limits, as evidenced by the ecological crisis. The fall of the Vendôme Column, bearing the statue of Napoleon I , during the Paris Commune, Lithograph from 1871, Public domain In recent decades the need for constant accumulation, vital to prevent the system from collapsing, has been partly met with empty promises. Unable to find sufficient human and natural ‘resources’ to exploit, explains the author, the elites have accumulated ‘fictitious capital’ through the massive issuance of money derived from the creation of debt. Capitalism today is in the same situation as the cartoon coyote, which has long since passed the edge of the cliff, is running over the void, and must keep running to avoid falling. The dismantling of social gains, police violence, open conflicts: everything is being done in a desperate attempt to coerce workers and increase profit margins. But our hope lies here, writes John Holloway: in the realisation that it is our refusal to accept absolute commodification, our desires overflowing with vitality, that is what holds back and frightens capitalism. Global finance, subject to increasingly intense “heart attacks”, such as the financial crisis of 2008, could well succumb definitively to the next one. He concludes: ‘We are not victims of the crisis but its protagonists: our resistance and rebellion, our insubordination and non-subordination, our refusal to be robots. This is what constantly upsets capital. In these desperate times, this is our hope.’ He calls for daring to embrace radical ambition: to think and act for a world without capital, and therefore without money. To those who see these projects as unrealistic or overly distant utopias, these contemporary anarchist authors concede that the path they are charting is far from clear and that their horizon is taking shape as they go. But their struggles, they argue, have the advantage of being very concrete, since each person must begin by taking action in their own territory to defend their forest, their dignity at work, or their drinking water, here and now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation. Top photo: A pirate sheep as a shepherd’s mark, in a Longo Maï flock. Sébastien Thébault / Wikimedia Commons     The post Anarchism: Last hope for the Environment appeared first on Freedom News.