Anthropocene Communism - by Paul Guillibert (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

How communism can inform the ecological revolution

In Anthropocene Communism, the philosopher and activist Paul Guillibert proposes a brand-new communism for life: biocommunism. With the aid of this system, he hopes to move us beyond the ecological crisis of late capitalism. In a highly original reading of Karl Marx's exchanges with the populist 'terrorists' in Russia and informed by the cultural studies of Raymond Williams, the Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui, and Ernst Bloch's attachment to the land, the author develops a philosophical naturalism that rethinks our relations with the environment. Rather than a fixed state, this relationship is influenced by cultural, social, and historical practices.

For Guillibert, if we are to move beyond the Anthropocene, we must develop new strategies. Communism must become environmentalism, and political ecology can only become truly revolutionary once it is communist.

Review Quotes

"Paul Guillibert's book has a clear ambition and clearly states his approach: to re-found communist cosmology on a naturalistic basis which, in his view, must take account of nature's own agentivity. The book offers convincing arguments in favour of a reconciliation between the communist goal of emancipation from labour and the ecologist's attachment to the earth. This reconciliation is achieved through a close reading of Marx, particularly his late writings."
--Tristan Boursier, Lectures

"This is a highly interesting book, totally in tune with the challenges of its time."
--Philippe Caumières, En attendant Nadeau

"This book is a rich and informed contribution to the most recent ecological debates, distinguished by its focus on the conditions for a future ecological communism, rather than on the diagnosis of the multiple destructions of nature by capitalism. The author convincingly suggests that Marx's historical materialism does not avoid the cosmological question in favour of the class struggle, but rather resolves the former in order to lay a better foundation for the latter."
--Bertrand Vaillant, La vie des idées

"Anthropocene Communism is a tour de force. At a moment of epochal crisis, Guillibert reimagines communism as a vibrant cosmopolitics for living beings entangled in capitalism's web of life. Urgent, insightful, and profoundly hopeful, Guillibert lights a revolutionary path forward."
--Jason W. Moore, author, Capitalism in the Web of Life

About the Author

Paul Guillibert is a Researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research and teaches philosophy in Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. His work elaborates the philosophy of Marxist political ecology by confronting classical Marxist texts with contemporary ecological humanities.