Direct struggle against capital: A Peter Kropotkin anthology

Direct struggle against capital: A Peter Kropotkin anthology

This is the most extensive collection of Peter Kropotkin's writings available in English.

Over half the selections have been translated for the first time or salvaged from long-out-of-print pamphlets and newspapers. Both an introduction to classic texts and a recontextualization of Kropotkin from saintly philosopher to dangerous revolutionary, Direct Struggle Against Capital includes a historical introduction, biographical sketch, glossary, bibliography, and index.
Published by AK Press http://www.akpress.org/direct-struggle-against-capital.html who are always happy to have donations from people who like what they're doing.

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Comments

Pennoid
May 31 2014 20:52

THANKS!

AnCom666
Jun 5 2014 18:05

Is there a way where you can send me a 'pdf' file version of this anthropology? If so it would be great thank you.

ocelot
May 11 2015 15:09

There's an AKPress pdf of the "Insurrections and Revolution" text from the above collection (pp551-555) here

I came across this via one of Anarcho's blogs from January which mentioned the libcom response to Graeber on Rojava, and indeed the "Rojava Question" as a whole.

Quote:
I visited libcom at the weekend and read David Greaber’s account of developments in Iraqi Kurdistan and was disappointed by the number of comments along the lines of “there is no communism here” – so comparing a real social movement with an idealised vision of a perfect system in order to dismiss it. Look, it is simple, no real movement will be perfect nor will it be what we hope for at its start. It is a question of tendencies – is the movement popular and be able to evolve? As Kropotkin put it:
.
“But precisely because we are well aware of our purpose and know that it cannot be achieved in a single day […] Precisely because we know that an uprising may well topple and change a government in one day, whereas a revolution, if it is to achieve a tangible outcome ― a serious, lasting change in the distribution of economic forces ― takes three or four years of revolutionary upheaval ― for that very reason, we say to the workers:
.
“The first uprisings of a revolution cannot be mounted with the notion of carrying out the wide-ranging and far reaching changes that only a revolution can effect, once it has had time to ripen.
.
“The initial disturbances can have no purpose other than to weaken the machinery of government: to stop it, to damage it, and render it powerless, thereby creating an opening for subsequent developments in the upheaval.
“[…]
“In any case, were we to wait for the Revolution to display an openly communist or indeed collectivist character right from its initial insurrections, that would be tantamount to throwing the idea of Revolution overboard once and for all. For that to be a possibility, it would require that a large majority be already in agreement upon effecting a communist change, which is generally not the case, since it is primarily the turns taken by a revolution that can draw the masses over to communism […] were that period of “anarchy” to last, communist ideas would, of necessity, become more sharply defined and would embed themselves during the upheaval as lessons taught by actual experience.”
.
(“Insurrections and Revolution”, Direct Struggle Against Capital, 553-555)
syndicalist
Dec 1 2015 15:31

just started to glance. excellent stuff!