Month: August 2016

Anarchist Beginnings

Louise Michel, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1896)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
I am an Anarchist because Anarchy alone, by means of liberty and justice based on equal rights, will make humanity happy, and because Anarchy is the sublimest idea conceivable by man. It is, today, the summit of human wisdom, awaiting discoveries of undreamt of progress on new horizons, as ages roll on and succeed each other in an ever widening circle. Man will only be conscious when he is free. Anarchy will therefore be the complete separation between the human flocks, composed of slaves and tyrants, as they exist to day, and the free humanity of tomorrow. As soon as […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Errico Malatesta, “Anarchy” (1891)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, “without government”: the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a movement (which has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare), the word “anarchy” was used universally in the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries interested in distorting the truth. We […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Johann Most, “Why I Am a Communist” (1892)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the principal features of the development of modern industrial production is the ever-increasing organization of the laboring force and of the means of production. The result is that with less “hands” a continually growing amount of commodities is being produced. From this last is might be concluded that man should be thus enabled to satisfy all his intellectual and physical wants with a decreasing exertion of his physical powers. Yet, no such result is apparent. On the contrary, all progress in the direction of facilitating the process of production has the effect of reducing the number of laborers […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Ravachol, “My Principles” (1892)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Gentlemen, I am in the habit of engaging in propaganda wherever I find myself. Do you know what Anarchy is? We answered ‘No’ to this question. “That doesn’t surprise me,” he responded. The working class, which as you know is obliged to work to obtain its bread, doesn’t have the time to indulge itself in reading the pamphlets that are made available to it; it is the same for you. Anarchy is the annihilation of property. Presently there exist many useless things, many occupations which also useless, such as accounting, for example. With anarchy, there is no more need for […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Benjamin R. Tucker, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1890)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Why am I an Anarchist? That is the question which the editor of the Twentieth Century has requested me to answer for his readers. I comply; but, to be frank, I find it a difficult task. If the editor or one of his contributors had only suggested a reason why I should be anything other than an Anarchist, I am sure I should have no difficulty in disputing the argument. And does not this very fact, after all, furnish in itself the best of all reasons why I should be an Anarchist – namely, the impossibility of discovering any good […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Louisa Sarah Bevington, “Wanted: Order” (1893)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Yes! order. That is what we Anarchists are struggling to get in the place of the shameful “chaos and disorder” that we see around us. The disorder in the World and the Misery of the Workers is caused by the system of Monopoly and Capitalism, and by the brutal working of the laws, made by Monopolists and Profitmongers to protect themselves and their dishonest gains. It is to the interest of Monopolists and Capitalists to make you believe that Anarchists are “enemies of society”. They tell you that Anarchists want to turn the world “upside down.” Workers! “The world is […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Emile Henry, “Letter to the Director of the Conciergerie” (1894)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
During the visit you made to my cell Sunday, the 18th of this month, we had a quite friendly discussion of anarchist ideas. You said you were very surprised to learn our theories in a different light, and you asked me to summarize our conversation in writing, in order to better know what the anarchists want. You can easily understand, monsieur, that in just a few pages one can’t expound upon a theory which analyses our current social life in all of its manifestations; that studies these manifestations the way a doctor examines a sick body, and which then condemns […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Ross Winn, “The Archic (A Fairy Tale)” (1903)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Once upon a time, in a kingdom situated between two seas, the people kept a certain great monster, called an archic. This archic was a most ferocious beast with great iron claws and a mouth large enough to swallow a dozen men at a gulp. The people held this frightful monster in great esteem, altho it was a great burden to them, for it had to be fed constantly upon the fat of the land, and demanded human flesh and blood, as well as the choice fruits of the soil, and was always hungry. This savage beast had to be […]
Anarchist Beginnings

J. A. Andrews, “A Handbook of Anarchy” (1894)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy is freedom. The literal meaning of the word “free” is to love or like; thus when we say that a man is free we imply that he is “to like,” that is, he has only to like in order to decide what he will do, or try to do. Among the things which people in general like, is to avoid hurting others, and as sometimes to do a particular thing which one would like would come in conflict with this, it becomes a matter for consideration which course one likes the best. From this people have roughly set out […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Henry Seymour, “The Two Anarchisms” (1894)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] Anarchists are divided into MUTUALISTS, who hope to bring about their economic results by Banks of Exchange and a free currency; and COMMUNISTS, whose motto is: “From every man according to his capacity, to every man according to his needs.” Hazell’s Annual Encyclopaedia, 1886 There are two Anarchisms. That is to say, there are two schools of Anarchism. One is communistic, the other mutualistic. One is emotional, the other is philosophic. One is utopian, the other practical. One is dogmatic, the other rational. One is destructive, the other constructive. One is revolutionary, the other evolutionary. One relies on the […]