Anarchist Writers

Well, it has been a while since I blogged. In fact, I’ve added two articles since then. Once is a review of “The Coming Insurrection”, a book I was not particularly impressed by (as the review testifies). Ultra-leftist nonsense, to be honest. It was strange reading it on the way to work and contrasting its vision of contemporary reality with what I actually experience.

2010 is a year of anniversaries. It is 170 years since Proudhon proclaimed himself an anarchist and that “property is theft!” It is twenty years since the poll-tax riot. It is 40 years since Black Flag first came out.

Well, I finally posted the final draft of my reply to an article in Anarchist Studies on “Syndicalism, Anarchism and Marxism.” I’m planning to submit this to Anarchist Studies, mostly because I was somewhat shocked that an anarchist journal would publish such unsubstantiated claims on Marxism being a “core” ideological influence on syndicalism. However, this seems to be a recurring theme and one I’ve commented on before and will do so again, now.

Well, I’ve not blogged for a month. Time flies! Suffice to say, this was a combination of personal life (moving home, thanks to our old parasitical landlord selling the place), work (much more busy now, thanks to cuts), not sure of having anything particularly interesting to say (what’s new there?) and getting this month’s “Property is Theft!” update sorted out.

Well, for those who count… The TUC has produced an interesting report on inequality and income division in the UK. Its conclusions will hardly be surprising to anyone who has paid attention since the 1980s or has a firm grasp of reality (rather than neo-classical economics).

Now that An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ) has been revised, all ready for volume 2 to be published next year, I've been working on getting the next update for Property is Theft! sorted out. This is focused around Proudhon, Marx and the Paris Commune. A theme of this update is that many so-called "Marxist" principles were first expounded by anarchists, notably Proudhon.

Well, still not blogging as much as I planned... Once a week seems to be too much just now. Far too busy at work as well as getting An Anarchist FAQ revised for publication.

I’ve posted a revised article on the impact of neo-liberalism on economic performance. This was originally written around 1997/8 after New Labour got into office and it was clear that Blair was going to continue the Thatcherite assault on the unions and denouncement of strikes.

Well, that is it -- the Proudhon Reader has been sent to AK Press! Finally... In addition, the book's webpage has been started (www.property-is-theft.org), the first extract been put on-line and the first blog posting has been done.

This year, 2010, marks the 170^th anniversary of anarchism as a named socio-economic theory. With the publication of Proudhon’s "What is Property?" in 1840, what was a tendency within history became explicit. Yes, libertarian ideas and movements existed before 1840 – some of them, such as radicals in the Great French Revolution and the Lyons mutualists, influenced Proudhon but before 1840 these were never called anarchist. Socialist politics would never be the same again!