Revolt Library : Revolutionary Materials from the Past

THE SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA: HENRIK IBSEN AN ENEMY OF SOCIETY Dr. Thomas Stockmann is called to the position of medical adviser to the management of the "Baths," the main resource of his native town. A sincere man of high ideals, Dr. Stockmann returns home after an absence of many years, full of the spirit of enterprise and progressive innovation. For as he says to his brother Peter, the town Burgomaster, "I am so glad and content. I feel so unspeakably happy in the midst of all this growing, germinating life. After all, what a glorious time we do live in. It is as if a new world were springing up around us." Burgomaster. Do you really think so? Dr. Stockmann. Well, of course, you can't see this as clearly as I do. You've spent all your life in this place, and so your perceptions have been dulled. But I, who had to live up there in that small hole in the north all those...

Published: Bulletin of the Provisional Bureau in Amsterdam of the Communist International, vol. 1, no. ?. February 1920. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2017. These differences can partly be traced back to the days of the rise of Communism. The opposition in Germany during the war, against the government and social democracy, had its origin in various centers and in various ways. K. Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (with Fr. Mehring) maintained an unflinching and inexorable opposition against the war-policy, by means often of illegal writings, and were therefore kept in prison most of the time. The "Spartacus" group which they created constituted the extreme left wing of the "Unabhängige Sozialistische Partei" (the U.S.P., which, under Haase and Kautsky carried on a timid opposition in the spirit of radical socialism) and strove to bring about revolutionary movements. In Bremen and Hamburg the "Internationale" sprang up (org... (From : Marxists.org.)

What It Is and What It Is Not
So you want me to tell you what Anarchism is, do you? I can do no less than make the attempt, and in my own simple way try to make you understand at least that it is not what the uninformed and the capitalistic newspapers, liars, fools and villains generally say it is. In the first place, let me urge upon all who desire to learn the truth about Anarchism not to go to its enemies for information, but to talk with Anarchists and read anarchistic literature. And it is not always safe to take what one, two or even a dozen persons may say about it, either, though they call themselves Anarchists. Take what a goodly number of them say and then cancel those statements in which they are not in accord. What remains in all probability is true. For example, what is Christianity? Ask a dozen or more people and it is likely their answers will not agree in every particular. They may, however, agree upon some fundamental propositions. This more likely to be the correct position of... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Reprint, includes editorial comments by Communicating Vessels
Holley Cantine’s short story Double, Double, Toil and Trouble was originally published in the early ’60s in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. The story was then reproduced in the historical anarchist reprint series released by the publication of anarchist critique and thought known as The Match!. Their version was published in 1987. The message of the story remains relevant. That is why we decided to reproduce it. Years have elapsed since Cantine wrote his story. But some things never seem to change. On the political left and among self-proclaimed anti-statists, there has been a rise of interest in violence-mongering groups like The Weathermen, Hamas and Hezbollah. It is like the ’60s and ’70s all over again. Invoking black magic, Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and his own imaginative skills, Cantine presents an engaging parable about what can happen when a sense of personal responsibility is severed from protest politics... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Comrades, — It has been thought advisable at this period of agitation among the workers, to say a few words as to the attitude which we of the International Revolutionary Socialist Party should assume towards Strikes and the Labor Struggle generally. Some among us would seize every opportunity afforded by labor troubles to organize the hitherto unorganized portion of the workers, to wring even partial concessions in the hope of shorter hours and better pay from their masters, and justify this line of action on the ground that organization in itself is good and raises the mass; also that it will tend to lead to higher results after the first demands have been won. On the other hand, a number of our comrades are opposed to joining in a demand for palliatives, and assert that such a line of agitation is liable, to obscure the higher ideal, viz., the complete overthrow of the wage system, and to cause our speakers to temporize and form questionable alliances for the sake of gain... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

(1981 - )
In 2002, Gelderloos was arrested with several others for trespass in protest of the American military training facility School of the Americas, which trains Latin American military and police. He was sentenced to six months in prison. Gelderloos was a member of a copwatch program in Harrisonburg. In April 2007, Gelderloos was arrested in Spain and charged with disorderly conduct and illegal demonstration during a squatters' protest. He faced up to six years in prison. Gelderloos claimed that he was targeted for his political beliefs. He was acquitted in 2009. (From : Wikipedia.org.)

EZLN and Zapatista Anarchist Active in Mexican Revolutionary Movements

Felipe Correa is the Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor and the chair of Architecture at UVA School of Architecture. He is an internationally renowned architect and urbanist. Working at the confluence of architecture, urbanism, and infrastructure, he has, through his design practice Somatic Collaborative, developed design projects with the public and private sector in multiple cities and regions across the globe. Designing across multiple scales and varied contexts, Correa is known for using architectural commissions, design competitions, and diverse forms of applied research to facilitate design’s role as a critical mediator between society and space. Prior to joining UVA, he was an Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Architecture in Urban Design program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Correa’s forthcoming book, Collective Living and the Architectural Imaginary (with Anthony Averbeck and Devin... (From : Arch.Virginia.edu.)

(1925 - 1984)
Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi (/ˈtrɒki/ TROK-ee; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist. Trocchi was born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and Italian father. After working as a seaman on the Murmansk convoys, he attended the University of Glasgow. On graduation he obtained a traveling grant that enabled him to relocate to continental Europe. In the early 1950s he lived in Paris and edited the literary magazine Merlin, which published Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Christopher Logue, and Pablo Neruda, among others. Although not published in Merlin, American writer Terry Southern, who lived in Paris from 1948−1952, became a close friend of both Trocchi and his colleague Richard Seaver, and the three later co-edited the anthology Writers In Revolt . Though "Merlin" had been established somewhat in rivalry with the Paris Review, George Plimpton also had served on the magazine's editorial board. Trocchi claimed that this journal... (From : Wikipedia.org.)

Eleven days of weariness on board a vessel not intended for the accommodation of passengers have so exhausted my spirits, to say nothing of the other causes, with which you are already sufficiently acquainted, that it is with some difficulty I adhere to my determination of giving you my observations, as I travel through new scenes, whilst warmed with the impression they have made on me. The captain, as I mentioned to you, promised to put me on shore at Arendall or Gothenburg in his way to Elsineur, but contrary winds obliged us to pass both places during the night. In the morning, however, after we had lost sight of the entrance of the latter bay, the vessel was becalmed; and the captain, to oblige me, hanging out a signal for a pilot, bore down towards the shore. My attention was particularly directed to the lighthouse, and you can scarcely imagine with what anxiety I watched two long hours for a boat to emancipate me; still no one appeared. Every clou...

Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks, South End Press, 2000
bell hooks is one of the most prominent and well respected feminist academics and authors in the United States. She is often the subject of study by college students and academics, as well as a frequent guest on talk shows and other mass media. Her work in feminist theory has been groundbreaking, yet it is often limited to academic, literary, and other elite circles. Feminism Is For Everybody is hooks’ attempt to create a quick, simple primer on feminist history, theory, and politics to the masses who receive a misinformed, misunderstood, and maligned version of feminist movement. To that end, she has written an easy to read, concise book which documents her experiences as a feminist activist and academic. As an anarchist with some exposure to hooks’ writings, I have a great deal of respect for her. This was once again reinforced by the content of Feminism Is For Everybody. Whether hooks identifies herself as an anarchist or not, much of what I found in the boo... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

How many are there of the countless millions who have entered this life, passed through its changing scenes and at last have laid down to rest, of whom it can be truly said, “Here rest they who have labored for the uplifting of the oppressed, who have devoted their energies unstintingly in the interest of the ‘common people?’” We fear there are few indeed. A life devoted to the interest of the working class; a life of self-abnegation, a life full of love, kindness, gentleness, tragedy, activity, sadness and kind-ness, are some of the characteristics which went to make up the varied life of our comrade, Louise Michel. In the elderly woman, clad in simple black garments, with gray hair curling upon rounded shoulders and kindest of blue eyes glancing from the strongly marked face, none but those who knew her personally would in the last few years have recognized Louise Michel. Listening to her quiet musical voice, with its slightly ris... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery--the white slave traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard-of conditions," and lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror. It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated. How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to all sociologists, should now be made such an important issue? To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish. Pros... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Paris, Sept. 28. I have written to you three or four letters; but different causes have prevented my sending them by the persons who promised to take or forward them. The enclosed is one I wrote to go by B——; yet, finding that he will not arrive, before I hope, and believe, you will have set out on your return, I enclose it to you, and shall give it in charge to ——, as Mr. —— is detained, to whom I also gave a letter. I cannot help being anxious to hear from you; but I shall not harrass you with accounts of inquietudes, or of cares that arise from peculiar circumstances.—I have had so many little plagues here, that I have almost lamented that I left H——. ——, who is at best a most helpless creature, is now, on account of her pregnancy, more trouble than use to me, so that I still continue to be almost a slave to the child.—She indeed rewards me, for she is a sweet littl...