His compelling and realistic revolutionary vision shows the preconditions for a liberated world

~ John P Clark ~

Elisée Reclus (1830-1905) was one of the foremost geographers of his age, a major figure in anarchist political thought, and a lifelong revolutionary who played an active role in the Paris Commune and the First International. He was extraordinary for a nineteenth-century political thinker in having a deep lifelong commitment not only to social revolution, but also to radical ecology, to anti-patriarchy and the equality of women, to anti-racism and anti-colonialism, and to anti-speciesism and animal welfare.

Reclus is most famous for his New Universal Geography, a massive twenty-volume, eighteen-thousand-page work that has been called the greatest individual achievement in the history of geography. Reclus is widely recognized as the founder of the field of social geography. His final work, Humanity and the Earth, wasan expansive thirty-five-hundred-page synthesis of geography, history, anthropology, philosophy, and social theory, and is his most enduring contribution to modern thought. Opening with the statement that “Humanity is Nature becoming self-conscious,” it is a sweeping account of the entire history of both humanity and the Earth, and of a common planetary destiny that is revealed through a deep understanding of the great course of geo-history.

There are two dimensions to Reclus’ story of humanity and the Earth.  One is his depiction of the process of human self-realisation in dialectical interaction with nature. He shows how the natural milieu shapes human development, as humanity simultaneously contributes to the unfolding and flourishing of the natural world. He shows the content of geo-history to be a dialectic between the creative forces of freedom and the constraining forces of domination. His idea that all phenomena of history contain both progressive and regressive aspects, and that each tendency must be analysed carefully, is one of his most influential concepts.

Reclus shows that historical progress has depended on the growth of mutual aid (l’entr’aide) and social cooperation—ideas that influenced his younger colleague Kropotkin greatly. Reclus contends that the full self-realisation of humanity-in-nature will depend on a social revolution that embodies mutualistic practices in a free, egalitarian, anarchist-communist society.  Moreover, he holds that the fate of the Earth will hinge on humanity’s ability to establish social institutions and practices that express a deep concern for the natural world and for all living beings on the planet.

The other side of Reclus’ world-historical narrative focuses on the long history of domination. He engages in an extensive critique of the centralised bureaucratic state and industrial capitalism, but he does not see other forms of domination as subordinate spheres. He was a radical feminist and a vehement enemy of male dominance, and a fervent opponent of all forms of racism and of Eurocentric denigration of indigenous cultures. He was an early critic of the ecological devastation resulting from ruthless industrialisation and technological rationalisation, and he decried the destruction of ancient forests as early as the 1860’s.  Furthermore,  he was a tireless advocate of ethical vegetarianism and of the humane treatment of animals.

Reclus presents one of the most compelling, and arguably one of the most realistic, revolutionary visions of the preconditions for a liberated world of freedom and solidarity. Specifically, he discusses five levels of social ecological practice that must all be addressed by the revolutionary movement. 

The first level is the primary community (perhaps a kind of affinity group) that is the focus of personal, moral, and psychological transformation. In an 1895 letter, he says that anarchists must “work to free themselves personally from all preconceived or imposed ideas, and gradually gather around themselves friends who live and act in the same way. It is step by step, through small, loving, and intelligent associations, that the great fraternal society will be formed.” All these qualities (small scale, a pervasive ethos of love, and the nurturing of active, engaged intelligence) are necessary for such associations to carry out their basic transformative role.

The second, and politically most crucial, level of social organisation for Reclus, was the autonomous commune, which he describes in an 1871 letter as “at once the triumph of the Workers’ Republic and the inauguration of the Communal Federation.”  He was convinced that a radicalised version of the aspirations of the Paris Commune (a powerful reality in the radical imaginary of his age) should be the primary form of political organisation. The commune would practice radical direct democracy. The power of the people could be delegated, but never merely represented or alienated from the base. For larger purposes, the commune would act in solidarity with all other communes through free federation.  

The third key level of social organisation for Reclus, inspired by his many years of engagement in the global labour struggle, is that of the Workers’ International, which would act democratically through its local sections. Reclus believed that to succeed, the revolution must bring together people not only as members of the local community, but also at the level of the whole of humanity, united and mobilised as workers and producers. The International was also a powerful force in the radical social imaginary of the time.

The fourth level of association is the Universal Republic, which will also be a global expression of the values of human community and solidarity. This great Republic (another idea that inspired revolutionaries of the age) was to be based on the free federation of autonomous communes across the planet, and on every level, from the local, to the regional, to the global.

Reclus acknowledged that our community is a more-than-human one. Thus, he recognised a fifth level of association, in which we express our unity and solidarity with the Earth, and our sense of responsibility for all of life on Earth. This is the level of the entire Earth Community. At this level, a global unity-in-diversity already exists implicitly, but we must be educated to realise the ways that we fit into the great interconnection of all beings, and to act accordingly.

Reclus was a dedicated and engaged revolutionary who worked tirelessly for revolutionary social transformation, for which he suffered imprisonment in at least fourteen different prisons and spent many years in forced exile. He was a person of extraordinary  humility, great generosity, and love and compassion—not only for his fellow humans, but also for other sentient beings. He deserves recognition (which he would never have sought) as one of the foremost thinkers in the history of anarchism. His work in social geography and related subjects, running to over 25,000 pages of published works, is by far the greatest achievement in the history of social ecological thought.