Month: October 2012

Bakunin Library

An Anarchist-Collectivist View of Collectivist Anarchism

October 31, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] It’s been a while since I’ve been able to post a progress report. The first round of proposals brought a mixed sort of feedback, which led to another long round of research and strategizing. Thanks to everyone who contributed feedback, even if it was of a sort I ultimately couldn’t accommodate. I’ll have more complete details soon, but the good news is that we’ve settled on an initial set of 6 volumes: a general Bakunin Reader, The Knouto-Germanic Empire, the writings on Mazzini, two additional volumes of essays, and a collectivist anarchist reader, featuring a number of Bakunin’s allies. […]
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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter X

October 29, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
  THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE  [continued from Chapter IX] X THE ENCOUNTER The group was returning very slowly, without hurrying, when Nono saw a splendid death’s-head hawkmoth. He immediately decided to catch it. But when he tried to seize it, the insect, with an unexpected flap of its wings, escaped from the net and came fluttering, as if to taunt him, very close to the hunter who, carried away by the heat of the chase, soon found himself led far from his friends. Finally, stopping near a large oak, the moth seemed within range, and Nono thought […]
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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter IX

October 28, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE  [continued from Chapter VIII] IX THE PROMENADE Nono had been in Autonomie for some time, and that time seemed to have passed like a dream. The time passed quietly; each day brought diverse labors and pleasures, which prevented the children from being bored for a single minute. Nono now knew all his comrades by name, knew who their parents were, what they did, and what country they came from. Most of the time, school-hours were spent in the gardens, on the lawns; but, for variety, they had long since planned a long walk […]
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Are Hotels Immoral?

October 27, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve been trying to collect my contributions to various discussion threads, where the off-the-cuff stuff seems to advance the conversation, and I’m presenting them in the form of one-sided conversations, with just enough of the contributions of others to give context. Here’s a bit from Reddit, on the question of occupancy and use property norms: Q. Are Hotels Immoral? A. No. If someone is actively maintaining a hotel, then they are obviously occupying and using it. A large hotel is likely to be a collectively owned affair, like most large enterprises under usufructory ownership. A. Can that somebody hire people […]
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Louise Michel as a Fiction Writer / The Claque-Dents

October 27, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the results of my continuing research on anarchism is that I occasionally find whole new genres of anarchist writing opening up in front of me. And recently, between my work on radical feminist writing and my work on the intersection of science fiction and fantasy and radicalism, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading, researching and translating fiction. A work like Jean Grave’s The Adventures of Nono is relatively unique as a children’s story, but the number of adult novels—including some that are very adult—written by anarchists is very large. One of the prolific novel-writers was Louise […]
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On J. H. Rosny

October 25, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
M. J. H. ROSNY. Let us transport ourselves in fancy a few years into the future. . . . The tendencies that are now beginning to assert themselves in education have definitely triumphed. Polite letters are banished from the course of instruction. The study of the dead languages has been abandoned by a society that has no time to lose. Classic literature has been utterly repudiated by the very men whose mission it was to initiate youth into its beauties. The university has realized its ambition of being modern. It has been reformed in accordance with the views of those […]
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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VIII

October 24, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE  [continued from Chapter VII] VIII THE SCHOOL Rising from the table, the children scattered on the lawn, where they organized all sorts of games. Nono, coming back down from his room, came to mingle with them. But a group of young ladies, from five to seven years old, wanted him to commence his lesson on the art of weaving flowers, and he acceded to their desire. It is in the midst of this group that, an hour later, Hans, Mab and company came to look for him. “We’re going to school,” they said […]
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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VII

October 21, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE  [continued from Chapter VI] VII LABOR IN AUTONOMIE It was broad daylight, the next day, whenNono was awakened by a band of his comrades who had invaded his bedroom. “Boo! lazybones,” said Mab, mocking him. “the idler who still sleeps and the sun that dazzles him. Yoo-hoo! “Come on! Get up,” said Hans, “we came to get you to go gardening.” “No,” said Mab, he promised last night to come with me and see the cows milked. I’ll take him”. Nono rose briskly, put on his trousers, dressing in the blink of an […]
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Travels in the Libertarian Labyrinth, 2005

October 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
From time to time I go back through the archives of this blog, revisiting old ideas and looking for dropped threads, and on more than one occasion I have been tempted to pull together a sort of “best of” collection, beyond what I’ve done in the couple of mutualist-related zines. My own experience is that the mass of material here is fairly daunting, and I know that others frequently find it moreso. So I’m trying a little experiment, in part for my own use and in part for those who are encountering the blog now without benefit of growing up […]
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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VI

October 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
 THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter V]   VI THE END OF THE EVENING The children rushed to the sheds where the tools and props were kept, and there, helped by Labor, and some of his little genies, they pulled poles and canvas from it, and carried them onto the esplanade. There they raised an immense, square tent, facing the front steps, which would serve as bleachers for the spectators. Nono was amazed to see Labor’s elves rush about; with their help, the heaviest poles were raised by half a dozen of infants without more effort […]