Year: 2018

anarchist mutualism

Reconstructing the “Anarchism of Approximations”

January 9, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Anarchism of Approximations (2007) Part I Part II There have been a lot of opportunities recently to think about the last decade or two of mutualist history. Part of what I will have to do, if I follow the plan laid out for What Mutualism Was, is to treat the whole period of mutualist resurgence with a certain amount of critical distance, applying the lessons of mutualism’s long history to a period during which we knew little about the mutualist past and muddled along as best we could. It’s an interesting project, not least because I’m still not quite […]
Contr'un

Anarchy as a Beacon and as a Focus for Synthesis

January 8, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Posts in the EXTRICATIONS series: A synthetic anarchism is bound to pose some problems, whether we think of anarchism as an ideology or as a set of experimental practices. Most of the difficulties surround the notion of anarchy. Whether we imagine that anarchy is the ideal or principle upon which an evolving ideology should focus with increasing clarity or whether we consider it a placeholder, the name for a discovery or experimental result that we have not yet encountered in any full sense, it remains a largely negative element. As such, anarchy certainly does not provide all the practical direction […]
Blazing Star Library

William B. Greene, “The Bible and State Rights” (1851)

January 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
William Batchelder Greene’s articles for The Worcester Palladium are an idiosyncratic mix of religious and political concerns, but it would be interesting, for example, to read articles like this alongside Proudhon’s The Celebration of Sunday. Idiosyncratic mixture was, after all, more the rule than the exception among the earliest anarchists. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. The Bible and State Rights. The Hebrew Commonwealth consisted of ten distinct tribes. Each of these tribes constituted a civil community, independent in its legitimate sphere of the other tribes. Each tribe had its separate rulers, legislature, &c. To illustrate […]
Blazing Star Library

William B. Greene, “Plutocracy” (1850)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Plutocracy is the subject of several of the articles William B. Greene contributed to The Worcester Palladium. The term would have been familiar to him from Pierre Leroux’s 1842 essay, “De la ploutocratie,” but it had also featured prominently in an address by the Massachusetts Democrats, which prompted the Whig denials that motivated this essay.  Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] For the Palladium. Plutocracy. “Ours is no “plutocracy” but a Constitution of Grecian model.”—Whig State Address. It was authoritatively determined, at the Council of the Whig Church recently […]
Blazing Star Library

William B. Greene, “Equality—No. 6. Cain and Abel” (1850)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Like several of the other articles that he contributed to The Worcester Palladium, this early article by William Batchelder Greene contains some of his most direct expressions of anarchistic and socialistic ideas, but weaves them together with his rather esoteric readings of scripture. The result is both striking and perplexing.  Equally perplexing is the question of just which essays we should consider to be the fourth and fifth entries in the “Equality” series. While the two installments of “Capital and Labor” were included in the book Equality, the themes here seem to be a continuation of the material covered in […]
Blazing Star Library

William B. Greene, “Resistance to Law” (1851)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
This early article by William Batchelder Greene is remarkable for its discussion of anarchy, a topic to which Greene devoted very little attention. The treatment of the topic is characterized by a familiar sort of ambivalence. It closely resembles some more familiar forms of the “anarchy is order” argument in places. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” For the Palladium. Resistance to Law. Mr. Editor:—In former times, when the people supposed that their kings reigned by diving right, men were bound in conscience to obey the laws with alacrity. But it happened, in the progress of events, that the […]
anarchist mutualism

William B. Greene, “The Red Republic” (1849)

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 10px”] This early article by William Batchelder Greene is one of three written for The Worcester Palladium on the topic of plutocracy. It consists of a translation of most of the eighth chapter of Pierre Leroux’s De la ploutocratie, with commentary by Greene. Wm. B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium” [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] For the Palladium. The Red Republic. The French national flag is composes, as every one knows, of three colors, read, white, and blue. These three colors represent the three estates of the former French realm: the white denotes the nobility, with […]
anarchist mutualism

1848-1868: William B. Greene in “The Worcester Palladium”

January 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
EPISODES in another history: Omega, [Letter to the editor], The Worcester Palladium 15 no. 23 (June 07, 1848): 3. [see below] Omega, “Equality.—No. 1,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 29 (July 18, 1849): 3 Omega, “Equality.—No. 2. The Banking System,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 30 (July 25, 1849): 3 Omega, “Equality.—No. 3. The Repeal of the Usury Laws,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 31 (August 1, 1849): 2-3. Omega, “Capital and Labor.—No. I,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 37 (September 12, 1849): 2-3. Omega, “Capital and Labor.—No. II. Socialism in Massachusetts,” The Worcester Palladium 16 no. 38 (September 19, […]
Proudhon Library

P.-J. Proudhon, “System of Economic Contradictions” (Eighth Epoch—Property)

January 3, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Parts of this translation are quite rough, so use with caution and preferably with reference to the original French.] THE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC CONTRADICTIONS CHAPTER XI EIGHTH EPOCH.—PROPERTY 1.—Property is inexplicable apart from the economic series.—Of the organization of common sense, or problem of certainty. The problem of property is, after that of human destiny, the greatest that reason can propose, and the last that it will be able to resolve. Indeed, the theological problem, the enigma of religion, has been explicated; the philosophical problem, which treats the value and legitimacy of knowledge, is resolved: there remains the social problem, […]