Archive of issues of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York from 1947-1954.
Resistance - An Anarchist Monthly (New York 1947-1954)
In 1947, Why? changed its title to Resistance. Running until 1954, Resistance was commonly seen as an anarcho-pacifist publication and included contributers such as Paul Goodman, George Woodcock, David Thoreau Wieck, Melvin Grieg and David Dellinger, among many others. The publication was associated with anti-conscription efforts and spoke harshly against segregation and racism in the United States at the time. The anarchism conceived of by Resistance proved influencial on Colin Ward, Freedom newspaper, the French anarchist newspaper Noir et Rouge and the Italian Volontá. After going defunct in 1954, a number of the Resistance group went on to be involved in the magazine, Liberation.
Most issues archived here have been graciously digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland or have been purchased with money generously provided to us by our users.
1947
Comments
This was one of the earliest post-WW2 bohemian,anarcho-pacifist, english language non-class struggle US publications.
My knowledge of the publication isn't deep enough to know whether to consider it "non-class struggle". Certainly it wasn't syndicalist, and in many ways represents a final split between the syndicalist oriented American anarchism and the cultural, as you say "bohemian" aspects of American anarchism of the time.
And yes, it was pacifist, which seemed to be a new development in the post-WW2 scheme of things. I suppose the UK also had this phenomenon with Colin Ward and Anarchy. And like the phenomenon in the UK, this part of anarchism here seems to have been downplayed, ignored or hated by the syndicalist-leaning anarchists. I can see why, but to their credit, the anarcho-pacifists' thought and action around race was more advanced than the syndicalists, who struggled with this issue.
Again, my interest in publications like Resistance stems from Andrew Cornell's recent writings about American anarchist history, which made me realize I knew more about Spanish, British and other European anarchisms than what happened in the country I've lived my entire life in!
I find myself much more politically sympathetic with publications of the time such as Vanguard or Views and Comments. However, I also find myself searching for what can be learned from the non-syndicalist stuff as well, such as Resistance or Retort.
Couple of more things, since you are one of really the only people I've discussed this era of American anarchism with... I find it also very interesting to see some of this lesser known stuff and then one can understand the developments many decades later. For example, Crimethinc makes more sense when you've read some of the writers of Resistance. Modern-day insurrectionary anarchists make more sense when you've read some of the old Italians. Primitivism and anti-civ stuff makes more sense when you've read Man! etc
For example, Crimethinc makes more sense when you've read some of the writers of Resistance. Modern-day insurrectionary anarchists make more sense when you've read some of the old Italians. Primitivism and anti-civ stuff makes more sense when you've read Man! etc
Just out of curiosity, do you think they consciously drew from those publications or more that they've inherited a legacy from the ideas those journals engendered?
Right quick. Not meant as a criticism of the effort to put on line.
My comments are based on knowledge of some of the participants. And tis bits of things I've heard from those knew the participants
Edit: One thing of which I found of great interest tho, were the international reports.
Same with the "New Trends"(NYC) magazine. "NT"was basically composed of many of the same people who put of "Challenge" (late 1930s)."NT" also had some interesting stuff, though depressing as the aftermath of WW2 was (see also:"The World Scene from the Libertarian Point of View" (1951) --http://anarvist.freeshell.org/The_World_Scene_from_the_Libertarian_Point_of_View__by_Free_Society_Group_of_Chicago_.htm
Didn't interpret it as a critisism of the effort and I wasn't trying to start an argument, syndicalist. Guess I'm just thirsty for any sort of discussion on this stuff because I'm spending a lot of time buried in it!
I actually bought that book from the funds we raised recently and am going to digitize it.
Chilli Sauce
Just out of curiosity, do you think they consciously drew from those publications or more that they've inherited a legacy from the ideas those journals engendered?
I'm not quite sure. I bet if you dug deep enough, you might be able to find linked people like so: Crimethinc>anarchopunk>hippie counterculture>anarchist bohemian culture of 1940s-1950s. But I doubt the main people who produced the majority of Crimethinc stuff over the years were reading Resistance.
With the insurrectionaries, I don't believe the older Italian-American insurrectionaryism was all that influential. I know Alfredro Bonanno was big with that tendency, but he doesn't come around until the 1960s and doesn't seem connected to the older stuff of the 1910s-1930s.
Now with the primitivisits/anti-civ people, this may be true. Marcus Graham of Man! wrote a few articles for or letters to Fifth Estate, but this may have been later. Not sure.
I understand the desire to discuss something you've put a lot of time into.
Juan Conatz
Didn't interpret it as a critisism of the effort and I wasn't trying to start an argument, syndicalist. Guess I'm just thirsty for any sort of discussion on this stuff because I'm spending a lot of time buried in it!
I actually bought that book from the funds we raised recently and am going to digitize it.
Chilli Sauce
Just out of curiosity, do you think they consciously drew from those publications or more that they've inherited a legacy from the ideas those journals engendered?
I'm not quite sure. I bet if you dug deep enough, you might be able to find linked people like so: Crimethinc>anarchopunk>hippie counterculture>anarchist bohemian culture of 1940s-1950s. But I doubt the main people who produced the majority of Crimethinc stuff over the years were reading Resistance.
With the insurrectionaries, I don't believe the older Italian-American insurrectionaryism was all that influential. I know Alfredro Bonanno was big with that tendency, but he doesn't come around until the 1960s and doesn't seem connected to the older stuff of the 1910s-1930s.
Now with the primitivisits/anti-civ people, this may be true. Marcus Graham of Man! wrote a few articles for or letters to Fifth Estate, but this may have been later. Not sure.
really interesting perspective juan, and i'd guess you're almost certainly right. i think it's important to understand the roots of these tendencies, and can't say i"d ever put much thought into it.
While there seemingly no direct lines between past groups or ideas, with few memories passed along. While there are striking similiariries, much of it has been organically developed time and again.
With the advent of the cheap photo copies and now the interest the possibilities of establishing links to traditions and, perhaps, carrying them on might be more direct.
I suppose syndicalist is more or less correct, the lines that exist are not quite direct. Check out this long-winded indirect line between the 1905 Russian revolution and Crimethinc.
Boris Yelensky, a participant in the 1905 Revolution, moved to the United States. In the 1920s, he became involved in the Chicago-based Free Society group, which Sam Dolgoff also was a part of. Dolgoff later became involved in the publication Why?. Paul Goodman also was involved with this, as well as Retort and Liberation. David Dellinger, a frequent contributor to Retort and a volunteer during the Spanish Civil War, is most well-known for being one of the Chicago Seven, which of course, involved the Yippies, of which 2 of the 7 were members of.. Several former Yippies were involved in the early days of punk. And I think we all know that punk served as an incubator and cultural scene for a large segment of anarchist politics during the 1980s and even today. MaximumRockNRoll is a good example of this, a far-left leaning punk print publication started by a former Yippie. MRR published some of the first Crimethinc articles and columns.
Juan Conatz
I suppose syndicalist is more or less correct, the lines that exist are not quite direct. Check out this long-winded indirect line between the 1905 Russian revolution and Crimethinc.
Boris Yelensky, a participant in the 1905 Revolution, moved to the United States. In the 1920s, he became involved in the Chicago-based Free Society group, which Sam Dolgoff also was a part of. Dolgoff later became involved in the publication Why?. Paul Goodman also was involved with this, as well as Retort and Liberation. David Dellinger, a frequent contributor to Retort and a volunteer during the Spanish Civil War, is most well-known for being one of the Chicago Seven, which of course, involved the Yippies, of which 2 of the 7 were members of.. Several former Yippies were involved in the early days of punk. And I think we all know that punk served as an incubator and cultural scene for a large segment of anarchist politics during the 1980s and even today. MaximumRockNRoll is a good example of this, a far-left leaning punk print publication started by a former Yippie. MRR published some of the first Crimethinc articles and columns.
OK. I'm glad good ole Boris is head banging is bald head to the beat of the Ramones after smoking a spliff and then going out for a dinner of dumpster dive.
One could do a shorter one with MLK to Crimethinc or the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike to Crimethinc. Lol
Juan Conatz
One could do a shorter one with MLK to Crimethinc or the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike to Crimethinc. Lol
Have fun with that,
Thanks for all the postings of these magazines and newspapers
syndicalist
Juan Conatz
One could do a shorter one with MLK to Crimethinc or the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike to Crimethinc. Lol
Have fun with that,
Thanks for all the postings of these magazines and newspapers
No problem! In the next few months, there will be multiple issues of Resistance, Retort, View & Comments, and Man! uploaded, as well as The World Scene from the Libertarian Point of View, Ethics and American Unionism by Sam Dolgoff, a Man! anthology and a few dozen issues of Industrial Worker and Industrial Pioneer. Also hopefully some issues of Why? Going to be busy time for the libcom library...
Juan Conatz
syndicalist
Juan Conatz
One could do a shorter one with MLK to Crimethinc or the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite strike to Crimethinc. Lol
Have fun with that,
Thanks for all the postings of these magazines and newspapers
No problem! In the next few months, there will be multiple issues of Resistance, Retort, View & Comments, and Man! uploaded, as well as The World Scene from the Libertarian Point of View, Ethics and American Unionism by Sam Dolgoff, a Man! anthology and a few dozen issues of Industrial Worker and Industrial Pioneer. Also hopefully some issues of Why? Going to be busy time for the libcom library...
Having read many, many issues of the above items, people are in for a treat. Ansd then you can see how I claim my lineage going back to the IWPA -:)
Resistance Vol. 6, No. 1 (May 1947)
The Vol. 6, No. 1 (May 1947) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Our resistance
-Commentary: Anti-labor news; The resistance betrayed; Resistance in Spain; Busting Jim Crow; Amnesty and civil liberties; French imperialism condemned
-The idiot maker by Michael Grieg (a.k.a. Melvin Grieg)
-Review: The state by Randolph Bourne (Review by Dan Eliot)
-Review: Critics & crusaders: a century of American protest by Charles A. Madison (Review by D.A.)
-The American scene by Kenneth Rexroth
-Letters
-Financial statement
-Literature list
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 1 (May 1947).pdf
(10.24 MB)
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 1947)
The Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 1947) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Commentary: No resistance to fascism?; Hard times
-The start of the witch hunt
-Anarchism: past and future by Herbert Read
-The rat in the head-fixing industry by David Wieck
-The commune: a factor in a free society by George Woodcock
-The siege by Paul Goodman
-Letters
-Financial statement
-Literature list
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 1947).pdf
(10.48 MB)
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 3 (July 1947)
The Vol. 6, No. 3 (July 1947) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Commentary: What is the Marshall Plan?; Resurgence of French syndicalism; Witches behind bars
-Art, science and responsibility by Alex Comfort
-Affirm the real thing by Jackson MacLow
-Point of production
-The New Year by Philip Lamantia
-Truman's burden by Russel Newton Roman
-Pound of flesh
-Review: The innocent eye by Herbert Read (Review by David Wieck)
-Review: The ark (Spring 1947) (Review by Michael Grieg)
-Sadness of the young man late at night by Donn Moir
-What's what
-Financial statement
-Literature list
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 3 (July 1947).pdf
(9.41 MB)
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 4 (August 1947)
The Vol. 6, No. 4 (August 1947) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Commentary: Sacco and Vanzetti; The law and order of nonsense; Rails, solons and lobbies
-Point of production
-Four forces in South America by S. Parane (a.k.a. Louis Mercier-Vega
-Jazz and society by Peter Willmott
-Affirm the real thing by Jackson MacLow
-Rebirth of French anarchism
-Review: Black anger by Wull Sachs (Review by Michael Grieg)
-Review: The basis of communal living by George Woodcock (Review by Quiss)
-Literature list
-Financial statement
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 7 (December 1947)
The Vol. 6, No. 7 (December 1947) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Talk about free speech! by Michael Grieg
-Lines of resistance
-Point counterpoint
-Review: Christ stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi (Review by Quiss)
-Anarchism without dogma by David Thoreau Wieck
-Riding through Dixie by D.K.
-Letters
-Financial statement
-Literature list
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1948
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 8 (January-February 1948)
The Vol. 6, No. 8 (January-February 1948) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The generals take over
-Lines of resistance
-Commentary
-The case for tax refusal
-SUP and the hiring hall by Glory Ho.
-In Italy
-In Argentina
-Review: Adversary in the house by Irving Stone (Review by David Thoreau Wieck)
-Review: The long night (Review by M.)
-Reviews in brief
-Free speech (Letters section): The German scene from W.H. ; The Centralia affair from John H. Lamb
-Anarchism and/or the family by D.K.
-Ernesto's resistance
-The Catholic republic by V.F.
-Financial statement
-Literature list
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Resistance Vol. 6, No. 9 (March-April 1948)
The Vol. 6, No. 9 (March-April 1948) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Lines of resistance
-Gandhi by D.K. (David Koven)
-The anarchist method by David Thoreau Wieck
-Commentary: Where is Schweik?; Dollars for Franco's banks?
-Fifty years have passed by Paul Goodman
-From Spain to Karaganda by A.G.
-Review: Job's dungheap by Bernard Lazare (Review by M.)
-Review: Henry Wallace: the man and the myth by Dwight Macdonald (Review by S.S.)
-Viewpoint on vegetarianism by Marcus Graham
-The war trial of the last man on Earth by M.
-Letters: The importance of nihilism from S.E.P.
-Within the anarchist movement: an anarchist international? by Freedom Press
-Financial statement
-Have you read? (literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 7, No. 1 (May-June 1948)
The Vol. 7, No. 1 (May-June 1948) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Lines of resistance
-Commentary: Repression; Jim Crow and militarism; Uncle Joe vs. Uncle Sam
-Bulgaria: the new Spain
-The future society by Émile Armand
-The propaganda expert takes the stand by Ann Morrisett
-Free speech (Letters section): Money and the hostile workers from Philoren; The ethics of staying home from J.M.; Nationalism and culture from Griscom Morgan
-Viewpoint on religion Mr. Mayer by Michael Redcliff
-50,000 to 1 by T.
-Cross sample by John Atkins
-The food we eat by Paul Goodman
-Review: Alternative, a new libertarian monthly (Review by M.)
-Financial statement
-Have you read? (Literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 7, No. 2 (July-August 1948)
The Vol. 7, No. 2 (July-August 1948) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Registration for war
-Vanzetti: an unpublished letter
-Spain: the strength that is in the people by David Thoreau Wieck
-A typical incident: 1917 (Excerpt from The Unknown Revolution by Voline)
-A field of broken stones (Excerpt from unpublished manuscript A field of broken stones by Lowell Naeve)
-The paintings of children by Jackson MacLow
-Letters
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
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Interesting that the letter here from Vanzetti was provided by "Li Pei Kan" – Bajin!
Resistance Vol. 7, No. 3 (November-December 1948)
The Vol. 7, No. 3 (November-December 1948) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-9 November by Jackson MacLow
-Editorial
-Anarchism by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem for August 29, 1948 by Paul Goodman
-Resistance in the factories by Bob Bone
-A night at the movies by DD
-Books by David Thoreau Wieck
-Letters
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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1949
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Resistance Vol. 7, No. 4 (March 1949)
The Vol. 7, No. 4 (March 1949) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The sweep of history and the limitations of a reasonable politics
-The bombed mind by Paul Mattick
-Poem: The guillotine at work by Jackson MacLow
-Poem: The prisoner by Bob Stock
-The reasoning men by C.A.G.
-To young resisters by Paul Goodman
-Reflections on draft resistance by David Thoreau Wieck
-Ideology and literature by Gerald Vaughan
-Ethics and anarchists by Marcus Graham
-Letters
-Books
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 7, No. 4 (March 1949).pdf
(11.53 MB)
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 1 (June 1949)
The Vol. 8, No. 1 (June 1949) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Anarchism in America by David Thoreau Wieck
-Anti-Stalinism by David Thoreau Wieck
-Anarchism
-Eight comments by Pat Cooper and Louis Adeane
-Society, the state and revolution by David Thoreau Wieck
-Problems of anarchism today by Freedom Press
-A note on happiness by D.E.
-Far politica?: anarchism in Italy by Volontà group
-The jovial proprietors in springtime in wartime by Paul Goodman
-Draft resistance: a reply to Paul Goodman by Howard Griffin
-Letters
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 1 (June 1949).pdf
(11.3 MB)
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If you think some things have changed....read "To Our Readers" in this issue.
If you think some things have changed....read "To Our Readers" in this issue.
That's both sad and funny. 60 years later nothing has changed. Quite literally the same arguments.
Apparently, Paul Mattick and the Resistance group also exchanged disagreements about collective vs individual action in a series of public events in the 1940s or 1950s if I remember correctly.
In reference to the 'To Our Readers' section, I suppose they are both right. The IWW has often had an ugly and contradictory economistic stance. On the other hand, the anarchist scene during this time, and it was not limited to the groups around Resistance, were sometimes preoccupied with intentional communities, psychology, diets etc.
Resistance Vol. 8, No. 2 (August-September 1949)
The Vol. 8, No. 2 (August-September 1949) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-"Tolerance" by d.w.
-Anarchism, capitalism and Marxism by Marcus Graham
-Childhood and social revolution
-Religion: a discussion
-Religion and education by Irving Feldman
-Philosophy and religious thought by David Thoreau Wieck
-Anarchism: further comments by R.
-On the belvedere by Howard Griffin
-Impression of Pissarro by Michael Grieg
-Notes of a mariner by Lead Line
-Review: Freedom in education by Elisabeth Byrne Ferm
-Review: Michael Bakunin and Karl Marx by K.J. Kenafick (Review by d.w.)
-Letters
-International notes
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 3 (December 1949)
The Vol. 8, No. 3 (December 1949) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The crime of revolution by d.w.
-Statistical method in sociology by Paul Goodman
-When Czolgosz shot McKinley: a study in anti-anarchist hysteria by Byron R. Bryant
-Poem: The winds of want and aid by Irving Feldman
-Psychoanalysis and anarchism by David Thoreau Wieck
-Psyche, soma and freedom by Michael Grieg
-The Reichian and the philosopher by Karl RIley
-Review: Pioneers of American freedom by Rudolf Rocker (Review by d.w.)
-Notes of a mariner by Lead Line
-Infantile radicalism by Lawrence Labadie
-Letters
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (Literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 3 (December 1949).pdf
(11.41 MB)
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1950
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 4 (March 1950)
The Vol. 8, No. 4 (March 1950) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Editorials: Law and liberty; The miners; The impasse; With the scientists
-Ideas of anarchy: the individual and the community by David Thoreau Wieck
-The theory of the "removal of inner conflict" by F.S. Perls and Paul Goodman
-Notes on literary anarchism in England by George Woodcock
-The human condition: the inside of the inside by Jackson MacLow
-The Australian scene by K.J. Kenafick
-On putting the moral questions first by Irving Feldman
-Review: Killers of the dream by Lillian Smith (Review by D.E.)
-The Delphic Review
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 8, No. 4 (March 1950).pdf
(10.27 MB)
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Resistance Vol. 9, No. 1 (June-July 1950)
The Vol. 9, No. 1 (June-July 1950) of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The dream and the street by David Thoreau Wieck
-American and Europe by Paul Mattick
-Poem: The blackbird by George Moor
-The human condition: hunger-art & the hungry artists by Jackson MacLow
-Letters
-Review: Prison etiquette: the convicts compendium of useful information, edited by Holly Cantine and Dachine Rainer (Review by SZP)
-Obituary: Hippolyte Havel
-Poem: Anna and Havel by Harry Block
-Inferno by Jackson MacLow
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 9, No. 2 (October-November 1950)
The Vol. 9, No. 2 (October-November 1950) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-1. War is not a means to peace by David Thoreau Wieck
-2. War is the health of the state by David Thoreau Wieck
-3. Towards peace: an anarchist proposal by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem: At the end of the uprising by Stuart Z. Perkoff
-Poem: April in the universities by Mayer Zeldis
-Poem: Summer time by Arthur Geller
-A symbol for Russia by Irving Feldman
-This is my being by Howard Griffin
-Review: American freedom and Catholic power by Paul Blanshard (Review by John Dickinson)
-Review: Man for himself by Erich Fromm (Review by Irving Feldman)
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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1951
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Resistance Vol. 9. No. 3 (April 1951)
The Vol. 9. No. 3 (April 1951) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The politics of the permanent war by David Thoreau Wieck
-The president's order of March 31, 1951 by Paul Goodman
-Challenging the inherited ways by D.E.
-Poem: Cold shower by George Moor
-Political behavior in the concentration camp: 2 views by Sander Katz & David Thoreau Wieck
-Free education and the state by David Dellinger & Elizabeth Dellinger
-Poem: Short talk during intermission by Lloyd Zimpel
-State versus commune in Israel by Nathan Chofshi (Originally appeared in Freie Arbeiter Stimme)
-Poem: April 18, 1951 by W. Easy
-Heroic resistance in Hungary by G.A. (Originally appeared in Le Libertaire)
-Review: Education and living by Ralph Borsodi (Review by George Woodcock)
-A note on individualism by Jackson MacLow
-Errico Malatesta: 1853-1932 (From selections from Malatesta's journalistic writing, published in Volontà, March, April, May, 1950)
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 9. No. 3 (April 1951).pdf
(12.52 MB)
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1952
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Resistance Vol. 10, No. 1 (July 1952)
The Vol. 10, No. 1 (July 1952) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Essays on the war
-1. In quest of the lesser disaster by David Thoreau Wieck
-2. The American century by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem by Howard Griffin
-3. The military subordination by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem: Oak Ridge, Australia by Howard Griffin
-The audience of the Kefauver hearings by Paul Goodman
-Poem by Paul Goodman
-A liberal lack of imagination by Arthur Geller
-Review: Journey through utopia by Marie Louise Berneri (Review by Michael Grieg)
-The new comedy: a critique of "The Lonely Crowd" by Irving Feldman
-Poem: For evening clowns by James Boyer May
-Reflections occasioned by publication of the memoirs of Whittaker Chambers by David Thoreau Wieck
-An urgent appeal to our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 10, No. 1 (July 1952).pdf
(12.86 MB)
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1953
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Resistance Vol. 11, No. 1 (August 1953)
The Vol. 11, No. 1 (August 1953) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Methods of resistance by R.
-Poem: On Stalin's death by Arthur Geller
-Essentials of anarchism by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem: A sunset by Paul Goodman
-The nazi complex by John Dickinson
-Agnes Inglis: recollections & impressions by James J. Martin
-Music & musicians by Alvin Bauman
-A note on The outsider by David Thoreau Wieck
-Discussion: the anarcho-syndicalism of Maximoff by David Thoreau Wieck
-Off the press
-Notes on anarchism in Japan by M. Osawa
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
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Resistance Vol. 11, No. 1 (August 1953).pdf
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The realization of freedom - David Wieck
ANARCHISM BEGINS BY EVALUATING THE society we live in-our "way of life." In this life we find too much misery and unhappiness, too much destruction, too little fulfillment of the potentialities of human beings.
First, there are the gross evils that everyone perceives: the waste, the destruction, the restrictions. Our nation is involved in endless wars, the government conscripts our young men, wealth is destroyed. Our natural riches, our scientific genius, are not shared with the impoverished nations of the world, but are the means of control and exploitation. Now, in the climate of permanent war, a great cloud of prohibition and fear is darkening the face of our people, and citizens fearful of being silenced are beginning to learn the dismal art of silence.
Thinking people are aware, too, that after a dozen years of high prosperity, millions still live on the borderline of poverty. They know a little of what it means in America to belong to a dark-skinned race. It is easy to see that only a minority of Americans can "succeed," while the greater number are condemned to lifelong, futile pursuit of the goals of wealth and social status they have been educated to aspire to.
The truth is that the wealth, the position, the standard of living we have learned to strive for, do not yield deep satisfaction-they are joyless and even boring. The successful man feels a dissatisfaction he tries to resolve by renewed struggle to achieve greater heights. In our emphasis on wealth and status, we squeeze out everything irrelevant to these goals, everything that could possibly be worthy of our effort, and rewarding.
We all know that work is dominated by motives of profit-but this is not the worst. It is absolutely dominated by motives of consumption, as profits, or wages, or (in "welfare" theories) quantity of social production. To this aim all our scientific endeavor, all our ingenuity of organization, is attuned. But man is not-need it be said?-merely a consumer, he is a worker. As a worker he is now only a machine-tender, a passive instrument of industries geared to production of quantity. The deterioration of the quality of goods is a painful, if minor, consequence of this one-sided economy: the debasement of work in a society dedicated to economic progress is an irony and a disaster. ..
In our society, too, we take it for granted that we should be strangers to each other-strangers who work together, and "deal" with each other, by the media of authority and money-exchange. We miss, hardly aware of our loss, the qualities of social warmth, of fraternal rivalry and cooperation-we miss these satisfactions and the strength they would give us.
We take it for granted that a small number of people, more or less talented, shall make-one would hardly say "create"-under the usual consumption-oriented conditions of the market, our "works of art," our "entertainment," while the rest of us are spectators.
And we are also a people who, in grave conflict within ourselves, have created all manner of crippling make-shifts to reconcile, with the life-goals our society teaches us, with the demands for conformity made upon us, our half-perceived but real yearnings for love, for self-respect, for friendships, for creative activities. Or rather, not reconciled the two forces, but reconciled ourselves to heavy deprivations.
Now, we must praise our country for its marvelous productive techniques, its medical miracles, the high development of scientific knowledge. We have, as few societies have ever had, the basis for living. But there is still-except for a very few nothing but existence, an unworthy survival.
It is the purpose of anarchism to look beyond survival-to look at what must be done if we are to achieve a worthy and noble life.
How can these problems be met? The obvious way, the one continually tried by good-intentioned people, is to attack each problem separately. We are plagued by war-so we look for ways to achieve peace. Poverty and gross inequality are unjust and destructive-the treatment of law-breakers is a scandal to a civilized country-our educational systems make the many literate, but educate very few-and so, on these and many other fronts, men and women are working to undo the evils.
A right beginning! But it does not turn out well, and failure to pay frank attention to the results, and the reasons for the results, leaves many good-hearted people fixed in dead-ends.
In certain cases, like war, the evil stubbornly resists every effort to abolish it. or even limit it.
In other cases the evil can be modified, but its most destructive features persist. Thus, prison reform can eliminate certain brutalities, but imprisonment, no matter how modified, destroys the best qualities in a man. Or, the conditions of labour in industry are improved-the worker is protected against injury, discharge and humiliation-but the work does not, by becoming less inhumane, become human. Or, the living standards of workers are raised-but still the worker must sell his labour-power, still he is only an instrument, a hand, whose mind and inventiveness are not wanted. Nor does "economic security" transform a lonely, frightened citizen into a human being.
Or a third thing occurs: the reform can be achieved, but only by adding to the bureaucratic structure of society. Such has been the destiny ofthe labour movement. And bureaucracy is the deliberate-and only possible-method of government to cope with economic destitution in old age, with the reckless exploitation of natural resources, with the economic piracy of monopolists ...
If we look at the history of each reform-effort, we can see that neither lack of good will, nor ignorance, has defeated or limited them. Reform has failed because each ofthese evils fulfills an essential function in our society (or is bound up with an essential function), and none can be arbitrarily ripped out of the total pattern. In the best cases, the evils can be mitigated only by the pyramiding of bureaucracy. In the worst cases, not even this much relief is possible.
How could the unequal property system be upheld without police and prisons? How can capitalist exploitation be mitigated, if not by the superimposition of bureaucracy? How could there be community when people are competing desperately with each other, when we are frightened of each other, hostile toward each other? How can our lives as workers become different, while consumption and war remain the dominant motives? How can there be war, and no centralized government? How centralized government, and no war? The list could be extended almost indefinitely. These are the dilemmas of reform.
Our society does change constantly, of course-but always it turns on the poles of power, war, the State. It becomes more bureaucratic or less, more warlike or less, more restricting or less-there can be all the stages from Capitalism to State Communism, from limited democracy to totalitarianism. These variations can mean the difference between tolerable and intolerable existence. But they do not allow, in the best of them, for the growth and development of Man. For the great majority of people, there is no life, merely labourious survival.
In order to give a new tone to our society, a new quality to our life, we must change the central principles of our society-we must learn how to live socially, and work together, without the profit-and-power motive; without a monopoly property-system; without centralized political authority; without war. This is why the anarchist proposals are so extreme, so sweeping; and why anything short of them brings disappointment. only superficial change ...
Anarchists, anarchists alone. propose to reorganize our common life without the crippling destructive principles of power, monopoly-property, and war.
The principle which anarchists propose to substitute is Freedom-but freedom in a sense quite different from its debasement in the vIars of propaganda. We contend that men need to be free of restriction in order to grow to the limit of their powers-and that when these powers are released from inhibition, entirely new solutions to our economic, political. and social problems will be possible.
Our anarchist philosophers have emphasized different facets of our unutilized "human resources";
1. Man tends to be rational, to be able to recognize his problems and solve them. A false education, from infancy to adulthood, and the "positive institutions" by which society has tried to preserve order and morality among a bewildered population, have crippled these powers. Let men be free, from the first, encouraged to discover their own abilities and own interests, let them be ungoverned, and they will tend to have "right opinions." (In the false education oftoday, the suppression and distortion of sensual pleasure certainly plays a dynamic role. I think it remains moot whether it plays a decisive initiating role--and will therefore be a special problem in achieving freedom-or is a reflex of social unhappiness, inhibition of sociality, and other factors. In either case, its crippling influences make the sexual mores, both here and now and in respect to a free society, a natural major concern of anarchists.
2. The self-interests of people clash, but we need not dread this clash. It is destructive now because people submit to others, because they acknowledge Power and Authority. It can be productive, it will lead men beyond anything the isolated individual could possibly conceive of-and Authority is just such an isolated individual-but only if men are unashamedly themselves, not possessed by Ideas, Gods, Authorities, or Neuroses.
3. Men possess a natural tendency to solidarity, to cooperation. This tendency our social institutions check and even suppress. Let men rid themselves of these constraints, and we will come into our biological heritage of mutual aid ... Reason, fraternal conflict, mutual aid-these powers of men, stifled in our lives today, can be the principles, the heart ofa new society. Men must be free of the control and restrictions of economic and legal authorities, free of coercion to conformity: but these constraints exist because men accept them, so they must be willing to be free. This is the hypothesis of freedom.
Let men be free, and then the problems of economics and politics can find good solutions. No longer need our industries be owned monopolistically by corporations or government-the practice of voluntary cooperation, the principle of equality, will allow new kinds of organization. Released from cramping monopoly ownership, our engineering and managerial ingenuity will find ways to balance our interests as consumers and as workers. Our political life will no more be centralized in national government, and men and women will gain sovereignty over their destinies. The individual can be liberated from demands for conformity-we will need no more prisons-and so on through a host of "social problems" which remain unsolvable so long as the fundamental principles of the society are unchanged.
(Oh, yes! the solutions will tax our ingenuity. But at last they will be, in principle, possible, and the freedom of communities and groups to try even the most extreme experiments should accelerate the discovery of the best solutions.)
Nothing less than Paradise!-so it must seem to those afraid of bold dreams ... On the contrary! The vision is modest; it is only because we are habituated to a meager life, only because we have timidly accepted the traditions of capitalist-militarist society, that freedom appears fantastic. Once achieved, it will doubtless seem like no more than a stage in human progress ...
History is not, as man used to hope, marching us toward our freedom. We claim only this: we see in man the potentiality of living in freedom; we know there are times, now and then, when social conflicts create the demand for liberty, for equality, for justice, and moments when the grip of the past is loosened and choice becomes possible. At such times, can the desire for freedom, the love of freedom, be evoked in people by anarchists? This is our hope.
The present is not a time when men feel an excess of power, or ideals seem possible of realization . Our time is permeated by despair and deadness of spirit. To submit to this spirit is simply to confirm it. Those who are able to perceive that this is a time of degradation and not an inevitable expression of man's nature, have a responsibility to hold before their countrymen an image of what men may be, if we gain our freedom and humanity ...
When opportunities finally arise, then we shall have to think through the first acts of freedom; but first people must gain the will to be free. What marvelous arrangements they will invent then, it is hardly worth the trouble to try to guess ...
When people begin to lose faith in the old order and a revolution occurs, communalistic, democratic institutions invariably spring up to perform the functions of the fallen institutions. As at all times, the work of anarchists is to show people how they can extend their freedom-because if they do not, authority speedily reconstitutes itself. ..
Progress toward freedom consists of the awakening of desire for freedom in the apathetic masses. It consists in resisting and undermining even the revolutionary institutions when they do not yet represent the free actions of the people. Even theoretically, this idea is difficult; but by it, we can understand why revolutions have all turned out so badly, why a revolution is desirable only if it can lead toward freedom. People who are deprived of masters , but do not desire to be free, have never had difficulty in finding new masters ...
That people are human, or proletarians, or intellectuals, gives them no automatic impulse toward freedom. It is nice to talk of "the universal yearning to be free"-but this means only, "people do not like to feel oppressed and restricted"; it certainly cannot mean that they yearn to make choices and exercise the responsibilities of free men. To be free-not merely to escape oppression-is a potentiality of man, the condition, we think, of man's nobility; not given, only earned ...
[A]narchism is a philosophy based on the premise that men need freedom in order to solve urgent social problems, and begin to realize their potentialities for happiness and creativity. Anarchists initiate their practical actions by looking squarely at the time and place they live in, and deciding what can be done now to forward their goal: to find the next step to be taken, to take it, and encourage others to move ahead.
The step to be taken now, we believe, is to keep alive the idea of freedom, and the desires it is meant to serve; to live and work with people and act toward social institutions in the ways which will grant us the nearest approach to the humanity of which we dream; to come together in the solidarity of anarchists to invent actions together. In these ways, if we are inventive, we can introduce into our neighbours' lives the idea and practice of freedom.
Originally appeared in Resistance, Vol. Xl, No. 1 (August 1953).
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Resistance Vol. 11, No. 2 (October 1953)
The Vol. 11, No. 2 (October 1953) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-Americans from Korea by David Thoreau Wieck
-Touristland
-Lessons of a strike (Originally appeared in Le Libertaire)
-The logic of liberty by David Thoreau Wieck
-Letters
-Review: Prescription for rebellion by Robert Lindner (Review by David Thoreau Wieck)
-To our readers
-Financial statement
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 11, No. 3 (December 1953)
The Vol. 11, No. 3 (December 1953) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The years of the demagogues
-Poem: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
-End of a chapter
-The case of the "out of state" censor
-Book reviews: the critics circle
-Book reviews: Interlocking subversion
-Some Iron Curtains are more democratic than others
-Some censorships are more democratic
-High education
-Bill of rights
-Deportations
-Conscription
-The Law, its majesty: II
-The patriotic revision of history: Part 1, the new apology for capitalism
-History, as revisted by Allan Nevins
-The popular intelligence in the Spanish Revolution by Gaston Leval
-Postscript to a discussion by David Thoreau Wieck
-Financial statement
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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1954
Comments
Resistance Vol. 11, No. 4 (February 1954)
The Vol. 11, No. 4 (February 1954) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-If they don't seem to like it here by David Thoreau Wieck
-The Ruth Reynolds appeal by Conrad Lynn
-Obituary: Gigi Damiani by M.R.
-The Spanish revolution examined by George Woodcock
-Community by Dave K. (David Koven)
-Books by Paul Goodman
-To our readers
-Financial statement
-Letters: Report from animal farm from Benjamin
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 12, No. 1 (April 1954)
The Vol. 12, No. 1 (April 1954) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-From politics to social revolution by David Thoreau Wieck
-Principles and lessons of the Spanish revolution by Gaston Leval
-The patriotic revision of history: part 2, the "new" historiography by Historicus
-"The root is man": part 1, the durable polemic by George Woodcock
-Review: The expanding environment by E.A. Gutkind (Review by Holley Cantine)
-Review: The political philosophy of Bakunin: scienfitic anarchism, compiled and edited by G.P. Maximoff (Review by Paul Goodman)
-Letters: Problems of resistance from Willy Fritzenkoetter
-Financial statement
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 12, No. 2 (June 1954)
The Vol. 12, No. 2 (June 1954) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-The individual and world peace by Alex Comfort
-Poem: Within circle of Sovkhozy by Howard Griffin
-Books &e
-Libertarians and the war by George Woodcock
-Communication: an anarchist bulletin from S.Z. Perkoff (Stuart Z. Perkoff)
-News on the boredom of politics by Meleager
-Freedom in action: suggestions for a positive anarchism by S.Z. Perkoff (Stuart Z. Perkoff)
-Review: Autobiography of a Catholic anarchist by Ammon Hennacy (Review by David Thoreau Wieck)
-Financial statement
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 12, No. 3 (August-October 1954)
The Vol. 12, No. 3 (August-October 1954) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include
-Reforms and emancipation by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poems by John McManis, M.C. Richards, Jackson MacLow, Ambrose Turner and Spencer Holst
-The Binefar collective: a chapter froma study of the Spanish revolution of 1936-1939 by Gaston Leval
-Problems of organization: the French anarchist movement by Giovanna Berneri (Volontà, May 1954)
-On organization: 2 )Excerpt from "The anarchist international and its enemies" by Andre Prunier a.k.a. André Prudhommeaux)
-On organization: 3 (From editorial titled "Dell'organizzazione" from L'Adunata dei Refrattari)
-In defense of a sitting duck or Dear Dave by Joffre Stewart
-In reply: some remarks on "the free man" by David Thoreau Wieck
-Review: Individualism reconsidered by David Riesman (Review by George Woodcock)
-Notes on rebels, porkchops, history by Lead Line
-Passive resistance? by Ribelle
-Note
-Resistance &c
-Financial statement
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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-Problems of organization: the French anarchist movement by Giovanna Berneri (Volontà, May 1954)
-On organization: 2 )Excerpt from "The anarchist international and its enemies" by Andre Prunier a.k.a. André Prudhommeaux)
Interesting and informative
Resistance Vol. 12, No. 4 (December 1954)
The Vol. 12, No. 4 (December 1954) issue of Resistance, an anarchist publication produced out of New York.
Contents include:
-In lieu of a happy editorial by David Thoreau Wieck
-Problems of the communal group by David Dellinger
-Two dreams of Pacificus by Han Ryner
-The tendency of Dissent by David Thoreau Wieck
-Poem: Canticle by John Hoffman
-Poems by Vera Lachmann, Spencer Holst and M.C. Richards
-The individualists by Holley Cantine
-Review: Diary of a self-made convict by Alfred Hassler (Review by David Thoreau Wieck)
- Review: The famous boating party by Kenneth Patchen (Review by Jonathan Williams)
-Counterreview
-Review: The Marquis de Sade (Review by David Thoreau Wieck)
-The anarchist bookshelf (literature list)
-Financial statement
This issue digitized for libcom.org by the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Resistance Vol. 12, No. 4 (December 1954).pdf
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Well, just finished uploading
Well, just finished uploading 27 full issues of this. Need to check further, but if this isn't the full run of the publication, it is pretty close. I imagine only a few issues are missing.
For some discussion of Resistance, check out the '1947' page in this archive.
For more background information on this publication and/or the people involved, I would recommend Unruly equality: U.S. anarchism in the twentieth century by Andrew Cornell and Anarchist voices: an oral history of anarchism in America, edited by Paul Avrich.
Look forward to combing thru
Look forward to combing thru the issues. I have a few original copies of this, "Why?" and "Retort".
Actually one of the participants, David Koven was a "silent" member of the W.S.A.
He paid dues but we never heard anything from him. It was actually a long time before I realized who he was. A pity I never interviewed him.
Need to get this book. And the one on Jewish and Italian anarchists.
looking forward to getting the new Dolgoff book as well. But I am advised that someone in the book made a not so nice comment about our fomer NY Libertarian Workers Group.....can't wait to read that comment.
syndicalist wrote: Look
syndicalist
If you have any that we don't have online yet it would be great if you could lend them to us!
Steven. wrote: syndicalist
Steven.
We'll see what we cam do. A lot of this stuff has been looooong packed away.
Came very close to buying a
Came very close to buying a set of these through Bolerium. Glad I checked online first, because it looks like I got someone to scan these a few years ago! Completely forgot about this.