Author of the image unknown La Locomotiva By Francesco Guccini Translated from the Italian by Duncan Riley I don’t know what he looked like, or even what his name was, What voice he spoke with, which voice he sung with, How old he was then, what … Continue reading The Locomotive
Tag: Anarchism
Concrete and Weeds
Le Voreux, from Germinal by Émile Zola, illustration by Francesco Chiacchio By Duncan Riley 1/24/2020 We live in a society of concrete. That was the thought that sprung into my mind as I walked under the shadow of the county jail on the way to the bus stop. Concrete forms the basis of every structure … Continue reading Concrete and Weeds
Letter to a Patriot
By Duncan Riley 1/4/2020 Because you love the flag, you think you believe in something. For you the flag is an ideal, a symbol of freedom baptized with the blood of patriots. The nation is your church, and the State your altar. But, in truth, the flag is nothing more than a piece of … Continue reading Letter to a Patriot
Humanity, Inhumanity, and Revolutionary Friendship
The destruction of the guillotine by the Communards By Duncan Riley 1/1/2020 Most of the essays which I have written over the past few months have grown out of conversations shared with a close friend over dinner. I find that ideas, though they may be interesting when contemplated in solitude, only acquire their true vitality … Continue reading Humanity, Inhumanity, and Revolutionary Friendship
The People’s Tide: Revolution, Electoralism, and the State in the Pink Tide
Photo by Carlos Figueroa By Duncan Riley 11/27/2019 The world, today, is caught in the grips of a great revolt. On streets and in plazas across the globe, the world which bureaucrats, generals, and multinational corporations have so carefully constructed over the past five decades is increasingly threatened as the long-smoldering embers of popular discontent … Continue reading The People’s Tide: Revolution, Electoralism, and the State in the Pink Tide
Turning Workers into Criminals: Gender, Class, and State Violence in the Twin Cities’ Responses to Sex Work, 1870-1900
By Duncan Riley 10/28/2019 What Makes Someone a Criminal? Modern society tends to view criminality as a product of immorality. If someone commits a crime, it is because they are a bad and antisocial person. However, the relationship between law and morality is in reality far more complicated. When John Brown and his party … Continue reading Turning Workers into Criminals: Gender, Class, and State Violence in the Twin Cities’ Responses to Sex Work, 1870-1900
The Bourgeois Homeland and the Universal Homeland
Emblem of the Mexican Liberal Party By Ricardo Flores Magón Translated by Duncan Riley Originally given as a speech on the 19th of September, 1915, it was published in Regeneración Comrades, Humanity finds itself in one of the most solemn moments of its history. In the Universe, nothing is stable: everything changes, and we find … Continue reading The Bourgeois Homeland and the Universal Homeland
I do not want to be a tyrant
Drawing by Thea Gar By Ricardo Flores Magón Translated by Duncan Riley Originally published in Regeneración, no date given I do not fight for government posts. I have received insinuations from many maderistas of good faith, those that there are, and there are quite enough, asking me to accept a position in the so-called … Continue reading I do not want to be a tyrant
Silba el viento
Guerrilleros italianos después de la liberación de Florencia De Duncan Riley Versión en castellano de “Fischia il vento,” canción de la resistencia italiana Silba el viento y ruge la tormenta Zapatos rotos, pero marcharemos Para conquistar la roja primavera Donde surge el sol del porvenir Para conquistar la roja primavera Donde surge el … Continue reading Silba el viento
Let us go towards life
Image from the Partido Liberal Mexicano's newspaper, Regeneración By Ricardo Flores Magón Translated by Duncan Riley Originally published June of 1907 in Revolución We, the revolutionaries, do not go in search of an illusion: we go in search of reality. The peoples do not take up arms now to impose a god or a religion; … Continue reading Let us go towards life