1869

Bakunin Library

The Policy of the International (III & IV) (1869)

February 20, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Policy of the International III L’Égalité, August 21, 1869; If the International at first showed itself indulgent toward the subversive and reactionary ideas, whether in politics and religion, that the workers might have when joining it, it was not through indifference toward these ideas. We cannot tax it with indifference since it detests them and rejects them with all the strength of its being, every reactionary idea being the overturning of the very principle of the Revolution, as we have already demonstrated in our preceding articles. That indulgence, we repeat again, is inspired by a high wisdom. Knowing perfectly […]
Bakunin Library

The Policy of the International (I & II) (1869)

February 19, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Policy of the International I L’Égalité, August 7, 1869; “We have believed until now, said La Montagne, that political and religious opinions were independent of the profession of member of the International; and, as for us, that is the terrain on which we place ourselves.” We could believe, at first glance, that Mr. Coullery was right. For, in fact, in accepting a new member the International does not ask him whether he is religious or an atheist, whether or not he belongs to any political party. It simply asks him: Are you a worker, or if you are not, […]
Bakunin Library

Report of the Commission on the Question of Inheritance (1869)

December 22, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
GENEVA, AUGUST 27 ───────── Report of the Commission ON THE QUESTION OF INHERITANCE ADOPTED  BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GENEVA SECTIONS Citizens, This question which will be discussed at the Congress de Basle is divided into two part, the first consisting of the principle, the second the practical application of the principle. The question of the principle itself must be considered from two points of view: that of utility and that of justice. From the point of view of the emancipation of labor, is it useful, is it necessary for the right of inheritance to be abolished? To pose […]
Bakunin Library

Mikhail Bakunin, “Madame Léo and l’Egalité” (1869)

January 11, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
Madame Léo and l’Egalité [L’Egalité(Geneva), March 13 & 27, 1869] We have inserted this letter all the more willingly because it eloquently summarizes the reasons that militate in favor of a rapprochement of the different democratic parties. We will take the occasion to explain ourselves once and for all on the subject. We understand the lofty sentiment which has dictated the letter we have just read, but we cannot let ourselves be led by these impulses of the heart; we know too well that they have always managed to doom the people’s cause, and we cannot, and must not forget […]
The Sex Question

Jenny P. d’Hericourt, “Morality According to the Sexes” (1869)

July 28, 2012
MORALITY ACCORDING TO THE SEXES BY JENNY P. D’HERICOURT Dear reader, let us for a moment listen to a conversation between wife and husband: Wife—“Men continue to be absurd, and to affirm the contrary of facts. The New York Nation writes thus:” (She reads.) Society refuses to treat men’s licentiousness with the same severity as women’s, because the consequences to the family, to children, and to property are less serious. Husband.—“But that is true, wife, and,” (He reads.) A woman must be taught to take care of her honor, and to bear unsupported the loss of it. Wife.—“Then, if I […]
The Sex Question

Jenny P. d’Hericourt to “The Agitator” (June 12, 1869)

July 28, 2012
  Madame d’Hericourt, having returned from New York, writes full of interest and enthusiasm concerning her plan for a “Universal League of Women.” She will have something to say of this in future numbers of the Agitator. In concluding her letter, she says: I hope my next journey to New York will not be like the last one. In going I was left on the way, losing part of my hand baggage, and in coming back I was pickpocketedat Crestline. Happily, I had only five dollars, a little key, and my ticket in the portmonaie which was in my pocket. […]
biography

La Femme, “Madame Jenny P. d’Hericourt” (1869)

July 28, 2012
MADAME JENNY P. d’HERICOURT Dear Agitator: You ask me the biography of Madame Jenny P. d’Hericourt! I consent only to draw the great lines of her eventful life, those which can be interesting to those identified with the holy cause to which she has devoted a part of her existence. She was born in Besancon, the capital of the ancient Franche-Comte, in 1819. She is therefore the compatriot of Victor Hugo, Charles Fourier, Proudhon, Bichat, Courbet, Rouget de l’Isle, the author of the Marseillaise, and the celebrated Georges Cuvier, to whom she is a relative through her grandmother. By hereditary […]
The Sex Question

Jenny d’Hericourt, “Woman’s Rights in France” (1869)

July 22, 2012
WOMAN’S RIGHTS IN FRANCE LETTER FROM MADAME JENNY P. D’HERICOURT Dear Agitator: I will give you a page of history as an answer to a translation on Women’s Rights in Europe, accepted in the Revolution. If the Journal des femmes, whence this article is taken, were a French paper, the author could not be excused. But this paper is not French, though written in French; which explains how a “Woman of Geneva” does not know anything about thousands of wide awake women who were preaching, writing and claiming their rights in France in 1848. Having been one of those women, […]