Black Flag: Anarchist Review Summer 2025 issue now out

The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:

https://www.blackflag.org.uk

This year’s second issue starts with Peter Kropotkin’s obituary for his friend and fellow anarchist and geographer Elisée Reclus (1830-1905). This is followed by various articles by Reclus which should hopefully indicate why he was as influential within the anarchist movement in his life as Kropotkin.

Then we have Louise Michel (1830-1905) who needs no introduction. A communard driven by her experiences to anarchism, she played a major role in the French movement from her return from exile in 1880 to her death. As we discussed in a previous issue (Volume 3 Number 1 [Spring 2023]), her hoisting of the black flag during an unemployed demonstration on 9th March 1883 played a key role in turning it into the symbol of anarchy it is today. Very little of her writings are available in English, much of it perhaps unsurprisingly related to the Paris Commune.

Next is Italian Anarchist Luigi Fabbri (1877-1935). Until recently only his excellent “Bourgeois Influences on Anarchism” and “Anarchy and ‘Scientific’ Communism” – his systemic debunking of Bukharin’s typically misinformed attack on anarchism – have been available in English. This has changed and we are happy to include a selection of his writings which we are sure will be of interest. His death at the early age of 57 undoubtedly deprived the movement of an important thinker.

We then present three reviews, one on Paul Avrich’s The Russian Anarchists to mark the 1905 Revolution and another on a recent flawed book on the Syndicalist Revolt of 1910 to 1914 by a member of the SWP. We also include a short review of Tom Brown’s Syndicalism written for Black Flag when it first appeared in the 1990s but which never seemed to have been published before.

We end with obituaries for Colette Durruti and Glasgow anarchist John Couzin as well as our round-up of movement news, Parish Notices.

Original translations which appear in Black Flag: Anarchist Review eventually appear on-line here:

https://anarchistfaq.org/translations/index.html

This year we aim to continue to cover a range of people and subjects. These should hopefully include articles on and by the likes of Louisa Sarah Bevington, Ethel MacDonald, Sylvia Pankhurst, amongst others. Plus the usual reviews and news of the movement.

However, this work needs help otherwise at some stage it will end. Contributions from libertarian socialists are welcome on these and other subjects! We are a small collective and always need help in writing, translating and gathering material, so please get in touch if you want to see Black Flag Anarchist Review continue.

This issue’s editorial and contents are here: https://anarchism.pageabode.com/black-flag-anarchist-review-summer-2025-issue-now-out