From: Freiheit, July 25, 1885
Action as Propaganda
by Johann Most
We have said a hundred times or more that when modern revolutionaries carry out actions, what is important is not solely these actions themselves but also the propagandistic effect they are able to achieve. Hence, we preach not only action in and for itself, but also action as propaganda.
It is a phenomenally simple matter, yet over and over again we meet people, even people close to the center of our party, who either do not, or do not wish, to understand. We have recently had a clear enough illustration of this over the Lieske affair...
So our question is this: what is the purpose of the anarchists' threats -- an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth --... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
From the Encyclopedia Britannica
"Anarchism", from The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910.
Peter Kropotkin
ANARCHISM (from the Gr. ἄν, and αρχος, contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government - harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being. In a society developed on these lines, the voluntary associations which already now begin to cover all ... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
ARE THERE NEW FIELDS FOR ANARCHIST ACTIVITY?
By Max Nettlau
Published in Mother Earth on Nov. 5, 1907 in London by Int. Instituut Soc. Geschlodenis Amsterdam
I HAVE often wondered why, with millions of people taking part in progressive and labor movements of all kinds, comparatively few accept Anarchism fully as we do. What is better known than the exploitation of labor by capital, the oppression of the individual by the State, to the student the least interested in social matters and to the practical observer of everyday life? Again, if Anarchist propaganda has not yet touched every remote place in all countries, there are numerous localities where it has been carried on for a generation and more, and even there it ... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Errico Malatesta
The Biography of an Anarchist
A Condensed Sketch of Malatesta from the book written by
by Max Nettlau
Published by the Jewish Anarchist Federation New York City. 1924
Introduction
The short sketch of Malatesta's life is based on the exhaustive study of Max Nettlau, published in Italian translation by "Il Martello" in New York under the title Vita e Pensieri di Errico Malatesta, and in German translation issued at Berlin by the publishers of the "Syndicalist." Max Nettlau, the profound scholar of the Anarchist movement, biographer of Michael Bakunin and author of Bibliographie de l'Anarchie, lives in Vienna, and like so many intellectuals in Europe, in distressing economic conditi... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
The text is from my copy of Peter Kropotkin, Ethics: Origins and Development, London: George E Harrap Co, Ltd. Ethics: Origin and Development by Peter Kropotkin Introduction by the Russian Editor "ETHICS" is the swan song of the great humanitarian scientist and revolutionist-anarchist, and constitutes, as it were, the crowning work and the résumé of all the scientific, philosophical, and sociological views of Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin, at which he arrived in the course of his long and unusually rich life. Unfortunately, death came before he could complete his work, and, according to the will and desire of Peter Alekseyevich, the responsible task of preparing "Ethics" for the press fell upon me. In issuing the first volume of "Ethics", I feel the necessity of saying a few words to acquaint the reader with the history of this work. In his "Ethics" Kropotkin wished to give answers to the two fundamental pr...
Mr. Mencken gives the
impression of an able mind so harried and irritated by the philistinism of
American life that it has not been able to attain its full power. These more
carefully worked-over critical essays are, on the whole, less interesting and
provocative than the irresponsible comment he gives us in his magazine. How is
it that so robust a hater of uplift and puritanism becomes so fanatical a
crusader himself? One is forced to call Mr. Mencken a moralist, for with him
appraisement has constantly to stop while he tilts against philistine critics
and outrageous puritans. In order to show how good a writer is, he must first
show how deplorably fatuous, malicious or ignorant are all those who dislike
him. Such a proof is und... (From : fair-use.org.)
The text is from my copy of Emma Goldman's Anarchism and Other Essays. Second Revised Edition. New York & London: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1911. pp. 173-182.THE HYPOCRISY 0F PURITANISM
SPEAKING of Puritanism in relation to American art, Mr. Gutzon Borglum said: "Puritanism has made us self-centered and hypocritical for so long, that sincerity and reverence for what is natural in our impulses have been fairly bred out of us, with the result that there can be neither truth nor individualality in our art."
Mr. Borglum might have added that Puritanism has made life itself impossible. More than art, more than estheticism, life represents beauty in a thousand v... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
         "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you        free. "—John viii. 32.          "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to        kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to        destroy both soul and body in hell."—MATT. x. 28.          "Ye have been bought with a price; be not ye the servants        of men."—I COR. vii. 23. "THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU." CHAPTER I. THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE TO EVIL BY FORCE HAS BEEN PROFESSED BY A MINORITY OF MEN FROM THE VERY FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. Of the Book "What I Believe"—The Correspondence Evoked by it—Letters from Quakers—Garrison's Declaration—Adin Ballou, his Works, his Catechism—Helchitsky's "Net of Faith"—The Attitude of the World to Works Elucidating Christ's Teaching—Dymond's Book "On War"â€...
This letter from Kropotkin to a Swedish professor named Gustav Steffen was published in "Freedom" in the fall of 1914.
A LETTER TO STEFFEN
Dear Steffen,
You ask my opinion about the war. I have expressed it on several occasions in France, and the present events, unfortunately, only reinforced it.
I consider that the duty of everyone who cherishes the idea of human progress altogether, and especially those that were inscribed by the European proletarians on the banner of the International Workingmen's Association, is to do everything in one's power, according to one's capacities, to crush down the invasion of the Germans into Western Europe.
The cause of this war was not Russia's attitude toward the Austrian ultimat... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Living My Life by Emma Goldman Volume One New York: Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1931. Chapter 19 THE FIRST STOP ON MY TOUR WAS IN BARRE, VERMONT. THE ACTIVE group there consisted of Italians employed mostly in the stone-quarries which furnished the principal industry of the city. Very little time was left me for introspection into my personal life; there were numerous meetings, debates, private gatherings, and discussions. I found generous hospitality with my host, Palavicini, a comrade who had worked together with me in the textile strike in Summit. He was a cultivated man, well-informed not only on the international labor movement but also on the new tendencies in Italian art and letters. At the same time I met also Luigi Galleani, the intellectual leader of the Italian activities in the New England States. Verm...