American academic J. Salwyn Schapiro claims that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a fascist have been repeated by Marxists ever since he made them. This article exposes his bad-faith as well as the many distortions and inventions Schapiro inflicted on Proudhon, showing that he was – for all his faults – an anarchist. It appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 1 No. 2 (Summer 2021)
(more…)Category: Anarchist History
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Anarchy in the USA: The International Working People’s Association
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.
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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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Proudhon: “start by being right”
This article discusses various claims made against Proudhon by the likes of Engels, Schapiro, Draper and others. Some are correct (if usually exaggerated), most are false. It argues that any critique Proudhon should start by being accurate, something which should go without saying but all-too-often is ignored. It first appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring 2025).
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Introduction: Petrograd 1917 to Barcelona 1937
This is the introduction to the collection The State – Or Revolution: Selected Works of Camillo Berneri. Camillo Berneri was a noted Italian anarchist active during and after the First World War. He was assassinated by the Stalinists in Barcelona during the May Days of 1937.
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