Revolt Library : The Written Word to Help You Revolt!

First Published: in the American council communist journal edited by Paul Mattick, Living Marxism, November 1938; It had first been written for the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School) journal Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung but was not accepted. A French translation was published as an appendix in the Spartacus Editions version of Lenin as Philosopher, and it was reprinted in the Merlin Press english language edition. In the latter it is wrongly attributed to Paul Mattick. Source: John Gray’s Archive; Transcribed: by Andy Blunden, for marxists.org 2003; Proofed and corrected: by Chris Clayton 2006. Some additional remarks to Anton Pannekoek’s recent criticism of Lenin’s book “Materialism and Empir... (From : Marxists.org.)

“Be Realists, Demand the Impossible!” This slogan, developed in May by revolutionaries in France, flies in the face of common sense, especially the “common sense” of American corporate-military propaganda. What happened in May also flies in the face of official American “common sense.” In fact, in terms of American “common sense,” much of what happens in the world every day is impossible. It can’t happen. If it does happen, then the official “common sense” is nonsense: it is a set of myths and fantasies. But how can common sense be nonsense? That’s impossible. To demonstrate that anything is possible, this essay will place some of the myths alongside some of the events. The essay will then try to find out why some of the myths are possible, in other words, it will explore the “scientific basis” of the myths. The essay, if successful, will thus s... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

INTRODUCTION In this text, and in a continued Egoist Polemic, I’m going to dwell on the complex mechanisms of comparison between individual and law. Nothing complete or already written – by saying so I intend to enunciate the fairytale of the concreteness of the juridical anarchist – and the Nihilist holds a dagger in his hand, which destroys certitudes! In the fragments we moved on a ground of egoist experimentation of the metaphor. In this text metaphor is present in part – to specify the fragmentation that ‘occurs’ when one oversteps a metaphorical labyrinth. In developing an anti-juridical non-trajectory with texts experienced with blood along with my proud and affinity comrade Maurizio, we posed the annihilator attack on the use of the law. As specified above, sometimes the complex mechanism of the law in society does not allow one to carry out a lucid and... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

XI.-GOOD GOVERNMENT. The success of the Ulster plantation being satisfactorily gauged by the increase I of gold in English coffers,, royal and otherwise, James and his creatures resolved to make a similar attempt in Leinster. The owners and cultivators of the rich acres in the eastern province were too numerous to be harried into exile like the ! Earls Tyrone and Tyrconnel, or to be cleared out by acts of attainder, but the ingenuity of James and his sycophants devised a commission to inquire into defective titles. All manner of evidence was to be collected, what and how estates were held, the number of the inhabitants and their lords, what rents were paid but above all what claim the Crown had to any portion thereof. It was an excellent scheme, for if a flaw could be found in any man's title he could either be frightened into accepting a fresh patent "on the terms of his paying a round sum by way of composition or if he refused, the land could be... (From : AnarchyArchives.)

It is becoming increasingly clear that the age of revolutions is not over. It’s becoming equally clear that the global revolutionary movement in the twenty first century, will be one that traces its origins less to the tradition of Marxism, or even of socialism narrowly defined, but of anarchism. Everywhere from Eastern Europe to Argentina, from Seattle to Bombay, anarchist ideas and principles are generating new radical dreams and visions. Often their exponents do not call themselves “anarchists”. There are a host of other names: autonomism, anti-authoritarianism, horizontality, Zapatismo, direct democracy... Still, everywhere one finds the same core principles: decentralization, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and above all, the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one’s vision at the point of a gun. Above... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

(1952 - 2005)
It is with great sadness that we learned of the death last week of Harald Beyer-Arnesen. News of his death was circulated by Jonas Bals, who sent the following report. “Last night we were told that Harald has passed away, probably due to a heart condition. Needless to say, we are all saddened by this sudden loss of a good friend and comrade. For many years now, Harald has contributed in significant ways to a variety of anarchist activities in Oslo, and been a torn in the eye of quite a few bosses. Largely due to blacklisting in the health sector where Harald worked the last years as a waged wage slave, he had some time left over for discussions and debates, in cyberspace and elsewhere. Most of you will probably only know him from this forum, where he surely has had his rows – just like we had ours with him in flesh and blood. Most of those discussions would have been drabber, duller and less educative had he not taken part. From now o... (From : Anarkismo.net.)

(1995 - )
Sitting in a haze of exhaustion. The modern world runs on this same sleep deficit. The primary experience in this modern world is work. But work is no longer confined to the factory or the office but rather spills over everywhere. Today work is decomposed into its component parts - boredom, frenzy, effort, distraction and sloth. Even if you are unemployed, you can get much of the experience of a job just by driving through downtown, standing in a welfare line or going to the emergency ward. (From : ASAN Introduction.)

(2003 - )
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF, also known as ZabFront or simply as Zabalaza), formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is a platformist–especifista anarchist political organization in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word zabalaza means "struggle" in isiZulu and isiXhosa. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of preexisting collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organization based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals". Historically the majority of members have been people of color. Initially the ZACF had sections in both South Africa and Swaziland. The two sections were split in 2007, but the Swazi group faltered in 2008. Currently the ZACF also recruits in Zimbabwe. Members have historically faced repression in both Swaziland and South Africa. The ZACF is rooted in the Organizational Platform of the General Union of... (From : Wikipedia.org.)

(1859 - 1892)
François Claudius Koenigstein, also known as Ravachol (1859–1892), was a French anarchist. He was born on 14 October 1859, at Saint-Chamond, Loire and died by being guillotined on 11 July 1892, at Montbrison after being twice found guilty of complicity in bombings. (From : Wikipedia.org.)

[SCENE.—A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another to the left leads to Helmer’s study. Between the doors stands a piano. In the middle of the left-hand wall is a door, and beyond it a window. Near the window are a round table, arm-chairs and a small sofa. In the right-hand wall, at the farther end, another door; and on the same side, nearer the footlights, a stove, two easy chairs and a rocking-chair; between the stove and the door, a small table. Engravings on the walls; a cabinet with china and other small objects; a small book-case with well-bound books. The floors are carpeted, and a fire burns in the stove. It is winter. A bell rings in the hall; shortly afterwards the door is heard to open. Enter NORA, humming a tune and in high spirits. She is in outdoor dress and carries a number of parcels; these she lays on the table to the right. She leaves the ou...

A taste for rural scenes, in the present state of society, appears to be very often an artificial sentiment, rather inspired by poetry and romances, than a real perception of the beauties of nature. But, as it is reckoned a proof of refined taste to praise the calm pleasures which the country affords, the theme is never exhausted. Yet it may be made a question, whether this romantic kind of declamation, has much effect on the conduct of those, who leave, for a season, the crowded cities in which they were bred. I have been led to these reflections, by observing, when I have resided for any length of time in the country, how few people seem to contemplate nature with their own eyes. I have "brushed the dew away" in the morning; but, pacing over the printless grass, I have wondered that, in such delightful situations, the sun was allowed to rise in solitary majesty, whilst my eyes alone hailed its beautifying beams. The webs of the evening have sti... (From : Gutenberg.org.)

Monday Night [Paris, Dec. 30, 1793]. My best love, your letter to-night was particularly grateful to my heart, depressed by the letters I received by ——, for he brought me several, and the parcel of books directed to Mr. —— was for me. Mr. ——’s letter was long and very affectionate; but the account he gives me of his own affairs, though he obviously makes the best of them, has vexed me. A melancholy letter from my sister —— has also harrassed my mind—that from my brother would have given me sincere pleasure; but for There is a spirit of independence in his letter, that will please you; and you shall see it, when we are once more over the fire together.—I think that you would hail him as a brother, with one of your tender looks, when your heart not only gives a luster to your eye, but a dance of playfulness, that he would meet with a glow half made up of bashfuln...

How many are there of the countless millions who have entered this life, passed through its changing scenes and at last have laid down to rest, of whom it can be truly said, “Here rest they who have labored for the uplifting of the oppressed, who have devoted their energies unstintingly in the interest of the ‘common people?’” We fear there are few indeed. A life devoted to the interest of the working class; a life of self-abnegation, a life full of love, kindness, gentleness, tragedy, activity, sadness and kind-ness, are some of the characteristics which went to make up the varied life of our comrade, Louise Michel. In the elderly woman, clad in simple black garments, with gray hair curling upon rounded shoulders and kindest of blue eyes glancing from the strongly marked face, none but those who knew her personally would in the last few years have recognized Louise Michel. Listening to her quiet musical voice, with its slightly rising and... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

(A lecture presenting the negative side of the question, whose positive was argued under the heading "They who marry do well," by Dr. Henrietta P. Westbrook; both lectures delivered before the Radical Liberal League, Philadelphia, April 28, 1907.) LET ME make myself understood on two points, now, so that when discussion arises later, words may not be wasted in considering things not in question: First -How shall we measure doing well or doing ill; Second -What I mean by marriage. So much as I have been able to put together the pieces of the universe in my small head, there is no absolute right or wrong; there is only a relativity, depending on the consciously though very slowly altering condition of a social race in respect to the rest of the world. Right and wrong are social conceptions: mind, I do not say human conceptions. The names "right" and "wrong," truly, are of human invention only; but the... (From : Anarchy Archives.)