Come In Mr Icke, Your Time Is Up.

Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience.
Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier.
AK Press. £5.

TWO ESSAYS, one on the “green" roots of the Nazis and one on the rebirth of racist politics and the “fuhrer" principle in the German green movement. The first is an account of different “green" strands and how they both contributed to and were co-opted by National Socialism. The “wandervogel" was a youth movement of back to the land long hairs, into eastern mysticism and neo-Romanticism. Didgeridoos had not reached the fatherland at that time. Some of them went to the left, most were absorbed into the NS DAP. Even in power the Nazis were committed to sound green policies with nature protection laws and a commitment to organic farming and an enthusiasm for eco-mysticism.

The second piece looks at the influence of these same currents in the post war and m in Germany. It spotlights the shift of former leftist Rudi Bahro to his (sad) search for a new “fuhrer”. This part of the essay is marred by too much emphasis on a row between Murray Boochkin and Bahro more suited to the gossip pages of Black Flag than to a book. However Bahro is not alone in his red, green, brown (or turquoise) political trajectory.

The lesson of both essays is that ecology is as much a part of the fascist right as the libertarian left. If any sort of mysticism or mystification is allowed to dominate it the tendency is to the right. The adoption of of green politics by far right groups and the presence of dubious nutters in the green movement (ranging from Icke or “Alternative Green” to Peter Cadogan) are both to be expected. This book is a well argued clear account of why this is the case now.