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.
Working Translations
Joseph Déjacque before the court, 1849
POSSESSION OF MILITARY ARMS AND MUNITIONS. — Joseph Dejacques, a paper-hanger, condemned to transportation for participation in the insurrection of June 1848, and pardoned last May, appeared today before the magistrates’ court (7th chambre), presided over by M. Jourdain, for possession of two cartridges, several flints and a dozen caps.
Working Translations
Joseph Déjacque, “Authority.—Dictatorship.” (1859)
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Authority.—Dictatorship. aka “Down with the Bosses!” Le Libertaire, no. 12 (April 7, 1859) [revised translation] What assurance have I gained? What conclusion can I draw? … The knowledge that I have gained is that there is only one right in the world: it is the right of the strongest. … Thus, no more doubt, no more uncertainty, no more equivocation: might is right; there is no other right than force, for that right is the only one which is inviolable, the only one which carries in itself its own […]
Contr'un
Anarchist-communism, work, and the virtue of selfishness
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Contr’un Revisited: Obviously, it’s a big moment when Joseph Déjacque enters the mix, but there’s a lot going on here that would bear fruit later. Adding Déjacque to my list of early anarchist obsessions moved me closer to the recognition of an Era of Anarchy, and discovering the influence of both Fourier and Pierre Leroux in his work would sharpen my interest in the “utopian” roots of anarchism, but the first really dividend from my work on Déjacque was a sense that I had been underestimating the place of egoism among the early anarchists. At […]