Over at the Anarchist FAQ blog, Iain has a post recognizing the sesquicentennial of the term libertaire, used in 1858 by Joseph Déjacque as the title of his journal, La Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social. Déjacque is generally credited with the first use of the term “libertarian” as a synonym for “anarchist.” We’ve learned, as the digital archives grow, to be skeptical of first-use claims, but I’m happy to take a moment to recognize the importance of Déjacque’s contribution. His fascinating mix of anarchism, communism, egoism, and feminism, drawing on the thought of Fourier, Proudhon, Pierre Leroux and others, is deserving of much more attention that it has generally received.
Contr'un
Joseph Déjacque, “The Humanisphere” — Note on “The Extremes”
I’m working on completing Part I of The Humanisphere, but I decided to finish up this very interesting note before settling down to that task. There are tensions in the work which are pretty remarkable — as we saw in Part III, Déjacque was prepared to call for a war against Civilization (defined, following Fourier, as the form of society of the modern era, and thus something to be progressed beyond) exceeding even that proposed by Ernest Coeurderoy, but, as we will see in Part II, that didn’t prevent him from imagining his anarchic utopia as a kind of thoroughly […]
Contr'un
Joseph Déjacque, “The Humanisphere” (Part III)
[I’ve posted parts of The Humanisphere before, and talked a bit about the difficulties involved. Slowly, but surely, I’m working my way through the work, but not necessarily tackling the sections in order. This is the final section.] THE HUMANISPHERE by Joseph Déjacque Part III The Transitional Period. How will the progress be accomplished? What means will prevail? What route will be chosen? That is what is it is difficult to determine in an absolute manner. But whatever these means, whatever the route, if it is a step towards anarchic liberty, I will applaud it. Let the progress take place […]
Working Translations
Joseph Déjacque, Short prose works from “Le Libertaire” (1858)
Le Libertaire 1 no. 1 (June 9, 1858) Le Libertaire (1274 words)(signed) Beaucoup d’appelés et peu de venus (943 words) Le Père Enfantin et le Père Félix (136 words) Bourgeois contre Bourgeois (193 words) Un nouveau livre de J. P. Proudhon. Nous voudrions pouvoir parler à nos lecteurs du dernier livre de Proudhon : De la Justice dans la Révolution et dans l’Eglise. Malheureusement, nous n’en connaissons que le titre et les quelques lignes de la dédicace publiée par la Revue de l’Ouest. Si quelqu’un avait un exemplaire de cet ouvrage en sa possession et qu’il voulût nous faire un plaisir, […]