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.
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.
I have sent my edition of Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel to PM Press. This is a (mostly) complete re-translation of the 1885 edition (a few chapters were translated by Nicolas Walters) plus the 1904 Italian preface, the 1919 Russian preface and afterword (the preface has never been translated into English before). In addition, there is “Supplementary Material” in the shape of articles and speeches by Kropotkin published in Le Révolté plus a letter from 1886 written just before he left for Britain. These help flesh out his revolutionary ideas as they relate to the labour movement, in the main, and so cover how he saw the move from critique to revolution occur. I will post a separate update once it is closer to publication.
I have also selected the texts all four volumes of A Libertarian Reader and sent the texts to Active. I was planning to write an afterword for volume 4 but space precluded it – better to include texts by other libertarians. Each volume is around 150,000 words and volume 1 has an introduction by my good self and volume 4 has biographical sketches. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. It is very comprehensive and covers all the schools of libertarian thought: anarchism (mutualism, collectivism, communism, individualism, syndicalism), syndicalism (non-anarchist and anarchist), guild socialism, council communism, situationism, autonomist Marxism as well as groups and individuals who eschewed labels like anarchism and Marxism (like Solidarity in the UK). On a personal note, it was strange rereading situationist texts – I had forgotten how jargon ridden they are (the same with autonomist ones). After reading Kropotkin and other anarchists, with their clear wording, it came as a bit of a shock. I will, as before, post a separate update with full contents once it is closer to publication.
Finally, I’ve been working on a Camillo Berneri collection provisionally entitled State or Revolution: The Selected Works of Camillo Berneri. While working on A Libertarian Reader, I re-read a few articles by Berneri (and his daughter Marie-Louise who also deserves a collection) and thought it was a shame that no anthology existed in English for him (the closest being the selection included in The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review (Number 4) back in 1978. About 20 years ago I picked on a French collection, which has come in handy. Looking into his best known essays, I soon discovered that all the current English-language translations are abridged: Peter Kropotkin: His Federalist Ideas (78%), Worker Worship (95%) and The Problem of Work (81%) as are two of the articles in The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review, “Problems of the Revolution: the City and the Country” (82%) and “The State and the Classes” (56%). I have added the missing text, found a few more translations (in Spain and the World and Freedom) and translated a few articles. I still need to review the texts and write an introduction so I will post an update once its closer to publication by Freedom Press.
I have also been writing up the last of my talks (The Meaning of Anarchism, via twelve libertarians) and Part I will be posted soon.
Finally, my last posting was my Introduction to Voline’s The Unknown Revolution (the 2019 PM Press edition) which I hope complements Voline’s classic eye-witness based account. Incidentally, I worked on that along with the George Barrett collection when I was on strike a few years back.
Until I blog again, be seeing you.