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Total Liberation
'Total Liberation' sets out an insurrectional project that draws its strength from social ecology, deep ecology, and anti-speciesism. Casting aside outdated methods, it proposes a holistic, multiform struggle fought in defence of all forms of life - humans, animals, and the earth. A revolutionary manifesto for the 21st century.
- GenresNonfiction
120 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2019
50 people want to read
About the author
Anonymous
791k books3,368 followersBooks can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:
* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
See also: Anonymous
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 7 reviews
June 3, 2020
Amazing book that I stumbled upon on the Anarchist Library. It is criminally under-read. I caught myself thinking just now, "this is the book I wish I had written, if not the person I would have liked to become." I wish I knew who the author was, but at the same time, my love for it would be slightly diminished if it hadn't been published anonymously.
May 10, 2023
Brilliant introduction to total liberation/anarchism.
May 21, 2024
You're so right i will sabotage Leviathan in any way i can think of
September 9, 2024
§1. A neat summary of the most progressive anarchist ideas in circulation.
It's well-written, carefully structured, and to the point.
Its strength is that it's genuinely honest about the state of the world, the state of the movement and the available movement proposals and praxis. Its weakness is the same.
§2. Chapter 1 starts with an introduction to class struggles and identity politics, commenting (without proof) that both are insufficient, and stating that therefore the solution is to think of "oppression" as the overarching category. In this way, the chapter abandons history as science and leaves the reader with a timeless, purely moral position ("we should fight against things that create hierarchy").
§3. Chapter 2 extends hierarchies to animal liberation and earth liberation, and Chapter 3 presents the Total Liberation perspective (and here they are once again honest and consider it as an "ethic" - the section name is "A total liberation ethic"). One essential observation in these chapters is to note the coincidence of the emergence of class societies and of speciesism and anthropocentrism.
Marxists fight against capitalism as they identify it as the last class society, so the social revolution that dismantles capitalism would dismantle classes altogether. It is crucial, therefore, that they/we have a clear understanding of what is structurally and historically connected to class societies.
§4. Chapter 4 is the open chapter for praxis. It is in Chapter 5 that they abandon sociology as a science. There is, accordingly, no possible methodological approach to understand why masses behave in the way they do. Therefore, the readers are invited to just do things, with the hope that at some point the masses would also do them. The biggest organization affirmed in the text is an affinity group of five people, and anything bigger only appears as target of criticism.
Chapter 5 ends with the question of why masses eventually stop their insurrection/revolt. Without history and without sociology, it is of course impossible to answer such questions. An entire opportunity to engage with Gramsci, cultural hegemony and how to confront it in the 21st century is left untouched.
As we are invited to pay attention to spontaneous uprisings and provide support infrastructure, prefiguration and revolutionary vision for them, we are not expected to incite them, influence/direct them, or prepare for them.
§5. Chapters 6 and 7 are thus when the book faces its own abandonment any methodological approach. We are invited back to our bubbles, to produce the most critical and advanced alternatives possible within our communities. So any vision of changing the world as a whole is entirely left behind and we are left with desperate questions like "what is a revolution anyway?" (my rephrasing). The theory of change is that we will do the right things, other people will see us and do similar right things, and that's how the world will become a better place (or at least, our projects will make our lives better).
§6. In a surprising switch of focus, Chapter 8 addresses climate emergency as an existential crisis. It rightly points to possible threats and opportunities coming through moments of collapse and gradual degradation of the physical conditions of civilization-as-we-know-it. Completely rejecting inside-the-system discourse, and without a theory of change that can tackle the issue, the authors are left with the only option of accepting climate collapse as a given and invite us to try to avoid its worst consequences.
§7. The book ends with the common anarchist dilemma: If you don't trust yourselves and your organizations to be the revolutionary agents, if you want to trust the general public but simultaneously know it to be the agent reproducing the system intentionally and if you don't have a solid strategy of seizing hegemony, then how can we inspire anyone to have revolutionary ambition?
In short, it is probably one of the best books to understand the core anarchist argument: comprehensive and with a no-bullshit exposition.
It's well-written, carefully structured, and to the point.
Its strength is that it's genuinely honest about the state of the world, the state of the movement and the available movement proposals and praxis. Its weakness is the same.
§2. Chapter 1 starts with an introduction to class struggles and identity politics, commenting (without proof) that both are insufficient, and stating that therefore the solution is to think of "oppression" as the overarching category. In this way, the chapter abandons history as science and leaves the reader with a timeless, purely moral position ("we should fight against things that create hierarchy").
§3. Chapter 2 extends hierarchies to animal liberation and earth liberation, and Chapter 3 presents the Total Liberation perspective (and here they are once again honest and consider it as an "ethic" - the section name is "A total liberation ethic"). One essential observation in these chapters is to note the coincidence of the emergence of class societies and of speciesism and anthropocentrism.
Marxists fight against capitalism as they identify it as the last class society, so the social revolution that dismantles capitalism would dismantle classes altogether. It is crucial, therefore, that they/we have a clear understanding of what is structurally and historically connected to class societies.
§4. Chapter 4 is the open chapter for praxis. It is in Chapter 5 that they abandon sociology as a science. There is, accordingly, no possible methodological approach to understand why masses behave in the way they do. Therefore, the readers are invited to just do things, with the hope that at some point the masses would also do them. The biggest organization affirmed in the text is an affinity group of five people, and anything bigger only appears as target of criticism.
Chapter 5 ends with the question of why masses eventually stop their insurrection/revolt. Without history and without sociology, it is of course impossible to answer such questions. An entire opportunity to engage with Gramsci, cultural hegemony and how to confront it in the 21st century is left untouched.
As we are invited to pay attention to spontaneous uprisings and provide support infrastructure, prefiguration and revolutionary vision for them, we are not expected to incite them, influence/direct them, or prepare for them.
§5. Chapters 6 and 7 are thus when the book faces its own abandonment any methodological approach. We are invited back to our bubbles, to produce the most critical and advanced alternatives possible within our communities. So any vision of changing the world as a whole is entirely left behind and we are left with desperate questions like "what is a revolution anyway?" (my rephrasing). The theory of change is that we will do the right things, other people will see us and do similar right things, and that's how the world will become a better place (or at least, our projects will make our lives better).
§6. In a surprising switch of focus, Chapter 8 addresses climate emergency as an existential crisis. It rightly points to possible threats and opportunities coming through moments of collapse and gradual degradation of the physical conditions of civilization-as-we-know-it. Completely rejecting inside-the-system discourse, and without a theory of change that can tackle the issue, the authors are left with the only option of accepting climate collapse as a given and invite us to try to avoid its worst consequences.
§7. The book ends with the common anarchist dilemma: If you don't trust yourselves and your organizations to be the revolutionary agents, if you want to trust the general public but simultaneously know it to be the agent reproducing the system intentionally and if you don't have a solid strategy of seizing hegemony, then how can we inspire anyone to have revolutionary ambition?
In short, it is probably one of the best books to understand the core anarchist argument: comprehensive and with a no-bullshit exposition.
Read
March 27, 2025A poetic manifesto for the liberation from all oppression, that’s (almost) never boring or annoying - a rarity. Published by Active Distribution in 2019, signed by Anonymous, this book makes the case for believing AND acting towards revolutionary anarchic purposes in the here and now.
It does not dwell so much on arguing on the unitedness of human/animal/earth liberation (it mostly assumes you already agree), but rather goes forth into why we need to revolt & organize broadly against capitalism and the state, how it’s been done in some cases, what the current movements are lacking and why things aren’t working out so well… yet. It really underlines how we should both destroy what’s killing us AND create the alternative - just one of the two isn’t enough. The clock is ticking as the climate crisis is intensifying, so we must “make anarchy liveable” now. Its strength lay in discussing tactics.
Some weak points I noticed are its lack of reflection on decolonial concerns and disability/neurodivergence. There’s more to say, of course, but it would be more productive as dialogue so I’d be happy to talk to others who read it!
Overall, I was fascinated by how much it can pack into only one hundred pages, so I recommend it as an easy, beginner read for anyone interested in grasping how to start doing the anarchist revolution.
“Mainstream politics can hardly be expected to collapse under its own weight, except into something more monstrous than what we already know. Only in combination with concrete, accessible means of deserting it all do new forms of life begin to take shape.”
It does not dwell so much on arguing on the unitedness of human/animal/earth liberation (it mostly assumes you already agree), but rather goes forth into why we need to revolt & organize broadly against capitalism and the state, how it’s been done in some cases, what the current movements are lacking and why things aren’t working out so well… yet. It really underlines how we should both destroy what’s killing us AND create the alternative - just one of the two isn’t enough. The clock is ticking as the climate crisis is intensifying, so we must “make anarchy liveable” now. Its strength lay in discussing tactics.
Some weak points I noticed are its lack of reflection on decolonial concerns and disability/neurodivergence. There’s more to say, of course, but it would be more productive as dialogue so I’d be happy to talk to others who read it!
Overall, I was fascinated by how much it can pack into only one hundred pages, so I recommend it as an easy, beginner read for anyone interested in grasping how to start doing the anarchist revolution.
“Mainstream politics can hardly be expected to collapse under its own weight, except into something more monstrous than what we already know. Only in combination with concrete, accessible means of deserting it all do new forms of life begin to take shape.”
April 3, 2023
Very good description of our current challenges as activists, as citizens, as free agents in a freedom-limiting system. Coherent, serious, useful and clear. It is a must.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 7 reviews