Month: August 2019

poetry

E. Armand: The Exosthène cycle

August 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bibliography: E. Armand, “Exosthène,” L’en dehors 8 no. 158-159 (mi-Mai 1929): 8. E. Armand, “Le voyage—I,” L’en dehors 10 no. 210-211 (15 Juillet 1931): 8. E. Armand, “Le voyage—II,” L’en dehors 10 no. 212-213 (15 Août 1931): 14. E. Armand, “Le voyage—III,” L’en dehors 10 no. 214-215 (15 Septembre 1931): 9. E. Armand, “Le voyage—IV,” L’en dehors 10 no. 216-217 (15 Octobre 1931): 16. E. Armand, “Le voyage—V,” L’en dehors 10 no. 220-221 (15 Décembre 1931): 21. E. Armand, “examen de conscience,” L’en dehors 12 no. 260-261 (mi-Décembre 1933): 157. E. Armand, “la réunion,” L’en dehors 12 no. 265 (mi-Août […]
anarchist synthesis

Varieties of Anarchist Entente

August 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchism had hardly been established as a widely used keyword before the struggles over its scope and proper meaning became equally widespread. Indeed, we might say that anarchism became a keyword precisely as an attempt to draw lines between, on the one hand, authoritarian and anti-authoritarian factions in the International and, on the other, the “modern” anti-authoritarian communists and all other anarchistic tendencies. And the widespread divisions gave rise, just as rapidly, to proposals for unity or at least toleration between anarchists if different currents. We might recognize, then, that, alongside the various tendencies defined by proposed economic and social […]
Working Translations

E. Armand to Max Nettlau, July 20, 1935

August 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Dear camarade,

I received La anarquía á través de los tiempos from Tierra y Libertad. I am sorry to find there such a short mention of l’en dehors and the individualist movement in France, a mention that responds neither to the exact character of my efforts nor to the difficulties I have faced since 1901. You have been more impartial in your works in German.

[…]

Working Translations

Benjamin R. Tucker, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?” (FR/EN)

August 30, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Our era demands imperatively an economic solution. No movement of social transformation will gain immense proportions if it does not first satisfy that demand. That is why the “immense movement, truly anarchist in sentiment” that Max Nettlau proclaims as “absolutely indispensable well before the question of economic remedies arises” appears to me absolutely impossible.

[…]

Bakunin Library

Bakunin on Life, Harmony and Struggle (1872)

August 28, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
These are excerpts from a letter written by Bakunin to Celso Ceretti, in Locarno, Switzerland, March 13-27, 1872. There is a great deal more in the letter worth examining, but the translation will have to wait for another day. I have been very distressed to see that the General [Garibaldi?], dismayed by the clashing of democratic and socialist opinions in Italy, has ended, so to speak, by giving up the idea of assembling this Congress, or else putting it off to an undetermined time, when there will be more harmony in ideas. I believe that if you wish to wait […]
Utopian and Scientific

Henry Olerich, “A Cityless and Countryless World” (1893)

August 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Reviews: A CITYLESS AND COUNTRYLESS WORLD. BY MARIE LOUISE. Under this caption, Mr. Henry Olerich, of Holstein, Iowa, writes a 447 page book on “Practical Cooperative Individualism.” Like all speculative philosophers, the author believes in the forceful action of the allegoric style on the minds ol intelligent men and women. To that effect, he introduces to us a Mr. Midith, who was born on the planet Mars and had undertaken to visit our earth by means of a “projectile.” The missile reached our planet, not on solid ground, but in the waves of the Pacific, about a mile from the […]
From the Archives

Henry Olerich, “What the American Civil War Has Not Done” (1893)

August 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
PERHAPS all well-informed persons admit that chattel slavery was the cause of the American Civil War. All other questions that were incidentally drawn into the controversy were but secondary, and would likely have been treated as ordinary questions of politics. The animosity which caused the Civil War was created by the agitation of the slave question; and it is altogether probable that if slavery had not been introduced in to the United States, the Civil War would not have occurred. The previous union of the southern with the northern states is evidence that a friendly feeling between them had once existed, and if no enmity had been created between them by the agitation of the slavery question, there would not have been a desire to secede; for no one desires to withdraw from a partnership that is harmonious and profitable.

[…]

French texts

E. Armand, “L’Eternel Problème” (et autres entretiens)

August 24, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
L’Eternel Problème Entretien à 3 personnages : MARTHE. PAUL. MARIE. MARTHE : Cette fois-ci, c’en est fait. La loi qui fait de nous des électrices et des éligibles a été ce matin à l’Officiel. Hier encore, nous n’étions rien où si peu de chose… tout au plus bonnes à nous faire faire la cour par nos galants ou nos futurs maris, Depuis ce matin, tout est changé. Il a suffi de notre mise en possession des droits civiques pour nous faire devenir intéressantes, Ce ne sont plus les amoureux ou les candidats au mariage qui nous font la cour, ce […]
French texts

The Poems of E. Armand (FR)

August 21, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
L’Ère nouvelle LA LUTTE SUPRÊME Air : l’Internationale 1. Debout ! les vaillants, les sincères, Debout ! c’est pour l’humanité, Nous voici, quelques volontaires, Unis par solidarité! Le monde meurt sans espérance ; Des milliers, tout autour de nous Tombent, vaincus par la souffrance ! Il faut les sauver… Tous débout ! 2. Trop longtemps de In crainte esclaves, Dupes d’erreurs, de préjugés Cœurs et voix liés par mille entraves, On nous a vus muets, figés. Mais le temps vole… assez de doute L’appel du Christ est trop pressant « Laisse tout et suis-moi ! » En route Prenons nos places […]
From the Archives

Margaret C. Anderson, “Art and Anarchism” (1916)

August 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Art and Anarchism MARGARET C. ANDERSON WHEN “they” ask you what anarchism is, and you scuffle around for the most convincing definition, why don’t you merely ask instead: “What is art?” Because anarchism and art are in the world for exactly the same kind of reason. An anarchist is a person who realizes the gulf that lies between government and life; an artist is a person who realizes the gulf that lies between life and love. The former knows that he can never get from the government what he really needs for life; the latter knows that he can never […]