Ernest Coeurderoy Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Hurrah!!! for Ernest Cœurderoy

May 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] COMMENTARY AND LINKS: Max Nettlau, “Biographical Notice of Ernest Coeurderoy” (in progress) “La Barrière du Combat“ “Pruning the Rhizone” [Review of “Disruptive Elements”] Tag feed [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] WORKING TRANSLATIONS: Ernest Coeurderoy, “Demolish Authority!” (1850) [from Days of Exile] Felix Pyat, Ernest Coeurderoy, etc., To the Socialist Democrats of the Department of the Seine (1850) Ernest Coeurderoy & Octave Vauthier, The Barrier of the Combat (1852) Ernest Coeurderoy, [Letter on the amnesty of August 1859] (FR/EN) Ernest Coeurderoy, Three Letters to the Journal l’Homme (1854) (in progress) Ernest Coeurderoy, “The Revolution in Man […]

Ernest Cœurderoy, Letter on the amnesty of August 1859

May 23, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

I declare that I have never accepted the amnesty that affects me. The motives for my resolution of the sort that every man with a heart will understand, and that it would be too long to outline in a journal. I reserve, moreover, the option of making them known when the time seems more opportune to me, and in the form that I judge best.

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Ernest Coeurderoy, “The Revolution in Man and in Society” (pages 1-8)

October 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] DE LA REVOLUTION DANS L’HOMME ET DANS LA SOCIETE, PAR ERNEST COEURDEROY. « Ceux qui voudront diriger les hommes, soit dans l’enfance, soit dans l’âge viril, sans avoir étudié leurs diverses natures et les conditions physiologiques de leurs organes, voilà les véritables auteurs des révolutions passées et futures, voilà les oppresseurs les plus dangereux pour l’humanité. . . . . . . . . . Voilà pourquoi je suis très-sévère pour Napoléon. » (Gall.) « Les révolutions sont des conservations. » (P. J. Proudhon.) 1852 A Octave Vauthier. Je te dédie ce livre, ami, parce que tu […]

Ernest Coeurderoy, “Demolish Authority!” (1850)

September 4, 2016 anarchisms_w4l2ii

From Days of Exile, Vol. 1: To make the Revolution pass, like a red-hot iron, across this century, one thing alone must be done: Demolish authority. This proposition has no need of demonstration.

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Pruning the Rhizome (review of “Disruptive Elements”)

April 8, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

Disruptive Elements: The Extremes of French Anarchism Ardent Press, 2014 available from Little Black Cart —— a review —— “Tant pis pour ceux qui souffrent et n’osent pas prêcher l’extermination et l’incendie!” Most history worth bothering with shakes things up. This is particularly true of radical history, and of that branch of radical history that involves rediscovering and re-presenting primary works from various radical currents. Sometimes, the shake-ups are comparatively pleasant, and we find, unexpectedly, that we have inherited marvelous gems, glimpses into the personalities and practices of those who came before us. Sometimes, they seem more like attacks, […]

Four Visions, from Ernest Coeurderoy’s “Hurrah!!!”

December 8, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

Cursed be the hour that I was born! Cursed be the morning star which watched over my mother as she was in labor! Cursed be the first bird that greeted that deplorable day! Cursed be the shepherd and cursed the vineyard keeper who dried the tears of the dew on the hillsides of Bourgogne! Cursed be the midwife who did not smother me in the passage! Cursed be the dog who licked my stains! Cursed, the attentive friends who came to compliment my father because a son had been born to him!!

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Max Nettlau, Biographical Notice of Ernest Coeurderoy

December 26, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

In June 1852, two events, quickly covered with the veil of silence, would deeply effect the exile community in London. Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, Pierre Leroux, Cabet, Félix Pyat and their friends, some Blanquists, Proudhonians and independent socialists, some refugees from May 15 and June of 1848, as well as June 13, 1849, and the great majority of the outcasts from the coup d’état, rubbed elbows then in a common exile.

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Ernest Coeurderoy, Three Letters to the Journal l’Homme – I

April 12, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] THREE LETTERS TO THE JOURNAL L’HOMME, ORGAN OF FRENCH DEMAGOGY ABROAD, BY ERNEST CŒURDEROY. “No force can stop the movement of social decomposition. And Demagogy is not even a force.” (Ernest Cœurderoy. — Days of Exile.) LONDON; JOSEPH THOMAS, 2, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. ———– THREE LETTERS TO THE JOURNAL L’HOMME, Following a simple complaint that I addressed to it, the journal l’Homme having challenged me to a serious discussion which it later recognized itself incapable of defending against me, I publish the responses that the impartial editing of that […]

To the Socialist Democrats of the Department of the Seine, 1850

March 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

TO THE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SEINE. Some men and women whose devotion to the Republic has cast them into exile, some comrades in belief and in misfortune, lack everything, and we are sad that we cannot do anything to alleviate their sufferings. So far, the cantonal allowances, and some individual assistance have been enough to make their position tolerable; today, our feeble resources are exhausted. The refugees provided for by the State are barracked and subjected to a regime which treats them like prisoners of war. The little food they are given is detestable; no […]

Coeurderoy and Vauthier, “The Barrier of the Combat” (1852)

March 11, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve posted a working translation of The Barrier of the Combat, by Ernest Coeurderoy and Octave Vauthier. For some explanation of the title, see my earlier post on La Barrière du Combat. The essay, which is aimed at squabbling socialist exiles, ends with Coeurderoy’s famous argument that liberty in Europe could only be made possible if a Cossack invasion first wiped away civilization. Of the early anarchists, Coeurderoy was probably the most accomplished and literary writer, which posed a slightly different set of translation problems than I faced with Bellegarrigue and Déjacque. I’ve learned a number of things about the […]