Revolt Library : The Written Word to Help You Revolt!Welcome to RevoltLib! Here you will find an archive of materials from the past that once helped people to abolish the state, fight capitalism, end sexism, demolish imperialism, and eliminate all forms of social domination. Information is power -- arm yourself! This archive contains 15,612 texts, with 64,666,647 words or 404,279,279 characters. |
A collection of historic materials detailing Anarchism, Libertarianism, and Anti-Authoritarianism. By understanding more about the past, we can better apply the principles we discover today.
"...government only interferes to exploit the masses, or defend the privileged, or, lastly, to sanction, most unnecessarily, all that has been done without its aid, often in spite of and opposition to it." -- Errico Malatesta
I. From the rapidly growing spirit of unrest in the Labor Movement at home and abroad, and the bitter plaints to be heard in all countries at the historic failure of Parliamentary methods, it has been evident for some time past that the old principle of Trade Unionism would have to be consigned to the vortex of oblivion, together with the parliamentarism, constituting its political reflex, and the methods of alleged progressive procedure associated there- with, which have been relied on by various people to secure reforms as innumerable as the abuses begotten of the capitalist system. On the one hand, Irishmen, since the days of Parnell, have relied on the Home Rule proclivities of Members of the Westminster Playhouse for the accomplishment of Ireland's emancipation despite the fact that to talk of the independence of Ireland in the House of Commons would be considered treason, and that no Member of the Nationalist Party has ever had the courage to so far break the terms o... (From : Marxists.org.)
Crime as an Anarchist Source of Social Order
Introduction We’ve all heard the phrase “law and order” — as if they go together. The slogan assumes that law promotes order, and that crime subverts order. “Anarchists believe the phrase law and order is one of the great deceptions of our age.” I’m going to discuss just one of the reasons why this slogan is a lie. One reason is that law itself may create or perpetuate disorder. This is a familiar anarchist theme which I will not go into here. Another reason, which is not familiar, is that often crime promotes order. Crime can be a source of order — especially where the law isn’t — and this is surprisingly common. If crime is ever a source of social order, it can only be an anarchist source of social order. This will be my thesis here. Until recently, social scientists only noticed one way that crime promotes order. As Émile Durkheim put it, “Crime bri... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
21 October 1874, Lugano I received your letter. As for friendship, R-S, let’s not talk about it. After all you've cooked up against me (I now know about this to the tiniest detail) to call ourselves friends would be a horrific lie on both of our parts. You did all you could to kill me physically, morally, and socially by pretending up to the bitter end to be my friend, and if you didn’t succeed in doing so it wasn’t for lack of trying. The perspicacious and intelligent Cafiero was nothing but an instrument in your hands, and you were the one who used him. I'd like to believe that you fooled yourself by taking the inspiration of your impatient and immoderate ambition for devotion to the cause. It’s undeniable, and you must admit this at least, that you acted towards me like the worst of my enemies. And despite this I continue to believe in your devotion to the Russian cause, in believing you capable of serving it, and because of this... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
To the people of Mexico: To the peoples of the world: To the National Indigenous Congress—Indigenous Governing Council: To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad: To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion: Sisters, brothers, hermanoas: Compañeros, compañeras, compañeroas: We write to inform you that: Given the serious and scientifically proven risk to human life presented by COVID-19 or “Coronavirus”; Given the frivolous irresponsibility and lack of seriousness shown by the bad governments and the political class in its entirety who are using this serious humanitarian problem to attack each other instead of taking the necessary measures to confront a life-threatening virus which endangers all regardless of nationality, gender, race, language, religion, political affiliation, social class, or history;... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
The Activity of the International Secretariat of Communist Women (15 November 1921) From International Press Correspondence, Vol. I No. 8, 15 November 1921, p. 67. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive . You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. The task of the International Secretariat of Communist Women consists of awakening the working woman from her age-long passivity, of giving her confidence in herself, of drawing her into the revolutionary movement and of obtaining her entrance into the Communist International. The International Secretariat is at present composed of the following comrades: Klara Zetkin, Hertha Sturm (Germa... (From : Marxists.org.)
About the people and individuals of the past who have made up revolutions, whether they were active revolutionaries or brilliant theoreticians. If we know how they lived in the past, we might know what's possible to do today.
"They were madmen; but they had in them that little flame which never dies." -- Auguste Renoire
Anarchism: A Theoretical Analysis is a 1981 book about anarchism as a political theory written by Alan Ritter. (From : Wikipedia.org.)
(1874 - 1961) ~ American, Single-Tax, Tuckerite Anarchist
Ferd Schulder (1874-1961), a single-tax anarchist, was Tucker's chief associate in Cleveland, where he lived with his companion Adeline Champney. (From : Panarchy.org.)
‘Insurrection’ is an anarchist magazine of the 1980’s which was edited by Jean Weir of Elephant Editions, UK. Among agitational news reports of rebellion and repression, the publication carried some of the first English language translations of the work of Italian anarchist insurrectionist, Alfredo M. Bonanno, and remains an example of a high-quality revolutionary anarchist publication which has a confrontational analysis coupled with lasting insight. (From : nostate.net.)
(1855 - 1898) ~ Socialist, Activist, Rebel, Daughter of Karl Marx
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a literary translator. In March 1898, after discovering that Edward Aveling, her partner and a prominent British Marxist, had secretly married a young actress in June of the previous year, she poisoned herself at the age of 43. (From : Wikipedia.org.)
(2008 - )
Aotearoa Workers’ Solidarity Movement (AWSM) is a small Anarchist educational propaganda group. We support the Platformist variant of this form of politics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platformism ). Since beginning in 2008 we have promoted the creation of non-hierarchical grassroots democracy and classless, stateless societies here and internationally. We exist so our ideas can be more widely known, understood and adopted by working people. We see this theoretical knowledge and its application as essential in the struggle to replace the dominant economic system of capitalism. Therefore we have the ultimate aim of becoming a direct action organization that is physically engaged in daily struggles. We encourage sympathizers to join us and help contribute to this process. (From : awsm.nz.)
A collection of historic materials detailing Feminism, Women's Lib, and the Women's Movement. By understanding more about the past, we can better apply the principles we discover today.
"May a new spirit awaken and infuse this enslaved girlhood to dare and feel an age-long resentment and may it give her courage to speak and act." -- Margaret Sanger
No one at all capable of an intense conscious inner life need ever hope to escape mental anguish and suffering. Sorrow and often despair over the so-called eternal fitness of things are the most persistent companions of our life. But they do not come upon us from the outside, through the evil deeds of particularly evil people. They are conditioned in our very being; indeed, they are interwoven through a thousand tender and coarse threads with our existence. It is absolutely necessary that we realize this fact, because people who never get away from the notion that their misfortune is due to the wickedness of their fellows never can outgrow the petty hatred and malice which constantly blames, condemns, and hounds others for something that is inevitable as part of themselves. Such people will not rise to the lofty heights of the true humanitarian to whom good and evil, moral and immoral, are but limited terms for the inner play of human emotions upon the human sea o... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
Her Evolutionary Development
In the earlier times of the world’s history when man was but little higher in the intellectual scale than the beast which he slew for food, and whose skins he used for raiment, muscular strength and physical endurance were the standards of excellence and the stamp of superiority which prevailed. As nature had not endowed woman with these requisites to the same extent she had man, he looked upon her as a being inferior to himself. Possibly this was the beginning of man’s domination and woman’s subjugation. But as man ascended in the social scale of development, he began to acquire property, which he wished to transmit along with his name to his offspring—then woman became his household drudge. She was regarded as a sort of necessary evil; as something to be used and abused; to be bought and sold—as a thing fit only to cater to his pleasures and his passions—this was woman’s lowly position. For countless centuries, the drudg... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Night in a prison cell! A chair, a bed, a small washstand, four blank walls, ghastly in the dim light from the corridor without, a narrow window, barred and sunken in the stone, a grated door! Beyond its hideous iron latticework, within the ghastly walls, -a man! An old man, gray-haired and wrinkled, lame and suffering. There he sits, in his great loneliness, shut in front all the earth. There he walks, to and fro, within his measured space, apart from all he loves! 'There, for every night in five long years to come, he will walk alone, while the white age-flakes drop upon his head, while the last years of the winter of life gather and pass, and his body draws near the ashes. Every night, for five long years to come, he will sit alone, this chattel slave, whose hard toll is taken by the State, -and without recompense save that the Southern planter gave his Negroes, -every night he will sit there so within those four white walls. Every night, for five long years to... (From : Anarchy Archives.)
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.)
Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks, South End Press, 2000
bell hooks is one of the most prominent and well respected feminist academics and authors in the United States. She is often the subject of study by college students and academics, as well as a frequent guest on talk shows and other mass media. Her work in feminist theory has been groundbreaking, yet it is often limited to academic, literary, and other elite circles. Feminism Is For Everybody is hooks’ attempt to create a quick, simple primer on feminist history, theory, and politics to the masses who receive a misinformed, misunderstood, and maligned version of feminist movement. To that end, she has written an easy to read, concise book which documents her experiences as a feminist activist and academic. As an anarchist with some exposure to hooks’ writings, I have a great deal of respect for her. This was once again reinforced by the content of Feminism Is For Everybody. Whether hooks identifies herself as an anarchist or not, much of what I found in the boo... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)