Year: 2017

The Sex Question

Lucien Descaves, “A Friend of Varlin” (Nathalie Le Mel)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Nathalie Le Mel [tag feed]   A Friend of Varlin Last week there died, at the hospice of Ivry, at 95 years of age, an old revolutionary that I have known well and to whom I owe one of my greatest joys as a man of letters. One day when I was questioning Martelet, the former member of the Commune, about his colleague Varlin, the finest figure of a worker from those heroic times, Martelet said to me: “You have, practically next door, a woman who fought the good fight beside him in the last years of the Empire. She […]
Working Translations

Joseph Déjacque, “The Theory of Infinitesimal Humanities” (1859)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
La Théorie des Humanités Infinitésimales, OU SYSTEME DES QUATRE GRADATIONS Si mon ignorance de bien des sciences n’est pas un insurmontable obstacle à ce que je médite, j’essayerai quelque jour de développer plus complètement une théorie qui n’est qu’en germe dans l’article précédent (et qui n’est pas sans analogie avec la “Série” de Fourier et la “Triade” de Leroux, mais plus rationnelle, je le crois.) C’est la théorie des “Humanités infinitésimales” ou application, à tous les êtres dans l’universalité et à l’universalité de tous les êtres, du système des trois règnes (minéral, végétal, animal), couronné du quatrième, l’hominal, ou essence […]
Working Translations

Joseph Déjacque, “Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853”

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Here is Joseph Dejacque’s speech from the funeral of radical poet Louise Julien. The wind-up at the end is particularly fascinating, being a mix of Fourierist passional science and fire-breathing revolutionary rhetoric. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853 at the tomb of Louise Julien, exile by Joseph Déjacque Again a grave is opened… And this time, it is not a man. It is a woman that exile… that the circus devours to the applause of Caesar and his praetorian rabble. A poor and valorous woman, a humble martyr for an idea, […]
Working Translations

Charles-François Chevé, “Socialist Catechism” (1849)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
SOCIALIST CATECHISM BY C. F. CHEVÉ Editor of the Voix du Peuple, and former editor of Le Peuple. I. Socialism. QUESTION. What is Socialism? ANSWER. It is the doctrine of universal conciliation. Q. What does it come to reconcile? A. All that rights and interests that are today in incessant war. Q. By what means will it reconcile all rights? A. By giving them the fullness of their exercise and of their complete satisfaction. Q. What is the first of these rights and the one that encloses all the others? A. It is the right to live. Q. What is […]
anarchist individualism

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation (1923) (in progress)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The translation of E. Armand’s Anarchist Individualist Initiation is ongoing. Completed sections are available here, in English, and on the dual-language pages in French and English. Sections on the first page here have gone through at least one round of correction, verification against the original text and annotation, while sections on subsequent pages may be uncorrected drafts. As the work progresses, links to earlier or later versions of the various sections will be added. Editorial notes have been added in blue text. Related links: E. ARMAND—MAIN PAGE The Anarchist Individualist Initiation (Parallel (FR/EN) text) Notes on “The Anarchist Individualist Initiation” […]
fiction

Albert Libertad, “The Legend of Christmas” (1899)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Once upon a time, a long time ago, around the year 1900, there was a big heap of rocks and mud that the natives at that time called Paris. It was the capital of a country favored with a temperate climate where cereals, vineyards, and the most beautiful fruits grew in abundance. Approaching these heaps of stone, overcoming the pestilential odors given off by them, one saw that it was crossed by roads of all sorts: some wide, packed with fine houses, and others narrow, with, on each side, houses with the look of mousetraps, arranged in tight rows.

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Bakunin Library

Mikhail Bakunin, “The Social Revolution” (Freedom, 1910) with a corrected translation

December 19, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Even when we are extremely careful, it is easy for translations to become compromised by changes in the common usage of particular keywords. When we feel the pressure of translating for audiences who may be less sensitive to that development, or to nuances in the texts themselves, there is often a temptation to try to make the translation “clearer” than the original text. (The problems with the translation of anarchie in Proudhon’s General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century of undoubtedly of this sort.) And then there are instances where translation and adaptation to new ideological purposes are […]
Welcome

Welcome to the Libertarian Labyrinth

December 18, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WELCOME TO THE LIBERTARIAN LABYRINTH: AN ARCHIVE OF ANARCHISTIC HISTORIES AND POSSIBILITIES; WRITINGS BY ANARCHISTS, SOCIALISTS, FEMINISTS AND DREAMERS! The LIBERTARIAN LABYRINTH is a collection of digital archives and blogs dedicated to radical history, with an emphasis on the history of the anarchist movement. Explore the Collections The heart of the collection is the works on ANARCHISM and the history of the anarchist tradition. ANARCHIST BEGINNINGS: A natural first stop in the exploration of anarchism, this collection features introductory texts drawn from the early phases of the tradition BAKUNIN LIBRARY: A new edition of the works of Mikhail Bakunin in […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Welcome to Anarchist Beginnings

December 18, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
VOL. I — DECLARATIONS & PROFESSIONS OF FAITH Precursors & Related Tendencies: pre-1840 The Era of Anarchy: 1840—1880 The Era of Anarchism: 1881—1925 VOL. II — PROGRAMS & MANIFESTOS VOL. III — CATECHISMS, DIALOGUES, POEMS & STORIES VOL. IV — CRITIQUES & CARICATURES VOL. V — PROGRESS REPORTS & REASSESSMENTS 1850-1876 1877-1919 1920-1930 PROJECT PAGES: Anarchist Beginnings category feed The Why I Ams Beginnings The ANARCHIST BEGINNINGS project began as a series of pamphlets from my Corvus Editions project, simply titled “Anarchisms,” collecting a first assortment of the “Declarations & Professions of Faith,” together with some collective statements from the […]
Mutualism.info

Welcome to Mutualism.info

December 18, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
PROJECT PAGES: Contr’un blog (anarchist history and theory) Proudhon Library (commentary and translations) r/DebateAnarchism AMAs: 2014 and 2017 Mutualism: Ask Me Anything (transcript) What Mutualism Was Mutualism.info category feed ESSAYS: Shawn P. Wilbur, “Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Self-Government and the Citizen-State“ Contr’un Collections: Toward an Ungovernable Anarchism Self-Government and the Citizen-State The Anarchic Encounter There & Back Again Ask Me Anything God and the State Anarchy and Democracy Mutualist Classics: Sidney H. Morse, “Liberty and Wealth” (1884) Sidney H. Morse, “Ethics of the Homestead Strike” (1892) Herman Kuehn, “The Problem of Worry” (1901) Proudhon’s Social Science The posts in this series will […]