Tell me what your references are, I’ll tell you what becomes of your movement. In the 1990s, environmental activists hailed the action of Corinne Lepage, then a young lawyer and convinced of the power of the law to advance the environmental cause. Ten years later, the scene of the dismantling of a McDonald’s in Aveyron under the aegis of José Bové and his cowboy mustache marked a turning point in the fight against globalization. Closer to home, the young Greta Thunberg, with her pacifist sit-ins in front of the Swedish parliament, has become the icon of a new generation of activists. But in 2023, non-violence – hitherto totemic value of the majority of environmentalists – seems to have had its day. At 45, Andreas Malm, a charismatic geographer with dark eyes, a red beard and wearing a chachia (a very common headgear in the Muslim world), has managed the feat of making his compatriot with an angelic face out of date with environmentalists. more radical. His philosophy? The use of violence, and in particular sabotage, in the fight to preserve the climate.
In his reference book How to sabotage a pipeline, translated into French by La Fabrique editions, the associate lecturer in human ecology at the University of Lund sharply criticizes the pacifism of the majority of activists who, according to him, have renounced radicalism in the hope of be heard. According to Andreas Malm, “no amount of talk will ever persuade the ruling classes to act. Nothing can persuade them; the more the sirens howl, the more they will fuel the fire, so the change of course will have to be imposed on them […] When will we decide to take it to the next level? […] When will we start physically attacking the things that are consuming this planet […] and destroy them with our own hands? […] A pacifist who makes exceptions is a just war theorist.”
“Stereotype of the Prophet”
Despite its warrior overtones, there are many who now claim this philosophy. Starting with The Uprisings of the Earth, movement at the origin of the violent mobilization against the project of mega-basins in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) on March 25, in which the Swede also participated. When it is not implemented, his thought is also skilfully relayed by certain activists on television sets. “Andreas Malm reminds us that all civil victories […] and rights obtained, [nous les devons] to the close collaboration between a more moderate branch and what is called the theory of a more radical flank”, insisted the young environmental activist Camille Etienne, in November 2022, in the program It tonight.
Asked by L’Express on the occasion of the release of the book he co-wrote with Sébastien Leurquin, The Coming Showdown (Le Rocher), journalist Anthony Cortes identified in this new reference “a turning point for the environmental movement, which is gradually moving away from pacifism to go towards radicality”. Sign of a growing influence of the ideologue: a film inspired by his book How to sabotage a pipeline should be released soon in the United States.
Eric Denecé, director of the French Center for Intelligence Research, even identifies in Andreas Malm the “stereotype of the prophet” who pushes for a “radicalization of originally legitimate ideas, such as the preservation of the environment”. Like Peter Singer, cantor of animalists and confirmed jurist, Andreas Malm, as a lecturer at the university, would thus enjoy, according to the specialist, “additional legitimacy in the eyes of activists”. Eric Denecé does not hide his concern and says he pays particular attention to the ideologue. “Ecoterrorism does not yet exist in France, but the problem with this kind of character is that with his speech alone, he can open a new stage…”
Unsubmissive by adoption
The radicalism of his thought did not frighten the Insoumis either. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party even granted him a chair in geography within his think tank, the Institut de la Boétie. It must be said that Andreas Malm is in the party line in more ways than one – and does not hide it. Near Mediapartthe geographer described “a constructive dialogue [de la part de La France insoumise] with the social movement, on issues of race, Islamophobia, the police and ecology”. According to him, their parliamentary project, “open to society”, would even be “one of the few that deserves to be considered”. In 2010, Andreas Malm published a book on Islamophobia (untranslated), titled Hatet word muslimer (“Hate of Muslims”), which some media had criticized the lack of distinction between criticism of Islamism and irrational fear of moderate Islam.
In addition to his radical conception of ecology or his fight against Islamophobia, Andreas Malm does not hide his communist and anti-capitalist commitments. His references: Marx, Lenin or even Trotsky… According to him, “the Leninist gesture is the only one that can indicate a way out” [de la crise environnementale]. In other words, only a drastic change of regime towards what the author calls “ecological Leninism” or even “war communism” can put an end to the environmental crisis.
“Capitaloscene”
If Andreas Malm multiplies the hats, “he is an anti-capitalist above all, summarizes the journalist Anthony Cortes. Which does not detract from his ecological commitment. On the contrary, the two complement each other!” And sometimes collide. As when it comes to pointing out the responsibilities at work in global warming. We knew the theory of the Anthropocene, according to which global warming would be the work of men (in the sense of humanity). For his part, Andreas Malm prefers that of “capitaloscene”, theorized in his book The Anthropocene Against History: Global Warming in the Age of Capital (La Fabrique) and according to which capitalism is the cause of all environmental ills.
However, this thesis ignores the massive use of fossil fuels by certain socialist and totalitarian regimes that emerged throughout the 20th century. “If we decided to speak of ‘capitalocene’, perhaps we should then resolve to also speak, in a certain sense, of ‘socialocene’ and especially of ‘communistocene’, which curiously no one dares to do, wrote the philosopher Serge Audier in his book The productive age (Discovery). As painful as the recognition of the major role played in the ecological crisis not only by communist regimes, but also, much more broadly, by socialism and the left in their majority axis, this historical responsibility must be fully assumed. anti-capitalists of the Swede would they have taken precedence over his environmental commitments?
Revolutionary Obsession
Andreas Malm is not ready for a paradox. Rather than salute the results of Sweden, which has reduced its per capita greenhouse gas emissions by half since 1996 and is even among the most virtuous countries in Europe, it preferred, for example, to deplore in a interview given to a communist magazine that “the Swedish trade unions [soient] totally ignorant and disinterested in [la question du climat]and also totally unable to fight for the interests of their members”. The professor even added that “the level of class struggle in Sweden is so low that, from [son] point of view, it is extremely difficult to imagine that, all of a sudden, the Swedish trade unions would rise to the occasion and become an important player in climate policy.”
How to explain these indulgences? According to Mattias Svensson, Swedish writer, columnist for the center-right newspaper Svenska Dagbladet and connoisseur of environmental issues, Andreas Malm “nurtures an almost romantic vision of the revolution which consists in believing that by sweeping the system, all the problems will solve themselves, starting with global warming. The revolution is his obsession! And from this point of view, Sweden is a country too calm for him, unlike France and its revolutionary leanings (laughs)“.
And to make the revolution, the thinker seems ready to make some concessions, including vis-à-vis his own theses. According to his philosophy, the geographer authorizes sabotage against objects or structures (preferably the “SUV of the richest” or “a private jet airport”), while denouncing actions that would attack individuals. But doesn’t violence against objects very often imply violence against people, such as the police? Interviewed by the media Reporterre on this point, Andreas Malm responded, cautiously, that “of course, the best method would be to get around the police, as was the case for the ‘disarmament’ of the Lafarge factory”. But, he added without further elaboration, “in all conflicts, the police were there to defend the order of things: Jim Crow laws and white supremacy in the United States, the apartheid system in South Africa …”
Pro-Palestinian analogies
In reality, Andreas Malm has always come across fights, even if it means getting lost. Witness the multiple analogies with which his speeches on the Palestinian cause, which he has openly defended for many years, are full of words. As in this text published in the magazine salvage in 2017 on the Palestinian resistance. Anthology: “As the idiosyncrasies of the Palestinian experience undergo globalization, is there an analogous layer in the deep biosphere, a substratum somewhere beneath climate change, in which a similar hope of redemption can be invested? ” Or: “To deny that the Palestinian people were better off before 1948, you have to be a Zionist; to deny that when it comes to climate, this planet was in better shape before the cumulative effects of the fossil economy began to hustle at the end of the 20th century, you have to be a climate change denier.”
Leaving aside the climate issue in his text in places, the Swede ended up adding that “anyone who feels uncomfortable with Islamism [du Hamas et du Djihad islamique] should reflect, among other things, on their extraordinary effectiveness – in particular of Hamas – in eradicating every attempt by Daesh to raise its head in Gaza”.