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Collective protest of the dissident members of the 2nd Congress of Peace and Freedom

July 20, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[September 25, 1868] Considering that the majority of the delegates to the Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom have passionately and explicitly declared themselves against the economic and social equalization of classes and of individuals, and as no political program and action that does not aim at the realization of this principle could be accepted by the socialist democrats, by the conscientious and logical friends of peace and freedom, the undersigned believe it is their duty to separate from the League. Albert Richard J. Bedouch Hugo Byter Elisée Reclus Aristide Rey Victor Jaclard Keller Tucci Fanelli Friscia Bakounine […]

Speech on the 17th Anniversary of the Polish Revolution

July 19, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Speech delivered November 29, 1847 and published in La Réforme, December 14, 1847. Gentlemen, This is a very solemn moment for me. I am Russian, and I come into the midst of this large assembly, which has gathered to celebrate the anniversary of the Polish revolution, whose very presence here is a sort of challenge, a threat, like a curse thrown the face of all the oppressors of Poland; – I come here, gentlemen, animated by a profound love and unalterable respect for my homeland. I am not unaware of how unpopular Russia is in Europe. The Polish regard it, […]

Letter to Nikolai Bakunin, February 1, 1861

July 16, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Working on the Bakunin Library involves a lot of working back and forth through the writings, keeping important details fresh and seeing what new details seem fresh and important as things develop. As part of that process, I’m going to spend some time working through parts of Bakunin’s correspondence, starting with the years 1861-1868, preparing to work on the introduction for the first full volume of the edition. I’ll share rough translations of as many of those letters as time allows. The first fruits of that project is the last surviving letter from Bakunin during his exile in Siberia, written […]

Lizzie M. Holmes, “Nina Van Zandt Spies to Marry” (1891)

July 15, 2016

Nina Van Zandt Spies to Marry an Italian Editor. HER SENSATIONAL PROXY UNION. The Romance of the Trial of the Chicago Anarchists Retold.—The Authentic Story of a Woman’s Unwavering Devotion. ON ENTERING a certain museum in Chicago the first objects that attract the eye of the visitor are two excellent oil paintings, under one of which are the words, “Handsome August Spies,” and beneath the other, “Beautiful Nina Van Zandt.” The crowds invariably pause to gaze upon the pictures as they have done for more than four years. Time has not lessened the interest taken in these two characters and […]

Charles Fourier, “Neology”

July 13, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

NEOLOGY. Has not a new Science the ability to use some new words and to create for itself, if necessary, a complete nomenclature? Would we refuse to the sciences the prerogative granted to the subordinate functions, which have their collection of technical terms chosen without method? I will use that license with moderation, and when I am forced to resort to neology, it will be with a care to avoid NEOLOGISMS and arbitrariness, and support the denominations already accepted in the fixed sciences. The same regularity will reign in the signs, the special numbers, the gamut sand series, and the whole […]

Proudhon and the coup d’état of 1851

July 13, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

One of the things that ought to be clear from recent developments here is that sometimes the most interesting, and also the most unexpected, insights into Proudhon’s work come from double-checking those things that “everyone knows” about his work. It was, after all, in the context of tracking down how close he came to saying “anarchy is order” that I ran across the dubious translations in The General Idea of the Revolution, and that has led to a general scouring of his work for discussions of “anarchy” and “anarchism,” which keeps raising interesting points about the early uses of that […]

Bibliography of Anarchy — II — First Works of Anarchist Literature in England

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

CHAPTER II First Works of Anarchist Literature in England. A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a view of the miseries and evils arising to mankind from every species of artificial society. By a late noble writer, namely St-John Viscount Bolingbroke (London, 1756, in-8°). Its true author was Edmund Burke. Other editions: in Fugitive pieces on various subjects by several authors, vol. 2 (London, 1761; Dublin 1762; London, 1765, 1771; London, 1780, XIV, 106 pp., 81); A Vindication of Natural Society… in a letter to Lord ***, by Edmund Burke, a new edition (Oxford, 1796, VIII, 62 pp. in-8°); The Inherent […]

Bibliography of Anarchy — I — Precursors of Anarchy

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

CHAPTER I Precursors of Anarchy. The anarchist literature has no determined origin, not being the expression of a system invented and progressively elaborated, but the very of systems. It is born of the need to demolish arbitrary power in all its forms, the rules and duties imposed by prejudices or by force, and to give rise to the free development of humanity. Therefore every act that was accomplised and every word that was spoken in hatred of that constraint and in favor of that liberty are conscious or unconscious works of anarchy. Not having made detailed studies in the ancient […]

Max Nettlau, “Bibliography of Anarchy” (1897)

July 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related links: Max Nettlau: Main Page Bibliography of Anarchy BY MAX NETTLAU (1897) PREFACE. The work that we publish today could only be attempted by an erudite bibliophile, having in addition the devoted collaboration of numerous friends. The friends have presented themselves and this unselfish convergence of forces appears to us to be one proof among a thousand that the anarchists, just by “doing as they wish,” know however how to unite their individual wills in a collective will. No leader, no elected or self-imposed council has given the that his book should appear. The bibliographic essay composed by our […]

Louise Michel, “A Final Thought” (1887)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[The New Era — VIII] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A Final Thought Diving into the past, we see it join with the future like the two extremities of a circular arc, and that circle, like a sound wave, awakens others, infinitely. Eaten away by the world (from ancient India to ourselves), will the lost sciences germinate or are they dead in the flower? Must we wait for new emanations for new beginnings? Will there be enough to return to the soil to provide the seeds of renewal and conditions proper to existence? How many civilizations have fallen, how many scientific […]