The new issue of Black Flag Anarchist Review is now available:
This issue includes articles on or by Albert Meltzer, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Joseph Déjacque and Daniel Guérin, interviews with Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, and reviews.
We have also updated our archive of links to previous issues. We have also recreated the pdf of the first issue to include the page numbers which were inadvertently removed (the rest of the issue remains unchanged).
This issue’s editorial and contents are:
Editorial
Welcome to the second issue of the relaunched Black Flag!
It is now 25 years since Albert Meltzer died. Meltzer should need little introduction as he played a key role in the British, indeed international, anarchist movement from when he became an anarchist militant in the 1930s until his death. He helped found Black Flag and took an active part in its production, including editing and writing. As such, it is fitting that we remember his life and legacy.
The other focus of this issue is on Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his legacy. Proudhon, one of the few leading socialist thinkers from the working class, was the first person to proclaim themselves as an anarchist in 1840’s What is Property? While not a revolutionary anarchist, his influence was extensive and he influenced the likes of Bakunin and Kropotkin, along with workers across the globe: his followers helped create the First International and played an important part in the Paris Commune. His ideas laid the foundations for revolutionary anarchism and syndicalism.
Yet some accuse him of being a fascist, most notably American academic J. Salwyn Schapiro. Schapiro’s claims have been repeated by Marxists ever since. Here we expose the many distortions and inventions Schapiro inflicted on Proudhon. This is no academic task, given how attacks on Proudhon are generalised to all forms of anarchism, including class struggle ones. It is in the interest of all libertarians to debunk these distortions.
This is not to suggest Proudhon is somehow above criticism: his sexism, for example, was rightly challenged during his lifetime. While many women writers refuted his nonsense, Joseph Déjacque is the best-known critic for he drew revolutionary communist conclusions from Proudhon’s ideas, coining the word “libertarian” to describe it. Déjacque used the best of Proudhon to mock the worst. We also reprint French libertarian communist Daniel Guérin’s excellent account of the links between Proudhon and Bakunin and publish a new translation of one of his articles on Bakunin.
Finally, if you want to contribute, whether its writing new material or letting us know of on-line articles, reviews or translations, then contact us:
Contents
Keeping Alive the Spirit of Revolt: Some thoughts on Albert Meltzer and his writings
o Industrial Britain on the Move!
o Anarcho-syndicalism: an outline of constructive anarchism
o Social Revolution – Genuine Brand
o “National Independence”
o Objections to Anarchism: What’s in a name?
o Workers’ Control and the Wage System
o Anarchism and the working class: a reply
o Anarchists & Organisation: Towards Carrara
o Objections to Anarchism: The Marxist-Leninist Critique of Anarchism
o Transition and the right to well-being
o What is the middle class?
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Harbinger of Anarchism
Joseph Déjacque, the first libertarian
o On the Male and Female Human-Being – Letter to P.J. Proudhon
o Authority — Dictatorship
o The Servile War
o Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853 at the tomb of Louise Julien, exile
Daniel Guérin, Proudhon and Bakunin
o From Proudhon to Bakunin
o Bakunin: a libertarian communist before the term was coined
Ungovernable: An Interview with Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
‘Illusions should not be strengthened, but dispelled’: An Interview with Vadim Damier
Reviews
o The Cost of Racism
o A Towering Flame
Parish Notices
A New World in Our Hearts