I’ve just posted a translation of selections from The Philosophy of Defiance, an 1854 anarchist pamphlet published in New York and written by a French exile who signed the work “Felix P…..” Max Nettlau discovered the text, and published portions of it in La Revue Anarchiste for July, 1922. That’s fortunate, because the original text seems to be rare to the point of nonexistence, and because it’s a very interesting example of early anarchist thought.
anarchism without adjectives
Max Nettlau, “1907 and the Present Outlook” (1908)
No one can possibly guess the strength of latent revolutionary energy that will be brought to the surface by coming events. Will it be sufficient to lead to a clean sweeping away of the whole present system, or will by-and-by a greater separation of progressive from reactionary forces arise than exists already, and the next stage be that the progressive forces obtain full elbowroom at the said of the reactionary forces—just as Freethought is existing to-day side by side with the densest religious obtusity? Freethought would have preferred to demolish religion altogether, but had to be content with the success of attracting some of the best and obtaining neutrality from the rest—on its guard always against a treasonous enemy, of course. Will a similar state of things—exemption from the political State and economic independence on a co-operative basis—be the next stage of Anarchism also? Or will it remain in its present state of action by propaganda only? Or will it be able, by bridging over the gulf which still separates Syndicalist from revolutionary action, to establish a new basis—collective property—on which it could be practiced on a larger scale? […]
Anarchist Beginnings
Max Nettlau, “Alrededor de la ‘Síntesis anarquista'” (1929)
Alrededor de la “Síntesis anarquista” Apreciados camaradas : Me habéis remitido la «Síntesis anarquista» de Sebastián Faure, fechada en 20 de febrero de 1928, y tengo la seguridad de que reeditaréis este documento notable, o […]
anarchism without adjectives
Max Nettlau, “The Case of Gustave Hervé” (1912)
[one_third padding=”0 0px 0 10px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] The Case of Gustave Hervé. Considerable surprise and ill-feeling were created by the news that Hervé, the editor of the Paris Guerre Sociale, hitherto believed to […]