A discussion of the Paris Commune and its legacy from an anarchist perspective, indicating how it influenced both Anarchism and Marxism. It shows that anarchism alone has learnt its lessons and that Marxism, particularly in its Leninist form, paid lip-service to it while ignoring both its actual politics and its lessons.
(more…)Category: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
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The Meaning of Anarchism, via twelve libertarians (Part 1)
This talk was given in January 2018 at the Five Leaves bookshop in Nottingham. As the name suggests, it discusses what anarchism is via the ideas and lives of twelve libertarians. The first part covered six male anarchists and the second six female ones.
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Review: Workers Unite!
A lengthy review and critique of a book which contains a selection of writings by members of the (First) International. It is wasted opportunity as the Marxist editor’s biases (and ignorance) means the introduction and selection of texts are skewed.
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A Few Notes about Anarchist Economics
A short discussion of what anarchist economics could be. While there is no “Anarchist” economics as such, there are works on economics by anarchists to build upon. It indicates that there are two aspects of this subject — the economics of an anarchist society and an analysis and critique of capitalism. The two are interrelated, for what we oppose in capitalism would not exist within an anarchist economy. From 2018.
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Mutualism, yes and no
This was written in 2010 after a request from Shift Magazine for a communist-anarchist critique of mutualism. It focuses on Proudhon’s mutualism rather than the American version associated with Tucker (this is better termed Individualist Anarchism, I think). This was the immediate forerunner of revolutionary anarchism, specifically collectivist anarchism which later developed into communist anarchism, and shares much with it. Its title deliberately echoes Daniel Guérin’s Proudhon oui et non.
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