Archives: Blog entry

A few thoughts on centralism and federalism prompted by Covid-19 and other recent developments. This issue reflects the Marxist and Anarchist sides within socialism – the former are proudly centralists and the latter are proudly federalists. And it would be fair to say that the former understand neither while being very secure in the belief that centralism is the best and federalism a terrible idea and “petty-bourgeois” to boot. This belief in centralism, I must notes, is often combined with complaints that their party is “bureaucratic centralist” rather than “democratic centralist” – and the regularity of these complaints in every Leninist sect does not seem to dent the faith in centralism.

It has been a while since my last update on the Property is Theft! blog, so apologies. I have been busy of other work (A Libertarian Reader, a new edition of Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel and a collection of Camillo Berneri’s writings with full translations of his most famous works plus new ones).

First, more bad news. David Graeber has died at the far too young age of 59. This came as a shock to everyone, myself included. I always enjoyed his many writings (although I admit I still have a few to read: he was a very prolific writer) and would recommend them if you have not had the pleasure of reading any.

Sad news. Stuart Christie has died. I found out via a comrade and then the Kate Sharpley library.

Well, you would think I would not need to write about Trump and anarchism. After all, he clearly has authoritarian tendencies and is the head of a State. However, many American commentators – even the best amongst them – have difficulty recognising the obvious.

It has been a while since my last blog (Statues and history), apologies. However, I have been busy. I have managed to get a few of my (many) anarchist projects finished or closer to completion so this is a short update on these.

With his complete mishandling of the coronavirus crisis clear (highest death count in Europe, in absolute and per million terms, 60,000+ excess deaths, PPE scandals, etc.) plus the economy tanking by 20%, it is understandable that Johnson seeks to distract attention by wittering on about statues – some raw meat for the Brexters. In short, following the Trump playbook.

First, I should note that I have posted three new articles. The first is my introduction to Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy (AK Press, 2018). Hope you enjoy it: do please buy the book from AK Press and help support anarchist publishing.

First off, I have posted  a write up of a talk I gave in Glasgow in 2018 entitled Now and After: What would Anarchy be like and how we create the new world by fighting the current one. It summarises anarchist ideas of what a free society would be like and how we get there. As with my previous write-ups, this reflects more what I intended to say rather than what was said. Hopefully it will be close enough.

First, I should note I’ve posted a write-up of a talk I gave last year entitled The Spanish Revolution: Anarchy in Action. I cannot help contrasting the spontaneous collectivisations and retooling of workplaces for the fight against fascism to the bureaucratic response of the British government to the coronavirus. Luckily, many people and companies have shown initiative and started to produce the PPE and other equipment which the government seems slow in securing. This is unsurprising as (I’ve noted before) government’s cannot magically produce resources and people which don’t exist – and often gets in the way of those who do or, worse, stops people acting because, after all, that is what the government is meant to do…