Review by Jeff Stein of three tracts by the Australian anarchist Graham Purchase
(_Libertarian_Labor_Review_ 14 [Winter 1992-93]):

"In _Anarchist_Organisation_, Purchase makes an even more emphatic case for
the addition of 'economic regionalism' as a component of any future society. 
While suggesting that there would still be a possibility for communities and
workplaces to federate for cultural and economic reasons, Purchase insists
that 'political space' should also be demarcated by 'Changes in (a) species
distribution, (b) climate, (c) drainage and rainfall and (d) physiography
[and] the empirical data needed to produce a more or less scientifically
arrived at picture of natural or bio-regional boundary.' (p. 20)

"'Bio-regionalism' has a nice ring to it.  It implies not only decentralism,
but a concern for the ecology of an area as well.  Yet, contrary to Purchase,
one suspects that 'bio-regionalism' would deliver neither in practice.  To
divide up human society into political units basedupon the prevailing flora
and fauna in the area makes no more sense and is just as arbitrary as
politicians drawing straight lines on a map.  It is a contradiction of the
anarchist principles of voluntary association and self-management, since it
would take away the right of people to federate according to their
self-perceived common interests and instead force them into boundaries
dictated by so-called 'environmental scientists.'

"Nor is there any reason to suppose that once forced to live in these
'scientifically' contrived bio-regions, people would acquire any more concern
for the surrounding ecology than they had before.  Worse yet, bio-regional
politics might even produce the opposite effect: an anti-environmentalist
backlash against what people would see as a paternalistic attitude by the
bio-regionalists.

"Undoubtedly in some cases, communities do have strong ecological reasons for
federating.  All the communities in a river valley ringed by mountains, for
example, would have a common interest in coordinating their industries to
control air and water pollution and soil erosion.  On the other hand, a
multitude of communities spread out over the Russian steppes or the plains of
the midwestern United States, not sharing the same water resources and having
less of an air quality problem, would not have as great a degree of common
ecological concerns, even though they were all part of the same 'bio-region.' 
Rather than dictate to people what political units they must live in, it would
be better to allow communities to decide these things for themselves.  Where
common ecological interests are important, we can assume they will federate
without needing to be told to do so."

