Translator's notes and a link to the revised translation of the Program, Preliminary Address and first three Studies of Proudhon's "Of Justice in the Revolution and in the Church."

#proudhon #workingtranslations #anarchisttheory #anarchisthistory #mutualism

https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/featured-articles/justice-in-the-revolution-and-in-the-church-volume-one-translators-notes/

A progress report, as the translation project begins its next phase: https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/new-proudhon-library/a-rough-justice-and-more/

#proudhon #workingtranslations #newproudhonlibrary #mutualism #anarchisttheory #anarchisthistory

New draft translation: P.-J. Proudhon, “The Right to Work and the Right of Property” (1848) — This is a fascinating text, which is one of the largely unexplored links between the memoirs on property in the early 1840s and works like "Theory of Property."

https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/new-proudhon-library/p-j-proudhon-le-droit-au-travail-et-le-droit-de-propriete-1848-2/

#workingtranslations #proudhon #anarchisttheory #anarchism #mutualism

I have completed a rough translation of the Foreward, the long chapter on War, the Counterproposal and the Epilogue from Proudhon's completed, but ultimately unpublished 1859 book "How Business is Going in France And Why We Will Have War,

If We Have It: On the New Proposed Agreements Between the Railway Companies and the State." Folks who have read "War and Peace" or are familiar with his writings on political geography and the question of natural boundaries will find parts of the material familiar.
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/proudhon-library/comment-les-affaires-vont-en-france-excerpts-1859/
#proudhon #workingtranslations #anarchisttheory #mutualisthistory

I went back and finished the translation of a letter from Proudhon to Grandclément, in which he discusses "Theory of Property," "The Federative Principle," etc. (Patreon subscribers also got another letter from the same series.)
https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/working-translations/more-on-proudhons-theory-of-property/ #proudhon #anarchism #anarchisttheory #mutualism

The first section of "Justice in the Revolution and in the Church," "Popular Philosophy: Program" is now online in draft form — and I'll be announcing a group reading on Reddit sometime soon. #anarchism #anarchisttheory #mutualism #proudhon #workingtranslations #newproudhonlibrary

https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/NPL-Justice-Program.pdf

Documenting the history of anarchist ideas sometimes means translating material that just isn't particularly good. The sections of Beauchery's "Économie sociale de P. J. Proudhon" probably fall into the category of "important for other reasons than their brilliance." Still, what we have here is someone attempting a popularization of some of Proudhon's key philosophical ideas in the years immediately following his death. The text marks one road not taken for anarchist thought. #anarchisttheory #proudhon #anarchisthistory #mutualism

I think a *solid* anarchist theory must be understandable. This must also mean that if you naively interpret it, it must make sense. Why? Most people won't read the theory in its full complexity, so even if the full message is good, just the fact that a naive interpretation of the theory is toxic, makes it harder to spread, and attracts bad people.

For example: Stirner. I haven't read him, but I assume that there is something to be gained there. I think it can radical to think of your own needs and seek joy in live. But if the naive version of the theory says: "being an asshole to everyone is based actually," then it's harmful (even if Stirner proposes a union of egoists or whatever).*

An example of a good, solid theory is for me the good old 'power corrupts' principle of anarchism. That no matter who sits on the throne, the problem is the existence of the throne itself. It makes sense, it's empirically validated, leads to good praxis. But also, it's a result of a long and deep tradition of thought (post-structuralism etc.), so if you wanna be a nerd, you can.

So: if a naive oversimplification** of your theory still makes sense, it is a solid theory (that's how I define solid in this context). And I think solid theories should be pursued.

The complement of my thesis I call *generalised anarchism*. That you can take the most superficial anarchist slogan and develop some theory behind it, try thinking why it might be justified, and that's going to lead you to interesting places.

For example: anarchists want to abolish borders. But I find it interesting and productive to also think about the abolition of borders in the context of bio-centrism. If we stop thinking of people as *in environment* and start thinking of ourselves as *a part of the environment*, we gain more empathy and with this we can find new ways of living without hurting the planet. Effectively, this thinking means the abolition of borders between humans and non-humans.

Another example are cops. Anarchists hate officers of the law (cuz they hate the law duh), but in a generalised sense (and this is a popular feminist idea), every sexist/rapist is a cop, because they uphold the patriarchy - even if they are not getting paid. They are a generalised cop.
Similarly, each of us have a cop in our head that police our actions (since we've been raised in an abusive society, we also learned to control others). And we need to kill this cop in order to set ourselves free.

*Note: this is obviously contingent on our culture. A simplification of Stirner could also be: "seek joy for yourself, it is valid" and that would have been maybe more productive -> but it didn't spread.
**Ofc, liberals will always misrepresent our theory. Again, this is contingent, we have to assume no ill-willed interpretations.

#GeneralisedAnarchism
#AnarchistTheory

I've posted a very unpolished parallel translation of the "Preliminary Discourse" from Proudhon's "Justice," showing the changes from the 1858 to the 1860 edition. The Drafts file sits at 31,164 words completed—not a lot of ground covered yesterday, but the tricky collation work necessary to get started on the next section is all done. #anarchism #proudhon #mutualism #anarchisttheory #workingtranslations https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/new-proudhon-library/justice-in-the-revolution-and-in-the-church-preliminary-discourse-parallel-english/

The year's big project is an attempt to produce draft translations of as much of Proudhon's "Justice in the Revolution and in the Church" as I can, together with some related texts. (Proudhon's "How Business is Going in France" and "The Pornocracy," and Jenny d'Héricourt's "Woman Emancipated" are on the top of that other stack.) The early stages are a slightly maddening mix of revision of existing translations, new translation and prepping text for later stages.

Today's update: 20,279 words in the "Drafts" file this morning. Interest in Jenny d'Héricourt among the mutualist sociology crowd inspired me to set up the two volumes of "La Femme Affranchie" for completion last night, gathering up the various pieces of the partial 19th century translation and my own unshared work for revision. It looks like there is only about 25,000 words total to be completed in draft form—although setting up the parallel French/English pages makes me wonder if the generally faithful 19th century translation was quite complete in some sections. Even with that work, I think I'm on track to share the revision of the "Program" and a draft of the "Preliminary Address" by this weekend.

#anarchism #proudhon #mutualism #anarchisttheory #workingtranslations

So I rarely speak theory, but when I do it usually looks like this: I see a lot of different #Anarcho labels (and a couple of Marxists) have come onboard recently, first of all, thank you, welcome, I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

Over the years I have self-labeled as almost every flavor of #Anarchist (save for those who are obviously oxymorons; yes ancaps I am indeed looking at you) like most I did so even before I actually was one, like few I have done so since forever, the reason for that is that my father was an abusive P.O.S profem masculinist Nietzschean who self id'd as an Anarchist. If anything for me #Praxis started with challenging him, and believe me being raised amongst that crowd did NOT make my political trajectory easier. Far from it, deconstructing their contradictions was no easy task.
[Sidenote: I hate to be gatekeepy but this and sadly too many subsequent experiences have convinced me that the low cost of self-labeling as an anarchist is a serious issue, an opsec issue and worse even more often than not a safety issue.]

I'm wary of #labels (and even more so of online label based in-fighting), while I've from a very young age enjoyed reading a lot of theory, I ain't a theorist nor tbh do I particularly enjoy theory conversations, they serve a very important purpose, no doubt about that, but I don't enjoy them (even less so IRL).

#AnarchistTheory without praxis is just circle-jerking and virtue-signaling, labels can be helpful online and in other spaces where we can't openly talk about or do #Praxis, it helps weed out the openly problematic ones and defines the limits of a common language but it often draws unnecessary lines (not to mention attracts the follow police) I ain't gonna peddle no Anarchist or left Unity bullshit, even less so relativism, but praxis is where it's at, and meaningful praxis is many fold, draws it's inspiration from most kind of flavors of #Anarchism (or at least it should), in the same way that there is no magic bullet to fix climate change, there is no one size fits all framework for Anarchism (especially not if we ever hope to scale) anything else is just #cosplay at best and #dogmatism at worst, more often than not both.

Those who know me from previous accounts won't be surprised from where I'm going with this, if anything the surprise is that this account is almost 2 months old and I still haven't done a post like this one: this is about telling you that reading William Gillis is fucking worth it, it will challenge you and few people are as consistent, thought-provoking, pertinent and unafraid to be unpopular when needed.

This post is mainly for my newfound ancoms and marxist-adjacent moots, don't get hung up on the word "market", while I, of course, don't agree with everything they wrote, I have yet to find a more meaningful contemporary theorist or complete/consistent framework.

Following and reading @rechelon work (which -and this is an understatement- has some fucking range) is amongst the best things you can do to keep your thoughts in movement.

As for me if you ask me what kind of anarchist I am, the honest answer would be that that depends on the time of the day and the project (praxis) I'm currently busy with.

#AnarchistReadingList
"What's the Point If We Can't Have Fun?" by David Graeber.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/whats-the-point-if-we-cant-have-fun
I love David's writing, and I mean love like real love. If you've never read Graeber before, this is as good a starting point as any.
#anachism #anarchy #anarchisttheory #readinglist #leftist #INeverReallyUnderstoodHowToUseHashtags #ButIDoWantToShareDavidsWritingWithAsManyPeopleAsPossible

Does anyone know good sources for #AnarchistAudiobooks ?
Trying to get through @Anark 's essential reading list, but I very rarely take the time to sit down and read.
#AnarchistTheory #anarchism

I'm sharing this cause I saw it through Thought Slime the other day, this channel is called Audio Anarchy and they read anarchist literature. As a dyslexic person I've been feeling sad about not being able to read anarchist theory for a while now, and with this I'm feeling very happy and included rn😊

#anarchy #audioanarchy #anarchism #anarchisttheory #leftisttheory #anarchocommunism #audiobooks #accessibility #dyslexia #dyslexic

https://youtube.com/c/AudioAnarchy