Month: July 2018

equitable commerce

Equitable Commerce in 1849

July 29, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] January 17, 1849 Lecture by Josiah Warren. People’s Sunday Meeting.—The usual discussion next Sunday will be suspended in order to allow Mr. Josiah Warren, lately of New Harmony, (Ind.,) an opportunity to deliver a lecture on the subject of “Equitable Commerce.” This new mode of Social Reformation is one that Mr. Warren has paid much attention to for several years, and from the very favorable manner in which we have seen him noticed in Western papers, we have no doubt of his being a gentleman of considerable ability and well-qualified to give an interesting and […]
Featured articles

Eliphalet Kimball, “Thoughts on Natural Principles” (1867)

July 28, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
It is only by anarchy and violence that a great accumulation of social wrongs can be removed. Anarchy is a good word. It means, “without a head.” Violence is the healing power of Nature applied to society. The violence which would follow from the abolishment of law, would be proportion to the number and magnitude of the wrongs that needed removal. There ought always to be anarchy, but there would be no violence where there were no wrongs.

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Bakunin Library

Mikhail Bakunin in “The Working Man” (1862)

July 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] MICHAEL BAKUNIN HE 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 […]
Catechisms and Dialogues

Vicente Carreras, “Acraciápolis” (1902)

July 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] This translation from Spanish has been sitting, complete except for a last few lines, for quite some time now, probably because I had forgotten quite how much of it I had finished (undoubtedly late one night, while I should have been digging up more Max Nettlau articles from La Revista Blanca.) It was an obvious, appealing choice for translation—so obvious, in fact, that I find Jesse Cohn has also included a translation in his essay, “Escape From Cretinolândia: Strategies of Displacement in Anarchist Fiction.” Anyway, here is my translation of a short interesting, anarchist utopian […]
equitable commerce

Josiah Warren, “Social Reform in America” (1862)

July 25, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
When, in 1827, I first conceived the principles of equity, and designed to illustrate them by the working of a family store, I talked incessantly for six weeks to my most sympathising friends in order to get them to appreciate the subject, and to assist me in working it out; but the whole of that labour was entirely thrown away; but as soon as I commenced the store single-handed—individually—it explained itself, and more than itself. The working of it—the facts of it—explained the principle of Equity as no words could; and I saw that it was the incompetency of language that had neutralised all my efforts at theorising.

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Saint Ravachol

A Letter from Georges Etiévant (1898)

July 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0″] UNE LETTRE D ETIEVANT Voici la lettre écrite, par l’anarchiste Etiévant, en prison, à un de ses camarades et dont nous avons parlé plus haut : Paris, 30 janvier 1898. Mon cher camarade, J’ai reçu ta lettre m’annonçant ton changement forcé d’adresse. Je te remercie d’avoir été voir mon père. Il m’a écrit et m’a dit qu’au milieu de ses chagrins ta visite et celle des autres camarades lui avaient fait un grand plaisir. Tu me dis qu’Alfieri avait raison. Certes, dans son livre de la Tyrannie il y a de fort bel les choses […]
A Good Word

Henry Glasse, “Libertarian or Anarchist?” (1899)

July 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0″][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] LIBERTARIAN OR ANARCHIST? The term “Libertarian” in place of “Anarchist” seems to be used with increasing frequency. The newer term pleases me better because, while it emphatically denotes our cardinal principle, it admits of no misconstruction nor misunderstanding. We who have long fought under the device of “Anarchy” have naturally acquired a regard for the name and frankly accepted it with whatever stigma might attach thereto, still we must admit that the very word in itself is liable to be taken, quite honestly, in a wrong sense, while our many dishonest […]
Saint Ravachol

“Ravachol is the hero of the day” (1892)

July 17, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] LA QUINZAINE. — Ravachol est le héros du jour. Triste héros, il est vrai, ce misérable anarchiste auquel Paris tout entier a dû quelques heures de terreur véritable. Ravachol, d’abord assassin, a pris comme deuxième spécialité la destruction des maisons de la capitale par la dynamite. Au boulevard Saint-Germain, puis à la rue de Clichy, deux maisons ont été fortement endommagées par suite des attentats dirigés ou exécutés par ce bandit que la police a fini par arrêter, grâce à l’intelligente initiative d’un simple garçon de café. La recherche de Ravachol, quelques jours introuvable, puis […]
Saint Ravachol

A Brawl on the Boulevard Barbès (1892)

July 15, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Une Bagarre Boulevard Barbès Trois individus descendaient le boulevard Barbès, hier soir vers cinq heures. Tout coup, l’un d’eux, apercevant une brouette sur la chaussée, s’en empara et après avoir installé ses deux camarades dans ce fiacre d’un nouveau genre, se mit à les véhiculer. Ils avaient déjà parcouru un espace d’une centaine de mètres, quand plusieurs égoutiers, à qui la brouette appartenait, se mirent à la poursuite des mauvais plaisants qu’ils ne tardèrent pas à rejoindre. — Rendez-nous notre brouette, leur dirent les égoutiers. Les individus interpellés refusèrent obstinément en disant que ce qui […]
Featured Projects

Lewis Masquerier’s “Sociology” Reconstructed

July 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bibliography: Lewis Masquerier, “Godology.—No. 1,” Boston Investigator 39 no. 27 (November 3, 1869): 209. Lewis Masquerier, “Godology.—No. 2,” Boston Investigator 39 no. 28 (November 10, 1869): 217. Lewis Masquerier, “An Oecumenical Convention of the World’s Political and Religious Reformers. No. 2,” Boston Investigator 40 no. 29 (November 16, 1870): 1. Lewis Masquerier, “An Oecumenical Convention of the World’s Political and Religious Reformers. No. 3,” Boston Investigator 40 no. 30 (November 23, 1870): 1. Lewis Masquerier, “An Oecumenical Convention of the World’s Political and Religious Reformers. No. 4,” Boston Investigator 41 no. 9 (June 28, 1871): 1. Lewis Masquerier, “An Oecumenical […]