Radical Translation Workshop: An Anarchist Playbook: Fragments from the Conspiracy of Equals and Other Writings

Tenement Press, paperback

Publication Date: March 1, 2024

Publisher Marketing: An anthology of translations pertaining to the ongoing work of the Radical Translations group: a collective that looks to the French Revolution to recover the vitality of Europe's shared radical past via an ongoing experiment in collaborative translation and collectivity. The Conspiracy of Equals (1796) is often hailed as the first revolution against a revolutionary state. Even if the conspirators were soon found out and put on trial, their ideas of radical equality and liberty shaped future generations of revolutionaries worldwide. An Anarchist Playbook—the first publication in Tenement's new imprint, No University Press—gathers together many of the key documents from their trial across a myriad forms, with a number of these texts appearing herein in their first English-language translation. Assembled in the Playbook are the last words of Gracchus Babeuf, the leader of the conspiracy and a radical proponent of the abolition of private property, and of his fellow conspirator Augustin Darthé, as they faced the guillotine. We've a letter, written in the popular idiom of the sans-culottes, that urges the common soldier to rebel; the score and lyrics of a street song that names the new class enemy: the wealthy bourgeoisie who have profited from the revolution; a first-time English translation of 'The Last Judgement of All Kings'—an extraordinary one-act play by Sylvain Maréchal, the unofficial poet of the Conspiracy, that was performed to considerable acclaim in Year II of the Revolution (and that the Workshop is in the process of adapting for contemporary audiences). Many of these texts were never published in their own time, and form a part of the testament left behind by Philippe Buonarroti, a leading conspirator who inspired new generations of revolutionaries across Europe over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the best known works included is the Manifesto of Equals, long considered a founding text of social, communist and anarchist revolutions. The Playbook presents a translation of the Manifesto alongside other key texts by the conspirators, reconstructing the richness and variety of revolutionary communication that informs the editorship, shape, and scope of this volume. The works gathered in the Playbook were written in the context of a collective struggle for greater rights and equality, and the translations assembled in this collection have been produced collaboratively in an attempt to bring this collective process back to life. This publication is the outcome of a set of co-translations written by the Radical Translation Workshop (see radicaltranslations.org); an informal group that included translators, performers, university students and lecturers from Britain, France and Italy—all united in their desire to find new ways of translating historic revolutionary thought for our present time. Guided by translator, poet, and frequent Tenement collaborator Cristina Viti, the workshops engaged with the liveliness of revolutionary language as participants discussed the meaning of key concepts and expressions and arrived at a shared sense of a translation that would show their relevance in contemporary terms. The Playbook is thus a celebration of hybridity—be it the Protean aspect of a revolutionary text as it moves in and out of its immediate context, or the revolutionary practice of translation, collaboration, and creative cooperation itself—and reflects the still ongoing vitality of the "workshop" as a means of approaching the kernel and swell of revolutionary thought today. In this way, the Playbook is not the official translation of some historical relics, but a living document posing unresolved questions that remain resonant. When does equality become a political project? What would an equal society look like? What do the terms liberty and equality mean today? Such questions both bind these pages, and underscore the degree of collectivity that underpins this publication as a collaborative venture. Praise for the Playbook An Anarchist Playbook is an essential collection of works that were the roots from which all later revolutionary ideas grew. Skillfully translated and beautifully designed, it belongs in every radical's library. Mitch Abidor These voices from the French Revolution, whether in the form of manifesto, letter, song, or play, ring out for us in the twenty-first century as if they are our contemporaries. And they are! Never did the principle of equality formulated in so many grand constitutions and declarations sound so hollow. Never was it more urgent for the majority to defy the tiny minority that holds power and achieve proper equality for themselves. These remarkable texts in translation speak to the courage, humour and lucidity that is needed. The crowned heads of Europe and the Pope marooned on an island fending for themselves! Just imagine! Peter Bush