Contr'un Archives - Page 40 of 56 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Proudhon to Jeanne Deroin

April 20, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[A letter, apparently not included in the Correspondence, from Proudhon to Jeanne Deroin. The date is uncertain. Working translation; all the usual cautions apply.] Paris, August 4 [1848?]. Madame. You have understood me perfectly: what I pursue under the name of the abolition of usury and of property, is the restoration of the family, it is the advent of the man-king, and of the woman-queen. Until this great reform is accomplished, men and women will not love one another: cupidity will infect their union, and behind cupidity comes brutality of the senses. Libertinism replaces love, and murder, finally, takes its […]

“Property is Theft!” book launch in London

April 15, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[From Iain McKay] Freedom Bookshop is hosting the book launch of“Property is Theft! A Pierre-Joseph ProudhonAnthology”. This is the new comprehensive anthology of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s writings published by AK Press. Proudhon was the first person to call themselves an anarchist and his ideas on property, state, exploitation, workers self-management, federalism and anarchy defined anarchism as a socio-economic theory. Join Iain McKay, the editor of “Property is Theft!”and author of “An Anarchist FAQ”, to discuss Proudhon’s ideas and why they are still importanttoday. “Property is Theft!” book launch: Saturday, 2pm to 4pm,21st May 2011 Freedom Bookshophttp://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/bookshop/ Angel Alley84b Whitechapel High StreetLondon […]

Contr'un

16th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair

April 7, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m headed for the train station in about an hour, on my way to the 2011 Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, where I’ll be tabling with Corvus Editions both Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10. Stop by and say “hello” if you’re at the fair. I’ve packed some translation work, so with a little luck I’ll have some new material by Joseph Charlier and Claude Pelletier ready to post soon after my return early next week.

Contr'un

Black and Red Feminism from 19th Century France

April 5, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m gathering material for a fairly major foray into the works of 19th century French feminists, including completing the translations of some of the responses to Proudhon. But every major foray has to start with some exploratory expeditions, and I’ve gathered up a first selection of work by Jeanne Deroin and Andre Leo to plug the project at the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair this weekend. Most of the material has appeared on this blog before, but this is the first time I’ve collected the various pieces. Read and distribute. Print and sell if you like. Pamphlet edition Pdf for onscreen […]

Two Socialist Catechisms

March 28, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] I’ve been reading around Proudhon quite a bit lately, trying to establish contexts as a step towards further clarifying his ideas. And I have been in search of 19th century English translations of the French socialists, as a step towards establishing the contexts for people like William B. Greene and William Henry Channing. There are large chunks of the writings of Charles Fourier, Victor Considerant, and a number of the important French socialist-feminists tucked away in the pages of American papers. The translations are often partial, and occasionally untrustworthy, but I’ve been setting aside time each week for searching, […]

Proudhon, “Man is Free”

March 26, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] The short article by Proudhon, “God is Evil,” which I posted awhile back, was essentially the introduction to a longer piece, “Man is Free,” which followed it. I now have both articles translated and posted to the Libertarian Labyrinth archive. [/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end] [/ezcol_1third_end]

Contr'un

Charles Fourier on the Papillon, or Butterfly Passion

March 2, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[For Roderick, a bit from Charles Fourier’s Passions of the Human Soul, dealing with dinner parties and the passion for variation, the papillon. Some of Fourier’s influence no doubt comes through in Stephen Pearl Andrews analogy of the dinner party.] According to the property common to the three distributives, the papillon is of two species, distinguished into contrasted and identical. 1st. The contrasted papillon arises from transitions from one extreme to another. For example: a company of sybarites, accustomed to sumptuous banquets, will eat with great pleasure in a cottage, rustic fare,—milk and fruit served up in earthern vessels; they […]

Contr'un

Louis Blanc’s “Socialist’s Catechism”

February 28, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] From The Spirit of the Age, another early translation from the French socialist movement, the “Socialist’s Catechism,” by Louis Blanc. Like the excerpts from Proudhon’s Confessions of a Revolutionist, this originally appeared in the London Weekly Tribune. This is unabashed state socialism, but it’s an important example of it, from one of the most active socialist spokespeople of the 1848 era. [/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end] [/ezcol_1third_end]

A Fourierist account of property

February 9, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] I’ve been ranging through my personal archives, and through pretty much everything else I can get my hands on lately, looking for material to help fill gaps in the general analysis of property that I’m writing for The Mutualist #2: “Owning Up.” The plan is to dedicate the whole issue to a fleshed-out summary of the property theory I’ve been developing over the last 3-4 years (hopefully in time for the Bay Area Bookfair), and finish up a radically-rewritten version of “The Anarchism of Approximations,” so I can focus much of […]

The heart of Proudhon’s thought

January 22, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1third] Contr’un Revisited: [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] A slightly belated “Happy 202nd Birthday!” to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. It looks like the AK Press anthology will be out in February, and I have hopes of having the second issue of The Mutualist, “Owning Up,” and Proudhon’s Third Memoir on Property finished up by the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. I wish I thought that all those releases were likely to advance the debate about mutualism much beyond its current state—but I’m seriously concerned that more translations means more material to take out of context, and an intensification of the tug-of-war over Proudhon’s place in the […]