Illustrator, activist, and researcher in cognitive science and philosophy, Alessandro Pignocchi returned in 2025 with Terrestrial Perspectives, three years after the insightful Ethnography of Worlds to Come, which offered us "illustrated conversations" with Philippe Descola, a renowned anthropologist. ---- On that occasion, an interview was published in our pages [1]. This new book alternates between philosophical and political strategy texts and related, but more humorous, short comic strips. These "perspectives" aim to offer paths to hope, a desirable future in the face of ecological catastrophe and authoritarian powers, through concrete utopias, some of which already exist, and pose a strategic reflection on the means of victory.
In light of what capitalism has taken from local livelihoods and relationships, the importance of emotions lies in producing a narrative distinct from that of the far right, one that acknowledges attachment to territories and moves beyond an identity-based approach. The aim is to capture emotions that fuel reactionary tendencies, but to redirect them in a different direction: communal, supportive, and collective; with its experiences of autonomy within territories that are not inherited but constructed. These territories also require embracing a subjectifying, rather than objectifying (utilitarian), relationship with the non-human inhabitants who, like us, constitute the "living environment." It is also about offering more intense and joyful perspectives than those proposed by negative activism. We must not dismantle without instituting. We must not propose dismantling without building.
In this work, Pignocchi seeks to address the needs of current mobilizations, which demand "something other" than capitalism or a pseudo-socialist productivism. He advocates, as a long-term objective, a federation of autonomous territories through local struggles in which the population reclaims control over subsistence activities. The book also contains an implacable critique of social democracy, a "zombie" political entity that is ineffective today.
This essay on political strategy offers hope, continuing the logic of "Worlds to Come." However, one might question his attempt to reconcile reformism and revolution, the state and the non-state. This idea of making the state coexist with the ZADs (Zones to Defend) and what he calls the "already-existing" networks of food self-sufficiency and mutual aid, for example, which would be established "at the state level," as was the general social security system, which he cites. Except that it was precisely the nationalization of food that removed it from the hands of workers. But this existing system does indeed allow us to "demonstrate its effectiveness and desirability." And the existing outlines of what could exist serve as points of reference. This is the case, for example, with the chapter that summarizes, quite clearly and pertinently, the benefits of establishing a social security system for food.
One might also criticize the lack of centrality given to class struggle and the question of resuming production outside the food sector. These issues are certainly not absent, but one has to wait until the last quarter of the book: they are briefly addressed there, and the author advocates for an alliance between the working classes and the cultural petty bourgeoisie—the latter already populating the anti-capitalist ecology movement—an alliance deemed necessary against the economic elite. Finally, he acknowledges the value of trade unionism and defends the need to build bridges between it, autonomous struggles, and peasant movements. But rather than aiming for a general expropriation strike, Pignocchi prefers to focus on building networks "alongside" labor and capital, somewhat hastily dismissing the communist perspective within the existing, predominantly existing production system. But without a doubt, faced with the rise of fascism, these local "networks" will become necessary zones of resistance and the embryos of a concrete alternative.
Marius (UCL Toulouse)
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[1] "Moving beyond the dualism of protection/exploitation of 'Nature'," Alternative libertaire no. 334, January 2023. https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Entretien-Alessandro-Pignocchi-Sortir-du-dualisme-protection-exploitation-de-la
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Alessandro-Pignocchi-Perspectives-terrestres-Scenarios-pour-une
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Link: (en) France, UCL AL #368 - Culture - Read Alessandro Pignocchi: Terrestrial Perspectives. Scenarios for Ecological Emancipation (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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