A short review of Black Flame which, in general, is very good. I have my disagreements with it, particularly on its inclusion of Marxist-syndicalists into the wider anarchist tradition and exclusion of Proudhon. This was written before the revelation that Michael Schmidt had ties to white nationalism. Needless to say, the book itself shows no signs of that and remains a good, if flawed, account of class struggle anarchism.
(more…)Category: Anarchist History
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The Revolutionary Ideas of Emma Goldman
A talk given in Glasgow in 2024 about Emma Goldman and her anarchist ideas.
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A Few Thoughts on Anarchism
Written to mark the 175th anniversary of Proudhon’s What is Property? this article places anarchism in its intellectual and social context and disputes the notion that anarchism can be best considered as a fusion (or confusion) of liberalism and socialism. It is not. It appeared under a different title in Black Flag No. 237 (2015)
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What it means to be libertarian
This is a write-up of my talk at the 2017 London Anarchist Bookfair. It is based on my article “160 Years of Libertarian” which appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 71.
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The irresistible correctness of anarchism
A lengthy critique of the SWP’s attempt to rewrite the history of the resistance to Italian fascism in the early 1920s as well as the revolutionary Red Years after World War I. An important, if not well known, bit of anarchist history. An edited version appeared in Black Flag
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