Direct Action Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology

Edited by Iain McKay Peter Kropotkin is by far anarchism’s most influential theorist, and Direct Struggle Against Capital is the most extensive collection of his writings available in English. Over half the selections have been translated for the first time or recovered from long-out-of-print pamphlets and newspapers. The result is a volume that provides an introduction to classic texts, while showing new facets of a familiar and canonical figure. Direct Struggle Against Capital paints a detailed portrait of Kropotkin the revolutionary, the man Emma Goldman described as someone for whom anarchism “was not an ideal for the select few. It was a constructive social theory, destined to usher in a new world for all of mankind.”   Published by AK Press

Contents

Introduction: Bread and Liberty

Anarchism before Kropotkin

• The Birth of Anarchism: Proudhon and Mutualism
• Libertarians in the First International
• Bakunin and Revolutionary Anarchism

Kropotkin’s ideas

• On Capitalism and the State
• On State Socialism
• On the Workers’ Movement
• On Syndicalism and Revolutionary Minorities
• On National Liberation
• On Mutual Aid and Ethics
• On Revolution
• On Anarchy and Communism

Conclusion

Kropotkin: A Biographical Sketch

Further Reading

Acknowledgements

A Note on the Texts

Translators

Anarchism and Anarchists

From Memoirs of a Revolutionist

• St. Petersburg – First Journey to Western Europe
• Western Europe

The Lyon anarchist trial of 1883

• From Kropotkin’s Defence Speech
• Defence Declaration

The Place of Anarchism in Socialist Evolution

Preface to Bakunin’s The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State

Letter to Maria Isidine Goldsmith

Letter to Max Nettlau

Anarchism

• The Historical Development of Anarchism
• Anarchism in the International Working Men’s Association

From Modern Science and Anarchism

• The Origin of Anarchism
• The Anarchist Ideal and the Preceding Revolutions
• Anarchism
• A Few Conclusions of Anarchism
• The Means of Action

The Anarchist Principle

A Few Thoughts about the Essence of Anarchism

Letter to the Bakunin Centenary Celebration

From Ethics: Origin and Development

Capitalism and the State

From Representative Government

Our Riches

The Division of Labour

Economic Expedients

From The State: Its Historic Role

Prisons: Universities of Crime

From The Modern State

• I. The Essential Principle of Modern Society
• II. Serfs of the State
• III. Taxation as a Means of Increasing the Power of the State
• IV. Taxation a Means of Enriching the Rich
• V. The Monopolies
• VI. The Monopolies in the Nineteenth Century

The Workers Movement and Class Struggle

From Memoirs of a Revolutionist

Enemies of the People

The Workers’ Movement in Spain

Workers Organisation

The Use of the Strike

Strikes

1st May 1891

The Death of the New International

Commemoration of the Chicago Martyrs

The Workers’ Congress of 1896

The Development of Trade-Unionism

Letter to French and British Trade Union Delegates

From Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution

• Mutual Aid Amongst Ourselves
• Conclusion

Politics and Socialism

Trade Unionism and Parliamentarism

Letter to “The Voice of Labour”

Anarchists and Trade Unions

1886-1907: Glimpses into the Labour Movement in this Country

Letter to Alexander Berkman

Syndicalism and Anarchism

Revolutions

From The Great French Revolution

• Action
• The “Districts” and the “Sections” of Paris
• The Sections of Paris under the New Municipal Law

1848–1871

The Paris Commune

• The theory of the State and the practice of the Commune
• Popular aspirations and popular prejudices in the Commune
• From the Paris Commune to anarchist communism

Commune of Paris

The Revolution in Russia

The Russian Revolution and Anarchism

• Political and economic revolution
• Our relation with peasants and workers’ unions
• Conclusions of the conference

Enough of Illusions!

A Letter to the Workers of the West

Social Revolution

From Memoirs of a Revolutionist

The Anarchist Idea from the Point Of View of its Practical Realisation

Revolutionary Government

From Expropriation

What Revolution Means

Act For Yourselves

Local Action

Preface to Words of a Rebel (1904)

Insurrections and Revolution

Preface to How We Shall Bring About the Revolution

Anarchist Action in the Revolution

Postscript to Words of a Rebel (1919)

Anarchy

The Commune

From In Russian and French Prisons

Are We Good Enough?

The Permanence of Society after the Revolution

The Wage System

• I. Representative Government and Wages
• II. The Collectivist Wage System
• III. Unequal Remuneration
• IV. Equal Wages versus Communism

Communism and Anarchy

The Reformed School

From Fields, Factories and Workshops

• Preface to the Second Edition (1913)
• Preface to the First Edition (1898)
• The Decentralisation of Industries
• The Possibilities of Agriculture
• Small Industries and Industrial Villages
• Brain Work and Manual Work
• Conclusion

Appendix:

Mutual Aid: An Important Factor in Evolution

Glossary

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