From: Bakunin's Writings, Guy A. Aldred Modern Publishers, Indore Kraus Reprint co. New York 1947
SOLIDARITY IN LIBERTY
Michael Bakunin
The Workers Path To Freedom (1867)
From this truth of practical solidarity or fraternity of struggle that I have laid down as the first principle of the Council of Action flows a theoretical consequence of equal importance. The workers are able to unite as a class for class economic action because all religious philosophies, and systems of morality which prevail in any given order of society are always the ideal expression of its real, material situation. Theologies, philosophies and ethics define, first of all, the economic Organization of society; and secondly, the political organization, wh... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Stateless Socialism: Anarchism
by Mikhail Bakunin 1814-1876
From "The Political Philosophy of Bakunin"
by G.P. Maximoff
1953, The Free Press, NY
Effect of the Great Principles Proclaimed by the French Revolution. From the time when the Revolution brought down to the masses its Gospel - not the mystic but the rational, not the heavenly but the earthly, not the divine but the human Gospel, the Gospel of the Rights of Man - ever since it proclaimed that all men are equal, that all men are entitled to liberty and equality, the masses of all European countries, of all the civilized world, awakening gradually from the sleep which had kept them in bondage ever since Christianity drugged them with its opium, began to ask them... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Editor’s Note
The preparation of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. I am grateful to the Endowment and its staff for their support and encouragement.
I wish to express my thanks to Professor Paul Avrich of Queens College of the City University of New York, and Professor Paul Gagnon of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, who generously took the time to read parts of the manuscript and shared their wisdom with me.
Introduction
The reign of Nicholas I, it has often been noted, displays a curious paradox: one of the most repressive periods in the history of imperial Russia, it was also a time of remarkable intellectu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Brothers,
I am an old and close friend, I can say the brother of Christophe [Giuseppe Fanelli?], the friend and brother whom many among you certainly have not forgotten. With him, I was one of the first founders of the Alliance. And it is by this double title that I address myself to you, Brothers of the Alliance.
Some unfortunate dissensions produced by struggles of pride between brothers who seem to have sacrificed our great purpose, the triumph of the universal, social revolution, to that of their vanity and their personal ambitions, have had as last result the dissolution of the Alliance in Madrid.
I set myself up as the judge of no one, but in the name of our principles as well as in that of all our brothers, I mus... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) First Letter
Friends and Brothers,
I feel the need, before leaving your mountains, to express to you once again in writing my profound gratitude for the fraternal reception you have accorded me. Is it not a wonderful thing that a man, a Russian, a one-time noble, completely unknown to you when he arrived here, found himself surrounded by hundreds of friends almost the very moment that he set foot in your country? Such miracles no longer happen these days, except at the hands of the International Workingmen’s Association, and that for one simple reason: the International alone represents today the historical life, the creative power of the social and political future. Those who are united by a living body of thought, by a... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) 24 July 1870
Neufchatel
Dear Friend:
In the name of god I beg you not to do anything stupid, that is, not to fool around, to follow our advice, and to believe that every word in my letter to Talandier, that I ask that you read, is correct. It’s a question of your safety, and you'll understand this once you've taken the trouble to understand every word of that letter.
It would be good of you, and you would render an enormous service to our sacred common cause if you could find a way to take back from Nechaev all the documents he stole from us, as well as his. But I'm afraid that you've lost your edge and your former agility, which is why I beg you in your own interest to completely cut yourself off from Nech... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) [The two Camps, which is here included, was translated by "Crastinus" from Bakunin's preface to his pamphlet refuting Mazini's theisic idealism. This work was published in the year 1871. At this time Italy witnessed the breaking-up of the workers' associations, guided by the patriotic spirit, and saw the spreading of the ideals of International Socialism, as well as the conflict between the capitalist and the working class conceptions of life. After nearly fifty years, the vibrating audacity of Bakunin's thought, their penetrating inwardness, their generosity are as alive as ever. ---ED.]
You taunt us with disbelieving in God. We charge you with believing in him. We do not condemn you for this. We do not even indict you. We pity you. ... (From: Anarchy Archives.) What is authority? Is it the inevitable power of the natural laws which
manifest themselves in the necessary linking and succession of
phenomena in the physical and social worlds? Indeed, against these laws
revolt is not only forbidden - it is even impossible. We may
misunderstand them or not know them at all, but we cannot disobey them;
because they constitute the basis and the fundamental conditions of our
existence; they envelop us, penetrate us, regulate all our movements.
thoughts and acts; even when we believe that we disobey them, we only
show their omnipotence.
Yes, we are absolutely the slaves of these laws. But in such
slavery there is no humiliation, or, rather, it is not slavery at all.
For slavery supposes an exter... (From: Flag.Blackened.net.) From: Bakunin's Writings, Guy A. Aldred Modern Publishers, Indore Kraus Reprint co. New York 1947
WHERE I STAND
By Michael Bakunin
I am a passionate seeker after truth (and no less embittered enemy of evil doing fictions) which the party of order, this official, privileged and interested representative of all the past and present religions, metaphysical, political, juridical and "social" atrociousness claim to employ even today only to make the world stupid and enthralled it, I am a fanatical lover of truth and freedom which I consider the only surroundings in which intelligence, consciousness and happiness develop and increase.
I do not mean the completely formal freedom which the State imposes, judges and regulates, this ete... (From: Anarchy Archives.) from Bakunin (1920). God and the State. ed. G. Aldred. Glasgow and London: Bakunin Press.
THE WORKERS AND THE SPHINX.
(1867)
I.The Council of Action claims for each the full product of his labor: meaning by that his complete and equal right to enjoy, in common with his fellow-workers, the full amenities of life and happiness that the collective labor of the People creates. The Council declares that it is wrong for those who produce nothing at all to be able to maintain their insolent riches, since they do so only by the work of others. Like the Apostle Paul,the Council maintains that,if any would not work, neither should he eat."
The Council of Action avers that the right to the noble name of labor belongs exclusively to prod... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.
The workers necessarily strive after a fundamental transformation of society, the result of which must be the abolition of classes, equally in economic as in political respects: after a system of society in which all men will enter the world under special conditions, will be able to unfold and develop themselves, work and enjoy the good things of life. These are the demands of justice.
But how can we from the abyss of ignorance, of misery and slavery, in which the workers on the land and in the cities are sunk, arrive at that paradise, the realization of justice and manhood? For this the workers have one means: the Associa... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
