The tri-annual on-line journal Black Flag Anarchist Review has recently produced a Proudhon special to mark his death in 1865 -- Black Flag Anarchist Review Volume 5 Number 1 (Spring 2025). It is in the same format as its Kropotkin special -- Black Flag Anarchist Review Volume 2 Number 3 (Autumn 2022). This is an on-line journal and the pdf of the Proudhon special can be found here.
First, two new selection from Property is Theft! have been posted:
Second, the newly translated texts from the Black Flag Anarchist Review Proudhon Special have been posted:
The issue's full contents are as follows:
On Proudhon
- Jeanne Deroin, Letter to Proudhon, January 1849
- Jenny P. d’Héricourt, A Woman’s Philosophy of Woman; or Woman Affranchised (1864)
- “Proudhon’s Mutualism and Anarchism”, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism, February and March 1902
- Benjamin R. Tucker, “Proudhon and Royalism”, The New Freewoman: An Individualist Review, 10 October 1913
- Nicola Chiaromonte, “Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: an uncomfortable thinker”, Politics, January 1946
- Daniel Guérin, “P.J. Proudhon, father of self-management”, Proudhon, Oui et Non (1978)
- Iain McKay, “Proudhon, Property and Possession”, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review 66 (Winter 2016)
- Daniel Rashid, The Poverty of Mick Armstrong’s Polemic (2022)
- Iain McKay, Proudhon: “start by being right”
1840-1847: The Critique of Property
- Warning to the Proprietors (1842)
- Theory of Property
- - That since property destroys itself, it is irrational, from a practical point of view, to want to defend it.
- - That to reform property is to destroy it.
- - Exposition of Adam Smith’s formula on equality in exchanges
- - Demonstration of the equality of conditions by Adam Smith’s formula
- Response to Accusations
- Court of Assize of the Department of Doubs (Session of 3 February 1842)
- System of Economic Contradictions (1846)
- Chapter XIV: Summary and Conclusion
- Marginal Notes to The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)
1848-1851: The February Revolution
- Toast to the Revolution, 17 October 1848
- “Election Manifesto of Le Peuple”, Le Peuple, 8 November 1848
- “Resistance to the Revolution: Louis Blanc and Pierre Leroux”, La Voix du Peuple, 3 December 1849
- “To Pierre Leroux”
- [First Article/Letter], La Voix du Peuple, 7 December 1849
- [Second Article/Letter], La Voix du Peuple, 13 December 1849
- “Regarding Louis Blanc: On the Present Utility and Future Possibility of the State”
- (First article), La Voix du Peuple, 26-27 December 1849
- (Second article), La Voix du Peuple, 28 December 1849
- (Third article), La Voix du Peuple, 29 December 1849
- (Sixth article), La Voix du Peuple, 11 January 1850
1852-1865: Federalism
- The Social Revolution Demonstrated by the Coup d’État of December 2 (1852)
- Anarchy or Caesarism — Conclusion
- Stock Exchange Speculator’s Manual (1857)
- Preface
- Final Considerations
- Industrial democracy: Labour-labour partnership or universal mutuality; end of the crisis
- Federation and Unity in Italy (1862)
- The Federative Principle and the need to reconstitute the party of the revolution (1863)
- Second Part – Unitary Politics
- Chapter III: Democratic Monogram, Unity
- Chapter XI: Hypothesis of a Solution by the Federative Principle
- Third Part – The Unitary Press
- Chapter IX: Slavery and the Proletariat
- To Workers, 8 March 1864
Reviews
- Sylvia Pankhurst, “The Views of Proudhon”, Workers’ Dreadnought, 5 and 12 April 1924
- Iain McKay, “The Poverty of (Marx’s) Philosophy”, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review 70 (Summer 2017)
Letter to M. Bitzon, 18 September 1861
As can be seen from the issue's full contents listing, a few of the writings included are from Property is Theft! in addition to new versions of previously translationed texts. Also, the chapters from The Federative Principle had already appeared in volume 1 of A Libertarian Reader (although only extracts from "Hypothesis of a Solution by the Federative Principle" were included in that book, the full chapter is in Black Flag). Many will be familiar to regular readers of this blog.
This special edition includes a wide selection of writings about and by Proudhon, which should be of interest to anarchists and anyone interested in Proudhon's ideas. Of note are the extracts from his Third Memoir on Property, Warning to the Proprietors, which saw him in court, again. Likewise, his Marginal Notes to Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy. It is interesting to see how little he engaged with Marx's work, probably explained by there being a distinct impression of exasperation in the notes he did write. Suffice to say, Marx's "critique" can only be taken seriously if you do not read Proudhon's book -- which may explain his lack of public response (that, and the outbreak of the February Revolution). Colleagues of Proudhon also made notes to his copy of Marx's book but these are not included.
Proudhon's polemic of 1849-50 with two of his fellow socialists is now far more complete with a complete translation of the second "Resistance to the Revolution" article (translated in part by Benjamin Tucker) plus more articles written against Leroux and Blanc. Those in Property is Theft! have already shed light on Proudhon's socialism (as he clarified positions which he thought were being mispresented) and these will do likewise. The extracts from The Federative Principle and the Necessity of Reconstituting the Party of the Revolution will likewise help enlighten those who take Schapiro's dishonest distribe seriously, not least his position on the American Civil War.
The opportunity has also been taken to expland the Supplemental Material (online only) section of the website. As well as the new translations, a selection of articles by and about Proudhon hosted elsewhere has been added -- these include those in the On Proudhon section of the Black Flag special.
Hopefully, a new and complete translation of Chapter XI ("Property") of System of Economic Contradictions (volume two) ready soon. Extracts from this were included in Property is Theft!, so having the complete chapter will be useful.