This article originally appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Volume 3 Number 2 (Summer 2023). It discussed the politics of the Chicago Martyrs and shows its links with the ideas of revolutionary anarchism expounded by Bakunin and Kropotkin. It also debunks attempts to portray them as Marxists when, in reality, they were Marxists who moved to anarchism.
(more…)Month: October 2025
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The London Congress of 1881
This article seeks to correct all too common generalisations and distortions about the London Congress of 1881. It indicates how looking solely at the resolutions – as most non-anarchists do – gives a distinctly false impression of both the Congress itself and anarchist ideas and strategy. This is an expanded version of the original which appeared in the blog of An Anarchist FAQ and then in Black Flag Anarchist Review (Spring 2023). This expanded version appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 87 (Summer 2023).
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1914: World War or Class War
An article attempting to explain Kropotkin’s decision to support the Allies in 1914. It shows how isolated he was within the anarchist movement as a result (the vast majority of anarchists taking a clear Internationalist position, unlike the Marxist movement). It also discusses how anarchists should approach wars between States. It first appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 4 No. 3 (Autumn 2024)
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The State and Revolution: Theory and Practice
This is almost my chapter in the anthology Bloodstained: One Hundred Years of Leninist Counterrrevolution (Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press, 2017). Some revisions were made during the editing process which are not included here. In addition, references to the 1913 French edition of Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy have been replaced with those from the 2018 English-language translation. However, the bulk of the text is the same, as is the message and its call to learn from history rather than repeat it. I would, of course, urge you to buy the book.
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The Bureaucracy in Exile: Trotsky’s limited Anti-Stalinism
An article exploring Trotsky’s (limited) opposition to Stalinism and showing that it reflected Bolshevik orthodoxy in terms of advocating the dictatorship of the party and one-man management. Needless to say, almost all Trotskyist accounts fail to mention this. It first appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 3 No. 3 (Autumn 2023)
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