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Proudhon’s “New Theory” (1 of 3)

October 19, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Note: For some general thoughts on The Theory of Property, see “property must justify itself or disappear”] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The Theory of Property, Chapter VI: “The New Theory” (1865) New theory: that the motives, and thus the legitimacy of property, must be sought, not in its principle or origin, but in its aims. Presentation of these motives. Philosophy has had, for three centuries, many institutions and many beliefs: will it be the same for property? If my opinion is of any weight here, I dare to respond that it will not. Jurisprudence has not grasped thus far the causes or […]

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Corvus Editions interview at Making Change

October 5, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

Corvus Editions is among the projects featured on the Making Change blog, which covers Etsy artists “who create with a political/environmental/social agenda,” and I’m sending some of my bottle-cap pins down to the Making Change store in Santa Monica, California. It’s an interesting adjustment, trying to make my projects intelligible in a world of brief “artist’s statements” craft categories, but it’s clear that in order for Corvus to survive, it’s going to be as important to reach people who are concerned with the survival of “real books,” as it is to promote the project in political circles. Much of my recent […]

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William Batchelder Greene: more biographical details

September 22, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

“We are gratified (says the Transcript,) that the Commonwealth has secured the services of Mr. William B. Greene as Colonel of the Essex (14th) Regiment. Mr. Greene is a native of Essex County, and is forty-two years of age. He left West Point at the end of two years on account of ill health, but after regaining his strength, was selected to drill troops for many months upon Governor’s Island. He then procured active service as a Lieutenant in 7th U. S. Infantry in the Florida war. He distinguished himself in that severe service, having, most of the time, the […]

A glimpse of William B. Greene in 1854

September 22, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

“For Turkey.—A Paris correspondent of the New York Tribune says, that upon the proposal of a medical student, twenty young American students volunteered in ten minutes to aid the Turks with their unpracticed skill. The same writer states that Americans were leaving every day for the Turkish camp. Among those who had gone, were Col. Macgruder, of Mexican war celebrity; Mr. Quincy Shaw, of Boston, and the Rev. William B. Greene, late Unitarian clergyman at Brookfield.” [Boston Investigator, April 26, 1854]

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“But he bored me beautifully…” (Edgar Chambless’ Roadtown)

September 18, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

[One of the next releases from Corvus Editions—or two of them, since there will be a pamphlet and an expanded hardcover edition—will be Edgar Chambless’ remarkable Roadtown, an early “linear city” proposal that mixes all the fascinating imagination and obsession that one could want from any political “utopia” with the sort of clear thinking and basic doing-of-the-homework that sometimes lifts these things into the realm of the possible. In anticipation of that release, which kicks off a series reprinting some of the more “usable” of this sort of immodest proposal, I’m going to post a few of the responses to […]

André Léo, “Communism and Property” (1868)

September 13, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

Victoire Léodile Béra (1824–1900), aka André Léo, was a French novelist, socialist and feminist. She was married to Gregoire Champseix, a member of Pierre Leroux’s circle, and Benoit Malon, the “integral socialist,” but was herself every bit as formidable as either man. She participated in the Paris Commune, and delivered a rather fiery speech on “The Social War” in its aftermath, which raised hackles at the League of Peace and Freedom. And she was a delightfully clear, direct writer and speaker. It’s been a lot of fun to work on some translations of her work. COMMUNISM and PROPERTY The question […]

A socialist-feminist document from 1849

August 31, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION OF THE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS OF BOTH SEXES FOR THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 1849 —————- DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES In the name of God and the solidarity which links all the member of the great human family; We affirm that women have the same right as men to liberty, equality and fraternity. Liberty, for woman as for man, is the right and the power to develop and exercise freely and harmoniously all his physical, intellectual and moral faculties, without any limit but respect for the rights of each. All liberties are solidary; one cannot undermine any […]

New Anarchist Platformist archive

August 24, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

Anarchism and the Platformist Tradition is a new archive with a nice collection of platformist texts, starting, naturally, with the 1926 Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft), but including both prior and subsequent contributions to the platformist tradition. Whether or not you ultimately agree with the approaches represented here, there are important issues being wrestled with in all of this stuff, and the more practical issues are not unlike those that any anarchist society will face as it attempts to give itself a working shape. I’m ultimately unsympathetic to the solutions offered by platformism, but value the […]

Practical support for microenterprise

August 24, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been featuring the 500 Friends of Reading Frenzy! Kickstarter project in the sidebar here since it was launched. It’s now in its last week for funding, and 75% on its way to a goal of $5000. Reading Frenzy is a remarkable operation: a tiny shop which has been able to smooth the road for a lot of tiny projects, in an economic environment that tends to squeeze out human-scaled, low-overhead enterprises. There’s something fundamentally upside-down about a system that selects against lean operations and personal commitment. We should fight the tendency, particularly since the resources required to launch and […]

Trajectories: Proudhon and Property

August 17, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been working on bookbinding and papermaking as much as property theory lately, trying to put together the first two issues of “The Wing: A Journal of Attractive Industry” (a very nuts-and-bolts, often how-to zine on environmentally responsible, craft-based micro-enterprise.) But I’ve also been working on the revision of Tucker’s What is Property? translation, and grappling with some issues raised by that and the research for the “Property is Impossible” posts, and that’s sent me back through the last two years’ worth of work on the property question, which really all grew out of the first Proudhon seminar. I compiled […]