Working Translations

Working Translations

Paraf-Javal, “Authority” (1907)

January 9, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

To date, all societies have been established according the principle of authority. Even what we mistakenly call socialism is as form of this principle. The delegation of its powers to a minority charged with distributing everything in the best interests of the collectivity (collectivism), amounts to an abandonment of its rights. The comrades who distribute will be privileged, governors and oppressors, while the others will be exploited, governed and oppressed. […]

Working Translations

“Protest of the Mutuellistes” (1834)

December 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Society of the Mutuellistes of Lyon, placed by the mere fact of their will outside the political circle, thought they should fear not aggression on the part of the men in power, when the law against the associations came to reveal their error to them; that monstrous law, a work of the most savage vandalism, violating the most sacred rights, orders the members of that society to break the links that unite them and separate! The Mutuellistes have had to investigate and deliberate. […]

Sébastien Faure
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Sébastien Faure, “Twelve Proofs of the Non-Existence of God” (1908)

November 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Can any sensible and thoughtful man be found who could accept the existence of this God—of whom we speak as if he was not shrouded in any mystery, as if we were ignorant of nothing about him, as if we had penetrated all his thought and as if we had received all his confidences: “He has done this and done that, and then this and then that. He has said this and that, and then again that. He has acted and spoken with this aim and for that reason. He desires this thing, but he forbids this other thing. He will reward these actions and punish those others. And he has done this and wants that because he is infinitely wise, infinitely just, infinitely powerful, infinitely good”? […]

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Félix Frenay, “The Law” (1864) (FR/EN)

November 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

It is truly interesting to observe that over the course of the centuries that history allows us to nous survey, the human mind, in its slow, but continual march, while undermining institutions, beliefs and prejudices, while attacking all the abominations, has always made one exception. Indeed, when all the religions have fallen or totter on their foundations, one alone will remain upright and solid… and that is the law. […]

Working Translations

E. Armand, “The Anarchist Entente—A Concrete Proposal” (1928)

November 5, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Let us recognize it frankly and make our mea culpa. The rivalries between tendencies, circles and organizers have poisoned anarchism. There is a means of putting an end to that lamentable state of things, and it is the conclusion of a pact between the newspapers favorable to the reconciliation of the different tendencies of anarchism, by the terms of which they will promise to insert no polemic that is hurtful, abusive or malign, tending to undervalue, harm, prejudice or hinder the development and action of every group, social circle, organizer and publication adhering to the pact. I am convinced that the day when this contract is finalized and held in earnest, something will have changed in the anarchist world. […]

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Hector Morel, “Nationalities Considered from the Point of View of Liberty” (1862)

November 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

If there are words that we have used and abused, which we use and abuse every day, they are unquestionably the words nation and homeland. Everything in society which aims to muzzle and exploit the people, to paralyze and hold back the development of human intelligence, is always and invariably advanced in the name of the homeland: Laws and regulations, ordinances and decrees, scaffolds and prisons, police and gendarmes, etc., etc., all this hideous paraphernalia of chains and slavery, of plunder and misery, of exploitation and servitude, has only been invented, only exists, in the interest of the good order and internal security of nations. […]