Revolt Library : Revolutionary Materials from the Past

CARNETS, VOLUME 1 Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet No. 1, 17): 27. Serial law. Everything in nature is simple and complex. What we call a simple idea or element is nothing but the term with which we ended our analysis. Each day I experience the truth of that observation, […] Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet 2, 38): 133. In order to organize society, to reestablish order, we must not wish to escape antinomic principles; we must seek one that coordinates with them. This principle exists, simpler and more common than anything the laws have ever prescribed: return it to its rank. Let us not seek a way out of the contradictions that’s press us; there is no way out. Let us manage ourselves [or come to an agreement] with them and by them. When the constitutive oscillation of value becomes a rapid and insensible vibration, and when its amplitude has been... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

The newspapers have announced the news of the signing of a treaty between the Papacy and the Soviets. However distressing this might be, it didn’t surprise me too much. I knew that the Church was making great efforts to penetrate Russia and that since the fall of czarism it considered the country as a vast prey it must grab... So this is what revolutions are good for! In Russia, like in Germany and as in the past in France, they are always used by the church, thanks to its unlimited powers of adaptation and penetration. Why did the Soviets do this? Are they so overwhelmed that they are reduced to accepting all concessions, all humiliations? Do they share the error, so widespread among Marxists, that the religious question is of no interest? A dangerous error... Here at “L’Idee Libre” we have always supported with sympathy the difficult work of the Soviets. But now, if the Bolshevik-papist treaty is r... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Striking Asturian miners have adopted aggressive direct action tactics in defense of their livelihoods and communities. Road blocks, railway blocks, barricades, sabotage, slingshots and homemade rocket launchers (!) are being used in a fierce struggle to protect the mining industry from death-by-austerity. Take note, Occupiers! As you’re discussing the Tobin tax and huddling around a ciggy-end for warmth. Take note, Insurrectionists! As you play around with signal boxes in Bristol, trying to pop off nuclear energy executives in Genoa. You build with one hand but break with the other. Disrupting the quotidian functioning of capitalism, yes. Taking, occupying, yes. But your fantasies, your methods – revolution via late trains – are based on a pompous romanticism, a grossly inflated sense of the efficacy, relevance and worth of your actions mixed with a strange nostalgia for an era of Red Brigades, Angry Brigades and RAFs. Your combativeness is admirable. As... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Michel Bakunin was born in May, 1814, at Pryamuchina, situated between Moscow and Petrograd, two years after his friend, Alexander Herzen, first saw the light by the fires of Moscow. The future apostle of Nihilism was the son of a wealthy landed proprietor, who boasted a line of aristocratic ancestors. Economic conditions had decided that his natural destiny was the army. Consequently, at the age of fourteen, he entered the School of Artillery at St. Petersburg. Here he found, among a large minority of the students at least, an underground current of Liberalism which was only outwardly loyal and obedient to the behests of the Governmental despotism. Among themselves, these rebel students cherished the memories of the Decembrists of 1825, and handed round the poems-that some of the martyred rebels had written-as sacred literature, to be preserved and passed on from generation to generation. Anecdotage of the martyrs themselves-most of whom had belonged to the First Cadet Cor... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Source: The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier. Selected Texts on Work, Love, and Passionate Attraction. Translated, Edited and with an Introduction by Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu. Published by Jonathan Cape, 1972; First Published: La Phalange 1845-49. Transcribed: by Andy Blunden. Every meal has a character of its own, a tone which is the same in all three classes. I will limit myself to describing the character of the anthem or first meal which is served in the very early morning before anyone has left the palace. The anthem is not a very orderly meal; it is marked by a pleasing confusion. Since people get up at different times, it is divided into three stages: there is the first anthem for a few groups who go out to work very early; then there is the big central anthem for the majority of the groups, which set off an hour later; finally there is the post-anthem for late-risers... . The... (From : Marxists.org.)

Henry Mayers Hyndman (/ˈhaɪndmən/; 7 March 1842 – 20 November 1921) was a British writer and politician. Originally a conservative, he was converted to socialism by Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto and launched Britain's first left-wing political party, the Democratic Federation, later known as the Social Democratic Federation, in 1881. Although this body attracted radicals such as William Morris and George Lansbury, Hyndman was generally disliked as an authoritarian who could not unite his party. Nonetheless, Hyndman was the first author to popularize Marx's works in English. (From : Wikipedia.org.)

Anarchist Poet and Art Historian : He was the chief interpreter of modern art movements in Great Britain for much of the 20th century and his influence reached into many fields. He is best described as a philosophic anarchist. (From : William Leedem Bio.)
"The laws of Nature are physical laws: they can be grouped under such general terms as rhythm, proportion, balance, precision, economy, etc." - Sir Herbert Edward Read From Francis Berry, "Herbert Read," Writers and their Work, No. 45, London: Longmans, Green & Co. for The British Council and the National Book League, 1953, p. 10: "Herbert Read was born near Kirby-Moorside, Yorkshire, in 1893. He was the son of a farmer. He was educated at Crossley's School, Halifax, and the University of Leeds. For three years he fought in the First World War as an Infantry Officer, won the Military Cross in 1917, and membership of the Distinguished Service Order in 1918. After the war he entered the Civil Service, first in the employ of the Treasury, and then that of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was as an Assistant Keeper at the Museum that he acquired his professional knowledge of ceramics and stained glass. He left the servic... (From : Francis Berry, "Herbert Read," Writers and their W....)

Radical Eco-Revolutionary and Author on Behalf of the Earth
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by environmental and eco-terrorist groups, and the nonfiction work Desert Solitaire. Abbey met his fifth and final wife, Clarke Cartwright, in 1978,  and married her in 1982. Together they had two children, Rebecca Claire Abbey and Benjamin C. Abbey. In 1984, Abbey went back to the University of Arizona to teach courses in creative writing and hospitality management. During this time, he continued working on his book Fool's Progress. In July 1987, Abbey went to the Earth First! Rendezvous at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. While there, he was involved in a heated debate with an anarchist communist group known as Alien Nation, over his stated view that America should... (From : Wikipedia.org.)

Strangers In A Tangled Wilderness is a publisher of anarchist culture. Founded in autumn 2003, we produce texts, posters, zines, and books. Since the beginning, we’ve been dedicated to supporting gift economics and free culture, and we make as much of our work freely available as possible. For several years we ran our own mail-order, primarily when were the publishers of SteamPunk Magazine, but our friends at Combustion Books have since taken over publishing the magazine as well as running our mail-order. Our books may be purchased through them. (From : TangledWilderness.org.)

Father of Social Ecology and Anarcho-Communalism : Growing up in the era of traditional proletarian socialism, with its working-class insurrections and struggles against classical fascism, as an adult he helped start the ecology movement, embraced the feminist movement as antihierarchical, and developed his own democratic, communalist politics. (From : Anarchy Archives.)
A Short Biography of Murray Bookchin, by Janet Biehl Murray Bookchin was born in New York City on January 14, 1921, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents who had been active in the Russian revolutionary movement. In 1930 he entered the Communist youth movement, joining first the Young Pioneers and then the Young Communist League, serving as education director for his branch. But in 1935 he became disillusioned by Stalin’s shift of international Communism to the less militant “Popular Front” party line. Deeply involved in organizing activities around the Spanish Civil War (he was too young to participate directly), he remained with the Communists until the Stalin-Hitler pact of September 1939, when he was expelled for "Trotskyist-anarchist deviations." He proceeded to aligned himself with the American Trotskyists. After graduating from high school, he found work as a foundryman in northern New Jersey, thereby entering the workers' movement. At the foun... (From : A Short Biography of Murray Bookchin, by Janet Bie....)

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 ris... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

With Strictures On Political And Moral SubjectsAfter considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result? a profound conviction, that the neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore; and that women in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, stre...

If our social arrangements were so adjusted that each person could follow that calling in life which they are by nature adapted for, what a great gainer society as a whole would be. These few who are so fortunate as to be able to follow the calling of their heart’s desire make a success of life. Florence Nightingale was one of the fortunate few, who could engage in that occupation for which she was best adapted. Florence Nightingale was a born nurse. In her was found that rare combination of heart, brain and sympathy which makes the ideal nurse. It is when one is laid low by the ravages of disease that they can appreciate to its utmost depth the value of human kindness. Many charming stories are told of Florence’s sympathetic nature even in her childhood: how she sought out wounded animals, and tenderly nursed them, and how she would scientifically bandage her dolls and would work earnestly at this occupation for hours at a time. Florence Night... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

One fine morning in spring, some time after Mary and Caroline were settled in their new abode, Mrs. Mason proposed a walk before breakfast, a custom she wished to teach imperceptibly, by rendering it amusing. The sun had scarcely dispelled the dew that hung on every blade of grass, and filled the half-shut flowers; every prospect smiled, and the freshness of the air conveyed the most pleasing sensations to Mrs. Mason’s mind; but the children were regardless of the surrounding beauties, and ran eagerly after some insects to destroy them. Mrs. Mason silently observed their cruel sports, without appearing to do it; but stepping suddenly out of the foot-path into the long grass, her buckle was caught in it, and striving to disentangle herself, she wet her feet; which the children knew she wished to avoid, as she had been lately sick. This circumstance roused their attention; and they forgot their amusement to inquire why she had left the path; and Mary could...

Under the above head will be continued for a few weeks brief sketches of the lives of women who have contributed their share in building the world’s history. While the editor will contribute a number of these sketches we also invite others, especially women, to send in brief sketches of famous women, if any such occur to their minds. Let these sketches be well stated, short and to the point. We hope if any are sent in that they will be far superior to those which we write ourselves. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)