progress reports

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 […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “More Heretical Views” (1911)

July 19, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
MORE HERETICAL VIEWS * To my mind, at least, the more modern Socialism and Syndicalism spread, the more our ideal of many years is left behind, and real Socialism seems more remote than ever. We all feel, I think, that if intensity of feeling and energy for action were in any way corresponding to numerical strength, we should not see, side by side with immense Socialist and Labour Parties, Capitalism more flourishing than ever, monarchism and militarism triumphant, parsons and priests unabashed and prospering. Socialism, degraded to “Labourism,” now forms part and parcel of a system which it once meant […]
anarchist synthesis

Ricardo Mella, “The Bankruptcy of Beliefs” and “The Rising Anarchism” (1902-03)

January 18, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
It’s been quiet here for quite a while, while I have been concentrating on writing and research in some new areas. A lot of my attention has been focused on the question of “anarchist synthesis” and my exploration of the debate surrounding it has finally forced me to dive deep into the Spanish-language anarchist periodicals of the early 20th century. Sources like La Revista Blanca and the “Suplementos” of the Argentinian paper La Protesta are remarkably rich in material from a variety of tendencies and nations, and the research has uncovered a number of very interesting discussion on the question […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Harry Kelly, “Anarchism—A Plea for the Impersonal” (1908)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE student of Anarchism must often ask himself why, in this most Anarchistic of all countries, the Anarchist movement has made, and is making, such slow progress. That Anarchism concerns itself with the individual, and that America is the most individualistic of all civilized countries, is hardly debatable; and yet the Anarchist movement, which in itself represents the definite, concrete expression of the Anarchist philosophy, is almost where it was twenty years ago. The Mutualist wing, which found its ablest exponent in Dyer D. Lum is extinct; the Individualist wing has lost so much ground that it can hardly be […]