Obviously I am unable to make myself understood to the Spanish speaking comrades, at least as regards my ideas on the labor movement and on the role of anarchists within it.
I tried to explain these ideas in an article that was published in El Productor on 8th January (an article whose heading, ‘The Labor Movement and Anarchism’ was wrongly translated as ‘Syndicalism and Anarchism’). But from the response that I saw in those issues of El Productor that reached me I see I haven’t managed to make myself understood. I will therefore return to the subject in the hope of greater success this time.
The question is this: I agree with the Spanish and South American comrades on the anarchist goals that mus... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Errico Malatesta (Umanità Nova, n. 192, October 14, 1922)
My latest article on this topic drew the attention of many comrades and procured me numerous questions and remarks.
Perhaps I was not clear enough; perhaps I also disturbed the mental habits of some, who love to rest on traditional formulas more than tormenting their brain, and are bothered by anything that forces them to think.
In any case I will try to make myself clearer, and I will be happy if those who consider what I say quite heretical will enter the discussion and contribute to define a practical program of action, which can be used as a guide in the next social upheavals.
So far our propagandists have been mainly concerned with criticizing the presen... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
Some comrades have been horrified by the observations I have made here and there recently on the relation between Science and Anarchy, and particularly by my having described, as absurd, Kropotkin’s definition of Anarchy: Anarchy is a concept of the universe based on a mechanistic interpretation of the phenomena which embrace nature as a whole, not excluding society.
These comrades fail to understand what I meant, and clearly the fault is mine. Since they make me to have said that I believe science and philosophyhave nothing to do with anarchism; and have indulged in demonstrating the great merits of science. Anarchism, they say, is a general concept of life, therefore a philosophy, without touching in any way upon the point I ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
• "The authoritarians, the rulers, either believe they hold an infallible formula, or must pretend to hold it, as they intend to lay down and impose the law. However, all history shows that the law's only use is to defend, strengthen and perpetuate the interests and prejudices prevailing at the time the law is made, thus forcing mankind to move from revolution to revolution, from violence to violence." • "On the contrary, we do not boast that we possess absolute truth; we believe that social truth is not a fixed quantity, good for all times, universally applicable, or determinable in advance, but that instead, once freedom has been secured, mankind will go forward discovering and acting gradually with the least number of upheavals and with a minimum of friction. Thus our solutions always leave the door open to different and, one hopes, better solutions." • "To me a policeman is worse than a criminal, at least than a minor common criminal; a policeman is more dangerous and harmful to society. However, if people do not feel sufficiently protected by the public, no doubt they immediately call for the policeman. Therefore, the only way of preventing the policeman from existing is to make him useless by replacing him in those functions that constitute a real protection for the public."
With the civilized world in ruins, the masses, understandably, began to feel the need for Security. Gradually, it became clear that there were two forms of security that they could turn to. One, conservatism: the preservation of as much of the established order as possible. Alternatively, dictatorship, the security of the slave state.
The hectic postwar years showed quite clearly again that increasing numbers of people were deliberately turning against independent thinking, and turning to either the policy of “enjoy yourself while you can” (essentially complementary to conservatism) or that of “follow the leader” (essentially the policy of dictatorship).
We are faced to-day with the two systems, therefo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Everything in current social evolution indicates an increased reinforcement of society’s powers, an increasingly marked tendency towards the encroachment of the collective on the individual.
Everything equally indicates that on the part of most individuals this encroachment will be less and less felt, and will provoke less and less resistance and rebellion. Social conformism and optimism will thus clearly have the last word. Society will emerge victorious over the individual. There will come a moment when social chains will wound almost no one, lacking people sufficiently in love with independence and sufficiently individualized to feel these chains and suffer from them. Lacking combatants, the combat will come to an end. The s... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Published: in International Council Correspondence Vol. 1, no.1, October 1934, pp 11-14. Source: Antonie Pannekoek Archives Transcribed: by Graham Dyer
Any speculation regarding the possibilities of the German labor
movement must take into account, not merely the aims of the various
organizations, but the structural transformations in modern society
during the last decade. This change in the economic setup, together with
its political consequences, is likewise the indispensable key to the
complete understanding of fascism.
In the present crisis, the monopolist form of economy develops within
itself stagnating tendencies directed economically against the
laissez-faire principle and politically against "formal democracy". The
... (From: Marxists.org.)
Division of labor, which has had so much to do with bringing us to the present global crisis, works daily to prevent our understanding the origins of this horrendous present. Mary Lecron Foster (1990) surely errs on the side of understatement in allowing that anthropology is today “in danger of serious and damaging fragmentation.” Shanks and Tilley (1987b) voice a rare, related challenge: “The point of archaeology is not merely to interpret the past but to change the manner in which the past is interpreted in the service of social reconstruction in the present.” Of course, the social sciences themselves work against the breadth and depth of vision necessary to such a reconstruction. In terms of human origins and deve... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Source: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/nov99/sylvia.html;
Article “The Future Society” originally published in One Big Union
Bulletin, 2 August 1923.
The words Socialism and Communism have the same meaning. They indicate a
condition of society in which the wealth of the community: the land and the
means of production, distribution and transport are held in common, production
being for use and not for profit.
Socialism being an ideal towards which we are working, it is natural that
there should be some differences of opinion in that future society. Since we are
living under Capitalism it is natural that many people’s ideas of Socialism
should be colored by their experiences of life under the pres... (From: Marxists.org.)
Introduction
During the McLibel trial it was suggested that there is nothing wrong with raising chickens on a battery farm as long as they had been born into such conditions. Chickens who had never seen a farm-yard, grown up in a normal chicken family, sunbathed in the hay (chickens do, apparently) or sheltered from the cool rain could not, as though by definition, be stressed by missing these things. Indeed they could not be said to suffer, because they thought their crowded shed was all that there was to life and expected no more. This seems a fitting analogy to the human condition under the tyrannies of capitalism and the state. Those who lead a relaxed and enjoyable, even decadent lifestyle feel no guilt about depriving the world&rsq... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Revolt Library 
Anarchism 
