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Proudhon, “Political Contradictions,” pages 105-109 (1863-64)

July 13, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1half] CHAPITRE V CRITIQUE GÉNÉRALE DES CONSTITUTIONS De l’unité et de l’indivisibilité organique : formule, conditions et limites de cette loi. Application à l’ordre politique. Grave erreur des publicistes, hommes d’État et auteurs de constitutions à ce sujet : exagération unitaire. Maintenant, lecteur, nous avons passé le plus difficile. Ce qui me reste à vous dire ne sera plus que pour votre curiosité et amusement : je suppose, bien entendu, que la destinée des nations vous intéresse, et que les mystifications des hommes d’État vous amusent. Lisez donc, et quand vous serez à la fin, vous en saurez plus en […]

Horace Traubel, “Free Speech in Philadelphia or Anywhere” (1909)

July 7, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Free Speech in Philadelphia or Anywhere.* I. I am glad that in speaking of Emma Goldman today you took high ground for free speech and shooed off the dogs of war. There’s no sense in trying to kill ideas with brickbats and guns. The policeman’s club is never an argument. It always vulgarly and brutally remains a policeman’s club. To suppress Emma Goldman is not an evidence of power but a confession of weakness. Imagine a whole nation put on edge by a little woman a few feet high who says a few things with which majorities do not agree! […]

Emma Goldman, “Walt Whitman”

July 6, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] The poet of Leaves of Grass is a true son of American soil and yet very un-American. So long as he sings the song of the wonders of nature, the beauties of the unlimited resources, old Walt feels part and parcel of the strength of Mother Earth, but our great poet becomes un-American when he arraigns the Puritanic interference which has paralyzed life to such an extent as to make it barren. In fact, Walt Whitman may be called the iconoclast of Puritanism. No other writer or poet in America has so thoroughly exposed the […]

Mutual Exchange on “Anarchy and Democracy”

July 2, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been participating in the C4SS “Mutual Exchange” on the topic of “Anarchy and Democracy,” along with a star-studded assembly of anarchists and libertarians from various tendencies. While this is technically the June exchange, it has actually been in progress since early April, with the most recent contribution appearing just a few days ago. As a result, some parts of the debate have had a long time to develop, while others have not, and the order of the contributions and the order of their publication are considerably different in some cases. In the interest of clarifying a few things that […]

Library Update — July 1, 2017

July 1, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

Today is the anniversary of the death of Bakunin in 1876. It seems like as good an occasion as any to update folks on the progress of the library (particularly as I had really hoped to do an update back at the end of May, on the anniversary of his birth.) It’s been a comparatively quiet year for the project, with much of the work focused on how best to frame the new translations. Some of that task has involved working ahead, tackling material destined for later volumes, just to be as certain as possible that we’re on the right […]

Emma Goldman, “Russell Sage” (1906)

June 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

RUSSELL SAGE. Emma Goldman. WHAT an indictment against Society! Impure and poisonous, indeed, must have been the soil that nurtured such a plant. The champions of the capitalistic system assert that the majority will ever have to live in poverty and misery, and that millions of backs are to remain forever bent, to sustain the magnificent structure called civilization. Were we all to toil to produce the mere necessities of life—they say—who would foster art, poetry, and literature? Surely, there must be a select few. By their culture and aestheticism, by their refinement and beauty, they illuminate and elevate those […]

Emma Goldman, “The Tragedy of Woman’s Emancipation” (1906)

June 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Tragedy of Woman’s Emancipation By Emma Goldman I BEGIN my article with an admission: Regardless of all political and economic theories, treating of the fundamental differences between the various groups within the human race, regardless of class and race distinctions, regardless of all artificial boundary lines between woman’s rights and man’s rights, I hold that there is a point where these differentiations may meet and grow into one perfect whole. With this I do not mean to propose a peace treaty. The general social antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life to-day, brought about through the […]

Emma Goldman, “The Effect of War on the Workers” (1900)

June 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE EFFECT OF WAR ON THE WORKERS. (Address by Emma Goldman on February 20, in London.) FELLOW WORKERS.—Let me begin my address with a quotation from one of England’s greatest men; not the England of to day, the invading, murderous, crushing England, but the England of a time when Liberty and Hospitality were her main virtues—the England that has given the world the profoundest thinkers, the most brilliant writers, the most touching poets, from among whom Carlyle stands out like a shining star upon the firmament. It was he who said, when asked “What is the net purport of War?”: […]

Emma Goldman, “Police Brutality” (1906)

June 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

POLICE BRUTALITY. Liberty by the grace of the police and the might of the club was again brought home to us in the most brutal and unspeakable manner. A club of young boys and girls, peaceably assembled Saturday night, October 27th, to listen to a discourse as to whether or not Leon Czolgosz was an Anarchist. At the close of the meeting three of the speakers—Julius Edelson, M. Moscow, and M. Rubinstein—were arrested and placed under $1,000 bail each. Tuesday, October 30th, a meeting was called to protest against the arrest of these boys and the suppression of free speech. […]

Emma Goldman, “To the Readers of Mother Earth” (1906)

June 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

TO THE READERS OF MOTHER EARTH. Those of you who have been startled by the rumor of Comrade Alexander Berkman’s disappearance and his supposed kidnapping I want to inform that there was little truth in the story. People never realize that there are worse things in human life than merely external forces. But what made it impossible for our friend to continue his tour lies in the terrible contrast of solitary confinement, enforced silence and monotony and the rush and hurry of our daily lives. Few have stood the years of hell as bravely as Comrade Berkman, but the lack […]