The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This issue marks the founding of the International Working People’s Association (IWPA) in Pittsburgh in 1883. As well as numerous articles by members of the IWPA, we debunk claims – by Marxists and others – that it was something other than anarchist. We also show the links between “the Chicago Idea” and the Federalist-International and the ideas championed by Bakunin and Kropotkin.
This article seeks to correct all too common generalisations and distortions about the London Congress of 1881. It indicates how looking solely at the resolutions – as most non-anarchists do – gives a distinctly false impression of both the Congress itself and anarchist ideas and strategy. This is an expanded version of the original which appeared in the blog of An Anarchist FAQ and then in Black Flag Anarchist Review (Spring 2023). This expanded version will appear in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review.
This review of China Miéville’s book on the Communist Manifesto was written for the Marxist group Platypus. I was asked due to my speech The 1848 Revolutions: An Anarchist Perspective. Suffice to say, more could have been written but that speech plus the few links I’ve added to the text should help flesh out the arguments made.
An account of the General Strike in Anarchism as expressed in both theory and practice as well as the interaction between the two. It appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 3. No. 1 (Spring 2023) and long with articles by leading anarchists on both the theory and the practice of the General Strike from 1873 to 1935.
The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This issue includes articles on Anarchism and the General Strike, the London 1881 Congress and two key 1883 events – the Lyon show trial and the 9th of March unemployment demonstration which saw Louise Michel raise the black flag. We also discuss Albert Camus and his links with anarchism, the lessons of previous revolutions for anarchists with regards to the Ukraine war as well as an account of anarchism in Brazil between 1903 and 2013. And more…
An article on the state of Britain in late 2022 written for Freedom. Its original title was “Keeping head above water in the Turd-Reich” and was written during the Tory party leadership contest (and so before the spectacular, destructive implosion of the short-lived Trust Premiership). The non-payment campaign seems to have fizzled out, undoubtedly due to lack of local groups and organising to build a sense of collective strength.
Another article which tries to document Kropotkin’s writings and why this is important to understand his ideas and influence. It appeared in Black Flag: Anarchist Review (Vol. 2, No. 3) and follows on from “Sages and Movements: An Incomplete Peter Kropotkin Bibliography”, Anarchist Studies (volume 22, number 1) and “Kropotkin, Woodcock and Les Temps Nouveaux”, Anarchist Studies (volume 23, number 1).
The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This year’s third issue is a special dedicated to the life and work of Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) to mark the 180th anniversary of his birth. As such, the issue contains many rare English-language texts by Kropotkin along with newly translated articles from the French newspapers he was intimately associated with – Le Révolté, La Révolte and Les Temps Nouveaux. We are also happy to announce that we have secured translations of his prefaces to the 1902 and 1919 Russian editions of The Conquest of Bread. The articles and letters cover a range of subjects, from anarchism to war, from revolution to eugenics. In addition we include evaluations of Kropotkin’s ideas and legacy by leading libertarian activists like Rocker, Berneri, Goldsmith and Malatesta.
The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This issue includes articles on and by the Federalist wing of the First International, to mark the birth of revolutionary anarchism at the St. Imier Congress of the First International in 1872, as well as articles on and by Camillo Berneri and Errico Malatesta. We also discuss the formation of the 1922 syndicalist International Workers’ Association and include its first Information bulletin, itself an excellent introduction to the ideas of syndicalism. Malatesta is also subject of an article on national self-determination in light of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We end by a long critical review of a Marxist collection about the First International, exposing its assumptions and prejudices.
A review of Carolyn Ashbaugh’s Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary which debunks her claims that Lucy Parsons was not an anarchist. It also refutes her attempt to protray Emma Goldman as some sort of lifestyle anarchist, showing how she and Parsons shared a similar communist anarchist perspective. It appeared in Black Flag Anarchist Review Vol. 2 No. 1 (Spring 2022)