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Voltairine de Cleyre, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1897)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

(A lecture delivered in Hammond, Ind.) IT was suggested to me by those who were the means of securing me this opportunity of addressing you, that probably the most easy and natural way for me to explain Anarchism would be for me to give the reasons why I myself am an Anarchist. I am not sure that they were altogether right in the matter, because in giving the reasons why I am an Anarchist, I may perhaps infuse too much of my own personality into the subject, giving reasons sufficient unto myself, but which cool reflection might convince me were […]

Elbert Hubbard, “I Am an Anarkist (The Better Part)” (1899)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

I AM an Anarkist. All good men are Anarkists. All cultured, kindly men all gentle men; all just men are Anarkists. Jesus was an Anarkist. A Monarkist is one who believes a monark should govern. A Plutokrat believes in the rule of the rich. A Demokrat holds that the majority should dictate. An Aristokrat thinks only the wise should decide; while an Anarkist does not believe in government at all. Richard Croker is a Monarkist; Mark Hanna a Plutokrat; Cleveland a Demokrat; Cabot Lodge an Aristokrat; William Penn, Henry D. Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Walt Whitman were Anarkists. An Anarkist […]

Albert Libertad, “Liberty” (1908)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Many think that it is a simple dispute over words that makes some declare themselves libertarians and others anarchist. I have an entirely different opinion. I am an anarchist and I hold to the label not for the sake of a vain garnishing of words, but because it means a philosophy, a different method than that of the libertarian. The libertarian, as the word indicates, is an adorer of liberty. For him, it is the beginning and end of all things. To become a cult of liberty, to write its name on all the walls, to erect statues illuminating the […]

John Henry Mackay, “Anarchy” (1888)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Ever reviled, accursed, ne’er understood, Thou art the grisly terror of our age. “Wreck of all order,” cry the multitude, “Art thou, and war and murder’s endless rage.” O, let them cry. To them that ne’er have striven The truth that lies behind a word to find, To them the word’s right meaning was not given. They shall continue blind among the blind. But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken. I give thee to the future! Thine secure When each at least unto himself shall waken. Comes it […]

Emma Goldman, “Anarchism: What it Really Stands For” (1911)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

ANARCHISM: WHAT IT REALLY STANDS FOR Emma Goldman Ever reviled, accursed, ne’er understood, Thou art the grisly terror of our age. “Wreck of all order,” cry the multitude, “Art thou, and war and murder’s endless rage.” O, let them cry. To them that ne’er have striven The truth that lies behind a word to find, To them the word’s right meaning was not given. They shall continue blind among the blind. But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken. I give thee to the future! Thine secure When each […]

E. Armand, “A Little Manual for the Anarchist Individualist” (1911/1934)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Petit Manuel anarchiste individualiste I Etre anarchiste c’est nier l’autorité et rejeter son corollaire économique : l’exploitation. Et cela dans tous les domaines où s’exerce l’activité humaine. L’anarchiste veut vivre sans dieux ni maîtres ; sans patrons ni directeurs ; alégal, sans lois comme sans préjugés ; amoral, sans obligations comme sans morale collective. Il veut vivre librement, vivre sa conception personnelle de la vie. En son for intérieur, il est toujours un asocial, un réfractaire, un en dehors, un en-marge, un à-côté, un inadapté. Et pour obligé qu’il soit de vivre dans une société dont la constitution répugne à […]

Edward Carpenter, “Non-Governmental Society” (1911)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Most people agree nowadays in the view that the growth of bureaucracy and officialism in the modern State is a serious evil, and that the extension of Government interference and the multiplication of Laws are a great danger. We all know that the institution of the Law and the Courts actually creates and gives rise to huge masses of evil—bribery, blackmail, perjury, spying and lying, wrongful accusation, useless and deliberate suffering and cruelty; that it publicly sanctions and organises violence, even in extreme forms; that it quite directly and deliberately supports vast and obvious wrongs in Society—as for instance land-monopoly; […]

Max Nettlau, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist? Both” (1914)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. N., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist? Both,” Freedom 28 no. 299 (March 1914): 20-21. W. J. R., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] Egalite, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] C. W., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] G., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] M. N., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 301 (May 1914): 39. [clarification] P. Ramus, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 301 (May 1914): 39. [reply] John Nicholson, […]

Sara Bard Field, “My Debt to Anarchism” (1915)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

I owe a singular and supreme debt to Anarchism. It was the active agent in introducing me to my Friend, my own Soul. We had been strangers up to that time. There had been periods when I was not aware I had a soul, or, having one, I believed it had been given to me to shatter into bits and to deal out the pieces in continuous self sacrifice. This idea was the result of Christian teaching. “Ye are not your own,” Christianity had said to me. Back to this black lie Anarchism shouted “You are first and foremost and […]

Renzo Novatore, “Anarchist Individualism in the Social Revolution” (1919)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

1 Anarchist individualism as we understand it – and I say we because a substantial handful of friends think this like me – is hostile to every school and every party, every churchly and dogmatic moral, as well as every more or less academic imbecility. Every form of discipline, rule and pedantry is repulsive to the sincere nobility of our vagabond and rebellious restlessness! Individualism is, for us, creative force, immortal youth, exalting beauty, redemptive and fruitful war. It is the marvelous apotheosis of the flesh and the tragic epic of the spirit. Our logic is that of not having […]