This year’s first issue of Existence has been dedicated to 100th anniversary of the death of the anarchist thinker Petr Kropotkin, and the second one is of a historical nature as well – this time we’ve focused on the Paris Commune, as it was 150 years since it was established on 18th of March this year. It is true that, except for a few articles, we have never truly addressed this important event, which is considered to be the first socialist revolution. So this is a great opportunity to fix it.

After an introductory text on the topic, in which we focus, among other things, on the parallels of what was happening at the time with the situation of the turbulent year 2011, comes a longer summary from the anarchist historian Vadim Damier. He presents the Paris Commune (as well as other attempts to declare the commune in other cities) in historical contexts, as well as its internal dynamics with a number of aspirations and mistakes that have occurred. These errors are, by others, analyzed also by Petr Kropotkin in a text composed of three articles he wrote ten years after the fall of the Commune. For a better idea of the rapid events of those famous 72 days, but also about what preceded and followed them, we bring a brief chronology. The review of Kristin Ross’ book Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune is then dedicated to the ideology of the Commune. Also this one analyzes the ideological ferment before the proclamation of the Commune and the development of ideas after its massacre, especially with regard to the works of William Morris, Elisée Reclus and Petr Kropotkin. As contemporary documents, we present the memory of anarchist Louise Michel, when she stood trial, and the Call to the French People, in which the Commune presents its federative programme. We will also briefly stop at the response that the Commune had in the Czech lands, and at the fact that it still annoys some mossbacks.

Further in the issue you will find an interview with Noam Chomsky, who talks about the political situation in the USA and the workers’ tradition in this country. The overview of ten-year existence of the Anarchist Federation of Gran Canaria is very inspiring, especially in the question of a radical solution to the issue of housing. In the local context, we focus on the police killing of Roma Stanislav Tomáš, which was turned into a racist cause by the police and political leaders with their statements and behavior, and made it clear that the life of the man killed doesn’t matter. Follows the introduction of personalities of anarchist movement from various countries that have left us in recent months, such as Luca Villoresi, Francisco Baticón, Nelson Méndez, Bayram Mammadov, Marc Tomsin, Enrico Ranieri or Pietro Ferrua.

In the overview of the activities of the anti-authoritarian movement in Czech Republic, you can read about the anarchist bookfair, the visit of Zapatistas in Prague, events for Palestine, for climate justice, against the military junta in Myanmar, benefitiary events, etc. In a separate chapter, Anarchist Federation introduces its functioning, fresh publications, speeches from demonstrations and their other activities. There are also texts of the A3 wall-newspaper in recent months and reviews of books and magazines published within the anti-authoritarian movement.

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28.10.2021 Nakladatelství AF

AF/IFA Publikace