Month: May 2018

Anarchist Beginnings

Suggestions for Discussion (1928)

May 31, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
In 1928, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman proposed a small gathering of sympathetic anarchists—including Goldman, Berkman, Max Nettlau, Rudolf Rocker, Luigi Fabbri, Marie Goldsmith, Sébastien Faure and Alexander Shapiro—to discuss the future of the anarchist movement. The meeting was to be a secret, even from most anarchist comrades. They circulated a “syllabus” of “Suggestions for Discussion,” asking for responses from those who could not attend and possible revisions for use in the discussion. I’m collecting material related to the proposed gathering here, for possible inclusion in a later volume of Anarchist Beginnings, focused on internal anarchist critique. SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “Observations d’actualité” (1910)

May 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[The French essay “Observations d’actualité” was a translation and revision of “A General Survey” (Freedom 24 no. 249 (January, 1910): 5-7.) This new English translation is intended to show the refinement of Nettlau’s ideas.] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0″] Observations d’actualité Les organismes primitifs parlant grosso modo ressemblent l’un à l’autre ; un développement plus élevé produit la différenciation. La société primitive fut facilement asservie par us classe dominante rusée qui fit accepter à la masse de croyances et des coutumes uniformes. Nous sommes encore sous le charme et nous nous imaginons habituellement que la société tout entière acceptera par la […]
From the Archives

E. Armand, “Revolutionary Opposites” (1927)

May 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third] Revolutionary Opposites. The French Revolution institutionalized, successively or simultaneously, the despotism of the majority, the law as an expression of the general will, the Republic one and indivisible, Jacobinism, the Terror, the guillotine as a permanent factor, the Committee of Public Safety, the Tenth of August, the September Days, the drownings at Nantes, the machine-gun massacres at Lyons, etc., etc.—things that had not even the attraction of novelty, having all been practiced previously under one form or another. The French Revolution, therefore, led directly to Napoleon the Great and Napoleon the Little, to Lenin, Mussolini and the others. When […]
From the Archives

Max Nettlau, “The War in the Balkans” (1913)

May 25, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
The present struggle is, in my opinion, not a struggle between little Montenegro and big Turkey, little Servia and big Austria, but between the isolated Turkish and Austro-German interests, strictly on the defence, and unfettered Panslavist greed, egged on and supported by the bitter and absolute enmity of France and England against everything that is German. We saw how public opinion was “educated” by politicians and the Press, until the South African War become “inevitable;” the same game is going on about Germany—these are the first-fruits of this campaign.

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Contr'un

PROJECT: Vital Things

May 23, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
There is an element of anarchist theory that keeps imposing itself on my studies, often in the most unexpected times and places, which I think of — very imprecisely, I’ll admit — as a kind of vitalist tendency. By this I mean that there is a surprisingly common tendency, when attempting to speak about anarchy in its positive aspects, to make a connection to a range of ideas (life, sex, fecundity, progression, etc.) that are at once “natural” and disruptive of any very fixed, authoritative form of living or organizing social life.

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anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “The Case of Gustave Hervé” (1912)

May 22, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 0px 0 10px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] The Case of Gustave Hervé. Considerable surprise and ill-feeling were created by the news that Hervé, the editor of the Paris Guerre Sociale, hitherto believed to be an uncompromising antipatriot, antimilitarist, and insurrectionist, was, since his recent release from prison, working on much more moderate lines, apparently renouncing his former opinions and methods. When he proposed to state his standpoint and to give his reasons to an immense Paris audience at the Salle Wagram (September 25), some denied him a hearing, and a great row ensued. He has now lectured in […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “Another Point of View.—A Reply” (1910)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.—A REPLY. (To the Editor of Freedom.) Dear Comrade,—The contradictory statements which “Anarchist Communist” points out in my January article (“A General Survey,” see his letter in Freedom, February) may be due to my want of logic, and I stand open to be corrected; they may be contradictory in appearance only where I failed to make myself quite clear; they may also be reconciled by an explanation which gives the reasons of an unexpected divergence of development. I am looking out for such reasons, and when I shall have stated the case in a clearer way […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “A General Survey” (1910)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] A GENERAL SURVEY. As time goes, by, an increasing number of social commotions of some kind seem to happen each year, periods of rest are hardly known, and it would not be difficult to. describe a number of events of a hopeful character tending towards freedom during the year that is just past. The first French postal strike, the anti-militarist revolt in Catalonia, the international Ferrer protest, the crushing of absolutism in Turkey and in Persia are each of them events of a magnitude that has not happened in years in the quiet past. But I do not wish […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “Anarchism and the Unemployed” (1908)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] ANARCHISM AND THE UNEMPLOYED. (To the Editor of Freedom.) Dear Comrade,—May I make a few remarks on Anarchism and the unemployed? A problem of suffering humanity ought not to be considered from an exclusive propaganda standpoint but at the same time none of our ideas ought to be relegated, even temporarily, to the background. We believe that our ideas will help us to find an adequate solution for all such problems, only our own different personal dispositions make us sometimes disagree on these proposed solutions, which, after all, experience alone can verify. Thus I fail to see that authoritarian […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “Can a General Strike Be Successful?” (1909)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] CAN A GENERAL STRIKE BE SUCCESSFUL? Anarchism should receive the greatest attention just now when the insufficiency of Syndicalism becomes more patent. So many things happen which ought to set our friends thinking. Too many things are taken for granted which require continuous fresh examination, e.g., the General Strike, in light of recent French experience. Will an effective strike of the kind be possible before immense masses are filled with indignation and enthusiasm to such a degree that they might, and would just as well straightaway make a revolution and not stop at a passive strike? I think that […]