Elisée Reclus, Preface to Words of a Rebel, a book about Peter Kropotkin.
Continue reading Elisée Reclus: #Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel – #anarchism
Elisée Reclus: #Kropotkin’s Words of a Rebel – #anarchism
Tag: Peter Kropotkin
#Kropotkin and #Lenin by David Shub
David Shub’s essay on the relationship between Lenin and Kropotkin was was written shortly after the author’s biography of Lenin in 1948 and draws a striking contrast between the two famous Russian revolutionaries. While initially deferential to the gentle and polite Kropotkin – at the time far more famous and influential both inside and outside Russia than the Bolshevik leader – Lenin quickly came to despise Kropotkin and his constant criticism of Bolshevism. The anarchist proclaimed Lenin’s government would be the “burial of the Russian Revolution”. Kropotkin’s predictions of the horrors of the Bolshevik State (“a Soviet Union only in name”) came true even before his death in 1921, and foretold the horrors of the Stalinist regime to come. This pamphlet is a brief illustration of their strained relationship and history.
Peter #Kropotkin: Letter to #Lenin (4 March 1920) – #anarchism
“Even if the dictatorship of the party were an appropriate means to bring about a blow to the capitalist system (which I strongly doubt), it is nevertheless harmful for the creation of a new socialist system. What are necessary and needed are local institutions, local forces; but there are none, anywhere.”
Continue reading Peter #Kropotkin: Letter to #Lenin (4 March 1920) – #anarchism
#Kropotkin: The Trade Union Congress
Peter Kropotkin about the Trade Union Congress and the social democrats.
Jon Bekken: #Kropotkin’s Anarchist Critique of Capitalism
Peter Kropotkin devoted a major part of his prolific anarchist writings to two related themes: examining the actual workings of capitalist economies and developing the broad outlines of an anarchist-communist society. Kropotkin was not satisfied to merely assert that’ a free society was possible, he sought to show how such a society could be constructed from the materials at hand-realizing that a revolutionary movement that failed to consider the problems of production and distribution would quickly collapse. This installment outlines Kropotkin’s critique of capitalist political economy; next issue will turn to his positive economic program. This distinction, however, is somewhat arbitrary, as Kropotkin always preferred to illustrate what might be by pointing to what already was.
Continue reading Jon Bekken: #Kropotkin’s Anarchist Critique of Capitalism
#Kropotkin: An Appeal to the Young
Today it’s the birthday of Peter Kropotkin. Happy Birthday!
“Peter Kropotkin…was recognized by friend and foe as one of the greatest minds…of the nineteenth century… The lucidity and brilliance of his mind combined with his warm-heartedness into the harmonious whole of a fascinating and gracious personality. ” -Emma Goldman
Peter #Kropotkin: The Action of the Masses and the Individual
The following excerpts are taken from an article by Kropotkin, “The Action of the Masses and the Individual,” in which he responds to a letter regarding increased strike activity among the workers in conjunction with May Day demonstrations.
Continue reading Peter #Kropotkin: The Action of the Masses and the Individual
Peter #Kropotkin: The Conquest of Bread
The Conquest of Bread is Peter Kropotkin’s most extensive study of human needs and his outline of the most rational and equi-table means of satisfying them. A combination of detailed historical analysis and far-reaching utopian vision, this is a step-by-step guide to social revolution: the concrete means of achieving it, and the world that humanity’s “constructive genius” is capable of creating.
Peter #Kropotkin: Communism and Anarchy
Editor’s Preface
Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) was one of the greatest anarchist theoreticians of his time. Although he admired the directly democratic and non-authoritarian practices of the traditional peasant village commune, he was never an advocate of small and isolated communal experimentalism. Many people, upon reading his works, have been inspired to found such communities, both in his own time as well as the hippies of the 1960s (a period when Kropotkin’s major works were epublished and influential). Kropotkin did not consider such ventures were likely to be successful or useful in achieving wider revolutionary goals. His friend, Elisee Reclus, who had been involved in such a venture in South America in his youth, was even more hostile to small communal experiments. It is a pity that some of the founders of the many hippy communes in the 1960s (nearly all of which faded rather quickly) did not read Kropotkin more carefully. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as many anarchists, communists and socialists had made a century before them. In the anarchist press today one still finds adverts for prospective small and isolated anarchist colonies. Also, many commentaries about Kropotkin still misrepresent him as having had a vision of society consisting of unfederated and independent village-like settlements and of advocating small communal experiments as a means of achieving an anarchist society. The following speech and two ‘open’ letters, which have not been in print for a century, clearly show, that although not emotionally opposed to such ventures, he was highly sceptical about their chances of success and generally believed them to be a drain upon the energies of the anarchist movement. Despite his warnings, these articles also contain much good and practical advice to those who are still tempted to found small experimental communes in the wilderness, or perhaps, those tempted in some future era to colonise space.
Graham Purchase
#Anarchism Peter #Kropotkin’s Last Letter
The following letter was written by Peter Kropotkin to his friend, De Reijger, the Dutch anarchist, who had invited him to come to stay at Haarlem:
“Moscow, Dmitrooka,
“December, 23rd, 1920.
