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.)
Address of the Free Constitutionalists to the People of the United States
Lysander Spooner
(Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860).
Table of Contents
Note to Second Edition.
Address.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
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XVIII.
XIX.
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XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
A Few friends of freedom, who believe the Constitution of the United States to be a sufficient warrant for giving liberty to all the (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Address to the Jury in U.S. v. Emma Goldman and Alexander BerkmanEmma Goldman, 1917
Gentlemen of the Jury:
As in the case of my codefendant, Alexander Berkman, this is also the first time in my life I have ever addressed a jury. I once had occasion to speak to three judges.
On the day after our arrest it was given out by the U.S. Marshal and the District Attorney's office that the "big fish" of the No Conscription activities had been caught, and that there would be no more trouble-makers and disturbers to interfere with the highly democratic effort of the Government to conscript its young manhood for the European slaughter. What a pity that the faithful servants of the Government, personified in the U.S. Marshal and the District Attor... (From : WikiSource.)
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.)
Anarchism: Arguments for and against
by Albert Meltzer
Table of Contents
IntroductionInalienable Tenets of AnarchismThe Class StruggleOrganization and AnarchismThe Role of an Anarchist in an Authoritarian SocietyBringing About the New SocietyThe Marxist Criticism of AnarchismThe Social-Democratic Critique of AnarchismThe Liberal-Democratic Objection to AnarchismThe Fascist Objection to AnarchismThe Average Person's Objection to Anarchism
Introduction
The Historical Background to Anarchism
It is not without interest that what might be called the anarchist
approach goes back into antiquity; nor that there is an ana (From : Hack.org.)
Preface Preface There has recently been a renewal of interest in anarchism. Books, pamphlets, and anthologies are being devoted to it. It is doubtful whether this literary effort is really very effective. It is difficult to trace the outlines of anarchism. Its master thinkers rarely condensed their ideas into systematic works. If, on occasion, they tried to do so, it was only in thin pamphlets designed for propaganda and popularization in which only fragments of their ideas can be observed. Moreover, there are several kinds of anarchism and many variations within the thought of each of the great libertarians. Rejection of authority and stress on the priority of individual judgment make it natural for libertarians to "profess the faith of anti dogmatism." "Let us not become the leaders of a new religion," Proudhon wrote to Marx, "even were it to be the religion of logic and reason." It follows that the views of the libertarians are more varied, more...
"Anarchism: its philosophy and ideal." San Francisco: Free Society, 1898.
ANARCHISM:Its Philosophy and ldeal.
BY
PETER KROPOTKIN.
ANARCHY.
______
(Translated from the German by Harry Lyman Koopman.)
______
Ever reviled, accursed,-n'er understood,
Thou art the grisly terror of our age.
"Wreck of all order," cry the multitude,
"Art thou, and war and murder's endless rage."
O, let them cry. To them that ne'er have striven,
The truth that lies behind a word to find,
To them the word's right meaning was not given.
They shall continue blind among the blind.
But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure,
That sayest all which I for goal have taken.
I give thee to the future! -Thine secure
When each at... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Parsons, Albert Richard. Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis as defined by some of its apostles. Chicago, Mrs. A. R. Parsons [c1887]. Part I. CHAPTER II. CAPITALISM--ITS DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. --CONTINUED. With the termination of the war of 1861 began the second epoch of capitalism in the United States. The ex-chattel slave was enfranchised,--made a political sovereign. He was now a "freeman" without an inch of soil, a cent of money, a stitch of clothes or a morsel of food. He was free to compete with his fellow wage-worker for an opportunity to serve capital. The conditions of his freedom consisted in the right to work on the terms dictated by his employer, or--starve. There no longer existed any sectional conflicts or other conflicts of a disturbing political nature. All men were now "free and equal before the law." A period of unprecedented activity in capitalistic circles...
Anarchism: A Matter of Words
(Where the words "Anarchism" and "Libertarian" come from)
From Chapter 1, part 1 of the book "Anarchism", by Daniel Guerin
The word anarchy is as old as the world. It is derived from to ancient
Greek words, "an", "arkhe^", and means something like the absence of
authority or government. However, for millennia the presumption has been
accepted that man cannot dispense with one or the other, and anarchy has
been understood in a pejorative sense, as a synonym for disorder, chaos,
and disorganization.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was famous for his quips (such as "property is
theft") and took to himself the word anarchy. As if his purpose were to
shock as much as possible, in 1840 he engaged in ... (From : University of Utah.)
Anarchism versus Socialism By WM. C. Owen. London: Freedom Press, 1922.
Anarchism versus Socialism
---
A FOREWORD
"Anarchy versus Socialism," which FREEDOM now reissues, after it has run through its columns (1921-22), was published first some eighteen years ago. Emma Goldman was then one of the most popular lecturers in the United States, and, being questioned constantly as to the difference between the Anarchist and Socialist philosophies, felt the need of a treatise that would explain that difference. At her suggestion I undertook the task.
The title showed my conviction that between these two philosophies of life no honest alliance is possible. I considered then that both s... (From : Anarchy Archives.)