C. L. James Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

C. L. James & Henry Cohen, “Anarchy’s Apostles” (1891–92)

October 14, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

An archive of this sort is necessarily full of marginal views and unusual perspectives on anarchism, so I assume that most readers will treat the accounts with appropriate caution. Under most circumstance, no specific disclaimer seems to be required. But C. L. James essays on “Anarchy’s Apostles” strike me as something of a special case, given James’ reputation within the movement during his lifetime as a serious scholar and given the number of truly idiosyncratic views expressed in them. I provide them here as fodder for historical research, but with the explicit caveat that there seems to be more that is wrong about James’ account than is right.

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Voltairine de Cleyre, “C. L. James” (1911)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

It is nearly eighteen years ago, back in the fall of 1893, that for the brief space of a half an hour I sat in the company of C. L. James. It happened so: it was the year of the world’s fair at Chicago, and everybody with an “ism,” orthodox or heterodox, was foregathering with his fellows in belief, in convention assembled. We the Anarchists also wanted a convention, and prepared to hold one; but the Chief of Police, hearing thereof, notified Will Holmes that no convention would be allowed unless his men were present at all our proceedings; as […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, et al, “James’s Vindication of Anarchism” (1906)

July 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

JAMES’S VINDICATION OF ANARCHISM. AN APPEAL. Comrades and Friends:— It has been the earnest desire of many of the former readers of Free Society to see the work entitled, “Vindication of Anarchism,” by C. L. James, issued in book form. The comrades of Philadelphia, whose original suggestion was in a measure the occasion which called forth the work, have steadily kept this purpose in view ever since its serial appearance in Free Society, regarding it as one of the serious contributions to a fundamental literature of Anarchism. The creation of such a literature is, in our opinion, the most definite […]

C. L. James, “Anarchism Defined by an Anarchist” (1886)

September 8, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

ANARCHISM DEFINED BY AN ANARCHIST. The very impartial article by Professor Ely on “Socialism in America,” which appeared in your June issue, suggests to me that a somewhat less external view of that movement known as anarchism might possibly be interesting. Anarchism, like Protestantism, has no particular author, but the founder of the I. W. P. A. is Karl Marx, and Marx’s work, “Capital,” is fairly entitled to be considered the great text-book of anarchistic socialism. According to anarchists, possession must be carefully distinguished from property. Possession is the power, right, or privilege of using anything which is inseparable from […]