Louise Michel Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Louise Michel, “The Strike”

December 28, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

This English translation of “The Strike appeared in The Commonweal. THE STRIKE A DRAMA by LOUISE MICHEL. ________ Characters in the Prologue: Gertrude. (Secretly married to Vladimir.) Mache and Rita, Sisters, betrothed to two brothers who have been hanged. Vladimir. Nemo, Zniriki and Orloffski, Revolutionists. The People of Warsaw. The Grand Duke and his suite. Characters in the Play: Eleazar, a Financier. Gertrude, wife to Eleazar. Marius, Esther and Nicaise, children of Eleazar by a former wife. Silvester, styled Baron Ulysses. Madame de Bleuze, a sick woman. Madame de Roseray. Blanche and Margerite, daughters of Madame de Roseray. Fishermen; Miners; […]

Liberty through Education (1898)

April 9, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

LA LIBERTÉ Par L’ENSEIGNEMENT (L’ÉCOLE LIBERTAIRE) [Temps Nouveaux, 1898] En matière d’éducation et d’enseignement, l’Autorité a pour effet d’accaparer l’homme chez l’enfant, au moment où son jugement est sans force, sa mémoire vide, son imagination naïve et sans défiance. Pour déprimer la, raison au détriment de la liberté, elle s’est emparée de l’intelligence et de la volonté pour les enchaîner, insensiblement et par une longue habitude, de préjugés, de scrupules et d’entraves sans nombre. L’État, après l’Église, comprenant fort bien que l’homme se ressent toute sa vie de l’influence subie durant son passage à l’école, s’est arrogé le droit d’étendre […]

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. III

December 27, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Chapter II] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] III Old Hermann went straight on, hardly knowing where he would stop. His house had long since been passed when he began to notice fatigue. So, regardless of eyes fixed on him, the old man made himself at home on a heap of stones piled up by workers at a street corner. The veil hung in the old man’s hands. as he had entirely forgotten all that had happened. He wiped his brow with it, taking it for his handkerchief. Sylvestre followed constantly.—Old Hermann’s appearance gave him the shudders. But he was quite wrong, […]

Louise Michel, “Nadine”

November 5, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

A Corvus Edition [pdf] NADINE by Louise Michel CHARACTERS Michel Bakunin. The Prince. Serge, his aide de camp. The Count Toscof, exile, father of Serge. Patelski. Belly. Miérolowski. Jacques Széla, patriot. Alexander Herzen. Count Wodzicki. Wolf, banker. Kokoski, police officer. Popof, police officer. Two Frenchmen. Two Bourgeois from Krakow. Two Officers. A Sentinel. A Herald. Two Guards. A Miner. Two Krakuses. Princess Nadine. The Countess Sophia Pouskine. Two Women of the People. Soldiers, police officers, peasants, Krakuses, men of the People, miners, bourgeois, valets, officers, lords. TABLEAUX THE REBELLION. THE SPY. THE BAILIFF OF DAMBIEC. THE MINES OF WIÉLICZKA. THE […]

Louise Michel, “Why we are Anarchists” (1891)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

We are Anarchists because it is absolutely impossible to obtain justice for all in any other way than by destroying institutions founded on force and privilege. We cannot believe that improvement is possible, if we still keep up the same institutions, now more rotten than in the past, or if we merely replace those whose iniquities are known by new men. These latter become in their turn what the others were, or else become barren. After the gradual changes of past centuries the hour has come when evolution cannot be separated from revolution, as in all birth they must be […]

Louise Michel, “Why I Am an Anarchist” (1896)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

I am an Anarchist because Anarchy alone, by means of liberty and justice based on equal rights, will make humanity happy, and because Anarchy is the sublimest idea conceivable by man. It is, today, the summit of human wisdom, awaiting discoveries of undreamt of progress on new horizons, as ages roll on and succeed each other in an ever widening circle. Man will only be conscious when he is free. Anarchy will therefore be the complete separation between the human flocks, composed of slaves and tyrants, as they exist to day, and the free humanity of tomorrow. As soon as […]

Louise Michel, “A Final Thought” (1887)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[The New Era — VIII] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A Final Thought Diving into the past, we see it join with the future like the two extremities of a circular arc, and that circle, like a sound wave, awakens others, infinitely. Eaten away by the world (from ancient India to ourselves), will the lost sciences germinate or are they dead in the flower? Must we wait for new emanations for new beginnings? Will there be enough to return to the soil to provide the seeds of renewal and conditions proper to existence? How many civilizations have fallen, how many scientific […]

Louise Michel, “Old Chéchette” (1884)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Old Chéchette There are some beings so disgraced by nature, so strange to look at or hear, that their aspect alone is a subject for sad studies for some, of wild mockeries for others. Some have not always been this way: some of them have had some accident, whether moral or physical, while others, by letting themselves idly go from fatigue or laziness, are brought low to some degree and, on that slope, there is no reason for them to stop. Others still (and this is dreadful for humanity) become thus under the pressure of […]

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Chapter I] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a […]

Working Translations

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Chapter I] [ezcol_1half] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a sudden fear engulfed the […]