L'Egalité Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

The International Movement of the Workers (1869)

July 27, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur

[published in L’Egalité, May 22, 1869] GENEVA, May 21. The International Movement of the Workers. If, today, there is one fact that strikes the minds of the most recalcitrant conservatives, it is the always more general and always more imposing movement of the working masses, not only in Europe, but in America as well. The men of state and the politicians of all countries, whether aristocratic or bourgeois, are worried, and we have the proof of it in every speech they make; they do not pass up any occasion to express their sympathies—so deep and above all so sincere—for that […]

Bakunin Library

On Cooperation (1869)

March 20, 2014 Shawn P. Wilbur

ON COOPERATION [L’Egalité, September 4, 1869; Guillaume’s note (Oeuvres, t.IV, p.210) suggests this article may be by Charles Perron. What should be the character and what will be the means of the economic agitation and of the laborers of the International, before that social revolution that alone could emancipate them in a complete and definitive manner? The experience of recent years indicates two ways, one negative, the other positive: the strike funds andcooperation. Under this general word cooperation, we mean all the known systems of consumptions of mutual credit or of credit to labor or production. In the application […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]