Again, things have not went as intended. Kropotkin's Modern Science and Anarchy involves a lot more work than I expected. Simply put, the 1912 British edition is quite different to (Section I of) the 1913 French version. The latter was revised (along with the other sections) so there is quite a few additions. However, sometimes there are sentances in the British edition which do not exist in the French. Also, sometimes the words used by the translator are, well, interesting and sometimes the language is dated. So I am revising the whole essay "Modern Science and Anarchy" and the final book version will be significantly different from the 1912 version -- not least, because of the inclusion of material in the French edition not in it. Whether this was a abridgement or the French edition an expansion, I am not sure -- maybe both.

It is now 20 years since An Anarchist FAQ (AFAQ) was officially launched and six years since the core of it was completed (version 14.0). Its has been published by AK Press as well as translated into numerous languages. It has been quoted and referenced by other works. So it has been a success – although when it was started I had no idea what it would end up like.

Well, the UK has – narrowly – voted to leave the EU. It was, in many ways, two-fingers to a system (neo-liberalism) which has failed so many across the UK – yet this failure was home-grown, in Thatcherism rather than the EU. Even areas which received large investment from the EU (such as parts of Wales and Cornwall) voted to leave – if the Westminster elite actually cared about these areas then the EU would not have needed to invest money there. So we can fully expect – once the Tory leadership campaign and its populist rhetoric has ended – that the money that will not be given to the EU will be spent by the Tories to cut taxes for the top 5%...

Well, I’ve posted a review of Social Democracy & Anarchism in the International Workers’ Association 1864-1877 by René Berthier. It is, in general, a very good book -- I only disagree with his position that revolutionary anarchism (communist-anarchism) marked a break with Bakunin’s ideas.

 I was recnetly on a holiday trip to Lisbon where I was listening to Roger Crowleys 'Conquerors' as I toured many of the historic sites paid for by the slaughter and plunder he describes.  After visiting Belem I recorded and uploaded this video blog to the Anarchist Writers Facebook, this version if the 1080p version of the same video.

Belem was where the ships of the brutal Portuguese colonial conquest of the Indian open trade cities departed from.

Apologies for the long delay in blogging – much has changed in my live (all for the better I must add!) and had to concentrate on that. So new job, new location, new life. The net effect on this is no commuting (so probably less time to read) and a concentration on my day job – but also a break from being a union rep (back to being an active member for a while).

Every year hundreds of people attend the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair for a day of inspiring discussions and the opportunity of meeting lots of other radicals, browsing books and meeting campaigns.

The 11th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair will take place Saturday 16th of April around Smithfield square, there will also be a major event on the Friday night in the Teachers Club, 35 Parnell Square.

On the Saturday the book & campaign stalls will be in The Generator on the east side of Smithfield square, doors open at 9.30 for setup, 10.00 for early browsing.  The meetings will also be in two pubs, the Cobblestone at the top (north) of the square and Frank Ryans which is just off the South West corner on Queen st. 

The last year has left me a confused state between optimism and pessimism which made it quite difficult to work out what I had to say tonight on the topic of how are social movements doing in Ireland and what are the prospects for real change. 

As you may have noticed we were down for just over a week and its only in the last couple of days that we even had a visible error notice rather than an blank screen when you tried to visit. If you are following us on Twitter or Facebook you will have seen some earlier somewhat paniced messages as for a time there it looked like we might have lost it.

This blog is kind of a repeat. What seems like ages ago, I posted Engels on The Housing Question and Proudhon which had an appendix on my planned reply to Marx’s The Philosophy of Philosophy. Imagine my surprise when – this weekend – I was looking for a quote from Proudhon’s The Philosophy of Progress and had a look at it again and discovered that the post was truncated – including the appendix on “The Housing Question.” Opps.