Anarchist Beginnings

Anarchist Beginnings

“Anarchy” (Americanized Encyclopædia Britannica, 1890)

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHY is that system of voluntary socialism—sometimes called individualism or mutualism—whose battle-cry is “Down with the State.” Its earliest exponent in America was Josiah Warren. He was an associate of Robert Dale Owen, at New Harmony, Ind., where in 1825 a Communistic society started under the most favorable auspices. But it was not until the failure of his experiment that Mr. Warren worked out his new principle of “cost the limit of price.” Mr. Warren maintains that labor expended forms the only equitable element in the cost of an article, and insists that all natural elements, such as land, should […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Claude Pelletier, “Socialist Dictionary: Quarry” (1874)

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
QUARRY. A location dug in the ground, where one extracts by means of shafts and galleries, or even from a single level, stone, coal and other minerals, such as lead, copper, gold, silver, etc… Today the quarries, which should belong to the nation, are abandoned to capitalists who exploit them for their own personal interests; and their private interest drives them to convert them into a monopoly in order to reap enormous profits, by augmenting, as it says in the entry for MONOPOLIZATION, the sale price of their product, and reducing the wages of their workers. It follows that they […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph Déjacque, “The Universal Circulus” (1858)

September 4, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[This remarkable bit of libertarian philosophy by Joseph Déjacque poses all sorts of difficulties for the modern reader, not the least of which is it borrowings from, and reworkings of, the works of Charles Fourier and Pierre Leroux. And there are places where it ha been necessary to translate things rather literally, since terms are used suggestively, according to the established uses of none of the writers or schools that they were drawn from. There are also a couple of times when Déjacque’s enthusiasm clearly ran away with the syntax: where catalogs of conditionals come to abrupt stops, without ever […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Gustave Lefrançais, “Where Are the Anarchists Going?” (1887/8)

August 13, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] Where Are the Anarchists Going? Gustave Lefrançais A Keen and Biting Criticism of the School of Communistic Anarchists as Represented by Kropotkin, Reclus, and Others. Translated for The Alarm, from the French of G. Lefrançais. BY JOHN F. KELLY. [In presenting this translation of Lefrançais’ pamphlet to the readers of The Alarm I am in part actuated by the desire to ascertain how much there is of common belief among those calling themselves anarchists, and consequently how much there is for united action looking toward a common end. To those who are not acquainted with the author I may […]
Anarchist Beginnings

J. Wm. Lloyd, “Prayer of the Governmentalist” (1886)

August 11, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
For Lucifer Prayer of the Governmentalist. Our Government which is in Washing­ton—hallowed be thy name! May thy Kingdom become, and thy will be done, in America even as the Czar’s is in Russia! Give us this day a chance at some big fat office, and remit to us our taxes ac­cording to tho amount we have loaned thee on thy bond, with interest, and grant to us favors in consideration of our ef­ficiency at election times! Lead us not into Liberty, and deliver us from Anarchy; for behold, we are al­together too stupid and greedy to comprehend or endure them! […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph A. Labadie, “The Meaning of Anarchy” (1896)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Meaning of Anarchy. This is a good time, it seems, to enter a protest. You have heard, no doubt, the expression of being killed by kindness. Well, I am not exactly being killed by kindness, but am being put in a false light by friends and foes alike. J. T. Small of Provincetown, Mass., says I am “one of the ablest exponents” of Anarchism; Professor Raymond, of Detroit, calls me “one of the most intelligent philosophical Anarchists in the country”; Rev. E. J. Riggs, of Provincetown, asserts that I am “the high-cockalorum of philosophical Anarchism”; Dr. Maryson declares that […]
Anarchist Beginnings

J. Wm. Lloyd, “A Free Socialist” (1895)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
My statement that henceforth I was no Anarchist, but a Free Socialist, was intended to refer to my public profession. Having stated that my view of Anarchism was that it was the doctrine “that the invasion of one human being by another was in the highest degree wrong, foolish, dangerous, and inexpedient—that this was Anarchism and this only,” and having, in conclusion, stated that my renunciation of the name Anarchist did “not mean any change of views,” it, of course, follows that, although I reject the name Anarchist, I, in my heart, still regard myself as one.

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Anarchist Beginnings

Steven T. Byington, “Anarchist Labels” (1903)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHIST LABELS I think Comrade Morton speaks inaccurately when he says Tucker and his disciples have popularized the notion that commercialists are the only “philosophical Anarchists.” I tried a while ago to find out the origin of the sect name “philosophical Anarchist,” which I didn’t like. I wrote an open letter to Liberty, asking who could help me to the information. Tucker, in comment on my letter, said he didn’t like the name and had never used it; when it was proved that he had used it once at least, he said it was a case of “seen too oft, […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Dyer D. Lum, “Evolution and Revolution” (1886)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
For Lucifer. Evolution or Revolution Many of your Radical friends are loud in their denunciation of revolutionary agencies. Evolution they hold to be a peaceful process, and the exact opposite of revolution. They would “educate the people” to the desired state of intelligence as “the bettor way.” In dissenting from this rose-colored view of human progress I affirm that revolutionary efforts have been the result of evolutionary processes. The fifteenth century, in which we had the rebirth of intellectual activity had its roots in preceding centuries and was revolutionary because it was opposed by established modes of thought. Luther in […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Ferdinand Monier, “Manifeste anarchiste” (1886)

August 8, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Prix : 2 centimes Manifeste anarchiste LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ A vous qui produisez tout et qui n’avez rien que ce que vous laissent ceux qui ne produisent rien et qui ont tout. COMPAGNONS, Les hommes que s’intitulent « Parti ouvrier » viennent de nous adresser un manifeste, dans lequel nous invitent à nous rendre à Bruxelles le 15 août pour y réclamer le suffrage universel. Examinons donc froidement et, sans parti-pris, la situation, et demandons-nous: Que peut suffrage universel pour améliorer notre sort? A cette question nous répondrons catégoriquement: Rien! En effet: Considéré en lui-meme, il ne changera absolument rien aux […]