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.
(more…)Articles and Reviews
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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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Proudhon, Property and Possession
An article summarising Proudhon’s ideas on property and possession, originally written for Anarchist Studies in reply to a flawed article on Proudhon it had published. It was rejected due to its length and appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 66 (Winter 2016).
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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 to Kropotkin’s “Words of a Rebel”
My introduction to the 2022 PM Press edition of Peter Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel. As well as the original 1885 book, it includes later prefaces (1904 Italian edition and the 1919 Russian edition) and Afterword to the 1919 Russian edition as well as supplementary material by Kropotkin on the labour movement from Le Révolté written as the same time. The Bibliographical Sketch has been updated to reflect new research on the first translations into English of its texts.
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