Year: 2018

Blazing Star Library

Letter from William B. Greene to Edward Atkinson, on the State of the Currency (1868)

June 18, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] This is perhaps the last article by William Batchelder Greene to appear in The Worcester Palladium. As it happens, it is also the next to last article left on a list I’ve been trying to track down for a very long time now, so I’m very pleased to be able to present it here. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] LETTER FROM WM. B. GREENE TO EDWARD ATKINSON, ESQ., On the State of the Currency —– Brookline, Mass., Oct. 21st, 1868. Dear Sir: — In our debate, last Saturday […]
Journal

Journal: June 16, 2018

June 17, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] AN ERA OF REFLECTION: For the last week, my research has been focused very much on the 1920s, right at the end of the period that I ordinarily treat in historical work. I’ve been working with a rough-and-ready periodization scheme that breaks the long formative period of anarchism (1840-1920) in a forty-year “era of anarchy,” before the popularization of anarchism as an idea, during which “being an anarchist” meant engaging with an anarchy-without-anarchism, and a forty-year “era of anarchism,” during which the a largely communistic “modern anarchism” attempted to develop its […]
Sébastien Faure
Anarchist Encyclopedia

Sébastien Faure, “A Work of Immense Utility” (1925)

June 16, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 a0px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] A Work of Immense Utility To gather all the material introduced in Anarchist Thought by the theorists and propagandists of the entire world; to present in a sweeping and luminous synthesis the essential elements of that Thought; to gather the facts through which that Thought is most clearly expressed; to summarize the events that have continued to justify it and to emphasize more and more forcefully its superiority over all the other social doctrines: this is the intended aim of those comrades who have decided to publish, as soon as possible, […]
Anarchist Encyclopedia

L’Œuvre Internationale des Editions anarchistes in “La Revue Anarchiste” (1924-1925)

June 15, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Every manifestation of anarchist propaganda—by speech, by writing, by action—must therefore have a global impact and a universal significance.

In practice, this is not the case and, as a result, anarchists are only informed about anarchist movement and action in the countries where they live and are little, badly or even completely uneducated about what happens in other countries.

One of the causes of this regrettable state of things — and it is not the least of them — is the diversity of languages.

[…]

Featured articles

Proposal for an Anarchist Survey

June 15, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anything that might have been said then about anarchism’s internal diversity and anarchists’ uneven knowledge almost certainly falls far short of the present reality. So it is worth asking whether it is once again time to make the attempt to consult among ourselves regarding some basic aspects of our present anarchist reality. My own sense is that the time is indeed again ripe, so I want to simply push forward and propose a first set of basic questions, which might be expanded or amended, then distributed and translated, so that the collected responses might serve as a resource.

[…]

Christian socialism

Rev. W. D. P. Bliss, “Why Am I a Christian Socialist?” (1890)

June 15, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0″][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] WHY AM I A CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST? BY W. D. P. BLISS. Because I was made a Christian by Karl Marx and a Socialist by Jesus Christ. I do not strive to be paradoxical; to me this is a life-fact. I had supposed myself a Christian long before I read Karl Marx. I called myself one; I believed in Christ; I worshipped Him; I prayed to Him; I preached Him; I did everything except follow Him—in other words I was anything except a Christian. But one day I became interested in Socialism, […]
Steubenville Survey

Steubenville Survey: Response by Max Nettlau (1926)

June 14, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0″] RESPESTA DE M. NETTLAU I. La anarquía quiere decir, en suma, la manera como la vida humana se desarrollará en sus infinitas manifestaciones en un medio de libertad, depurado de todos los obstáculos opuestos al libre florecimiento, como el aire de los campos, de los bosques, de la montaña y del mar está forzado a respirar en los zaquizamís y en la fabricas, en las cuidadas mal saneadas de nuestra época. El primer punto de la encuesta: Sobre los problemas actuales del anarquismo y medios par provocar un esfuerzo anarquista internacional contra la reacción autoritaria, […]
Steubenville Survey

Steubenville Survey: Response by Palmiro de Lidia (1926)

June 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Palmiro de Lidia Encuesto del grupo “Los Iconoclastas,” Stuebenville 1. — Sobre los problemas actuales del anarquismo y medios par provocar un esfuerzo anarquista internacional contra la reacción autoritaria. Este primer punto abraza dos temas distintos, que trataremos por separado. Los problemas actuales del anarquismo. Son los que fueron siempre desde que apareció el Anarquismo como ideal en realizar. Algunos se ha agudizado, otros ofrecen más favorable solución. Los hay do orden individual y de orden social. Los primeros son de carácter esencialmente moral y se contraen a la necesidad de que el individuo obre […]
Steubenville Survey

Steubenville Survey: Response by William C. Owen

June 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] [ Response by William C. Owen (Freedom) ] An Enquiry on Anarchism (The “Iconoclasts” Group, of Steubenville, Ohio, has organized an international enquiry on Anarchism, the replies to which are appearing in the weekly Supplement of “La Protesta,” of Buenos Aires. The following is Wm. C. Owen’s contribution.) —– 1. Anarchism’s actual problems, and the measures to be taken for provoking an international Anarchist effort in opposition to the authoritarian reaction. To this question I answer as follows. In my opinion, a real and powerful revolt against the present authoritarian reaction can come only when […]
individualism

Frank Q. Stuart, “Why I Am an Individualist” (1890)

June 11, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] WHY I AM AN INDIVIDUALIST. BY F. Q. STUART. Some months ago the editor requested me to write an article on this subject, but not until now have I found myself so situated that I could conveniently do so. This is a question that may be answered in various ways, but at best it can only be partially answered in a short article. I am an Individualist first, because Individualism is the only philosophy that furnishes a rational, or if you please, scientific, solution of the great social and political questions […]