Murray Bookchin (1921-2006) understood earlier than almost anyone that an ecological crisis was not only looming but posted a challenge to capitalism and the whole social order. In the 1950s and 1960s, before most people even knew what ecology was, he was proposing fundamental solutions. Being ahead of his time, however, meant that his ideas were either ignored or condemned when they were first published; they remain insufficiently recognized today.If the 99 Percent have any chance of emancipating themselves from the rule of capitalists, they must, first of all, recover their own class history of struggle, and part of this effort is to recognize their class heroes. Murray Bookchin is one such hero. He was a seeker of truth and dedicated his life to the promotion of social justice and a sustainable economic system.
With his critical mind, he was always examining events and testing theories to see if they explained events. When they did not, he either discarded theories or parts of them, and participated in the formulation of new ideas. He was the finest representative of modern man who had absorbed the legacy of the best that human thought had to offer since the Age of Enlightenment, an era whose legacy has been corrupted and distorted by a new self-serving class known as capitalists. Is it any wonder that most of us have not heard of him?
This author has made a fine contribution to the task of knowing our history and our heroes.
