Blog - Page 140 of 287 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Elisée Reclus, “The Development of Liberty in the World” (c. 1850)

September 2, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Development of Liberty in the World An Unpublished Study Elisée Reclus I. In past centuries, peoples only fought for their passions or their immediate interests; it was without remorse, it was even with gladness that, in order to satisfy their ambition or greed, they exterminated entire nations and dragged behind them multitudes of slaves. Without any link of solidarity between them, men stole their selfish well-being from the well-being of their neighbors, and the world, given over to chance, was sometimes the prey of the stronger, sometimes that of the most skillful. However, from the beginnings of humanity, some […]

Elisée Reclus in the Era of Anarchy

September 1, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been splitting the formative period of the anarchist tradition into two eras: an Era of Anarchy, running roughly from 1840 to 1880, and then an Era of Anarchism, running on to around 1920, with the emergence of anarchism as a common keyword marking the division between them. The scheme is not without its weaknesses, but one of the striking facts in support of it is the very limited number of figures who identified as anarchists in both periods. There is almost no one who called for anarchy before Proudhon’s death in 1865 who was both alive and still in […]

Gaston Leval (Pierre Robert Piller) (1895-1975)

August 31, 2016

L’Enfance en croix, éd. de la Nouvelle Revue, Bruxelles, 1944, 198 p. “L’Anarchisme et l’abondancisme,” (1946?) [Monde-nouveau.net] L’Indispensable Révolution. L’émancipation de l’homme par le socialisme libertaire, éd. du Libertaire, Paris, 1948, 286 p. Le Communisme. L’Etat contre le communisme, éd. du Libertaire, Paris, s.d. [ca. 1950], 71 p. Le Fait russe et l’Etat marxiste, éd. Contre-Courant, s.l. [Paris], s.d. [1953], 8 p. “Bakounine et la science,” Témoins n° 6 (été 1954) [Monde-nouveau.net] “Bakounine et l’Etat marxiste,” Les Cahiers de Contre-Courant, Paris, 1955, 24 p. [Monde-nouveau.net] “Socialiste libertaire ! Pourquoi ?” CONTRE- COURANT de novembre 1956 “Libertarian Socialist! Why?” [Contr’un] Le chemin du socialisme (1958) [Monde-nouveau.net] Pratique […]

Adin Ballou, “Non-Resistance in Relation to Human Governments” (1839)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Friend President—‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ I feel that the Spirit of the Lord is in this meeting, and that all who participate in its discussions are at liberty to express their convictions and peculiar views in their own way, without fear of offending each other. We are of various religious connexions, and have not only different opinions on many points, but different modes of thought and expression. Be it so; since we come together in love, for the consideration and promotion of that grand virtue of Christianity without which all others become practically unfruitful. […]

Emile Digeon, “Rights and Duties in Rational Anarchy” (1882)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Rational anarchy consists of admitting no authority apart from the authority of the people, exercised directly in voting for the laws, and mediated by delegates who are always revocable in the execution of its decisions. (Rational Anarchy, by E. Digeon). I Certain libertarian socialists, seeking, with good reason, to react against the authoritarian tendencies of certain other socialists, have fallen into an excess of individualism which is dangerous to the liberty that they wish to defend. Reasoning as if nature could furnish spontaneously, without human labor, everything that is necessary or agreeable to everyone, several even go so far […]

Lucy Parsons, “I Am an Anarchist” (1913)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

I am an anarchist. I suppose you came here, the most of you, to see what a real, live anarchist looked like. I suppose some of you expected to see me with a bomb in one hand and a flaming torch in the other, but are disappointed in seeing neither. If such has been your ideas regarding an anarchist, you deserved to be disappointed. Anarchists are peaceable, law abiding people. What do anarchists mean when they speak of anarchy? Webster gives the term two definitions chaos and the state of being without political rule. We cling to the latter definition. […]

Victor Yarros, “Anarchism: What it Is and What it Is Not” (1893)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

IT was an observation of John Stuart Mill’s that to know a thing it is necessary to realize, not only what it is, but also what it is not. Applying this definition or test to that passage of Mr. Thomas B. Preston’s paper on “Are We Socialists?” (ARENA, December) in which he states and criticises the principles of anarchism, we find ourselves entitled to affirm that Mr. Preston scarcely possesses such familiarity with, and comprehension of, the essential doctrines of anarchism as would justify confident criticism of that school. What is anarchism, and who are the anarchists? Loosely speaking, there […]

London Anarchist Communist Alliance, “An Anarchist Manifesto” (1895)

August 30, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

FELLOW WORKERS, WE come before you as Anarchist Communists to explain our principles. We are aware that the minds of many of you have been poisoned by the lies which all parties have diligently spread about us. But surely the persecutions to which we have been and are subjected by the governing classes of all countries should open the eyes of those who love fair play. Thousands of our comrades are suffering in prison or are driven homeless from one country to the other. Free speech—almost the only part of British liberty that can be of any use to the […]

Joseph Labadie, “The Aims of Anarchism” (1920)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Let me tell you briefly what Anarchism aims to do: It claims that freedom, liberty, is the greatest factor in bringing material comfort and happiness to the people, and so Anarchism would reduce gradually, even to the vanishing point, the political power and physical control which some people hold over others. It wants to make all unused land free to those who will use it. This will dispense with the colossal expense of supporting the landlord class, and increase the wealth-producing power by turning landlords and the disemployed poor from parasites to producers. . . . It wants to do […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Anarchism” (1901)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

THERE are two spirits abroad in the world,—the spirit of Caution, the spirit of Dare, the spirit of Quiescence, the spirit of Unrest; the spirit of Immobility, the spirit of Change; the spirit of Hold-fast-to-that-which-you-have, the spirit of Let-go-and-fly-to-that-which-you-have-not; the spirit of the slow and steady builder, careful of its labors, loath to part with any of its achievements, wishful to keep, and unable to discriminate between what is worth keeping and what is better cast aside, and the spirit of the inspirational destroyer, fertile in creative fancies, volatile, careless in its luxuriance of effort, inclined to cast away the […]