market anarchism

market anarchism

Notes on “Le Commanditaire” (Anselme Bellegarrigue)

May 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] “The world is only a vast market, where the individual appears at once as merchant and as merchandise.” Le Commanditaire is apparently among the least well known of Anselme Bellegarrigue’s projects. I stumbled on it while keyword-searching through the Gallica collection. The paper lasted for three issues before being shut down by the government. The focus seems to have been on the practical means of associating within the existing legal framework, but the charge of “outrage a la morale publique” makes it clear that Bellegarrigue did not withold his more radical opinions. The following articles […]
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Two new publications of interest

October 21, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
At long last, Crispin Sartwell’s Josiah Warren anthology, “The Practical Anarchist,” has been published by Fordham University Press. It’s a very nice collection, the sort of thing that will give readers insight into both Warren’s key ideas and the breadth of his contributions. I got to play research assistant for the project for awhile, and a number of my favorite finds from that period made the cut for inclusion. This is a hardcover volume, at a hardcover price, but it is a well-designed, well-bound book that fills a big gap in the literature. Have your library grab it if you […]
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Anselme Bellegarrigue on “The Revolution”

March 18, 2010 Shawn P. Wilbur
Bellegarrigue’s Anarchy: A Journal of Order only lasted for two issues, although he had projected several more. The first issue contained his “Manifesto”  — translated and published in part by Benjamin Tucker in Liberty, and in full by the Kate Sharpley Library — and the second was dedicated to “The Revolution.” Like Proudhon, Bellegarrigue was a strong critic of the direction that the 1848 revolution had taken: “In theory, the Revolution is the development of well-being. In practice, it has only been the extension of malaise.” And, like Proudhon, he pointed to certain essential contradictions which prevented that “development of […]