From Green New Deals to Green Autonomous Zones: The George Floyd Rebellion and “How It Might Should Be Done”

Keywords: abolition, anarchism, Green New Deal, counterinsurgency, green transformation, racial capitalism, plantationocene
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 69

Abstract

This paper will problematize the State as an appropriate arena for green transformation. I draw on insurrectionary anarchist and abolitionist thought to theorize the Green New Deal as a form of soft counterinsurgency, meant to blunt the blow of the State’s inherent militarized, hard counterinsurgency methods. The Green New Deal opens up new frontiers of extractivism and militarization, all in the name of climate action. I propose instead a green transformation rooted in autonomy, direct democracy, community care, mutual aid, and direct action: the horizontal creation of counter-visions, counter-worlds, and counter-Earths we wish to build. To make this case, I analyze accounts of the 2020 George Floyd Rebellion in the United States, found in online archives of insurrectionary anarchist and abolitionist zines, writings, and interviews. I focus on autonomous zones, theorizing them as possible futures -- autonomous spaces free of capitalism and the State, with much to offer green transformation. I will also focus on the desecration of property -- the direct dismantling of enclosed and privatized spaces, the acts of revolt which are intended to literally crumble the world order. What can these uprisings teach us about the strategies we employ to create and dismantle spaces for green transformation? What might they have to offer that the Green New Deal simply cannot? Could they show us “how it might should be done” (Robinson, 2020)?

Robinson, I. (2020). How It Might Should Be Done. Talk delivered in Seattle, July 20, 2020. https://illwill.com/how-it-might-should-be-done