Working Translations Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Manifesto of the Dynamiters (1893)

February 12, 2026 Shawn P. Wilbur

Manifesto of the Dynamiters (1893) A lot of the material that we have explaining the strategy of the attentateurs of the 1890s comes from trial statements, but there were some other documents written in support of the various attacks. In the sidebar, you’ll find a link to a brief “Manifesto of the Dynamiters,” originally published in French, in London, apparently early in 1893, since it refers to Ravachol’s bombing of “the buildings of the magistrates” as “yesterday.” In tone, this is very much in line with Emile Henry’s “there are no innocent bourgeois.” Whether or not this is good theory, […]

Daniel Saurin, “Order through Anarchy” (1893)

February 4, 2026 Shawn P. Wilbur

I have seen the title L’Ordre par l’Anarchie — published in the “Bibliothèque Anarchiste” of La Révolte — in the back pages of various anarchist communist papers from the 1890s, but had never tracked it down… it is a very interesting attempt to construct an anarchist ethics on a “natural rights” foundation…

[…]

The Anarchists’ Noël: Christmas Tales from “Le Libertaire” (1899-1913)

December 26, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Links: The Anarchists’ Noël (pdf) ‘Christmas’ [category feed] Posting anarchist Christmas stories has become something of a tradition here in recent years, with some of the best coming from the individualist press, such as the various pieces by E. Armand and Gigi Damiani’s “Jesus and Bonnot: A Christmas Tale.” So I had been intending right along to steal a bit of time before the holiday rolled around to seek out a few new tales to translate. And then a mix of other tasks — work on the “Encounters with Anarchist Individualism,” native seed stratification, etc. — just completely wiped it […]

E. Armand, “A vous, les humbles” / “To you, the humble ones” (1917) (FR/EN)

June 23, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

O humble ones, we know your jealousies and your grudges. We know that in your morals, you ape the social exalted, when you do not surpass them in ridicule or narrowness. We are fully aware of your prejudices, your fear of what others will say, your servility, your flattening before anyone who exercises authority, wears fine clothes or clinks a purse full of coins.

[…]

James Guillaume, “Ideas on Social Organization” (1876)

June 17, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

This is another impromptu translation, from the neglected non-Proudhon to-do pile. Much of the essay will be familiar from the partial translation widely available online, but roughly 5000 words of the 13,000 in the original remained to be translated.

[…]

Mikhail Bakunin, “Philosophical Considerations on the Divine Phantom, the Real World and Man” (1870)

June 13, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Bakunin’s great unfinished work, The Knouto-Germanic Empire and the Social Revolution, covers a lot of ground, but one of its more interesting sections, the “Appendix” called “Philosophical Considerations on the Divine Phantom, the Real World and Man,” is concerned with questions that will be familiar to readers of its best-known fragment, “God and the State.” It is again a question of Bakunin’s elaboration and defense of materialism, with sections on “The System of the World” and “Religion.” Much of the focus is on the nature and proper subject matter of science. Part of the account takes the form of a critique of positivist philosophy, as pursued by the followers of Auguste Comte.

[…]

“Rational Socialists” vs. the Anarchists

May 31, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

In 2010, I posted a partial translation of Summary of Social Economy, According to the Ideas of Colins, by Agathon de Potter, one of the most active of Colins’ followers. It took fifteen years to come back and finish the job, but — one thing having led to another — the completed translation is one of three newly translated texts by de Potter that I’m sharing today.

[…]

Félix P….., “Philosophy of Insubmission” (1854)

May 14, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

At any given point in my research, there are always a few texts that top the list of things I would love to read, but am unlikely to get my hands on. Some are of more general interest than others. I remember, for example, that during my early work on mutualism, I was equally keen to track down William Batchelder Greene’s “Omega” articles articles in the Worcester Palladium — arguably one of the key early contributions to the tradition — and a little book called Money and Banking, or Their Nature and Effects Considered, Together with a Plan for the […]

“What Anarchy Is” (Le Monde Libertaire, 1967)

April 18, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Anarchists, precisely because of the positive spirit that makes them reject the moral authority of all clergy, the economic authority of all forms of capitalism, the political authority of all states, are the most resolute supporters and defenders of the construction of a society with full responsibility for everyone, a society based on the constant relationship between producers and consumers, at the level that concerns them, and any centralization can only have a coordinating character.

[…]

Guy Antoine and Ch.-Aug. Bontemps, “What is Situationism?” (1966)

April 4, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Nine years ago, a movement was born, similar in many respects to the libertarian movement and very distant in others. Why isn’t it being discussed? It seems to be linked, on the one hand, to the highly developed theoretical aspect of the Situationist International’s texts and, on the other, to Situationist concerns, which seem to interest only a small minority. What are the causes? Among them, one of the most important is undoubtedly that professional revolutionaries from Lenin to Bakunin always separated political-economic action from action in culture. In their view, it was first necessary to change the material basis of life and only address the rest (the problem of art and lifestyle) in a second phase, without realizing that they were thus leaving “culture” in the hands of the bourgeoisie.

[…]