How can I use and contribute to libcom.org?

libcom.org is a volunteer-run archive and resource for people involved in labour organising, anarchist and libertarian-communist politics, and related movements. Its archive is described on the site as completely free of charge, and it is run entirely by volunteers. You can use it without paying, and you can contribute by helping with archiving and editing or by donating toward hosting costs.

What you can find on libcom.org

The site collects texts, archives, and current material rather than acting as a single blog. From the homepage and featured sections, the content falls into a few broad types:

• Historical archives of publications. For example, a complete online archive of Intercom, a publication produced by UK ultra-left/libertarian communist groups, and a complete archive of Common Sense, the journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists (24 issues published between 1987 and 1999).
• Classic texts and introductions. Examples include Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle (with a guide to navigating the different versions on the site), Colin Ward's Anarchy in Action, Murray Bookchin's lecture "On spontaneity and organisation," and Gilles Dauvé's "Capitalism and communism."
• Autobiography and movement history. For example, Out of the Ghetto by Joe Jacobs, described as an autobiography of a working-class Jewish activist in London covering 1913–1939, and material on the Anarchist Hall in Norwich in 1891.
• Interviews and analysis. For example, an interview with Arif Dirlik on the pre-1949 Chinese anarchist movement, and Fanonian Practices in South Africa.
• Current and topical material. The "Latest" section mixes recent articles with archival additions, and featured tags include Ukraine and Palestine.

How to browse and navigate

The site is organised so you can enter through several routes depending on what you already know:

• Latest — the most recent additions, useful if you want to see what is new or newly digitised.
• Featured Tags — topic-based entry points such as Ukraine and Palestine.
• Themed sections — the homepage lists areas such as Organise, Prison organising, Introductions, Work: an introduction, and Classic Texts.
• Guides to specific works — for larger texts like Society of the Spectacle, the site provides a guide to the different versions available, which helps you pick the right one before reading.

If you are looking for a specific publication or author, the archive structure is the main advantage: complete runs of journals sit alongside individual texts, so you can read a single piece or work through an entire series.

How to contribute

The site states it is always looking for people to help out with archiving and editing content. In practice, that means two main ways to get involved:

1. Help with archiving and editing. This suits people who can transcribe, format, proofread, or organise texts and publication runs. Because the archive includes complete journal series and historical documents, this kind of work directly expands what is available to everyone.
2. Donate to hosting costs. If you cannot contribute time, the site accepts donations toward the cost of hosting the archive.

The homepage does not describe a formal application process, membership requirement, or account system for contributors, so the practical first step is to make contact through the site and offer the specific kind of help you can give (for example, proofreading a journal run or formatting a text).

What to keep in mind

• The archive is free to use, and the site says this explicitly.
• It is volunteer-run, so new material and edits depend on contributors rather than a paid staff.
• Content is politically situated: it focuses on anarchist, libertarian-communist, ultra-left, and labour-organising material, plus related history and analysis. It is not a neutral general-purpose library.
• Some items are current articles, while others are digitised historical documents, so publication dates on the page do not always reflect when the original text was written.