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More on the Bakunin project

May 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Thanks to those who have responded. Here’s a few more details about the project: Bakunin’s works were published in nine languages, with the majority in French, and then most of the works in other languages were translated into French for the CD-ROM that was issued in 2000. Ideally, we’ll be able to have everything carefully checked against the original language, but, given the translators available and the grassroots nature of the project, we may well take advantage of the French translations to develop working drafts in English. It looks to me like the division of labor is likely to involve: […]

Victor Serge, Sports

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

SPORTS By “Le Retif” From “Le Rèvoltè” # 18, September 1908 Sports are booming an obsession. The kiosks are inundated with sports journals” “L’ Auto”, “Le Velo”, “Le Sportsman”, “Paris Sport”. Sports-Elevage”. “Tous Les Sports” etc., etc. Each day a new journal is born – and the old ones don’t die! Sports literature is almost becoming . . . a sport! And not only literature. I defy you to take a walk in the street without encountering a young man in helmet, white tunic, the cyclist’s uniform – or of a worker or gentleman caught up in reading a sports […]

Mauricius, E. Armand as I Knew Him

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

E. ARMAND AS I KNEW HIM By Mauricius (From “E. Armand, Son Vie, Son Ouevre”, La Ruche Ouvrier, 1964) I encountered E. Armand for the first time one beautiful night in the spring of 1905 at the Causeries Populaires in the rue Muller in Montmartre, where I had come that night in a very banal way. I lived then on the place du Theatre-Montmartre and on this street was a police station, in front of which I saw some men talking. I approached them. Suddenly, I saw coming from the police station an almost completely naked man who was […]

Works of Bakunin in English – call for translators and readers

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

As I announced here a month or so back, PM Press has decided to move ahead with the oft-mentioned Collected Works of Bakunin project, and I’ve been asked to coordinate and edit the thing. The prospect is equally exciting and daunting. I’m in the early stages of planning the introductory sampler volume and getting a general sense of what could, and what should, be included in the subsequent volumes. My inclination is to be as inclusive as possible, but the “possible” will depend a good deal on how much participation there is in the translation and editing process. I’ve volunteered […]

Andre Lorulot, Individualism And The Social Question

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Individualism And The Social Question By Andre Lorulot (From the “L’Anarchie” pamphlet, “L’ Individualisme; Doctrine de révolte et de solidarité”. No date, probably circa 1912) Are individualists revolutionaries or can they be disinterested in the Social Problem? Do they enter into struggle with the milieu, go forth attempting to modify institutions and turning principles upside down? Or do they seek to adapt as best as possible to conditions of capitalist life? We have said that the individualist is the individual who wants to live at any price, who wants to realize their happiness and not be bruised, a person who […]

E. Armand, The Critical Activity of Individualists

May 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Critical Activity of Individualists E. Armand One should not be mistaken: individualist anarchists are negators, destroyers, demolishers. They are those who believe in nothing, respect nothing. Nothing in fact is exempt from their critique of disintegration, Nothing is sacred. When do they make a critique? At every moment. Not one event or one historical fact which can not be critiqued. Not one suffering, not one sorrow, not one mourning which can not give rise to a critique; not one human drama which does not suggest a critique. Where does one criticize? In every milieu How does one criticize? […]

Labor and subjective value

May 14, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Debates about anarchist economics would probably be frustrating and difficult under the best of circumstances, but the truth is that we steer well clear of even relatively good circumstances much of the time, returning again and again to a few debates which, in practice, can’t be resolved because they are merely symptoms of hardened, irreconcilable presuppositions, but which, under those elusive “best of circumstances” might well turn out to be no big deal—and may be at least a very different deal than our disagreements seem to suppose. Take the standard attack on mutualists for their adherence to the labor theory […]

Joseph Déjacque, “The Revolutionary Question”

May 13, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

La question révolutionnaire par Joseph Déjacque Notre ennemi, c’est notre maître (La Fontaine) The Revolutionary Question by Joseph Déjacque Our enemy is our master. (La Fontaine) Extrait du journal ” Le Républicain “ 1. La Société de la Montagne nous prie d’insérer la communication suivante : “La Société de la République universelle la Montagne désirant faciliter autant qu’il est en son pouvoir la propagande républicaine, a décidé qu’elle prêterait la salle de ses séances, chaque fois que la demande lui en serait adressée par une société démocratique n’ayant pas de lieu fixe de réunion, ou lorsqu’un citoyen désirerait faire un lecture ayant pour […]

Joseph Déjacque on Revolution (from The Revolutionary Question)

May 13, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Of the Revolution Principles : Liberty, equality, fraternity Consequences: Abolition of government in all its forms, monarchic or republican, the supremacy of one alone or of majorities; But anarchy, individual sovereignty, complete, unlimited, absolute liberty of everyone to do everything which is in the nature of the human being. Abolition of Religion, whether catholic or Israelite, protestant or any other sort. Abolition of the clergy and the altar, of the priest,–curate or pope, minister or rabbi;–of the Divinity, idol in one or three persons, universal autocracy or oligarchy; But the human being,–at once creature and creator,–no longer having anything but […]

Note on slavery and the origins of property

May 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

Several people, knowing my interest in the question of property, have sent me links to a blog post by Stephen Keating, “Are Freedom and Violence Linked?,” which discusses some of what David Graeber has to say about slavery and the origins of property in his book, Debt: The First 5000 Years. There are parts of Keating’s argument to which I’m sympathetic, such as his concern that the notion of individual property rights may mask the essentially social nature of property. But his key point seems to be this: “The dirty secret is that this conception of property emerged out of […]