Black Flag: Anarchist Review Autumn 2024 issue now out

Nov

11

2024

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Black Flag: Anarchist Review Autumn 2024 issue now out

The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:

https://www.blackflag.org.uk

The main focus is anarchism and war, using the example of Kropotkin’s support for the Allies in 1914 as its starting point. We indicate that in 1914 the anarchist movement rose to the challenge and remained overwhelming faithful to its Internationalist principles and show the flaws with Kropotkin’s position and why it failed to gather support in the movement.

The notion – suggested by Lenin and Trotsky – that Kropotkin represented anarchism in his support of the war and that anarchists, in general, supported him is false. In reality, “nothing of the kind happened; only about a hundred anarchists signed the various pronouncements in support of the war; the majority in all countries maintained the anti-militarist position as consistently as the Bolsheviks.” (George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin [London: Boardman, 1950], 380)

We reprint articles from Freedom and Mother Earth although we do include new translations of two replies to The Manifesto of the Sixteen issued in French. We also reprint Kropotkin’s pamphlets entitled La Guerre separated by 30 years – 1882 and 1912 – to show how at odds his position in 1914 was to these well-known statements, although as we show it was not completely alien to his pre-1914 opinions.

Next is Anselmo Lorenzo (1841-1914), a founding member of the Spanish anarchist movement and active in it to his death. Very little of his writings are available in English and we reproduce three pieces by him. We then move onto Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), a British libertarian socialist who was a pioneer on many issues – not least gay liberation. We then mark the birth of Ricardo Flores Magón (1874-1922), the Mexican anarchist who played a key role in his country’s revolution.

We end with Wayne Price’s contribution to the debate started in the last issue on voting, a critique and a response on previous articles in Black Flag on the Ukraine war, Tomás Ibáñez’s account of the birth of the circled-A 60 years ago and a discussion of Ursula Le Guin’s classic SF book The Dispossessed to mark its 50th anniversary.

Original translations which appear in Black Flag: Anarchist Review eventually appear on-line here:

https://anarchistfaq.org/translations/index.html

Next year we aim to continue to cover a range of people and subjects. These should hopefully include the 1905 Russian Revolution and articles on and by the likes of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louisa Sarah Bevington, Alexander Berkman, Elisée Reclus and Luigi Fabbri, amongst others. Plus the usual reviews and news of the movement.

However, this work needs help otherwise at some stage it will end. Contributions from libertarian socialists are welcome on these and other subjects! We are a small collective and always need help in writing, translating and gathering material, so please get in touch if you want to see Black Flag Anarchist Review continue.

This issue’s editorial and contents are:

Editorial

Welcome to the third issue of Black Flag in 2024!

We start with Kropotkin’s decision to support the Allies in World War I, a decision which shocked his comrades given his previous arguments (as shown by the two of Kropotkin’s pamphlets on war, separated by 30 years, which we reprint). We reprint a few articles by Kropotkin (including The Manifesto of the Sixteen) as well as anti-war articles representing the views of the majority of anarchists (we, of course, do not agree with Kropotkin and include them to place the replies to them in context). As these articles show, the pro-war advocates were very much expounding a non-anarchist position and were very much in the minority.

We follow this with works by Anselmo Lorenzo, a key figure in the early decades of Spanish anarchism. A “Bakuninist” in the First International, very little of his writings are available in English and we present three pieces here. Next is Edward Carpenter, an English libertarian socialist who was close to anarchism and who worked with anarchists. Openly gay, he advocated many causes which later – often much later – became mainstream (such as gay rights, sexual liberation, vegetarianism and animal rights). A true pioneer.

We then move onto Ricardo Flores Magón, the Mexican anarchist who played an important role in the Mexican revolution. One historian proclaims the Manifesto to the Workers of the World as “a Marxian program that adhered closely to the IWW’s own preamble.” (William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon [New York: Bloomsbury, 2011], 169) While its call for expropriation undoubtedly matched the I.W.W.’s revolutionary unionist position, that its anarchist politics could be mistaken for Marxist shows a woeful ignorance of Flores Magón’s anarchist-communism – and the negative attitude of the Marxists of the period to such struggles. Hopefully the articles we reprint here will show his anarchist politics clearly.

Wayne Price continues the debate started in the last issue on whether anarchists should vote. This feels like a perennial subject in anarchist ranks but one which needs to be discussed, particularly in the light of changing circumstances. We also include articles on the Ukraine War, a critique of earlier articles in Black Flag and a reply by their author.

We end by marking two anniversaries before our usual round up of news of the movement (“Parish Notes”). These are the 60th anniversary of the circled-A and the 50th of Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. Anarchists, it is fair to say, take our symbols for granted but we should not – we should know why our flag is black, for example (see the appendix in Volume 1 of An Anarchist FAQ). So we are happy to reprint an account of the origins of the circled-A. As for The Dispossessed, it remains the best fictional account of an anarchist society albeit a flawed one – yet the struggle against these flaws in the novel also reflect anarchist theory, a point often overlooked in summaries of it.

If you want to contribute rather than moan at those who do, whether its writing new material or letting us know of on-line articles, reviews or translations, then contact us:

blackflagmag@yahoo.co.uk

Contents

Iain McKay, 1914: World War or Class War

• Peter Kropotkin, War (1882)
• Peter Kropotkin, Wars and Capitalism (1914)
• Nineteen-Fourteen
  • “Blood and Iron”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, September 1914
  • “The Reckoning”, Mother Earth, September 1914
  • Peter Kropotkin, “A Letter on the Present War”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, October 1914
  • H. Keell, “Have the Leopards Changed their Spots?”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, October 1914
  • “If we must fight, let it be for the Social Revolution”, Mother Earth, October 1914
  • Errico Malatesta, “Anarchists Have Forgotten Their Principles”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, November 1914
  • Robert Selkirk, “Kropotkin’s Letter on the War”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, November 1914
  • Alexander Berkman, “In Reply to Kropotkin”, Mother Earth, November, 1914
  • Peter Kropotkin, “Anti-militarism: Was it Properly Understood?”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, November 1914
  • Errico Malatesta, “Anti-Militarism: Was it Properly Understood?”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, December 1914
  • Fred W. Dunn, “Kropotkin’s Letter to Professor Steffen”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, December 1914
  • Peter Kropotkin, “Letter on Current Events”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, December 1914
• Nineteen-Fifteen
  • T. Crick, “Is this the Last War?”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, January 1915
  • “Observations and Comments”, Mother Earth, January 1915
  • Witt Lawman, “Stand We Firm?”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, February 1915
  • International Anarchist Manifesto on the War (March 1915)
  • Errico Malatesta, “While the Carnage Lasts”, Volontà, 3 April 1915
  • Alexander Schapiro, “Looking Forward”, Mother Earth, April 1915
  • Errico Malatesta, “Italy Also!”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, June 1915
  • Rudolf Rocker, “A Study in Fact”, Mother Earth, August 1915
  • Recchioni, “Between Ourselves Where We Have Failed and How We Might Succeed”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, September 1915
  • “Voices From Prison”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, December 1915
• Nineteen-Sixteen
  • Peter Kropotkin, “The Manifesto of the Sixteen”, La Bataille, 14 March 1916
  • Errico Malatesta, “Pro-Government Anarchists”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, April 1916
  • International Anarchist Group of London, Anarchist Declaration (April 1916)
  • Anarchist-Communist Study Group, About the Manifesto of the Sixteen: A Statement and Protest (May 1916)
  • “The Sixteen – And the Rest”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, June 1916
  • Alexandre Ghé, Open Letter to P. Kropotkin (1916)
• Nineteen-Seventeen
  • Ricardo Flores Magón, “The War”, Regeneración (English Section) 21 April 1917
  • “An Open Letter of Peter Kropotkin to the Western Workingmen”, The Railway Review, 29 June 1917
  • “Kropotkin’s Farewell”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, July 1917

Death of Anselmo Lorenzo, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, January 1915

• The Conference in London, El Proletariado Militante : Memorias de un internacional (1901)
• The Labour Movement in Spain, Free Society: A Periodical of Anarchist Thought, Work, and Literature, 5 July 1903
• The Citizen and the Producer: The Objects of the Social Revolution, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, September 1913

1. W., Edward Carpenter, Freedom, 27 February 1981

• “Important Letter from Edward Carpenter, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism”, December 1892
• “William Morris”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, December 1896
• “Long Live Syndicalism!”, The Syndicalist, May 1912
• V Non-Governmental Society, Towards Industrial Freedom (1917)

Brian Morris, Flores Magón and the Mexican Liberal Party

• “To Woman”, Regeneración, 24 September 1910
• “Cannon Fodder”, Regeneración, 15 October 1910
• “To the American People”, Regeneración (English Section), 25 February 1911
• “Class Struggle”, Regeneración, 4 March 1911
• “The Right of Property”, Regeneración, 18 March 1911
• “The Appeal of Mexico to American Labor”, Mother Earth, April 1911
• “Manifesto to the Workers of the World”, Regeneración (English Section), 8 April 1911
• Manifesto of 23 September 1911
• “The Political Socialists”, “Los socialistas politicos”, Regeneración, 2 March 1912
• “Without Bosses”, Regeneración, 21 March 1914
• “The Death of the Bourgeois System”, Regeneración, 2 October 1915

Debate: Wayne Price, “Should Anarchists Vote?” is the Wrong Question

Debate: on the Ukraine War

Bill Beech, War On Anarchism

Wayne Price, Should Anarchists Defend Ukraine? A Response to Bill Beech

Tomás Ibáñez, The circled A at 60

Iain McKay, The Dispossessed at 50

Parish Notices

“Anarchists and Office-Seeking”, Free Society: A Periodical of Anarchist, Thought, Work and Literature, 16 August 1903

“Manifesto of the Anarchist Federation on War”, War Commentary: For Anarchism, Mid-December 1943

 

The First Decade of Agency, an Anarchist PR Project

NEVER HEARD OF YA

Oct

21

2024

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From Anarchist Agency

Just over a decade ago, a small group of anarchist media activists started what they defined as an anarchist PR project—Agency was officially launched. As we develop a vision and plans for the next decade, we want to share how Agency came to be, how it has evolved, what we have accomplished, and how we hope to spread anarchist ideas and practices into the future.

The seeds of Agency were planted in 2012, when a few of us helped organize a public and widely-viewed debate between CrimethInc. and journalist-activist Chris Hedges about the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and specifically perspectives on violence and property destruction in contemporary social movements. Agency emerged from our recognition of the need to facilitate a better understanding of anarchist ideals among the general public.

We spent 2013 building the collective; the following year, Agency was officially launched when our website premiered. Agency was founded on the heels of social movements like Occupy, but the project was also inspired by anarchist practices honed during the Global Justice movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which included new decentralized forms of media like the global Independent Media Center network, and high profile direct action campaigns and mass mobilizations that garnered regular international media attention on anarchist organizing. 

Agency took lessons learned from these and other projects, along with our own analysis of the weaknesses and strengths of mainstream media coverage of anarchist theories and practices, to build a resource that offers a better understanding of anarchism and ties it into interconnected issues including war, racism, heterosexism, economic and social injustice, and the rise of neofascism. By inserting anarchist ideas into timely mainstream political discourse through commentaries, a newswire, and other content, Agency seeks to help fellow anarchist organizers and groups make often unheard and misrepresented anarchist perspectives better understood.

Check out our Agency Chronology for articles, interviews, press releases, and other content we’ve created in a readily available archive of 10+ years of anarchist commentary and responses to timely issues.

Black Liberation and Anti-Fascism Shape the Trajectory of Agency

Anarchist movements are often inclined toward fresh and urgent thinking. But ten years ago, the landscape of social movement organizing was lacking new public-facing anarchist projects. Agency was founded at a time of racial upheaval in the US, punctuated by the killings of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Eric Garner that helped, however tragically, to propel the Black Lives Matter movement. Black liberation, along with police and prison abolition, became a left political centerpiece in the last decade, and a focus of the struggles around which countless anarchists have organized.

Meanwhile, new Indigenous sovereignty struggles were also taking shape. We saw the labor movement initiate innovative organizing tactics that won substantial victories for the working class. Expert reports warned of the next extinction event: record-breaking heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods compelled organizing on a massive and international scale to fight the fossil fuel industry and other contributors to the climate crisis. Entrenched neoliberalism, a seemingly ever-expanding wealth gap, and a housing market that is increasingly out of reach for many Americans also prompted widespread resistance. And the countervailing rise of a new fascism compelled anarchists to refocus on the antifascist struggle that has been part of our DNA for the better part of the last century. In 2020, the US Department of Justice invented a new term, “anarchist jurisdiction,” as a propaganda tool and a means to repress left and radical activists. All of these developments created new challenges but also opened up fresh opportunities for anarchist education and organizing.

We were also seeing dramatic changes in the media itself. An explosion of workplace organizing by journalists has coincided with the industry’s shift away from print and a corresponding dramatic loss of jobs at outlets across the country. Paradoxically, more anarchists have managed to find a voice for themselves within the corporate media or with innovative online outlets over the past decade. And while the rise of corporate social media has often been followed by its co-optation, social media has also created new opportunities for movements seeking to broadcast liberatory narratives.

Agency Amplifies Anarchists in the News and Anarchist Voices

Agency exists in part to study and expose how anarchist movements are covered by corporate news providers so that, as anarchists, we can make better informed choices as to how or whether we want to interact with them. Ever since our website launched, it has been a crucial resource for anarchist theory and practice. Anarchists in the News provides a constantly updated collection of mainstream media articles in which anarchism and anarchists appear. Critical Voices is Agency’s platform for amplifying anarchist commentary on current events originally published elsewhere. These pieces call attention to issues of direct concern to anarchists and contribute to a radical examination of power relations, the state, and capitalism. We also issue press briefs that clarify the anarchist perspective on issues and events that reporters and editors don’t typically regard as having one, such as the spread of the Ebola virus.

News never sleeps, the saying goes, and neither should the anarchist response. Agency Newswire traces both mainstream and alternative media, highlighting pivotal political struggles and social movements over the years, including: resistance to state power in places like Greece, Hong Kong, Rojava, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, and Palestine; Black Lives Matter and the 2020 uprisings across the US, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd; the rise of antifascism and militant responses to white supremacist organizing in Charlottesville, at the Trump inauguration, and in the targeting of anarchists and antifa during the Trump presidency; mobilizations to stop fossil fuel-based projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, Keystone XL, and Line 3; the Stop Cop City movement at the intersection of radical environmentalism and police abolition; the resurgence of mutual aid networks, especially in addressing the tragic impacts of COVID-19 and the climate crisis; and the hardline responses to attacks on abortion access, like Jane’s Revenge.

Through our original commentary pieces, Agency has aimed to bring a vital anarchist perspective to the discourse around urgent issues that need an anti-state, anti-capitalist analysis but seldom get one. Some of these articles are generated by Agency members, others are solicited and written by other anarchist writers, activists, and journalists. Topics and themes we’ve covered over the years include: an anarchist response to Ebola; the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; sexual assaults on campus; antifa and the rise of fascism; anarchist perspectives on J20, both in anticipation and in the aftermath of the Trump inauguration; Emma Goldman’s 150th birthday and her continuing influence; the tradition of May Day protests; mutual aid, from an Indigenous anarchist perspective, and dispatches from the front lines; mass surveillance; and social media censorship.

Changing the Public’s Response to Media

Agency also issues press releases on timely and relevant events in the anarchist movement itself. Some of our most recent have focused on the untimely death in 2023 of our comrade Jen Angel, an Agency co-founder, long-time anarchist, and media activist, and her enduring legacy of fighting for transformative justice.Our newsletters are another way we  keep readers and followers updated on our work. You can sign up to receive our newsletter, and view an archive here.

Agency doesn’t just follow and comment on the news, however. We work to change how the public absorbs and responds to the media. In 2019 and 2020, we conducted a series of interviews with radical and anarchist-identified journalists, highlighting their work and sharing their insights. This Agency series, which included interviews with Dan Arel, Shane Burley, Natasha Lennard, and Abby Martin, addressed what it’s like being an explicitly left journalist, issues they’ve faced working in the corporate media, the importance of non-mainstream, left publications, and why engaging with media is important to the advancement of anarchist ideas.

In 2021, we began to explore the visual medium as a way to broadcast anarchist ideas when we partnered with AK Press to produce “What is the State?” an animated video primer based on Eric Laursen’s book, “The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State.” The following year, we launched Finding Agency, a livestream series that kicked off with an interview with Daryle Lamont Jenkins, examining his campaign to expose the new racist neofascism.

We’re dedicated to helping make media activism and anarchist interventions with public discourse a widespread, grassroots practice. In 2023, Agency launched a media grants program for radical writers, artists, and creators in collaboration with the Institute for Anarchist Studies which, following the tragic loss of Agency co-founder Jen Angel, became the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant to honor her legacy. The program helps fuel the types of projects that Jen created throughout her life: projects that make anarchist ideas accessible and reflect the spirit of do-it-yourself action. The core tenets of anarchism that underscored Jen’s life and work—autonomy, mutual aid, voluntary association, direct action—are all amplified by the independent media projects we fund through our anarchist media grants.

Working with Activists and Organizers to Build Skills to Advance Anarchist Movements

Agency also works directly with left activists and anarchist organizers to help them hone their media and messaging skills. By coaching and training members of the anarchist community to develop effective press releases, talking points, and other content, and by training them in managing relationships with mainstream journalists, we hope to enable the next generation of anarchists to gain greater control of the media narrative.

Most recently, Agency has supported activists in the #StopCopCity movement in developing their media skills to oppose police militarization and preserve the Weelaunee Forest from destruction. Agency has been working to build the media skills of defendants charged with domestic terrorism and RICO (Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), with the aim of seizing media narratives to help fight their charges.

That doesn’t mean we avoid working  with mainstream journalists. Agency is instrumental in educating reporters and writers from mainstream, corporate outlets on anarchist issues and connecting them to the best subject matter experts to interview and cover. When an anarchist voice is needed, we make ourselves available to be interviewed for stories in print and online, on podcasts, on TV/video, and through other media formats.

Who is Agency and Where are We Going?

The members of Agency bring a diverse skill set to this work from their different backgrounds and political histories. We are activists, organizers, educators, writers, public relations workers, communications strategists, graphic designers, web designers, documentary filmmakers, and video journalists. Demystifying anarchism, making it visible to a broader public, and clarifying inaccuracies consistently perpetuated in the mainstream media are the common goals that bring all of us together.

The devastating loss of our comrade Jen Angel brings a sad close to our first decade, but it has also enabled us to share her legacy and build a grant program in her name, as a way to support cutting-edge and DIY media projects similar to those that played such a big role in her life and work. The opportunity to bring Jen’s legacy into the future has inspired us to continue our commitment to making anarchism more visible and powerful. By furthering our collaborations with fellow anarchists, troublemakers, and radical journalists, we strive to find new ways to support the fight against capitalism and the state and promote alternative visions of a more just world through media work and development of resources within our community to do so.

We’ll see you in the streets and in the headlines!

From Anarchist Agency

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Check out our Agency Chronology for articles, interviews, press releases, and other content we’ve created in a readily available archive of 10+ years of anarchist commentary and responses to timely issues.

 

Australia’s forgotten global anarchist

Features, Sep 27th

Jack Andrews was Australia’s leading proponent of communist-anarchism and a key figure in the international anarchist movement

~ Tom Goyens ~

Born in Bendigo in 1865 to London-born parents, John Arthur Andrews grew up in Melbourne, where his father worked as chief clerk for the Victoria Mines and Water Supply Department. As a child, Andrews was frequently bullied at school. In 1879, he enrolled at Scotch College, graduating two years later. After his father died in 1882, Andrews took a job in the same department, earning a good salary. However, he quickly became disillusioned with the work. A budding writer, he once won a prize for a poem celebrating the eight-hour workday.

Andrews’ growing interest in freethought and socialism further distanced him from his bureaucratic life. His dissatisfaction peaked in 1886 when he was fired shortly before Christmas. His physical and mental health deteriorated, and he may have even considered suicide. In early 1887, he joined the Melbourne Anarchist Club, though he was initially sceptical of anarchism. After a period of rest in Dunolly, Andrews returned to the Club as a committed anarchist and soon became a journalist advocating communist-anarchism.

J.A. Andrews | takver.com

By 1889, Andrews was corresponding with several international anarchist publications. A polyglot fluent in languages including Latin and Chinese, he immersed himself in the ideas of Russian revolutionary Peter Kropotkin, whose works appeared in La Révolte. That same year, Andrews published “Communism and Communist-Anarchism” in Benjamin Tucker’s Liberty. He argued that revolution was simply about casting off oppression, not waiting for it to fade away.1 According to historian Bob James, Andrews also contributed to two Portuguese anarchist publications.In 1890, a severe economic downturn plunged Australia into depression, leaving thousands unemployed. Jack Andrews made his way to Sydney, where he joined German-born anarchist and florist Joseph Schellenberg at his farm in Smithfield, on the outskirts of the city. Together, they formed a “Communist Anarchist Group” affiliated with the Australian Socialist League, issuing a manifesto to promote their ideals.2

That August, Andrews sent a report on the maritime strike to Johann Most, editor of Freiheit in New York, which was published in October 1890. Andrews believed Melbourne was on the brink of a general strike and possible revolution, with anarchists playing a key role in educating workers and running soup kitchens for the unemployed. Later, Freiheit published Andrews’ essay, “Anarchismus in Australien,” which he may have translated himself.3 It seemed that the German-Australian anarchists were the only organised game in town. “There is no consolidated party whatever to back us up,” he reported, “except in Adelaide where there is a small group of German Anarchists who contributed £4 [to Andrews’s periodical Reason] and do their best to push on the circulation in that city.”4

By early 1892, Jack Andrews faced severe financial hardship and tramped for months in search of work. Despite his struggles, he remained committed to writing and anarchist agitation. He established a correspondence with historian Max Nettlau, a key figure in documenting global anarchism. Andrews’ letters, written in a candid and personal tone, conveyed the isolation and difficulty of being an anarchist in Australia. “The movement in Australia,” he wrote, “appears more disintegrated than it has ever been.”

For Andrews, staying in touch with comrades, both locally and abroad, was not just a tactical necessity but also a source of psychological support: “if I can keep in active communication with others interested in the movement it will keep me going.”

Through these connections, Andrews had access to a range of foreign anarchist publications, such as El Combate, La Révolte, and Les Temps Nouveaux. In return, he shared Australian papers and pamphlets with Nettlau and other international anarchists, contributing to the broader exchange of ideas. His own writings would soon appear in anarchist publications across Europe and the United States, keeping his ideas in circulation despite the challenges he faced at home.5

The Labor Call (Melbourne), July 9, 1908

In the early 1890s, Jack Andrews, without steady work, continued his anarchist agitation by publishing several short-lived papers such as Reason and Revolt, often produced with minimal resources. He joined the Active Service Brigade in 1893, a radical direct action group for the unemployed, which became a constant thorn in the side of Australian conservatives. Through both mainstream and labour presses, Andrews defended anarchism, contributing polemical articles that challenged the status quo.

In December 1894, Andrews was arrested and charged with seditious libel for his outspoken writings. Convicted the following year, he served five months in jail, during which the authorities confiscated all his papers, pamphlets, and drafts, a significant blow to his efforts.

After his release, Andrews returned to Melbourne and resumed his anarchist work. In the fall of 1895, he began contributing regularly to Les Temps Nouveaux, the newly launched anarchist journal edited by Jean Grave, which succeeded La Révolte. He also became a correspondent for The Firebrand, a prominent communist-anarchist paper published in Portland, Oregon. For two years, Andrews provided detailed and lucid articles on anarchist organization, revolution, property, and communism, as well as reports on the anarchist movement in Australia. In 1897, The Firebrand even offered Andrews a position on its staff, but due to financial constraints, he was unable to afford the voyage to the United States.

Jack Andrews’ correspondence with anarchists across the United States and Europe revealed the existence of a deeply integrated global anarchist network. His involvement in this network was vital in linking Australia’s isolated anarchist movement to the larger global currents of anarchism, despite the practical challenges he faced. These connections facilitated the constant exchange of news, ideas, and materials. Editorial offices of anarchist papers functioned not just as places to produce content but as international clearinghouses, where printed materials from around the world were reviewed, serialized, translated, advertised, or forwarded to other periodicals.

A glimpse into the letter-box section of any anarchist paper showcases the polyglot nature and transnational logistics involved in producing each issue. Language served as a practical tool for gauging the movement’s reach. International anarchist news was often categorized by country, but anarchist publications were typically grouped by language. For instance, the Italian-language section of anarchist media might include papers from the United States, Argentina, Tunisia, and Italy.

Translators were essential in this polyglot network, constantly in demand to bridge linguistic divides. The idea of a centralised translation bureau gained traction among anarchists and was revived in the mid-1890s by Alfred Sanftleben, a German anarchist who operated under the name “Slovak.” From his home in Zürich, Sanftleben established a translation service, placing ads in major anarchist newspapers like Freiheit, The Firebrand, and Les Temps Nouveaux. His “office” became a hub for translating and distributing anarchist books and pamphlets across borders. Andrews made use of this service. In 1896, Sanftleben wrote to him requesting information on the anarchist movement in Australia, along with radical papers. Andrews, fluent in French, sent a report in English to be translated for Les Temps Nouveaux. This report, “Our Movement in Australia,” was first published in May by The Firebrand in English, and a condensed French version appeared in Les Temps Nouveaux that July.

Alfred Sanftleben (1871-1952). Kate Sharpley Library

Despite his undeniable talent as a writer and translator, Andrews struggled financially and never achieved the international prominence of anarchists like Pietro Gori or Peter Kropotkin. He died of tuberculosis on July 26, 1903, in Melbourne. His untimely death — he was thirty-eight — cut short a life dedicated to anarchist ideals, limiting his potential as a global figure within the movement.

 

Malcolm Archibald: 50 years of Black Cat PresS  

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Nov

01

2024

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FELLOW ANARHIST COMRADE

I WAS HIS PRINTERS DEVIL 

From Freedom News by Sean Patterson

In this interview, the founder of Edmonton’s anarchist publishing house looks back on its legacy

For the past five decades, Black Cat Press (BCP) in Edmonton, Canada, has served as a local hub for the city’s radical community and as an important publisher of anarchist material. Over the years, BCP has produced many notable titles, including the first English translations of the collected works of the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno in five volumes. Other stand-out works from BCP include The Dossier of Subject No. 1218, the translated memoirs of Bulgarian anarchist Alexander Nakov; Lazar Lipotkin’s The Russian Anarchist Movement in North America, a previously unpublished manuscript held at Amsterdam’s International Institute of Social History; and Kronstadt Diary, a selection of Alexander Berkman’s original diary entries from 1921.

Amongst reprints of classic works by the likes of Kropotkin, Bakunin, and William Morris, BCP has also highlighted the work of anarchist researchers from around the globe, including Alexey Ivanov’s Kropotkin and Canada, Vadim Damier’s Anarcho-Syndicalism in the 20th Century, Ronald Tabor’s The Tyranny of Theory, and Archibald’s own work Atamansha: The Story of Maria Nikiforova, the Anarchist Joan of Arc.  

Sadly, Black Cat Press closed its doors in 2022, an economic victim of the Covid pandemic. Any future hopes to revive the press were subsequently shattered in the wake of a second tragedy. On June 26, 2024, an early morning house fire started by arsonists destroyed BCP’s remaining equipment and inventory. The loss of BCP is painful not only locally for Edmonton but nationally as one of Canada’s few anarchist publishers. Sharing BCP’s five-decade-long story will hopefully inspire others to follow in the steps of BCP’s legacy and the broader tradition of small anarchist publishing houses.

This month, BCP founder Malcolm Archibald sat down with Freedom News to reflect on a lifetime of publishing and his personal journey through anarchism over the years.

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You have been involved with the anarchist community for many years. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you first became interested in anarchism?

Growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the Cold War, I certainly had no exposure to anarchism. Nor did my family have any predilection for left-wing politics. The only book on socialism in the public library was G. D. H. Cole’s History of Socialist Thought, which I devoured. In 1958, at age 15, I attended a provincial convention of the CCF (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation) as a youth delegate. The CCF in Nova Scotia was a proletarian party with a strong base in the coal mining districts. After that, I was hooked on left-wing politics.

I became interested in anarchism by reading books about the Spanish Civil War. The first real anarchist I met was Murray Bookchin at a conference in Ann Arbor in 1969. Bookchin understood that many student radicals were anarchists in practice, even if they called themselves Marxists, so he emphasised the libertarian elements of Marx in his propaganda.

What anarchist organisations/groups have you been involved with over the years?

As a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, I was on the staff of underground newspapers, including an anarchist tabloid, The Walrus. Later, I helped start an anarchist magazine in Edmonton called News from Nowhere (printed by Black Cat Press). In Edmonton in the 1970s we had a branch of the Social-Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (SRAF), but most anarchist activity was centred around the IWW, Black Cat Press, and Erewhon Books. Anarchists were also involved in the newspapers Poundmaker (circulation 19,000!) and Prairie Star. In 1979, the North American Anarchist Communist Federation (NAACF, later simplified to ACF) started up, and I was active in two of their branches for a number of years but was unable to get much traction for the organisation in Edmonton.

When did you start Black Cat Press, and how did it evolve over time? What are some key moments in its history you’d like to share with our readers?

Black Cat Press started when I purchased an offset press and copy camera in 1972. The previous owner had tried to earn a living with this equipment and ended up in a mental institution, which was not auspicious. BCP became a “printer to the movement” in Edmonton, used by almost all the left groups and causes. In 1979 BCP became the unofficial printer of the ACF and printed a number of pamphlets for that organisation.

From 1989 to 2001, BCP shared space with the Boyle McCauley News, the monthly newspaper of Edmonton’s inner city, with an all-volunteer staff. The newspaper generally tried to print positive news about the community, but an exception was the issue of juvenile prostitution, a terrible blight until we started printing stories about it and the authorities finally took action.

In 1994, the government printing plant where I worked was shut down, and BCP began to operate full-time with three partners who had been laid off at the same time. Our customer base included social agencies close to our shop in Edmonton’s inner city plus various unions. In 2003, I purchased a perfect binding machine and was able to start printing books. Our first book was Kropotkin’s Anarchist Morality, a perennial favourite. Eventually, about 30 titles were printed, which were distributed by AK Press, independent bookstores, and literature tables at anarchist book fairs.

How did you come to translate Russian-language radical and anarchist texts?

I studied Russian at university and later took night courses in German, French, Ukrainian, and Polish. I first became aware of Nestor Makhno in the 1960s from a book by the British historian David Footman. Ending up in Edmonton, it turned out that the University of Alberta Library held four books by Nestor Makhno, bibliographical rarities.

I’m constantly amazed at the richness of the anarchist tradition in the Russian Empire and the USSR. For many years, The Russian Anarchists by Paul Avrich was the only survey work on the subject, but recently, two histories have appeared in Russia and one in Ukraine. It is a measure of the depth of the movement that these histories are practically independent of one another and pay hardly any attention to Avrich.

My first works of translation from Russian were physics articles, which don’t give much scope for originality. In translating historical texts, most of the effort goes not into the actual translation, but research on the names of places, persons, etc. and preparing annotations. I try to provide the reader with maps, graphics, and indexes, which make it easier to understand the text.

Although I generally do not work with literary texts, I did translate some poems by Nestor Makhno. He wrote a poem called “The Summons” while in prison in 1912. A search of his cell in 1914 discovered this poem, for which he was given one week in a punishment cell. While in this cell, he composed another poem, which he wrote down as soon as he was allowed back to his regular cell. But another search discovered the second poem (more bloodthirsty than the first one), and he ended up in the punishment cell again. So, it wasn’t easy being an anarchist poet!

Some of your major contributions to anarchist studies are the translations of Russian and Ukrainian primary sources. In particular, you translated and published the first English edition of Nestor Makhno’s three-volume memoirs. Can you describe this translation project?

The University of Alberta library holds copies of Makhno’s memoirs, including both the French and Russian versions of the first volume. I started translating these memoirs as early as 1979 when BCP published a pamphlet entitled My Visit to the Kremlin, a translation of two chapters in the second volume. This pamphlet was eventually published in many other languages.

Most of the work involved in preparing translations of Makhno’s works went into research about the people and places he mentions. An effort was made to provide enough material in the form of notes and maps to make the narrative intelligible to the reader.

Black Cat Press recently closed its doors after fifty years in business. The economic environment for publishing is increasingly difficult in general, and especially so for small anarchist presses. What are your thoughts on the current prospects for anarchist publishing, and what changes might have to be made to maintain its long-term viability?

Most anarchist publishers have to order a substantial press run up front and then hope to sell the books over a (hopefully) not-too-long period. BCP was ahead of its time in using a print-on-demand model where inventories were kept low so that capital wouldn’t be tied up in stock that wasn’t moving. The publishing arm of BCP was not much affected by the pandemic; rather, it was the job printing that suffered, forcing the business to close.

How have you seen anarchism (particularly in Canada) change over the decades? Canada has rarely seen an organized anarchist movement in the same way as some groups in Europe or the United States. Why do you think this is so, and do you see any hope for an organized Canadian movement in the future?

When I became active in the anarchist movement in Canada in the 1970s, the anarchists were all poverty-stricken, trying to survive in minimum-wage jobs. The next generation was much better off and had a lot of money to throw around. Now, the current generation is back to being dirt poor again, lacking the resources to make an impact. But I think the prospects for the future are good because (a) the old left (communists, Trotskyists, i.e., the alphabet soup brigade) are intellectually and morally bankrupt, and (b) the New Democratic Party (in Alberta, at least) is environmentally irresponsible. This leaves a lot of room on the left for anarchists to stake out their territory and attract young people into the movement.

Malcolm Archibald at the Edmonton Anarchist Bookfair, 2013.

Thanks to Kandis Friesen for sharing previously collected interview material.