The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
The main focus is anarchism and war, using the example of Kropotkin’s support for the Allies in 1914 as its starting point. We indicate that in 1914 the anarchist movement rose to the challenge and remained overwhelming faithful to its Internationalist principles and show the flaws with Kropotkin’s position and why it failed to gather support in the movement.
The notion – suggested by Lenin and Trotsky – that Kropotkin represented anarchism in his support of the war and that anarchists, in general, supported him is false. In reality, “nothing of the kind happened; only about a hundred anarchists signed the various pronouncements in support of the war; the majority in all countries maintained the anti-militarist position as consistently as the Bolsheviks.” (George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin [London: Boardman, 1950], 380)
We reprint articles from Freedom and Mother Earth although we do include new translations of two replies to The Manifesto of the Sixteen issued in French. We also reprint Kropotkin’s pamphlets entitled La Guerre separated by 30 years – 1882 and 1912 – to show how at odds his position in 1914 was to these well-known statements, although as we show it was not completely alien to his pre-1914 opinions.
Next is Anselmo Lorenzo (1841-1914), a founding member of the Spanish anarchist movement and active in it to his death. Very little of his writings are available in English and we reproduce three pieces by him. We then move onto Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), a British libertarian socialist who was a pioneer on many issues – not least gay liberation. We then mark the birth of Ricardo Flores Magón (1874-1922), the Mexican anarchist who played a key role in his country’s revolution.
We end with Wayne Price’s contribution to the debate started in the last issue on voting, a critique and a response on previous articles in Black Flag on the Ukraine war, Tomás Ibáñez’s account of the birth of the circled-A 60 years ago and a discussion of Ursula Le Guin’s classic SF book The Dispossessed to mark its 50th anniversary.
Original translations which appear in Black Flag: Anarchist Review eventually appear on-line here:
https://anarchistfaq.org/translations/index.html
Next year we aim to continue to cover a range of people and subjects. These should hopefully include the 1905 Russian Revolution and articles on and by the likes of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louisa Sarah Bevington, Alexander Berkman, Elisée Reclus and Luigi Fabbri, 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-autumn-2024-issue-now-out/