Year: 2013

Contr'un

A Notice and an Invitation

February 10, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’m finishing up my layman’s introduction to Proudhon’s theory of the state, for a book to be published in German, and it has been very interesting, demanding work. It has reconfirmed for me the fascinating depths of Proudhon’s work, and the extent to which I’ve still really only begun to sound the most profound of them. It’s a pleasant sort of hard work, but I admit I won’t be sorry when I can put this part of it away. I suspect I will feel much the same about rest of the work for the Two-Gun Mutualism: Rearmed book. It will […]
Contr'un

Collective force and the problem of authority

February 4, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
God, philosophy says finally, is, from the ontological point of view, a conception of the human mind, the reality of which it is impossible to deny or affirm authentically;—from the point of view of humanity, a fantastic representation of the human soul raised to the infinite. — Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church In Proudhon’s writings we encounter the notion that what lies behind the most durable examples of authority—chief among them the famous pair, God and the State—is, in fact, collective force. It is our own force, the force of society or humanity, to which we […]
Bakunin Library

Michael Bakunin: A Biographical Sketch (London, 1862)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
MICHAEL BAKUNIN. (A Biographical Sketch.) Bakunin is in London! Bakunin, buried in dungeons, lost in Eastern Siberia, re-appears in the midst of us, full of life and energy. Redivivus et ultor, we might say, with Pougatscheff, were not Bakunin and ourselves, too much occupied to waste time in thoughts of vengeance. Bakunin returns more hopeful than ever, with redoubled love for the Russian people. He is invigorated by the sharp, but healthy, air of Siberia. Is it that spring approaches? Old friends return to us from beyond the Pacific Ocean. How many images, how many shadows, rise from the dead […]
Bakunin Library

“The Working Man” of London greets Bakunin (1862)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
MICHAEL BAKUNIN THE Committee of the “Working Man,” on Tuesday, the 7th of January, having been informed that Michael Bakunin had arrived in London, a deputation was appointed to go and present to this martyr of human progress an address of welcome. On Friday, the 10th, accordingly the deputation waited upon Alexander Herzen, the celebrated Russian exile and “publiciste,” who introduced them to Bakunin, surrounded by a goodly staff of Russians, Poles, &c, all friends of progress, united by the brotherly love for one common mother—Liberty. The following address was then read:— The Committee of the “Working Man” to the […]
Bakunin Library

M. Jourdain, “Mikhail Bakunin” (1920)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN. BY M. JOURDAIN. “It is only by tracing things to their origin,” writes Paine in his Essay on Agrarian Justice, “that we can gain rightful ideas of them,” and the deepest foundations of the Russian Revolution owe much to the violence and perfervid genius of Bakunin, a name less frequently in the mouths of men than that of his adversary, Karl Marx. Marx, who recognized in himself a pioneer, comes within well-known categories, and his doctrines can be clearly tabulated, but Bakunin is more elusive. He was not, in any respect, leader of a party, nor founder of […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “Today or Tomorrow” (on Ravachol, 1892)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Here’s another of the articles written shortly after Ravachol’s execution, in which Louise Michel added her bit to the Ravachol myth. There was a good deal of reference between the various contributions to L’Endehors. Michel began her article with a line from an article by Zo d’Axa and references Gustave Mathieu’s “The Little Ravachols will Grow.” This working translation is a little rough, but I’ll be finishing these as a group.] Today or Tomorrow. Louise Michel Everything is good which strikes or stings.[1] So much the better if these bandits have finished their work. The scaffold has started the party, […]
Contr'un

Anarchy is order! (Wait! What?)

January 28, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have often seen the phrase “anarchy is order” attributed to Proudhon—and to Bakunin, and Bellarrigue, and Elisee Reclus, and a French singer-songwriter named Leo Ferre. Often the phrase is actually Bellegarrigue’s (“Anarchy is order; government is civil war”) or the phrase “Anarchy is order without power,” cited as appearing in the Confessions of a Revolutionary. That latter phrase does not seem to appear in that book (and I’ve searched pretty carefully) and it doesn’t really sound all that much like Proudhon. There are a number of places where he talked about the relationship between anarchy and order, and lots […]
Proudhon Library

From Proudhon’s study on the State (“Justice,” 1858)

January 27, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[These passages are taken from the Fourth Study, on “The State,” in Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church.] [From CHAPTER I.] V. — I will not make my readers wait for the solution. As you have just seen, I reduce all of political science to a single question, that of Stability. Why is it that from ancient times until the present, the constitution of the states has been so fragile, that all the publicists, without exception, have declared them essentially instable? How are we to bestow stability and duration on them? It is from this specific side […]
Bakunin Library

Louise Michel’s “Nadine,” a drama featuring Bakunin

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have previously posted a short excerpt from Louise Michel’s novel, The Imperial Bastard, which featured Bakunin as a main character. Michel also adapted some elements from that novel in dramatic form as Nadine, a political tragedy set in the Polish rebellions of 1846. I’ve posted a working translation of that play now at the Working Translations blog. As with all of these new translations, there are some rough spots to smooth, but in this case it’s mostly a case of making sense of the details of the stage directions, and I think all the charm of Michel’s Bakunin comes […]
Bakunin Library

The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] 1871 was a huge year for Bakunin as a writer. Along with The Knouto-Germanic Empire (the manuscript from which “God and the State” is drawn), he wrote “The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International,” a lengthy polemic against Giuseppe Mazzini. Like “God and the State,” which was translated into English by Benjamin R. Tucker, it was translated by an individualist anarchist in the United States, Sarah E. Holmes, and appeared in serial form in Tucker’s Liberty. Both translations were quite good. “The Political Theology…” is comparatively little-known, but well worth reading. A continuation of […]