Jacques Camatte has left the building

Jacques Camatte is known only among the absolute connoisseurs among left-watchers and self-proclaimed experts on alternative politics. This elusive Frenchman originally belonged to Amadeo Bordiga's Italian-based "International Communist Party", one of the more dogmatic Communist groups. Lenin himself criticized Bordiga for sectarianism, and Stalin had him expelled from the Communist movement.

Camatte broke with the Partito Communista Internazionale already during Bordiga's lifetime, and for a while seems to have been "more Bordigist than Bordiga". His group was known as Invariance. Around 1970, however, Camatte and his small group broke with Bordigism and indeed Marxism, and developed in a somewhat unexpected direction (see below).

According to the ICC (a competing group), Camatte eventually gave up political activity altogether, and joined a survivalist commune in the Cévennes. However, he seems to be back in town these days, even having a website of his own. Or are the Cévennes hill tracts on-line?

The anthology "This world we must leave and other essays" contains the following essays by our survivalist friend: On Organization (1972), The Wandering of Humanity (1973), Against Domestication (1973), This World We Must Leave (1976), and Echoes of the Past (1980). Except for the latter, they are all available free on-line as well. Several have also been printed as separate pamphlets.

Camatte's texts are written in a convoluted, pseudo-intellectual style and are often hard to follow, even in English translation. However, the main lines of thought are discernible, and the ideas are remarkably similar to the current of thought known as primitivism or anarcho-primitivism. The source of Camatte's ideas are obscure, however, and they are still couched in a heavy dose of Marxist language.

Camatte believes that capital had succeeded in integrating the working class into the system, and "domesticating" all of humanity. Capital has become independent of humans, including the capitalists themselves, and has created a "material community" in its own image. Since pretty much everything is under the domination of capital, all of society must be overturned, not just the ownership of the means of production. Camatte longs for a return to pre-capitalist forms of authentic community. He has a soft spot for religion, which he believes has retained a memory of a community long lost. He also attacks technology, modern science, overpopulation and the destruction of the environment.

But how should the new state of affairs be brought about? This is less clear. In some texts, Camatte talks about a general revolution of humanity against capital. He looks upon the Green movement, feminists, organic farming, hippies and marginals as new revolutionary forces. However, in one text (not included in this volume), titled "The last train has left the station", he claims that nothing (!) can be done. Perhaps he was just being sarcastic, but there is a certain logic in his position, pointing in a pessimistic direction. What if the slaves of capital doesn't want to rebel? What then? Leave this world, or what?

The present collection also includes Camatte's text on organization, in which he rejects all traditional organizations as inherently capitalist, including those of the workers' movement and the traditional left. This text is rather brief, and quite bad, certainly compared to OJTR's classical attack on left-wing groups, "Militancy - the highest stage of alienation".

Finally, a small word of warning. I ordered this book from a third party seller, but instead received a small pamphlet only containing the title essay "This world we must leave"...for the extortionate price of $30. My advice is to buy this book either from the publisher (Autonomedia) or access the articles free of charge on the web.