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With the contemporary mutualist revival a complex, more or less divided work-in-progress, there are very few easy introductions to mutualism. And there are lots of folks asking to be introduced. It is certain that this blog has become very deep waters. So, with some fear and trepidation, I have begun condensing material from here into a substantially more manageable size and shape, and have begun to post them to a new blog: Mutualism.info.

I’ve posted working translations of a pair of pamphlets published in 1848/9: “The History of Mr. Proudhon and His Principles,” by “Satan,” and “Response to Satan on the Subject of Mr. Proudhon,” by “The Archangel Saint Michael.” The author of the first was Georges Dairnvaell, and the second was published by the “Society for the Mutual Education of Women,” the organization, founded by Jeanne Deroin and Désirée Gay, which published Politique des femmes. The author of the second pamphlet does not appear in any of the sources I have been able to find, but the sentiments are certainly in line […]

I’ve set up a separate blog to archive the Black and Red Feminist History project, and have begun to gather a mix of familiar and new material, including a working translation of Paule Mink’s 1891 essay on “The Right of Abortion.” I hope to have the third issue of the Black and Red Feminism zine available for the August shows, and it is tentatively a themed issue, focusing on “utopian socialism,” with contributions from the Saint-Simonian, Icarian and Fourierist movements.

The complete translation can be downloaded in pdf form. The publication of Proudhon’s posthumous works occasioned a controversy among his literary executors, with some of the debate occurring in the pages of La Presse in November, 1865. The debate involved four of the six executors—J. A. Langlois, Georges Duchêne, A. A. Rolland, and Gustave Chaudey—and Proudhon’s old collaborator Alfred Darimon, which whom Proudhon had parted ways politically, plus a number of other allies and adversaries. The debate was important enough for Auguste Beauchery to include the two main letters from La Presse in his 1867 Economie Sociale de P.-J. Proudhon, […]

Over on the Libertarian Library site, I’ve posted a working translation of Jules Leroux’s 1848 pamphlet, What is the Republic? Jules was Pierre Leroux’s brother, and an important radical, with a career which took him from France all the way to the final Icarian community in northern California.

I’m in that messy, lonely stage, with the Collected Works of Bakunin project, of laying out possible volumes and trying to anticipate potential permissions problems. And, so far, I haven’t received much feedback from potential readers and buyers about whether or not the general strategy and set of priorities I outlined over on the Bakunin Library blog seems likely to meet the needs and/or desires of the intended audience. It is always nice to tackle big projects with at least a little bit of sense that you’re going to be meeting people’s needs. And I’m sure my publisher would be […]

My friend Derek Wittorff has a new blog up, Mutualism and Solutions to the Social Problem.You’ll find a fair number of similarities to my project here, and a few significant differences. Check it out.

One of the more “collectivist” economic heresies that I’m interested in is the notion of a “basic minimum.” As expressed by the followers of Fourier, and people like Joseph Charlier, it was one of the long list of intrusive measures that Proudhon hoped to avoid through the establishment of the Bank of the People. And I appreciate that sentiment, but I am also tempted by Pierre Leroux’s assertion that a basic subsistence is a basic right. In any event, in response to one of those constant “what would a mutualist do?” questions on Facebook, I sketched just a bit of […]

I’ve finally made a start at a blog-archive of material related to Charles Fourier, passional economy, attractive labor, etc. There is a real wealth of such material tucked away in the pages of various 19th century radical periodicals, and my own work is beginning to draw more directly on parts of the tradition, so it will be nice to have the relevant texts available for readers. It will be an on again, off again affair, but I think many of you will enjoy The Splendors of the Combined Order.