Audible Anarchism

Revolutionary Unity by Nestor Makhno

Read the full essays here:

http://nestormakhno.info/english/revdisc.htm

http://nestormakhno.info/english/struggle.htm

http://nestormakhno.info/english/newplatform/introduction.htm

 

Nestor Makhno (1888-1934) was a Ukrainian revolutionary anarchist, military leader, and writer. He led the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution, which helped defeat the tsarist forces and establish the Ukrainian Free Territory (1917-1921). Because the anarchist project in Ukraine threatened the Bolsheviks' monopoly on power following the Russian Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky instructed the Red Army to destroy the Free Territory and murder or imprison anarchists. Makhno went into exile, eventually settling in Paris, France. He joined the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad and published writings about anarchism and the Russian Revolution.

These three essays are glimpses of Makhno's theories on revolutionary praxis. Along with other members of the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad, he developed platformism, the anarchist philosophy that says that revolutionaries should adopt unified ideologies, strategies, and tactics to ensure the success of anarchist revolutions. Makhno believed that the splintered anarchist movement ensured that anarchism of any stripe would never succeed. Instead, he proposed the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists to address the lack of unity between individual anarchists, national anarchist movements, and the international struggle against the state and capitalism. The platform suggests that anarchists must try to agree upon a united set of goals and principles to destroy the state, tactics to achieve those goals, and strategies to organize society after the state is abolished.

Advice to Comrades by Elisee Reclus

Full text here:https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/elisee-reclus-advice-to-my-anarchist-comrades

“In a word, commercial competition, under the paternal aegis of the law, allows the great majority of merchants-— and this fact is attested to in countless medical inquests-— adulterate provisions and drink, sell pernicious substances as wholesome food, and kill by slow poisoning… Let people say what they will, slavery, which abolitionists strove so gallantly to extirpate in America, prevails in another form in every civilized country; for entire populations, placed between the alternatives of death by starvation and toils which they detest, are constrained to choose the latter. And if we would deal frankly with the barbarous society to which we belong, we must acknowledge that murder, albeit disguised under a thousand insidious and scientific forms, still, as in the times of primitive savagery, terminates the majority of lives.”
― Élisée Reclus

Army of Altruists by David Graeber

Full text https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-army-of-altruists

David Graeber (1961- ) is an anarchist, anthropologist, and activist who currently holds a professorship in anthropology at the London School of Economics. Graeber has written extensively on theories of value, social theory, direct action, and ethnographic theory. He participated in the Occupy movement and is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

In this essay, Graeber links the psychological impulses of bullying--both of bullies and of passive observers of bullying--to structures of power inherent within hierarchical authority. He contends that from a young age, we are socialized to side with bullies and against victims, and we are socialized to see victims as either deserving their punishment or of having the same moral worth as the bullies themselves.

Syndicalism the Modern Menace to Capitalism by Emma Goldman

Full text here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-syndicalism-the-modern-menace-to-capitalism

 

This recording is a mirror of a recording by our comrade and fellow youtuber TheAnarchistSpectacle:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmjdp1zvCaLOR4VOrpGz6mA

Solidarity in Liberty: The Workers' Path to Freedom by Mikhail Bakunin

Read the full text: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/writings/ch04.htm

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) was a revolutionary anarchist who became one of history's most influential anarchist thinkers. He founded the collectivist anarchist tradition and helped bring social anarchism to prominence in Europe. He also participated directly in numerous struggles and revolutions during his lifetime.

Power Corrupts the Best - Mikhail Bakunin

Full text available here: http://libcom.org/library/power-corrupts-the-best-mikhail-bakunin

Reading Courtesy of fellow youtuber Reddebrek:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyhoKI98zPwE5RkfPq8vh1A 

"From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots." - Mikhail Bakunin

Neither Lord nor Subject by Bao Jingyan

Full text: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/neither-lord-nor-subject

Pao Ching-yen (zh:鮑敬言) (also transliterated as Bao Jingyan) was a Chinese Taoist libertarian philosopher who lived 405-466 AD.

A successor of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou in the politically-ethically libertarian strain of Taoism, Pao Ching-yen was, according to Etienne Balazs “China’s first political anarchist.” He extended the arguments in the Zhuangzi to deeply critique State authority and power.

Anarchist Taoist emblem courtesy of kronik29, you can find more of their work here: https://www.deviantart.com/kronik29/art/Anarcho-taoist-Emblem-140709637

Taoism and Anarchism

Full Text http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/josh-anarchism-and-taoism

Anarchism is usually considered a recent, Western phenomenon, but its roots reach deep in the ancient civilizations of the East. The first clear expression of an anarchist sensibility may be traced back to the Taoists in ancient China from about the sixth century BC. Indeed, the principal Taoist work, the Tao te Ching, may be considered one of the greatest anarchist classics.

Anarchy and Communism by Carlo Cafiero

Full text here https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/carlo-cafiero-anarchy-and-communism

"My friends, let us hurry on the Revolution as quickly as we can, since, as you see, our enemies are letting us die like this - in prison or in exile, or crazed with sorrow" - Spoken by Cafiero at Giuseppe Fanelli's funeral.

"The common wealth being scattered right across the planet, while belonging to the whole of humanity, those who happen to be within reach of that wealth and in a position to make use of it will utilise it in common. . . . As part of humanity, they will exercise here, in fact and directly, their rights over a portion of mankind's wealth. But should an inhabitant of Peking visit this country, he would enjoy the same rights as the rest, in common with the others, he would enjoy all the wealth of the country, just as he would have in Peking." [From Anarchy and Communism, a report given by Cafiero to the Congress of the Jura Federation of the IWMA in 1880. In Daniel Guérin, No Gods, No Masters, Book 1, p. 250]

"Carlo was first of all great for his inner nature, for the affect treasure, for the ingenuousness of his faith. These memories must not be lost, even today that there is the need to elevate the moral level of anarchists, who must react against the egoism and brutality that invade us, to return to unselfishness, to the sacrificial spirit, to the sentiment of love, of which Carlo was such a splendid example". - Errico Malatesta, in a letter to Serafino Mazzotti.

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

Read the full text https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-on-the-phenomenon-of-bullshit-jobs-a-work-rant

David Graeber (1961- ) is an anarchist, anthropologist, and activist who currently holds a professorship in anthropology at the London School of Economics. Graeber has written extensively on theories of value, social theory, direct action, and ethnographic theory. He participated in the Occupy movement and is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In this essay, Graeber links the psychological impulses of bullying--both of bullies and of passive observers of bullying--to structures of power inherent within hierarchical authority. He contends that from a young age, we are socialized to side with bullies and against victims, and we are socialized to see victims as either deserving their punishment or of having the same moral worth as the bullies themselves.