The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This year’s third issue has, more by accident than by design, a decidedly anti-parliamentarian aspect to it. We start with four notable radical women whose writings should be of interest to libertarians today even if they may not be as well-known as they should be.
Lousia Sarah Bevington (1845-1895) was an English anarchist, essayist and poet. She wrote for the Commonweal and Freedom, although she seemed to be most associated with the London Liberty, edited by the Scottish anarchist and tailor James Tochatti, for which she wrote numerous articles and poems. Some of these were re-issued as pamphlets, including her “Why I Am an Expropriationist” along with William Morris’s “Why I Am a Communist”. She also wrote a Manifesto for the short-lived Anarchist Communist Alliance. Kropotkin was amongst those who attended her funeral, indicating her importance to the movement. As such, it is good to introduce her to modern radicals.
We then discuss Scottish anarchist Ethel MacDonald (1909-1960), a stalwart of the Anti-Parliamentarian Communist movement before and after the Second World War. After the outbreak of the Spanish Revolution, she went to Barcelona to report on it but was soon making radio broadcasts on behalf of the CNT-FAI. With the rising Communist-led counter-revolution, she helped revolutionaries to escape from Spain. Here we reproduce many of her reports and broadcasts from Barcelona as well as two articles.
Next is Ethel Mannin (1900-1984), a noted writer but also a revolutionary. Initially a Trotskyist, she became a libertarian after working with the anarchists publishing Spain and the World and Emma Goldman during the Spanish Revolution.
Then we discuss Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) and her journey from suffragette to anti-Parliamentarian Communist as well as her links to anarchism. We show that her experiences in the struggle lead her to anarchist conclusions and that she re-evaluated her initial support for Bolshevism to become an anti-Bolshevik communist whose critique echoed the anarchist analysis. While best remembered of the four, her communist period is often glossed over.
This is followed by an overview of the post-First War World Anti-Parliamentarian movement (which Pankhurst and MacDonald were connected to) and a recent article by an Australian anarchist on the need for socialists to recognise the importance of anti-parliamentarianism.
We end with two reviews and our usual round-up of movement news, Parish Notices.
Original translations which appear in Black Flag: Anarchist Review eventually appear on-line here:
https://anarchistfaq.org/translations/index.html
Next year we aim to continue to cover a range of people and subjects. These will hopefully include John Most, Alexander Berkman, Guy Aldred, the Haymarket events, the British General Strike, Mother Earth, amongst others.
However, this work needs help otherwise at some stage it will end. Contributions from libertarian socialists are welcome on these and other subjects! We are a small collective and always need help in writing, translating and gathering material, so please get in touch if you want to see Black Flag Anarchist Review continue.
This issue’s editorial and contents are:
Editorial
Welcome to the third issue of Black Flag in 2025!
We start with Lousia Sarah Bevington (1845-1895). A well-known poet and anarchist, if she is remembered today it is usually for the former. However, she was an active anarchist and a regular contributor to our press, with her writings often reprinted as pamphlets. Hopefully our selection shows why she should be better remembered in the movement.
We have not reproduced three pamphlets – Common-Sense Country (London: “Liberty” Press, 1895), Chiefly a Dialogue: Concerning Some Difficulties of a Dunce (London: Freedom Press, 1895) – itself an expansion of “A Dialogue” (Freedom: A journal of anarchist communism, June 1895) and Liberty Lyrics (London: “Liberty” Press, 1895), although we do include one poem from it.
Next is Scottish Anarchist Ethel MacDonald (1909-1960). We include a selection of her radio speeches for the CNT-FAI during the Spanish Revolution (seven of which were published in her local paper, Bellshill Speaker in 1937) plus other reports from Barcelona as well as two articles.
It is unfortunate that even the author of a sympathetic account of MacDonald’s life seems to be so unclear about her politics to proclaim them as being “somewhere between anarchism and Trotskyism”. (Chris Dolan, An Anarchist’s Story: The Life of Ethel MacDonald [Birlinn 2009], 89). A case could be made, perhaps, that they were somewhere between anarchism and the (Marxist) council communist tradition but it would be accurate to say that she was a revolutionary class struggle anarchist, an anarchist-communist.
We move onto Ethel Mannin (1900-1984), a noted author who moved from Leninism to anarchism and pacificism. We start with her Women and Revolution, which while dedicated to Emma Goldman expressed Trotskyist politics. She was active in campaigning for the Spanish Revolution and drew closer to anarchism and we include articles written for the anarchist press. Then extracts from her book Bread and Roses, a summation of utopian visions, are given.
Then comes Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960), the British suffragette and socialist, one of the earliest supporters of the Bolsheviks in Russia, involved in the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain before being expelled and moving to council communism. While often claimed for Marxism – but also dismissed by certain Marxists for not being one! – her politics always had a libertarian aspect and, indeed, her newspaper The Workers’ Dreadnought increasingly included anarchist articles. Given her progression from suffragette to libertarian communist as a result of her involvement in the class struggle, anarchists should be better acquainted with her ideas and their evolution.
This is followed by Bob Jones account of the anti-parliamentarian communist movement after the First World War and a contemporary article by an Australian anarchist arguing for a consistent anti-Parliamentarian strategy by socialists, repeating arguments long proven by history. It is clear from recent events, not least in America, that a strategy of just voting for the “lesser evil” leaves us weak when the “greater evil” gains office (or when the “lesser evil” inevitably pursues terrible policies). We simply cannot rely on whoever wins elections not abusing their power, rather we need to build a social movement which can effectively resist power by means of solidarity and direct action.
We end with reviews and our usual news of the movement, Parish Notes.
If you want to contribute rather than moan at those who do, whether its writing new material or letting us know of on-line articles, reviews or translations, then contact us:
blackflagmag@yahoo.co.uk
Contents
Death of L. S. Bevington, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, December 1895
- “Leaden Instincts v. Golden Conduct”, Freedom: A journal of anarchist communism, September 1892
- “Wanted: Order”, The Commonweal, May 1893
- “Mr. Auberon Herbert’s ‘Voluntary State’”, Freedom: A journal of anarchist communism, July to December 1893
- “Why I Am an Expropriationist”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, May 1894
- “The Last Gasp of Propertyism”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, September 1894
- “‘The Prejudice Against Property’”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, February 1895
- Anarchist Communist Alliance, An Anarchist Manifesto, 1st May 1895
- “Property is Government”, Freedom: A journal of anarchist communism, May 1895
- “The Whereabouts of Property Ethics”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, June 1895
- “Anarchism & Potatoes”, Freedom: A journal of anarchist communism, July 1895
- “The True Direction of Moral Progress”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, April 1896
- “Anarchism and Violence”, Liberty: A journal of anarchist communism, November 1896
Keith Millar, Ethel: An Anarchist Engima?
- “Barcelona Bombed! An Appeal to the Workers of Britain”, Regeneracion! 28 February 1937 (The Word, August 1961)
- “The Volunteer Ban”, Regeneracion! Organ of the United Socialist Movement, 7 March 1937
- “The Situation In Spain”, News From Spain, May Day, 1937 (The Word, August 1962)
- Save Spain. Act! Radio Speeches By Ethel MacDonald, Glasgow, 1st May 1937
- From ETHEL MACDONALD, Barcelona Bulletin, 15 May 1937 (The Word, September 1962)
- “The Anti-Worker Repression in Republican Spain”, L’Espagne Nouvelle, 17 September 1937
- “Revolutionary syndicalism in Britain”, One Big Union Monthly (IWW), March 1938
Ethel Mannin (1900-1984)
- Women and the Revolution (1938)
- Chapter I – Women and the French Revolution
- Chapter XII – Women and the Spanish Revolution
- “The Next War and The Workers”, Spain and the World, May 1938
- “War and Democracy”, Spain and the World, 30 September 1938
- “Capitalist Peace”, Spain and the World, 28 October 1938
- “War and Woolly Women”, War Commentary, January 1940
- “This Reconstruction Business”, War Commentary, mid-July 1942
- Bread and Roses: An Utopian Survey and Blue-print (1944)
- I: Utopia – The Everlasting Dream
- VII: Consumption and Exchange in Utopia
- XIII: Utopia – The Will to the Dream
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960)
- “Our Equal Birthright”, The Woman’s Dreadnought, 14 August 1915
- “The New Order”, The Woman’s Dreadnought, 8 January 1916
- “Parliament Doomed”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 2 November 1918
- “The Soviets of the Street. An Appeal to Working Women”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 27 March 1920.
- “Infantile Sickness of the ‘Left’”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 21 August 1920
- “Our Point of View”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 24 September 1921
- “To Lenin”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 4 November 1922
- “To The Discontented Worker”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 21 April 1923
- “Industrial Organisation”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 7 July 1923
- “What Is Socialism?”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 14 July 1923
- “Socialism”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 28 July 1923
- “What Socialism Is Not”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 11 August 1923
- “What is behind the label? A plea for clearness”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 3 November 1923
- “Third and Fourth Internationals”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 2 February 1924
- “What We Stand For”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 10 May 1924
- “Our View: Capitalism or Communism for Russia?”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 31 May 1924
- “Our View: Another Rank and File Upheaval”, The Workers’ Dreadnought, 7 June 1924
R.W. Jones, “Anti-Parliamentarism and Communism in Britain, 1917-1921”, The Raven: Anarchist Quarterly, Volume 3, Number 3 (July-September 1990)
Daniel Rashid, Why socialists need a better strategy than electoralism
Reviews
- Iain McKay, The British Communist Left, 1914-1945
- Wayne Price, Kropotkin’s ‘The Conquest of Bread” for Today; Anarchist Political Economics
Parish Notes
Sylvia Pankhurst, “Future Society”, One Big Union Bulletin, 2 August 1923
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