The Era of Anarchism

Anarchist Beginnings

Pierre Mualdes, “Etre anarchiste / To Be an Anarchist” (1924)

July 14, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
To be an anarchist is to be individualist, first of all. It is oneself that one is most keen to liberate, but as one’s total emancipation is intimately linked to that of one’s neighbors, one is communist by force of circumstance. No offense to the most affirmative anti-societarists: I also believe that man is an animal that instinct drives to live in society. A kind of human feeling is thus created that goes from the individual to the species, a feeling that the rabble of the rulers strives to channel to its own profit within the limits of a fatherland, but which has manifested even during the last butchery between “enemies” a feeling that knows no borders.

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Working Translations

Maurice Imbard, “O Anarchy!!!” (1928)

August 18, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Ah! that word anarchy appeared to me for a long time, in the days of my youth, as a sort of myth.

The change that has occurred in my mindset has not changed my opinion on the grandeur of the word and the beauty of the thing. My aim is still and always to work, to struggle, to hasten the coming of the anarchist life—a life without authority, without obligation, without brutality; a gentle, tolerant, normal, natural life, where people will learn to understand one another.

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progress reports

Claude Journet, “Anarchy and the Anarchists” (1924)

August 14, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] L’Anarchie et les Anarchistes L’idéal anarchiste n’est certes pas nouveau ; mais combien d’individus osèrent s’en réclamer ? Il fut d’ailleurs toujours dangereux de prendre cette étiquette. Les précurseurs, par l’exemple, puis les propagandistes, par la parole et l’écrit, tentèrent de diffuser les nobles vérités de cette philosophie réellement humaine : l’anarchie. Mais ces hommes ne furent jamais appréciés à leur juste valeur ; ils furent, comme tous les sincères, victimes de la haine aveugle de la foule. Mais malgré les calomnies et les persécutions, l’Idée survécût, toujours plus vivace en sa constante lutte contre l’autorité. En certaine période—que […]
From the Archives

Anarchism defined (“Twentieth Century,” 1890)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Anarchism does not mean no government. It means no government by physical force. It does not mean each for himself independently of all. It means voluntary cooperation. Anarchism is Socialism without physical compulsion. It does not mean the destruction of our present forms of government by physical violence. It means the harmonizing of society by education in sociologic science. It does not contemplate sudden changes. It recognizes that slowness is a necessary characteristic of evolution. Anarchism is the synonym for sociologic evolution. It means that we should proceed in the direction of less government by […]
anarchist individualism

E. Armand, “Qu’est-ce qu’un Anarchiste?” (1908)

March 9, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
E. ARMAND Qu’est-ce qu’un Anarchiste ? Theses et Opinions. J’expose, je propose, je n’impose point. E. A. La société actuelle. — Les réformateurs de la société. — L’anarchiste et la société. — L’anarchiste et les réformateurs de la société. — Les chrétiens et les anarchistes. — L’anarchiste envisagé comme réagissant contre la société. — Volonté de vivre et volonté de se reproduire. — L’effort et la joie de vivre. — L’anarchiste envisagé comme réfractaire sur le terrain économique. — De la vie comme expérience. — Les anarchistes considérés comme espèce et la camaraderie. — Les inconséquences des anarchistes. — De la […]
Working Translations

V. Henri, “Why We Are Anarchists” (1901)

December 26, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_1half] POURQUOI NOUS SOMMES ANARCHISTES Camarade, tu as un cerveau, un cœur, des poumons, des yeux, des membres; ces organes sont nécessaires à ton existence ; il y a donc pour toi nécessité de t’en servir : à chacun de tes organes est lié un besoin correspondant. Ce besoin peut varier suivant que ton tempérament est plus ou moins nerveux, plus ou moins sanguin, suivant que le climat est plus ou moins chaud et humide. Mais, quelles que soient ces conditions, puisque le besoin existe, tu finis par éprouver un désir; et si, alors, la possibilité matérielle, morale ou sociale […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Francis W. L. Adams, “Anarchism” (1894)

July 20, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
“Anarchism.” ‘Tis not when I am here, In these homeless homes, Where sin and shame and disease And foul death comes; ‘Tis not when heart and brain Would be still and forget Men and women and children Dragged down to the pit. But when I hear them declaiming Of “liberty,” “order” and “law,” The husk-hearted gentleman And the mud-hearted bourgeois, That a sombre, hateful desire Burns up slow in my breast, To wreck the great, guilty temple. And give us rest! — Francis W. L. Adams. Francis William Lauderdale Adams, “Anarchism,” Songs of the Army of the Night (London: William […]
Anarchist Beginnings

L. A. M., “The New Anarchism” (1919)

July 20, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE NEW ANARCHISM. This is not the beginning of a new cult. It is a restatement of what we want and what we intend to do towards realising it. The New Anarchism is the old Anarchism in new clothes. It is set out in a way that he who runs may read. What Anarchists Want. We want to place certain ideas before the people. These ideas we believe will contribute towards the making of a better people and a better world. Anarchists are not alone in holding such ideas. But the ideas of Anarchists differ essentially from others in some […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Charles Clark Rodolf, “The Unrighteousness of Government” (1895)

July 20, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOVERNMENT, AS VIEWED BY A PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHIST. BY CHARLES CLARK RODOLF, M. D. Whoever applies to himself the term anarchist should add a definition, if he does not wish to be misjudged, for no word in the English language is more misused and misunderstood. Some of this misuse is viciously intentional, but most of it is the result of pure ignorance. It is less than half a dozen years since the public began to learn that anarchist, nihilist, and socialist are not synonymous; and even now the three words are more or less confounded in popular usage, […]