Blog - Page 87 of 287 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Max Nettlau, “A General Survey” (1910)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] A GENERAL SURVEY. As time goes, by, an increasing number of social commotions of some kind seem to happen each year, periods of rest are hardly known, and it would not be difficult to. describe a number of events of a hopeful character tending towards freedom during the year that is just past. The first French postal strike, the anti-militarist revolt in Catalonia, the international Ferrer protest, the crushing of absolutism in Turkey and in Persia are each of them events of a magnitude that has not happened in years in the quiet past. But I do not wish […]

Max Nettlau, “Anarchism and the Unemployed” (1908)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] ANARCHISM AND THE UNEMPLOYED. (To the Editor of Freedom.) Dear Comrade,—May I make a few remarks on Anarchism and the unemployed? A problem of suffering humanity ought not to be considered from an exclusive propaganda standpoint but at the same time none of our ideas ought to be relegated, even temporarily, to the background. We believe that our ideas will help us to find an adequate solution for all such problems, only our own different personal dispositions make us sometimes disagree on these proposed solutions, which, after all, experience alone can verify. Thus I fail to see that authoritarian […]

Max Nettlau, “Can a General Strike Be Successful?” (1909)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] CAN A GENERAL STRIKE BE SUCCESSFUL? Anarchism should receive the greatest attention just now when the insufficiency of Syndicalism becomes more patent. So many things happen which ought to set our friends thinking. Too many things are taken for granted which require continuous fresh examination, e.g., the General Strike, in light of recent French experience. Will an effective strike of the kind be possible before immense masses are filled with indignation and enthusiasm to such a degree that they might, and would just as well straightaway make a revolution and not stop at a passive strike? I think that […]

Max Nettlau, “Woman’s Work for Human Freedom” (1908)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] WOMAN’S WORK FOR HUMAN FREEDOM. Seen from a distance, the Suffragists’ movement evokes sympathies even among those who, as Anarchists, abhor their political aims. It is because we so seldom see people of all classes working together for a common purpose, leaving, the well-trodden paths of legality and conventionality, and to some extent, imposing sacrifices -upon themselves. All other movements—the women’s and the Anarchist movements excepted—are class movements, which, however ideal their beginnings may be, necessarily lead to class egoism of growing narrowness, and, as in the case of Social Democracy, do everything to perpetuate the class which they […]

Max Nettlau, “1907 and the Present Outlook” (1908)

May 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

No one can possibly guess the strength of latent revolutionary energy that will be brought to the surface by coming events. Will it be sufficient to lead to a clean sweeping away of the whole present system, or will by-and-by a greater separation of progressive from reactionary forces arise than exists already, and the next stage be that the progressive forces obtain full elbowroom at the said of the reactionary forces—just as Freethought is existing to-day side by side with the densest religious obtusity? Freethought would have preferred to demolish religion altogether, but had to be content with the success of attracting some of the best and obtaining neutrality from the rest—on its guard always against a treasonous enemy, of course. Will a similar state of things—exemption from the political State and economic independence on a co-operative basis—be the next stage of Anarchism also? Or will it remain in its present state of action by propaganda only? Or will it be able, by bridging over the gulf which still separates Syndicalist from revolutionary action, to establish a new basis—collective property—on which it could be practiced on a larger scale?

[…]

Mary Hansen, “A Vision of Sacrifice” (1907)

May 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] A VISION OF SACRIFICE. We selected the tallest of the bluffs, and climbed to its edge to view the sunrise. The air about us was thick and moist, the gaunt old trees stood out like ragged giants, while the bluff itself on which we stood seemed but one of the many vapouring clouds which floated about its edge. Suddenly from the east there swept upon us a white light, and we sprang to our feet, all but one, who, exhausted by the long climb, lay stretched full length on the trunk of a fallen tree. The light swept up […]

Max Nettlau, “New Tactics For Trade Unionists” (1897)

May 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] NEW TACTICS FOR TRADE UNIONISTS. In labor struggles at every juncture, the solidarity of labor and public opinion are appealed to, and prove valuable, or rather invaluable helps to the isolated action of smaller or larger groups of workers. Fortunately their strength and broadness and soundness of views are ever improving—yet this increase of solid co-operation with individual labor struggles seems very far from attaining its full height, for in that case labor would simply be invincible and the end of the capitalist system would be at hand. Hence the question of means to increase this solidarity must be […]

Address of the Internationals

May 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] ADDRESS OF THE INTERNATIONALS. The title of the International Association is sometimes rendered, in English, in translated documents, as follows, “Workingmen’s International Association,” and it is wrongly affirmed, in view of this fact, that the International Association of Working-People aims mainly to secure the welfare of the masculine element among the working-people, leaving the interests of the women at the mercy of the men. Many persons, misled by a simple error of translation, entirely mistake the aim of the association. It appears to be the dream of many otherwise estimable working-men, […]

Angela T. Heywood in “The Word”

May 2, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Men’s wars are grotesque and bloody; but wars between men’s and women’s eyes and ideas will become unique and renovating, and the unsheathed, two-edged sword will be the human tongue. Religion will repent of the subjection it has imposed on women; learning will confess its ignorance to us; books (simply become they are he books) will move forward from their alcove-shelves and come down ashamed longer to be books; and male science will dissolve itself to escape from the infamy of its rude and savage treatment of us. The impression that man can do as he likes without being responsible therefor is base folly, and arises largely from the great selfishness which grows out of his unnatural ascendency over woman through property usurpations and the subtle relations of physical force to her as his mate in primitive stages of growth, as from the animal to the human animal. Having arrived at a human identity, we wish to be recognized as a part of the collective identity

[…]

Eliphalet Kimball in “Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly”

May 1, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Supposing that all man-made laws in the United States were abolished at once, disturbance and violence would take place only where they were needed. In parts of the country cursed with luxury, monopoly and rich men, society could be equalized and purified without violence. In neighbor hoods where the people were plain and none very rich, things would go on as they did before. If any undertook to commit crimes they would soon be straightened. Society would ferment and work itself clear like a barrel of new cider. Habitual rum-drinkers and opium-takers experience great distress when they undertake to leave off the habit. If they persevere in their abstinence they come right at last. Just so with law-drunken society. Within ten or fifteen years after the reign of natural law commenced, everything would be right.

[…]