Anarchist Beginnings

Anarchist Beginnings

Hugh O. Pentecost, “Anarchy” (1889)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Delivered on June 30, 1889 to the Unity Congregation at Newark, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Published in Twentieth Century on July 4, 1889 — The Editor] Good people who hold opinions not commonly understood generally have a bad name. The world is ready to believe almost anything of a man except that he is a genuinely good man. If his life is stainless but unconventional, the world suspects some hidden shame or base motive. So far are most people from understanding or desiring what is true and right that the highest truth is often believed to be the lowest lie, and […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Robert Harding, “The A B C of Anarchism” (1889)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE A B C OF ANARCHISM. (No. 1) BY ROBERT HARDING. The Itinerant Street Lecturer. [NOTE.—No connection with a gentleman named R. Harding, who lectures on behalf of the Social Democratic Federation. This is mentioned from no disrespect either to that gentleman or to the Federation, but to guard against the confusion of two divergent sets of doctrines.] Q. What is Anarchism? A. Anarchism (theory) is the doctrine which denies the expediency, morality and justice of compelling men to do even that which it is right they should do. Anarchism (practice) is (a) the renunciation of the desire to compel […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph Labadie, “Anarchism: What It Is and What It Is Not” (1890s)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
So you want me to tell you what Anarchism is, do you? I can do no less than make the attempt, and in my own simple way try to make you understand at least that it is not what the uninformed and the capitalistic newspapers, liars, fools and villains generally say it is. In the first place, let me urge upon all who desire to learn the truth about Anarchism not to go to its enemies for information, but to talk with Anarchists and read anarchistic literature. And it is not always safe to take what one, two or even […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Louise Michel, “Why we are Anarchists” (1891)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
We are Anarchists because it is absolutely impossible to obtain justice for all in any other way than by destroying institutions founded on force and privilege. We cannot believe that improvement is possible, if we still keep up the same institutions, now more rotten than in the past, or if we merely replace those whose iniquities are known by new men. These latter become in their turn what the others were, or else become barren. After the gradual changes of past centuries the hour has come when evolution cannot be separated from revolution, as in all birth they must be […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Louise Michel, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1896)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
I am an Anarchist because Anarchy alone, by means of liberty and justice based on equal rights, will make humanity happy, and because Anarchy is the sublimest idea conceivable by man. It is, today, the summit of human wisdom, awaiting discoveries of undreamt of progress on new horizons, as ages roll on and succeed each other in an ever widening circle. Man will only be conscious when he is free. Anarchy will therefore be the complete separation between the human flocks, composed of slaves and tyrants, as they exist to day, and the free humanity of tomorrow. As soon as […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Errico Malatesta, “Anarchy” (1891)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, “without government”: the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a movement (which has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare), the word “anarchy” was used universally in the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries interested in distorting the truth. We […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Johann Most, “Why I Am a Communist” (1892)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the principal features of the development of modern industrial production is the ever-increasing organization of the laboring force and of the means of production. The result is that with less “hands” a continually growing amount of commodities is being produced. From this last is might be concluded that man should be thus enabled to satisfy all his intellectual and physical wants with a decreasing exertion of his physical powers. Yet, no such result is apparent. On the contrary, all progress in the direction of facilitating the process of production has the effect of reducing the number of laborers […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Ravachol, “My Principles” (1892)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Gentlemen, I am in the habit of engaging in propaganda wherever I find myself. Do you know what Anarchy is? We answered ‘No’ to this question. “That doesn’t surprise me,” he responded. The working class, which as you know is obliged to work to obtain its bread, doesn’t have the time to indulge itself in reading the pamphlets that are made available to it; it is the same for you. Anarchy is the annihilation of property. Presently there exist many useless things, many occupations which also useless, such as accounting, for example. With anarchy, there is no more need for […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Benjamin R. Tucker, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1890)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Why am I an Anarchist? That is the question which the editor of the Twentieth Century has requested me to answer for his readers. I comply; but, to be frank, I find it a difficult task. If the editor or one of his contributors had only suggested a reason why I should be anything other than an Anarchist, I am sure I should have no difficulty in disputing the argument. And does not this very fact, after all, furnish in itself the best of all reasons why I should be an Anarchist – namely, the impossibility of discovering any good […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Louisa Sarah Bevington, “Wanted: Order” (1893)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
Yes! order. That is what we Anarchists are struggling to get in the place of the shameful “chaos and disorder” that we see around us. The disorder in the World and the Misery of the Workers is caused by the system of Monopoly and Capitalism, and by the brutal working of the laws, made by Monopolists and Profitmongers to protect themselves and their dishonest gains. It is to the interest of Monopolists and Capitalists to make you believe that Anarchists are “enemies of society”. They tell you that Anarchists want to turn the world “upside down.” Workers! “The world is […]