The End of Anarchism?

1925

People :

Author : Luigi Galleani

Sections (TOC) :

• Introduction
      2,822 Words; 18,011 Characters

• Chapter 1 : The Interview with Merlino
      2,120 Words; 13,674 Characters

• Chapter 2 : The Anarchism of Merlino
      1,403 Words; 9,316 Characters

• Chapter 3 : The Characteristics of Anarchism
      3,328 Words; 21,685 Characters

• Chapter 4 : Socialist-Collectivism and Anarchist-Communism
      8,205 Words; 52,007 Characters

• Chapter 5 : Anarchist-Communism and Individualism
      6,309 Words; 39,409 Characters

• Chapter 6 : Workers' Organization
      1,832 Words; 11,356 Characters

• Chapter 7 : Propaganda of the Deed
      6,720 Words; 42,174 Characters

• Chapter 8 : Anarchy Will Be!
      3,714 Words; 23,809 Characters

• Notes
      4,711 Words; 33,309 Characters

Sections (Content) :

• Introduction

The first decade of the twentieth century seemed to be quite promising. We were being told at school and on the streets that a new era of democratic freedom and social justice had opened. Criticism of the old institutions was encouraged by politicians, and the hopes of working people were raised by the labor unions’ promises of protection. The vanguards of political and social thought were spreading the seeds of new ideas among the workers of the world about ways and means to bring about a thorough emancipation from the oppression of political power and from the exploitation of land and capital by private ownership.

Rulers and employers had not changed, of course, and used violence and terror from time to time. But their brutality was beginning to provoke tentative efforts at resistance. In the industrial centers, the mining fields, and agrarian communities, sporadic explosions of rebellion were registered. In Russia a serious revolutionary movement shook the old order of things during the years 1905–1906. The movement was finally defeated, but it had badly destroyed the myth of the Czar’s absolute authority, and, even more important, it had deeply hurt the old regime at its roots, the countryside.

In Western Europe working people were in motion. The class struggle was in full development, and no police or military bloodshed seemed able to stop it. Governments use jails and guns against dissent, but there are not enough jails and guns to silence all dissenters when they are determined to speak out and fight for their rights. Everywhere dissent had found ways to express itself. In Italy alone, more than eighty anarchist periodicals were published — with varying success — during the first seven years of the century. And many, many more were, of course, being published elsewhere, in Europe and the Americas.

At the beginning of the year, 1907, some Belgian and Dutch comrades proposed an International Anarchist Congress to be held some time in the following Summer. It was considered the first truly international Anarchist Congress, and it took place in Amsterdam from the 23^rd to the 31^st day of October 1907.

During this period, one of the most absorbing debates among the anarchists was about the attitude they would take on the subject of syndicalism. [1] Born in France, syndicalism was substantially a rebellion against the submissive character the trade unions and similar labor organizations had assumed under the leadership of the legalist socialists. Regional and national conventions were promoted in all countries. In Italy, one such congress was held in Rome from the 16^th to the 20^th day of June 1907, with the participation of more than one hundred militants from all parts of Italy.

It was the first public gathering of anarchists in Italy since the beginning of the century, and the conservative circles, the fainthearted and the fanatics, informed by an alarmist press, could not help noticing it and brooding over it. How great and how imminent could the danger of such ‘subversive’ activities be? Mr. Cesare Sobrero, the Roman correspondent of a Turin daily newspaper, La Stampa, remembered that a Roman lawyer, Francesco Saverio Merlino, [2] who had been for many years a capable and learned anarchist militant and a competent writer on social matters, might be of exceptional help in searching for an answer to these questions.

Merlino consented to be interviewed, and the result was published by La Stampa on 18 June under the sensational title, ‘La Fine Dell Anarchismo’ (The End of Anarchism). Other orthodox newspapers, such as L’Ora in Palermo and L’Unione in Tunis reprinted it verbatim for the benefit of their middle-class readers.

Obviously, the more than one hundred anarchists gathered in Rome — as well as their comrades scattered throughout all parts of Italy and the world — felt that the offensive statement was unwarranted, that anarchism was very much alive in their hearts, in their minds, and above all, in their words and deeds.

Luigi Fabbri,[3] who was then coeditor with Pietro Gori [4] of the fortnightly review Il Pensiero (Thought) and a personal friend of Merlino, couldn’t believe his eyes. He wrote to Merlino, asking if the ‘strange’ published text of the interview was really a faithful presentation of his opinions. A reply came to him promptly, saying that everything in the published interview, except for the title, reflected his opinions on anarchism. Both Merlino’s letter and Fabbri’s commentary were later published in Il Pensiero in Rome and in Cronaca Sovversiva, the Italian language weekly Luigi Galleani had been publishing in Barre, Vermont, since 1903.

Luigi Galleani had been, like Merlino, a well known militant in the Italian movement since the eighteen-eighties. Both were then passionate fighters for freedom and social justice against the brutal repressions of the Italian Government. In 1884 Merlino was tried for ‘conspiracy’ and sentenced by a Roman tribunal to four years in prison. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to three years, but by then Merlino had gone abroad. For ten years he traveled through Western Europe and North America, spreading everywhere, by word of mouth, by books, articles and essays, his competent criticisms of the existing order of things. In 1892, while in New York City, he, with other Italian comrades, founded the journal, Il Grido degli Oppressi, (The Cry of the Oppressed), which existed until November 1894. But, by that time, Merlino had returned to Italy where he was arrested in Naples and imprisoned to serve his old sentence.

Galleani was also in prison, having been arrested in Genoa at the end of 1893, tried for conspiracy with 35 other comrades and sentenced to three years in prison.

But, at the end of that period, while Galleani, was more resolute than ever in his convictions, was forced to take up residence on an island under police supervision (domicilio coatto), Merlino was set completely free at the end of his term. And at the beginning of 1897, having established himself in Rome, he sent a letter to the conservative newspaper, Il Messaggero declaring that his opinions had changed. This provoked a debate with Errico Malatesta,[5] a debate that continued until 1898, when Malatesta was arrested. In conclusion, Merlino stated that he no longer considered himself an anarchist, but that he would rather define himself a ‘libertarian socialist’. Furthermore, he now approved of parliamentary action, so much so, that, in agreement with other friends, he proposed to present Galleani (who was then confined to the island of Pantelleria, situated between Sicily and Tunisia) as a candidate for Parliament on the Socialist Party ticket as a protest against political detention and as a means to set him free by popular request.

Galleani refused the offer, publicly and most emphatically, and sent to the anarchist paper L’Agitazione (of Ancona) a signed statement to that effect. After this, a collective proposal from the anarchist prisoners on Pantelleria was sent to all other anarchist prisoners, either in Italian jails or in domicilio coatto. It was an appeal to publish a special paper, edited and paid for by themselves, for the purpose of asserting once and for all their firm refusal to compromise, or in any way distort, their opposition to the State — a fundamental tenet of their convictions as anarchists

Their proposal was accepted by all. The comrades from Ancona agreed to publish the prisoners’ declarations, and a four-page newspaper appeared on the second day of November 1899 under the title, I Morti (The Deceased). It carried the byline, “Edited and published by the political prisoners”. Articles and statements were signed individually or collectively by the detained anarchists. The front page carried an editorial by Galleani entitled, Manet Immota Fides (The faith remains unshaken), stating that the hostages of reaction were very much alive and determined to save the dignity of their principles. They would rather remain in the squalor of their jails or their islands of confinement, at peace with themselves, than return to the so-called free world by bowing to their jailers — whom they despised — with concessions they knew to be false and shameful.

The paper was confiscated by the police, but enough copies were saved and circulated all over Italy and abroad to secure it an enduring place in the hearts and memories of militants and concerned people.

Shortly after this, Galleani escaped from the island of Pantelleria. He landed in North Africa and tried to settle in Egypt, but without success. In fact, he found himself facing the danger of extradition to Italy. So he moved to London with his family and from there embarked for the United States, where he had been offered editorial responsibility for La Questione Sociale, an Italian language weekly which had been published in Paterson, NJ since 1895.

Arriving in Paterson in October 1901, he found thousands of weavers and dyers of the textile industry in turmoil against their employers and exploiters. Of course, he was soon involved in their struggle and he contributed unsparingly, not only with the spoken and written word, but also with his personal solidarity. So much so, that on 18 June 1902, on the occasion of a sharp clash, he was wounded in the shooting. He saved himself from arrest by crossing the Slate line. Comrades William McQueen and Rudolf Grossman (Pierre Ramus),[6] although not involved in the clash, were arrested, tried, and sentenced to live years in prison. Galleani found refuge in the State of Vermont, where under the name of Luigi Pimpino he started with the help of the local anarchist group the weekly Cronaca Sovversiva, which continued until the year 1918 when it was suppressed by the US Federal Government for its stand against the war.

Merlino’s interview was duly noted in Cronaca Sovversiva, as was the text of Merlino’s letter to Fabbri. Once the authenticity of the interview had been established, Galleani felt that something else had to be said. And he said it in a very interesting way.

Under the headline ‘La Fine del’Anarchismo?’ — Galleani turned the title of Merlino’s interview into a question — a series of ten articles was published from 17 August 1907 to 25 January 1908. Then the series stopped never to reappear on the pages of Cronaca Sovversiva.

To be sure, Galleani never resigned himself to leave the essay on anarchism unfinished, but things were happening in the world which attracted his immediate attention. He was a fighter, an agitator, if you prefer, and he conceived of anarchism as a way of life, a method intended to open and expand a coherent way to the eventual emancipation of mankind. He felt that his time and energies should be dedicated to the immediate tasks and problems of the daily struggle that are necessary to assert the vitality of anarchism and pave the way to the future.

Those, the pre-World War One years, were dynamic times. There was the world-wide awakening of the toiling masses to the consciousness of their place in society and to their right to be free from capitalist exploitation and political oppression. There were strikes on an unprecedented scale and violent repressions; military conquests, warmongering and intrigues among capitalists and rulers. In the United States it was the time of the truculent T. Roosevelt regime that, in the name of freedom, conquered alien territories in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific Ocean, and introduced at home the inquisitorial crusade against anarchism. Then came the First World War. Cronaca Sovversiva was suppressed — as were hundreds of other more or less radical newspapers and reviews, accused of heresy or treason; Galleani was deported to Italy — as were hundreds of others deported to their respective native lands, marked as undesirable for their unorthodox opinions.[7]

Such were the reasons that compelled him to give priority to the daily struggle against the immediate evils. When, at the beginning of the year 1924, he was released from a Turin prison (he had spent a fourteen month sentence imposed on him by the local criminal court for some anti-militaristic articles), he found himself alone, old, ill and under the constant police surveillance of the fascist regime. His mind returned to his unfinished works. One was the translation of the last chapters of Clement Duval’s autobiography.[8] The essay on anarchism was the other. Both were published by L’Adunata dei Refrattari The Call of the Refractaires) the Italian language weekly that had started its publication in New York City, 15 April 1922.

‘La Fine dell’Anarchismo?’ appeared in its entirety for the first time in twenty-four installments from 11 October 1924, to 11 April 1925. Later, in the same year, the whole series was issued in book form by the editors of L’Adunata; a book of one hundred and thirty pages, fifty-two of which cover the text written and first published in 1907 and the remaining seventy-eight pages, the section which was written in its definitive form in 1924.

The text was preceded by a six-line inscription, handwritten and signed by Luigi Galleani. It was dedicated to his old comrades, living in America, in memory of the many years they had spent side by side, working, hoping and struggling for their mutual cause of freedom and justice. This was followed by a preface, written by the first editor of L’Adunata, Costantino Zonchello.[9] In the second edition these two items do not appear. In their place, instead, was a ‘presentation’ by G Rose.[10] who added a considerable number of footnotes to the essay, many of which are translated for the present edition.

The book was well received by the movement on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Errico Malatesta, who received one of the few copies that passed through the thick wall of fascist censorship, wrote favorably about it in Pensiero e Volontà (the review he was publishing in Rome) — saying that it was not only, “A clear presentation of anarchist communism”, it was also “A lucid statement of the ever-present problems of anarchism in relation to the would-be revolutionary movements”. He deplored the fact that very few Italians had the opportunity to read it.[11]

That anarchism is neither dead nor dying is — in these final decades of the twentieth century — better proved by facts than words. The chronicles of the Russian and the Spanish Revolutions have documented beyond any reasonable doubt the great importance of the anarchist ideas and activities in the struggle for the overthrowing of the old feudal and militaristic regimes. No less important have been the anarchists’ experimentations with new forms of social existence, production and distribution.

Equally impressive is the fact that, even where the self-styled socialist revolutionaries have managed to impose their party’s rule, they have failed to live up to their original promises of freedom and justice for all their subjects. Where they rule alone, they inflict on their peoples the yoke of a political and economic tyranny that has no equal except in fascist dictatorships. And where they have entered into a partnership with the old politicians of capitalism and the privileged classes, they function more as custodians and guardians of the common people who vote for them, than as defenders of their rights and freedom.

In these circumstances, men and women, endowed with heart and brains, concerned about the future of mankind, feel they have nowhere to turn for hope and inspiration except to the ideas, experience, and history of the anarchist movement. And that is where Galleani’s little book will be of great help today, tomorrow and forever, until the total emancipation of mankind from the scourges of oppression, exploitation and ignorance are erased from the face of the earth.

It is, of course, one man’s conception of anarchism, its meaning, its history and its hopes for the future. But that man has knowledge, experience, integrity and a whole life of struggle, suffering and courage’ It is worth seeing what he has to say.

Galleani’s book was well-received by his friends and comrades, but, as a result, he was increasingly persecuted by his enemies. Immediately after the publication of La Fine dell’Anarchismo?, in America the Italian police began to intensify their harassments with more frequent invasions of his house, with arrests and imprisonments for receiving ‘dangerous’ newspapers from abroad. Before the end of the year 1927, he was finally arrested and sent back to confino in the Tyrrhenian Archipelago of Lipari, off the northern coast of Sicily, where he remained until 28 February 1930. Even there he was arrested again and sent to Messina, where he was formally tried — and sentenced to six months and six days in prison on a trumped-up charge of having insulted... Mussolini. In a small mountain village, still under police surveillance, he died on 4 November 1931, at the age of seventy.

• Chapter 1 : The Interview with Merlino

Let us begin by giving the complete text of the interview. Our own modest considerations will follow.

The Congress held in Rome and attended by 37 groups from the more important centers in Italy, has led me to undertake an investigation that I consider of interest; that is, to get acquainted with the anarchist party of today and to try to foresee its probable future.

For this purpose I have turned to the wisest mind the anarchist party had in Italy up to a few years ago, Saverio Merlino, the lawyer who defended Bresci[12] at his trial in Milan.

The name of Merlino evokes a whole past of struggle and, let us say it, of persecution. Saverio Merlino was, for a certain period of time, among the most active internationalists in Italy at a time when this could mean arrest, jail, exile, ‘domicilio coatto’ [enforced residence].

In 1884 he was a member of the famous armed rebels of Benevento and everybody remembers his sensational arrest, when he was discovered in the robes of a priest, while he was trying to save himself from serving a three-year sentence in jail for political crimes.[13]

Later, the combative spirit of Saverio Merlino turned to writing, and, as the socialist star was rising on the horizon of Italian politics, he, the anarchist no longer militant, published two books which have taken a durable place in the literature of its kind. Socialism: Pro and Con and The Utopia of Collectivism.[14]

Saverio Merlino separated from the anarchists when their activity turned more towards individualism. He then joined the Socialist Party, but, since the recent division of that party, he has kept to himself. He has remained, however, a scholar, an observer, and he has especially dedicated himself to the legal profession (he comes from a family of lawyers) which he practices with great success.

I found him in his well-lit study on a steep Roman street, au saut du lit, amid a mountain of legal papers. His face, which exudes intelligence and has the expressiveness of the southern Italians, appeared a little troubled when I asked him for an interview. Saverio Merlino seemed hesitant to express an opinion about a party of which he had been a member — an opinion which, as the reader will see, is not at all optimistic. But he was kind enough to consent to answer my questions,which were at times quite provocative.

“What do you think of the present conditions of the anarchist movement?”

“For me, the anarchist movement has no importance today.”

“Why?”

“Because those anarchist principles which had permanent value have been adopted and are being diffused by socialism, while the Utopian part has been recognized as such and has been dropped as useless. There has been a process of absorption in favor of socialism.”

“What is your opinion about anarchist congresses in general, and, in particular, about the coming International Congress to be held in Luxemburg?”

“In my opinion”, replied Merlino. “the international, as well as local congresses, are mere attempts to give life to a dead body. As I have said, socialism has absorbed what was essential in the anarchist program, and so today, anarchism is only one of the aspects through which socialist propaganda presents itself. Therefore the anarchist party no longer has a meaningful political function.”

“But”, I remarked, “hasn’t the anarchist party still an organization at its disposal?”

“Yes, there do exist anarchist federations and groups, and party newspapers as well. Actually, in some regions of Italy, one can still find remnants of the old anarchist organizations, for it should not be forgotten that socialism was born anarchist in Italy. But, in its present condition, the anarchist party is divided by the partisans of two different tendencies; that is, between the individualists and the organizationalists”.

“The organizationalists are unable to find a form of organization compatible with their anarchist principles. The individualists, who are opposed to organization in any form, can’t find a clear way to action.”

“One must remember”, added Merlino, “the strange position the individualists find themselves in. They arose out of the theory of propaganda by deed, and so, violent action was a necessity for them. But when the idea of reprisal — which was at first the root of anarchist action against the capitalist class — failed, even the individualist anarchists felt that their survival depended upon organization, which they had been striving to reject.”

“Would you tell me now what are, in your opinion, the present conditions of anarchism in Italy?”

“In Italy”, said Saverio Merlino, “we have now the remnants of the old internationalist party, a party which was anarchist in contradistinction to state socialism. It survives because our working class is reluctant to participate in any kind of disciplined party activity and is against any kind of parliamentary life, so much so, that even the socialist party itself has an anti-parliamentary faction — the syndicalist faction. Thus, anarchism in Italy is reduced to these splinters of the internationalist party”.

At this point, touching upon a sensitive issue, I asked: “What place do you see for the anarchist party in the future?” “I believe”, he replied in all sincerity and not without a little bitterness, “I believe that the anarchist party is bound to end. It is my personal impression that the anarchist party hasn’t any more men of high caliber. Reclus and Kropotkin[15] were the last. Furthermore the anarchist party is no longer intellectually productive; no scientific or political work of notable value has come from the anarchist party. In fact, it has not even proliferated. At the time when the anarchist mind was inspiring vigorous manifestations in the United States, in Germany, even in Great Britain, the anarchist movement seemed on its way to prevail. Now not only has it stopped, it is finished”.

“Then you are skeptical about the results of the International Congress in Luxemburg?”

“It will leave things as they are. After all, it will not be the first congress that this happens to. The importance assumed by the first congresses of the international movement was exceptional, as was the importance attained by some of the farmworkers’ congresses. After all what is to be expected, as a general rule, from a congress?”

“Then what do you think of the present Congress in Rome?”

“This Congress is debating, as usual, the question of organization and individualism, a question which, I dare say, is the scandal of the party.”

“Are the Paterson groups still alive?”

“Yes, the Paterson groups in the United States are still in existence. They are made up of immigrants in transit, mostly Italians and Germans. They also publish papers. But they are artificial entities, they are not spontaneous. Thanks to the emphasis of the labor movement, these and other anarchist groups continue to live — in part because of tradition and in part through inertia — but they amount to nothing really vital...”[16]

I wanted to close the interview with the question that I was most curious about, and so I asked Merlino:

“How do you explain the obvious and comforting decrease of anarchist attempts?”

“The reasons for such an undeniable decrease are complex.

“In the first place, one must remember that many anarchist attempts of the past had their source in the oppressive policies followed by certain governments. Everybody knows by now that the governments understood nothing about the internationalist movement. They saw the anarchists as ferocious animals and persecuted them mercilessly. The anarchists, to protect themselves from the persecutions of their national police, sought refuge abroad, where, embittered by the violence they had suffered, they would organize groups (like, for instance, the Italian group in Paterson, New Jersey), from which the anarchist point of view would be propagated with renewed intensity. However, the European governments, after the international congresses held by the representatives of their police forces, came to understand the uselessness of persecutions. They served no purpose at all, because no one can foresee or prevent the individual act of a possessed mind. Moreover, the police have almost always arrived too late, even when they have had the opportunity to do something. Consequently, the illusion that the anarchist attempts, which originate from the impulse of a solitary person, could be prevented has vanished. And so, the anarchist attentat is now considered like any other act committed by the individual will and even, at times, provoked by causes other than political. Now, for instance, it is revealed that Moral,[17] after a disappointment in love, may have chosen his attempt to kill the king of Spain as a means to end his own life... As I was saying, once the police persecutions in their more severe forms had ceased and the oppressive measures, at first adopted by governments against the anarchists, had abated, a decrease in attacks logically followed...”

At this point it appeared to me that my inquiries concerning contemporary anarchism had been exhausted and I closed the interview which contained the remarkable statement that the anarchist party is finished.

<right>Cesare Sobrero</right>

So! Merlino says that, “The anarchist movement has no longer any importance, because that portion of anarchist principles which is lasting has passed into socialism and is being propagated by it, while the Utopian part has been recognized as such and no longer has any value.

“As the essential part has been absorbed by the socialist movement, anarchism is nothing more than one of the many aspects through which the more forceful socialist propaganda presents itself.”

Conclusion: “Anarchists no longer have a specific political function to fulfill”.

De profundis... “Not only has the anarchist movement stopped, it is finished”.

His evidence? Here it is: “The anarchist movement no longer has men of prime importance; the last were Elisée Reclus and Peter Kropotkin; from its womb, once so fertile, no works of notable scientific or political value are issuing forth; no new offspring coming into the world”.

Furthermore: “The movement is divided by the internal struggles between individualists and organizationalists: the latter cannot find an organization that is compatible with anarchist principles; the former, after the idea of reprisal, which had been the soul of anarchist activity, ceased to exist, cannot find a manner of acting and cannot exist without the organization they strive to reject”. This, in short — though with strict adherence to his meaning — is the argument of Francesco Saverio Merlino.

But if we could prove that the enduring portion of anarchist principles has never been absorbed by socialism:

— That the portion which has been recognized as Utopian and worthless, far from being the essence of the anarchist philosophy, is only the residue of ancient Jacobinism, and that, through the selective process, anarchist ideas have asserted themselves better and with greater precision than all other socialist trends;

— That, in this antithesis of ends and means, the anarchist movement, compared to all other trends of socialism, is the slow but persistent forerunner of a different and more advanced society than has been conceived by any other doctrine and by any other political party, and has its own good reason to exist, its own specific function to perform;

— That the anarchist movement has always contained men of the first rank; that, in these last years, it has not only produced works of inestimable value in science and in politics, but it has also put its mark upon the whole intellectual movement of modern times;

— That, far from being as sterile, as Merlino complains, the anarchist movement has nothing to deplore but... an excessive proliferation;

— That deplored internal struggles between individualists and organizationalists are an inevitable crisis of development, an inevitable process of selection: they are evidence of vitality, of energy and progress rather than symptoms of exhaustion and anguish;

What would remain of the sinister sophisms, the dark prophecies, and the distressing lamentations of Jeremiah... Merlino?

Upon the ruins of his unfortunate thesis would remain this victorious conclusion: that anarchism, as a doctrine and as a movement, has never had more than today its own good reason to exist, and it never has asserted itself more than at present with such intensity and such dimension; that far from being moribund, it lives, it develops and it goes forward.

• Chapter 2 : The Anarchism of Merlino

We believe that such a demonstration is easy, even face to face with Francesco Saverio Merlino, who is a formidable debater, wise, versed in dialectics, learned — provided that two essential terms of the debate are defined with precision.

If we agree — and I am almost certain that we do — on the notion of progress and if we agree on the fundamental and characteristic meaning of anarchism, then we have only to test the content of anarchism as a doctrine, the multiple aspects and scope of its manifestations as a movement, on the touchstone of our mutual notion of progress in order to deduce — perhaps again in agreement — whether it still contains the basis of a positive progressive aspiration (even if it lies in the distant future), whether it carries the vigorous throbs of exuberant vitality, or the incoherent convulsions of distress and agony.

Hoping to reach the desired and necessary harmony of these premises, we will refer for the notion of progress to Leon Metchnikoff,[18] a philosopher as great as he is unknown, in whom Merlino has undoubtedly the greatest regard and confidence. We find his definition of progress most positive and clear. For the notion of anarchism we shall refer to a man of whose competence Merlino has the highest opinion, for that man is... F. S. Merlino himself. In the noted pamphlet Perche siamo anarchici? [Why are we anarchists?] and in the incisive presentation of our principles, written by him many years ago for the ponderous Journal des Economistes, he outlines with brief but simple clarity the nature and character of our aspirations.[19]

In his splendid study of La Civilization el Les Grands Fleuves Historiques, [Civilization and the Great Rivers of History] Leon Metchnikoff writes about progress:

“In the field of pure science, ‘progress’ is understood as the sequence of natural phenomena wherein, at each stage of evolution, energy manifests itself with a growing variety and intensity. The series is called ‘progressive’ when each one of its stages reproduces the preceding ones plus some new trait that did not exist in the preceding phase, and, in its turn, it becomes the embryo of a new plus in the following stage. A plant marks a ‘progress’ over the mineral world; it represents the process of non-organized nature plus the specific peculiarities of nutrition, growth, reproduction. The animal, in its turn, shows a progress beyond vegetable life, because it adds its peculiar faculties of movement and sensitivity to the acquisitions of the plant. Man is a progress over all other vertebrates because his sensitive and intellectual life make him capable of enjoying a wealth unknown to his predecessors.”

Of anarchism as an aspiration and philosophy, Merlino writes: “The essence of anarchism within the evolution of thought and society is the total image of man, his integration, his needs, his unexplored energies, his infinite capacity for development, his sociability, his many relations with his fellow man and with the outer world.” Therefore, from the point of view of the individual, the aims of anarchism are:

1. “The economic integration of man, who is at present fragmentary or incomplete, either master or slave, mind or muscle, by combining the qualities of both producer and consumer in every single person, by making the tools and means of production available to all the workers.”

2. “The intellectual integration of the working people by uniting material and intellectual, industrial and agricultural work by means of a variety of occupations, so that all the human faculties may be activated (intensive cultivation of the human being).”

3. “The moral integration of man; satisfaction of all his moral and material needs; liberty and lack of coercion of the individual; security of life; complete development of life for all human beings.”

But, in this society, which wants to make available to all workers all means of production, and wants to assure everyone of its members the satisfaction of all material and moral needs, liberty, lack of coercion and integral development of each person —

1. Who will organize work and all its requirements?

2. On what principles will organization be built?

3. How will the participation of everyone in work and in leisure be managed?

Merlino replies:

1. Each individual, autonomous within a free group, will manage his own interests.

2. The basis of the organization of anarchist society will be in the solidarity of all interests and the mutual agreement among the workers.

3. Everyone will participate in both production and enjoyment, according to his or her ability and needs.

“Would there be need for a government, a parliament, a cabinet, a police force, a judiciary?” Nothing of this kind would exist in the anarchist system. “And how can all this come about?”

The first step towards the future society will be revolution, inevitable because the ruling classes will yield only to force. The working man must make his own revolution, take back what has been taken from him, repossess everything he has produced and others have seized, in short: expropriate the owners and the capitalists.

“Could not some good be accomplished, a few steps forward taken, by participating in the elections with formal candidates?”

No. We know for certain that workers are deceived and cheated in elections, that they will never be able to send their comrades to Parliament and... that even if the majority in Parliament were workers, they would be unable to do anything.

Instead of helping the workers, elections damage their own cause. Once elected to office, even the more active and intelligent among their comrades become renegades or idlers. The people are led to believe that salvation will come from above, from the government, from the Parliament, and they cease to fight.

• Chapter 3 : The Characteristics of Anarchism

These aims are characteristic of anarchism, not only because the whole anarchist doctrine rests upon them as a fundamental basis, but also because anarchism alone promotes them and pursues their realization and, therefore, they constitute the essence that distinguishes anarchism from all the other schools of socialism.

If we reduce the antitheses existing in the various schools of socialism to those that distinguish anarchist-communists from socialist-collectivists (these being, after all, the only vital trends of popular socialism, the only ones involved in this controversy, because, according to Merlino, what is essential in anarchism has been absorbed by socialist-collectivism) this will expose in a much clearer way the exact terms of their differences.

In the collectivist society, promoted (almost without exceptions) by the International Socialist Party, work and satisfaction of needs will be directed by the workers’ collective by means of representatives, administrators, functionaries — in short, by what the socialists like to call the ‘administration government’ — because, after the disappearance of the existing division of society in classes, the political functions of government would have no reason to exist, and the government would be nothing but a council charged with the collective management of the social estate.

In an anarchist society, the free individual within the free society would proceed to take care of his interests personally. To conceive of a government — even if it were a simple administrative government — one must implicitly agree that ”All the interests of the whole people be concentrated in the hands of a few; that a small number of people act for the whole nation; that instead of letting the single individual think for himself, he be forced to submit to the will of those who think for all the people”.

Now all this is inconsistent with the free and egalitarian society of which we are talking.

The contrast is even more violent if the standards with which a collectivist society arranges each person’s participation in work and in pleasure are compared to the standards which would prevail in an anarchist-communist society.

The collectivist-socialists demand from each one, according to his ability, rewarding each ability in proportion to its work.

The communist-anarchists say instead that anyone who, of his free will, takes part in the productive process according to his capacity, will receive according to his needs.

While the collectivist-socialists limit their demands to the finished product of their work, the anarchists proclaim that regardless of the value of the product, the individual worker will be entitled to the full satisfaction of his needs.

• Chapter 4 : Socialist-Collectivism and Anarchist-Communism

This new characteristic has not yet appeared within the thought of classical democracy, which, following in the footsteps of Ledru-Rollin and Mazzini[29], is still raving about the Utopia of an impossible alliance between capital and labor, an impossible harmony between the exploited and the exploiters. Socialist philosophy expressed it as the social ownership of all means of production and exchange.

So, the socialist movement represents a progress over the old democratic doctrine, which used to lull us to sleep with its old nursery songs about alliances and harmony.

Such progress becomes more and more evident as the huge proletariat of all nations, called to action and insurrection by the new social theories, inspires and hastens the selective processes within the socialist party itself.

Because, even if there is no disagreement, generally speaking, on the main point (the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and exchange), nor on the ultimate aim (the social ownership of such means of production and exchange), even if there is no disagreement, generally speaking, about the means necessary for accomplishing the great transformation, even if it is generally agreed that the emancipation of the working people must be the result of the workers’ own effort and that the expropriation of the bourgeoisie can only be brought about“... by the violent destruction of the present social orders”; yet differences of opinion and frictions will emerge, sharp and numberless at every step, just as soon as one passes from theory to practice and experiment, as soon as a hypothesis is put forth concerning the relations that might bind together the dwellers of the happy city that the revolution will erect upon the ruins of private property.

So, at the International Workers Association, when the problem arose of how to translate the generic formula ‘social ownership’ of all means of production and exchange into terms describing with precision what everyone wanted, many said ‘collectivism’, many others ‘communism’, some said the ‘socialist state’ and others wanted ‘anarchy’; some preferred ‘conquest of power’ and some ‘social revolution’.

Hence, disagreement over the economic and the political aims, disagreement about the means of propaganda and action. And we have already pointed out that the initial disagreements became in time irreconcilable antagonisms.

The two main opposing schools were in perfect agreement about the illegitimacy of private property and in favor of socializing all means of production and exchange, and, together, they brought into the struggles for economic emancipation a new concept and brought into the continuum of evolutionary phenomena a more progressive phase. Now the problem is to find out if and to what extent each of the two schools has remained faithful to this notion of progress immediately following the period of broad generalizations; if, in their hurry to apply principles to reality, each has retained any, and how much, of the old systems condemned by history, criticism and reason; how much does each one of them carry along that is inert, dead, or Utopian; and, finally, which of them is entitled to speak in the name of life and of the future.

Now those who said ‘collectivism’, meant socialization limited to the means of production and exchange. “We do not want to abolish in any manner the private appropriation of the product of labor... what we want to abolish is the wretched way appropriation is done, whereby the worker lives only to increase capital and lives only so long as and because the interest of the ruling class demands it”.

This same thought was expressed even with more precision by Andrea Costa,[30] after his conversion to parliamentary socialism. At the Italian Socialist Party Congress in Mantua, on September 26, 1886, he defined collectivism as “... communalization of the means of production, reserving for the individual as private property his work’s production, thus assuring the rights of the community, on one side, and those of the worker, on the other.”

In his Quintessence of Socialism Shaffle said the same thing with less clarity but more explicitly: “Substituting collective for private capital means that, instead of the system of private production, there is a system based on the collective ownership of all means of production. Besides obtaining a more unified, a more social, a more collective organization of labor, this system of production would eliminate day-to-day competition; it would place that part of production which is susceptible to collective operation under the direction of professional entities and corporations, and would also direct the division or distribution of the collective products according to the social value of each worker’s labor.”[31]

Then, it is clear that in collectivism, the socialization of property — the new trait that elevates socialist thought and movement to a level of progress unknown to all preceding theories and schools — is limited to the means of production, while it reserves for the individual worker all rights to the fruits of his work.

The collectivist premise of socializing the means of production is revolutionary insofar as it displaces all the old relations, all the old forms and, in so doing, counters private property with collective social ownership of all means of production. But it remains the conservator of the old absurd irrational bourgeois criterion of compensation, insomuch as it regulates everyone’s share of the products of common work, even if such compensation should be extended to the final product of each one’s work.

Of course, the conclusion that socialist-collectivism derives from its revolutionary socialization of all means of production is irrational, absurd and Utopian, because it does not resolve the political problem of equality and freedom; because it confirms, rather than removes, the hypothesis of the State, against which the socialist critique has struggled for half a century; because it is not supported by a logical and positive criterion; because it will never find practical means of explanation, unless they are based on gross iniquity, stupid privileges, strident inequalities and contradictions.

The demonstration is implicit in the very form that collectivism assumes. It proposes a society based on the common ownership of all means of production and exchange and the private ownership of one’s own work, a formula which creates an initial inequality that would turn out to be a Pandora’s box, out of which would come all kinds of rivalries, hatreds, and competitions, worse and deadlier than the social inequalities existing in our times.

The socialists say that each will receive the value of each one’s work from the product of the collective work. But we know, even now, that intelligence, strength, activity, aptitude and physical capability vary from person to person, so that the quantity and quality of their production is bound to vary from person to person, and each worker will be entitled to receive a different quota of the product. Thus, it has to be admitted that the citizens of the collectivist city will satisfy their needs in an unequal measure, since it appears obvious that those who produce more and better will be entitled to receive more of the product of the social work than the unlucky ones who, being less strong and less capable, will produce less or with more strenuous effort.

And one will have to admit, willingly or not, that this is the first absurdity, the first inequality and the first injustice.

An absurdity, because no labor union, were it the most intelligent and bold within international collectivism, will ever find the standard with which to evaluate the effort and the strain which its members — varying and differently developed — are forced to exert in order to give their necessary contribution to the collective production. Nor will it find the means to evaluate the raw manual labor requiring a minimal effort from a strong, intelligent young man, but causing great pain for a weak, less intelligent, and awkward person who, nevertheless, will be called to show the total of his work done before he opens the account of his needs. Beyond sheer manual labor, it will be even harder to determine the value of the wages due for work less measurable in its nature and in its processes, but no less useful in its results — when, for instance, one must determine the use value of Pascal’s theorem, or of Newton’s law of gravitation, or of Marconi’s wireless telegraphy.[32]

• Chapter 5 : Anarchist-Communism and Individualism

This conclusion is so far from being rash that it is shared, more or less sincerely, by even the most qualified exponents of socialist-collectivism. In addition to Morgari, who, as we have seen, admits that socialist-collectivism represents a lower stage in social evolution than anarchist-communism, there is no other apostle of socialism who, when pressed, would not be willing to call himself a communist[37], even if, in so doing, he forgets that every premise implies a deduction and that only anarchism can correspond to the economic premise of communism.

No, if we pay attention to the text of the Merlino interview, and, if we remember his repeated criticisms of collectivism, and remember the cordial antipathy he has persistently expressed for the program and action of the Socialist Party, we would have to conclude that he too would agree with our theoretical deductions. In fact, he bases his judgments and funereal prophecies more upon the outward manifestations of anarchism ‘as a movement’, rather than on the essential substance of anarchist doctrine.

We think this irremediably undermines his own thesis.

For Merlino to be right, it would be necessary to conclude that the doctrine which has the greater content of logic, of truth, of progress, of future, is fated to perish ignominiously from starvation, while the other, with the florid complexion of a sudden — too sudden — growth (pars major saepe pejor [the greater part is often the worst part], as old Seneca used to say), the one cuddling the worms of the most putrid conventionalisms and the most absurd contradictions, is fated to survive.

And Merlino, who is an intelligent man, knows that this hypothesis is worse than nonsense: it is a downright aberration.

• Chapter 6 : Workers' Organization

“Against the workers’ organizations, also?”

It is not a question of pro or con. The anarchist movement and the labor movement follow two parallel lines, and it has been geometrically proven that parallels never meet.

It is presumed that through experience, research, learning, meditation, the anarchist, at least, has reached the conviction that the social malaise, in general and, in particular, poverty, serfdom and the involuntary, imposed ignorance of the working people who produce everything that gives life its fullness and the splendor they will never enjoy, but which is and will be enjoyed by those who have never done a day’s work anywhere) derive from a primitive and fundamental monopoly — from the hoarding, by a greedy and cunning minority, of the land, fields and mines and their products; of the factories and forges, where the earth’s products are transformed into the elements of life, security, and pleasure; of the railroads and ships, carrying such products to all parts of the world, there to be exchanged for other goods or shining gold, which is the tool of the wealth, power, and of the tyranny which the privileged minority practices with impunity over the rest of mankind. The church consecrates this usurpation as a special blessing of god; the State legitimizes it in its parliaments, codes, tribunals, protected by its laws, police and armies. And hypocritical morality surrounds this thievish hoarding with religious devotion.

The anarchist impugns this monopoly, but since a mere denial is of no use, he strikes with all his might at the roots of the accursed tree, trying to cut it down and destroy it together with its branches and its fruits: everything belongs to everybody. No more private ownership of means of production and exchange, nor of any other institution that guards the injustice and the inequality, which are the inevitable issue of that initial privilege.

And since our good burghers, even those who pretend philanthropy redeems usury, will never stop being exploiters or give back what they have unjustly taken; the anarchists, including those who abhor violence and bloodshed, are compelled to conclude that the expropriation of the ruling class will have to be accomplished by the violent social revolution. And they dedicate themselves to this, seeking to prepare the proletariat with every means of education, propaganda and action at their disposal.

Do not forget and do not delude yourselves! The proletariat is still a mass, not a class. If it were a class, if it had a clear, full consciousness of its rights, of its function, of its strength, the egalitarian revolution would be a thing of the past, freeing us from these melancholy and bitter musings.

The great mass is bourgeois non natione sed moribus [not by birth but by custom] — not by origin, for nothing was found in its cradle, but by habit, superstition, prejudice and by interest, too, because it feels its own interests are tied to and dependent upon the masters’, who, therefore, become providence itself, providing job, wages, bread, life for father and children. And for job, life and security, the great mass is grateful to the master who has always existed and will exist forever: blessed be he — and blessed be the institutions, the laws, the policemen who defend and protect him.

In other words, while the anarchist makes a sharp, severe positive diagnosis, and sinks the scalpel deep to remove the main source of the social malaise at its root (not hiding the long and painful duration of the treatment) the great mass remains empirical. It does not contest property, let alone reject it; it wishes only it were less greedy. It does not repudiate the master; it desires only that he be better. It does not reject the State, law, tribunals and the police; it wants only a fatherly State, just laws and honest courts, police that are more humane.

We do not argue about whether property is greedy or not, if masters are good or bad, if the State is paternal or despotic, if laws are just or unjust, if courts are fair or unfair, if the police are merciful or brutal. When we talk about property, State, masters, government, laws, courts and police, we say only that we don’t want any of them. And we pursue with passion, patience and faith, a society incompatible with these monstrosities. And meanwhile, with all the means we can muster, we contest and oppose their arbitrary and atrocious functions, quite often sacrificing our freedom, our well-being, even our loved ones for many long years, sometimes forever.

As you can see, we follow different roads, and it is unlikely that we will ever meet.

• Chapter 7 : Propaganda of the Deed

I am beginning to suspect that Merlino may see in the individual acts of rebellion — rebellion against the church, against the State, against property or morality — and in the iconoclasts who commit themselves to them, almost always losing their freedom or their lives — the essential source of disagreement and the insurmountable obstacle to a cordial and productive understanding among the various tendencies of anarchism.

If that were the case, I would be very sorry... for a long series of reasons.

Because, if I remember the disdainful and bitter attitude Merlino assumed in Paris a quarter of a century ago against the ‘Intransigent Groups’ (in these, side by side with some scoundrels who exploited the fervor and generosity of some comrades and, in the name of anarchism, thought only of piling up money for themselves, becoming capitalists as greedy as all the others, sincere and courageous men were to be found working only to provide adequate means for action — propaganda of the deed — as it was then called. It is enough to remember Vittorio Pini[44] was one of them); I also remember Merlino’s gesture, (which was considered heroic and was certainly unusually courageous in that moment of white terror) when he assumed the defense of Gaetano Bresci at his trial in Milan, a task he performed with great dignity and determination before a public cowed by the bullying police and their spies, the insidious provocations of the prosecutor, and the stern admonishments of an impatient judge.

For that gesture of courage, loyalty and honesty — a gesture that had to be inspired, if not by a feeling of true political and moral solidarity, certainly by a deep and sincere understanding of the causes which made the Monza tragedy an act of vindication and retribution — I have in the inmost recess of my heart the deepest gratitude and admiration for Francesco Saverio Merlino.

The purity of Gaetano Bresci’s sacrifice must have told him something that he could not reject.

I would regret it, too, because Saverio Merlino has such a wide knowledge of history and the philosophy of history, as well as economy and jurisprudence, that it must be sooner envied than equaled even among the better informed. And therefore, he cannot separate the individual act of rebellion from the political climate in which it strikes, from the causes, remote or near, complex in any case, by which it is almost fatalistically determined, from the particular psychology of the medium Nemesis has chosen for its ends of atonement, reparation, justice, from the consequence, from the admonitory impact it puts on everybody’s memory and experience.

The church, of course, aborret a sanguine (abhors the spilling of blood) and anathametizes any attempt... that doesn’t serve its interests and, so, finds rewards, indulgence and beatifications for Dominic Guzman, Clement and Ravaillac, for the Dragonnades and the St Barthelmys.[45]

The State sees only a criminal in anyone who breaks a law and, by delivering him to a dozen bigots or butchers, is certain to have him committed to the executioner, to the penitentiary, to hell in any case.

The conventionally-minded cry out contradictorily that “Human life is sacred and inviolable, and whoever attacks it offends both divine and human laws”; while they are fattening their wallets and their bellies without the least scruple; condemning the helots toiling in the fields, the factories and the mines to starvation, despair and early death, their women to prostitution and their children to the gutter. Or else, they push them over frontiers into monstrous slaughter tor the sake of a killing in the stock market.

The clowns and spellbinders of self-serving politics, who only yesterday proclaimed the martyrdom of Sophia Perowskaya and Albert Parsons,[46] having hardly wiped their obscene mouths, now spit upon our own rebels because they have suddenly thrown into the web of their plans and machinations the carcass of the tyrant they had been cursing the day before. They shed their crocodile tears over the royal victim; they sententiously declare that political assassination is sheer folly, that “When a pope dies, another takes his place”, and that the world continues without a tremor on its immutable way.

Even in our own ranks there are short-sighted persons who, looking at the immediate consequences of shock and reactionary fury caused by violence, hesitate and wonder whether the rebellious act, by provoking wild, unexpected repressions and by corroding our already scanty liberties, may not have compromised our slow, but persistent and certainly beneficial, work of propaganda, organization and preparation.

Whatever our doctrinal and tactical disagreements may be, we have too much respect for F S Merlino to assign him to any of the above-mentioned categories.

He never would, nor could, separate the individual act of rebellion from the revolutionary process of which it is the initial phase — not an episode — and whose following phases are, in their turn, inevitable consequences and developments.

The Ideal, a solitary aspiration of poets and philosophers, is embodied in the martyrdom of its first heralds and sustained by the blood of its believers. Their sacrifice raised as a sacred standard leads the first heroic but doomed insurrections and triumphs in the end through revolutionary deeds, the joy and glory of all.

Without going far from home, doesn’t the history of the last Italian revolution offer a clear outline of this process?

Who said first;

• Chapter 8 : Anarchy Will Be!

I am unable to reply to one of Merlino’s statements with consideration and breadth that it requires and that my opponent deserves.

I am sorry. But he who has had to live for about ten years in a small mountain town, with only a small library for the needs of twelve thousand inhabitants of least half-a-dozen nationalities, has only a sparse and backward bibliography at his disposal.

And, unable to renew or increase his slender library with the scanty compensation of his work (compensation susceptible to frequent eclipses when Cronaca Sovversiva sails among the rocks of deficit), he can only with uneasiness, contest F S Merlino — a walking library in himself — when he states that, “Anarchism which was once so productive, can no longer inspire any works of noticeable scientific and political value”; and that “... since Kropotkin and Reclus it has had no other first-rate names”.

Reclus is dead, true; and no one else is taking his place; but Merlino will certainly admit that men of Reclus’ stature do not brighten the records of the civil state every day, in any country.

Meanwhile, he has died, leaving us his last masterpiece, L’Homme et la Terre, the synthesis of sixty years of research, study and meditation which will be a source of wisdom for a long time. This means that the good Reclus remains in the battle, still in the forefront.

But, then, Kropotkin is still alive, as always, vigorous, ardent, and productive. Modern Science and Anarchism, his latest work, [1903] belongs to yesterday, but we have good reason to state that he has other works in the making, in no way inferior to the preceding ones that have received so much credit and praise in the scientific world — notwithstanding its fundamental heterodoxy.

He too remains in the forefront, and it seems to me excessive and strange that Merlino should hurry to bury them in order to say that anarchism has no more first-rate men and can no longer produce works of considerable scientific and political value.

Confidentially, I would also like to ask him a question. When a new movement dawns — and, from its ideals down to its tangled structure of interests, it reflects, and also subverts, all of the social relationships, the whole moral, legal, political and economic make-up of society — is it possible that the theoretical articulation of its aspirations, the first step in choosing a goal and determining the ways and means of achieving it, can immediately be followed by the sprouting of a complete philosophical, scientific and literary structure of the system? As if, for example, the first spreading of the gospels was followed the day after by the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas.[66]

Doesn’t the dazzling announcement to the deprived of a totally new world, totally different from the one that afflicts them — a world of equality, brotherhood, freedom, well-being and joy — have to be followed by a long and painful daily apostolate in partibus infidelium [in the land of the unbelievers], against fierce opposition, so that its echo may reach to the ends of the nation or of the globe, recruiting the phalanxes to whom will be entrusted the banners of the burning faith, the secret of victory?

It was a long, long journey from the simple evangelism along the shores of Lake Tiberias to Constantine’s edict, in 313 AD — and it was by way of the Roman catacombs. And Christ — if he ever lived — never reappeared; the apostolate was the work of humble, obscure and simple minded fishermen — as the legend says.

Agreed that Reclus and Kropotkin will remain, together with Bakunin, in the first rank of our history, unsurpassed in this period. They are and remain the heralds.

But how many apostles they aroused! James Guillaume, who is now constructing the history of the First International Workingmen’s Association with indisputable documents and great patience — is he not in the forefront a shining example of productivity and fervor? And Anselmo Lorenzo, vigorous, straight and inflexible as an oak under the fury of the wildest reaction? And Francisco Ferrer, just yesterday felled by Bourbon lead in the Montjuich moats? And Edward Carpenter? And Tarrida del Marmol? and William Tcherkesoff? And Max Nettlau, who has erected the most beautiful monument to Bakunin, with his complete, documented biography? Are they not names and men who, for wisdom and propaganda and loftiness of the anarchist ideal, can properly face the beat in the opposing parties? Don’t they with their assiduous vigilance, provide the vanguard of the movement with the material and ammmunition indispensable for bold incursions?[67]

And considering that the best dreams, the passion of superior minds, intrepid hearts, heroic souls, would go up in smoke like all dreams if they did not find their incarnation in the enthusiasm, the self-abnegation and faith of the humble people, have not the members of the vanguard, in the paradoxical intensity of that great trinity’s thought, prepared the host for greater eucharists?

It is peculiar! Merlino believes in the good fortune and triumph of anarchism so long as it remains the inspiration of prophets, of a few thinkers who weigh the word in the almost inaccessible world of metaphysics; but he doubts its destiny to the point of predicting its agony when its word has become flesh and blood through the incorruptible faith of several millions of followers spread all over the five parts of the world.

According to the law of physics as well as the experience of history, intensity is offset by dimension.

We gladly concede to Merlino that Bakunin, Reclus and Kropotkin remain unsurpassed, and we are also ready to admit that we will never again have forerunners as noble and great But let him concede, in turn (and he can do so without effort or contradiction)that the intensity of thought and life peculiar to the few superior spirits is inversely compensated for by the greater and more industrious number of intelligent, conscientious, devoted and fierce militants, who although stumbling against all the snares of reaction — from the Bourbonic garrote to the Tokyo imperial gallows — are always in arms, have hoisted the flag of revolt, and roused the hope of emancipation in the oppressed all over the world.

Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid sets forth the doctrine, the law of solidarity among all living beings, to the mortification of those who insist on misinterpreting Darwin; Elisée Reclus spells the alternate rhythm of evolution and revolution with the same rigid synchronism of the pendulum’s oscillations; and both are incisive winners in the world of scholarship and thought. But how much harder is the struggle to instill that same feeling of solidarity and faith in revolution into the masses, to instill the denial of god among the superstitious herds so that they may have faith in themselves and become the authors of their own destiny, accomplishing this on the basis of equality and freedom. This harder task has been sustained by the more modest and ardent propagators of ideas!

Fra Contadini, by our good Errico Malatesta; The Religious Plague, by old Johann Most; Dieu n’existe pas, by Sebastien Faure,[68] books translated into twenty languages and spread among all kinds of people — are they not the thoughts of Bakunin, Reclus and Kropotkin, continuing to convince and to propagate? And are they not, in fact, the most enthusiastic signs of the masses’ agreement with our aspirations, the necessary road to any revolutionary experiment, to any initial realization?

None of the Encyclopedists led the people to the conquest of the Bastille. At the Constitutional, Legislative and Convention assemblies, the men who abolished the privilege of caste, shoved the king of France under the guillotine and wrote the Declaration of Rights, were totally unknown before July 14, 1789. In the crucible of revolution they distinguished themselves as the pure metal from which the new order emerged. None of them enjoyed the benefits of the revolution they had started, supported or led it to its glorious success — a demonstration that the events, themselves, of each historical period, forge men for the purpose at hand; that, if the day before yesterday was the time for Bakunin, Reclus and Kropotkin, if yesterday was the time for the martyrs and apostles, today belongs to the proletariat, who perform their task with ardor and conscious tenacity, a sign of triumph rather than a symptom of anarchism’s decadence, as F S Merlino seems to believe, strangely enough.

Strangely! He would have every reason to cry over the end of anarchism, like Jeremiah or Cassandra, if the trunk had withered, if no ethical value, no revolutionary activity, no faith had sprouted from the works of Bakunin, Reclus and Kropotkin. But if the trunk is alive, he is all wrong. Especially wrong for not having remained faithful to the ideal on which he has spent so much of himself.

• Notes

The original edition of this book had very few footnotes: they have all been translated and they are printed in italic type in this edition. The editor of the second edition, Giuseppe Rose added many interesting notes most of which are repeated in the present edition. Even more have been added by the translator.

[1] Syndicalism is defined in the Encyclopedia Britannica as “the name given to a form of socialist doctrine elaborated by and born from the experience of the French Syndicats or trade Unions.

[2] Francesco Saverio Merlino (1856–1930) was a militant anarchist from 1877 to 1897. He wrote many pamphlets and books on anarchism and libertarian socialism and edited newspapers and essays. A lawyer, he defended the 26 insurgents of the ‘Matese Band’ (April 5 1877) at their trial in Benevento (August 29, 1878) and all his life continued to defend — in court and in the press — anarchists who had been accused of subversive or revolutionary acts or words.

[3] Luigi Fabbri (1877–1935). When very young he began writing for anarchist papers and reviews — and started to be persecuted by the police. In 1898 he was arrested and sent to the Island of Ponza (off the Gulf of Naples) then to the Island of Favignana (in the Egadi Archipelago, off the westernmost coast of Sicily). He spent his life working for the movement from four to eight in the morning and at his job as a teacher the rest of the day. In 1926, having refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Fascist dictatorship, he lost his position as a teacher and went to France from where he was expelled in 1929. Allowed to land in Uruguay, he started publication of a review called Studi Sociali (Social Studies), which he continued until death snatched him from his conscientious world. Malatesta — The Man and his thought, Dittatura e Rivoluzione, Contrarivoluzione preventiva are just a few of his best books.

[4] Pietro Gori (1856–1911). Lawyer, poet and compelling orator, he dedicated his life to anarchism and its aspirations. He was persecuted and imprisoned for his activities and had to roam around Europe and the two Americas. His works were published in 12 volumes by Cromo-Tipo La Sociale, Spezia (1911–12) and again, in 13 volumes, by Editrice Moderna, Milano (1948). Two large volumes of Selected Works, were published by Edizioni L’Antistato, Cesena, with a presentation by Guisseppe Rose (1968).

[5] Errico Malatesta (1853–1932). It may be said that the story of Malatesta’s life is intimately woven with the story of the first sixty years of the international anarchist movement. From his first trip to Switzerland, in 1872 to his last return from London in December 1919, he lived more abroad than in Italy and spoke to workers and people of all nations. His essays and pamphlets have been translated and published in many languages: in Italy, three volumes of Scritti (Writings) edited by L Fabbri and printed in Bruxelles under the auspices of Geneva’s Il Risveglio (1932–1934); a volume of Scritti Scelti (Selected Writings) Ed R L Napoli, 1947; over a dozen pamphlets, one of which, Fra Contadini has been translated into a score of languages and published in no one knows exactly how many editions and copies. In English it was first published in installments by Freedom and then in pamphlet by Freedom Press in 1891, under the title: A talk about Anarchist-Communism. The book Errico Malatesta — His Life and Ideas by Vernon Richards (London, Freedom Press, 1965) is certainly worthy of its subject.

[6] William McQueen a young militant writer and public speaker, from Scotland, was an enthusiastic supporter of the strikers’ cause. He was arrested and charged with being one of the instigators of the Paterson disorders of June 18, 1902. He was tried and condemned in absentia for conspiracy, with Galleani and Rudolf Grossman, to five years of hard labor. After the sentence was confirmed by the higher courts, McQueen returned from Scotland, where he had gone to join his family, and surrendered to the New Jersey authorities who kept him in prison for three years. He was released after a Paterson jury refused to condemn Galleani, who was tried on the same charges in April 1907.
Rudolf Grossman (1882–1942), better known by his pen-name Pierre Ramus, was a nonviolent anarchist, born in Austria and well-known internationally for his zeal and writings. He was pitilessly persecuted by governments. He was not in Paterson on June 18, 1902. Nevertheless he was arrested, tried and condemned to five years hard labor. The higher Court of New Jersey voided the Paterson verdict for procedural reasons.

[7] For information consult: The Deportations Delirium of Nineteen-Twenty — A personal narrative of an Historic Official Experience by Louis F Post, Chicago, Charles N Kerr & Co.

[8] Clement Duval (1850–1935) was a French anarchist who favored direct action by means of expropriation. He had been sentenced to capital punishment, having been arrested for burglary and wounds inflicted on a police agent in 1885, but in 1887 the sentence was changed to hard labor for life. In 1901 he escaped from the Cayenne Island penitentiary and reached the United States where he rejoined the anarchist movement and died in 1935. Those of us who knew him well had the opportunity to appreciate the physical and moral strength of the man and the depth of his convictions. He wrote his autobiography, which was translated in Italian by Galleani and published in one volume by L’Adunata dei Refrattari.

[9] Costantino Zonchello (1883–1967) came to America from his native Sardinia in 1907. Happening to meet some comrade in Cincinnati, Ohio, he became a supporter and collaborator of “Cronaca Sovversiva”. He was also an enthusiastic speaker. The difficulties in which the paper and the movement found themselves, made him more interested and active than ever. And when “Cronaca Sovversiva” was suppressed in 1918, he edited several underground papers, “Il Diritto”, and “L’ Inevitabile”. In the spring of 1922, as the result of the efforts of old militants from all parts of the country, “L’Adunata dei Refrattari” started its publications as a fortnightly, becoming a weekly the following year. Zonchello was its first editor, and remained a frequent collaborator till the end of his active life

[10] Giuseppe Rose (1921–1975) a teacher by profession, he was a capable writer for our Italian anarchist press. He edited the review “Volontà” after the death of Giovanna Berneri from 1962 to the end of his life. Among his better writings are:“Le Aforie del Marxismo Libertario” and “Bibliografia di Bakunin” (Bakunin’s bibliography).

[11] Two recent editions of this book have been announced sometime ago: one by the publishers of the review “Anarchismo” in Catania; the other by Luigi Assandri, in Turin.

[12] Gaetano Bresci was an Italian weaver who emigrated to Paterson, NJ. He returned to Italy and on July 29,1900 he killed the King Umberto I in Monza. At his trial, in Milan he explained his act as a necessary consequence of the State’s cruel repressions of the people. The text of Merlino’s courageous defense is still in circulation in pamphlet form. Bresci died in jail in 1902.

[13] F S Merlino was not a member of the famous “Matera Band” which was active during year 1877. He participated, instead, in the defense of its 26 members at their trial in Benevento, from the 14^th to the 25^th of August 1878.

[14] “Pro e contro il Socialismo. Esposizione critica dei principi e dei sistemi socialisti” (Fratelli Treves. Milano. 1897). “L’Utopia collettivista e la crisi del socialismo scientifico” (Fratelli Treves, Milano 1896).

[15] Elisée Reclus (1830–1905) was a French anarchist thinker of high merits and an eminent geographer, the author of “Nouvelle Geographie Universelle — La Terre et les Hommes” (19 Vol.) and “L’Homme el la Terre” (6 Volumes). There is an important work on Reclus by Max Nettlau: “Elisée Reclus, La Vida de un sabio, justo y rebelde” (Ed. Revista Blanca, Barcelona 1928,2 vol, 294,312 pages): there is also the recent work by Paul Reclus: “Les Frère Reclus” (Paris, 1964, 209 pages).
Peter Kropotkin (1842–1821). One of the most important anarchist thinkers and the author of many interesting books on history, science, philosophy: “Paroles d’un Revolté” (autobiographical), “Modern Science and Anarchism”, “Mutual Aid”, “Ethics”, “Revolutionary Pamphlets” Ed. Roger Baldwin.

[16] There may have been some excuse for a statement of this kind in 1894, the last time Mr Merlino saw the United States. It could have been successfully contradicted in 1907 when he made it in Rome, for “La Questione Sociale”, a weekly begun and regularly published in Paterson, was in its 17^th year of uninterrupted life, and vital enough to be suppressed by order of the Federal Government in 1908... only to be replaced — by the same people, in the same place with “L’Era Nuova” (The New Era) which lived a normal life until it was suppressed in its turn by the delirium raised by World War I. Nowadays all those newspapers and reviews that Merlino scorned as inane are considered an integral part of this country’s culture. So much so, that the newspaper Merlino himself founded and directed in New York from 1892 to 1894, has been carefully saved by the Columbia University Librarians, and can be read by anyone who cares to ask — or bought for a few dollars, in microfilm, by whomsoever, near or far, wishes to own it. And so are later papers as “Cronaca Sovversiva” the complete collection of which has been microfilmed by the Boston Public Library. So was “L’Adunata dei Refrattari” (1922–1971) and, I suppose, the “Freie Arbeiter Stimme”, the periodical in Yiddish language, that our comrades published from 1890 to 1977 in New York.
Merlino came and departed, but their passage left marks that cannot be erased nor neglected.

[17] Mateo Moral, learned scholar and polyglot, used to translate books for the Ferrer School. On May 31, 1905, in Madrid, he tried to kill the King of Spain, Alphonse XIII. Two days later he killed himself in order to avoid arrest.

[18] Leon Metchnikoff (1838–1888). Born in Petersburg of Ukrainian extraction, he was expelled from Kharkow University in 1856 for participation to a student demonstration. Two years later, for the same reason he was expelled from the University of Petersburg. A student of Oriental Languages, he was enrolled by a diplomatic mission to the Middle East, in 1858, as an interpreter. But he soon quit the Mission and went to Italy, in 1860, where he joined the Garibaldi expedition in Calabria. He was wounded at Volturno and remained in Italy where be met Bakunin and participated in revolutionary activities in Spain and elsewhere. His political writings were published in Herzen’s “Kokol”, his scientific ones in Russian reviews and papers. In 1874 Metchnikoff went to Japan as teacher of the Russian Language. Two years later he was in Switzerland with a manuscript on the “Japanese Empire” which was received by Elisée Reclus who incorporated it in his lifework. Metchnikoff settled in Switzerland where he died in 1888 leaving to the care of Elisée Reclus the text of his book “La Civilization et les Grands Fleuves Historiques” (Civilization and the Great Historical Rivers). It was published in 1889 by Librairie Hachette et Cie, Paris, with an extensive and informative Preface by E Reclus containing a friendly sketch of the author’s eventful life. (Quotation, from original edition, page 11).
A more recent biography of Leon Metchnikoff was written by James D White of the University of Glasgow and published by S.E.E.R., Vol. LIV. No. 3, July 1976 under the title “Despotism and Anarchy: The Sociological Thought of L I Mechnikov”.

[19] F S Merlino wrote two essays for the Paris “Journal des Economistes”. The first: “Integration Economique — Expose’ des doctrines anarchistes” (December 1889); the second: “Le caracter pratique de l’Anarchisme” (1890). Galleani refers to the first one which was translated into Italian in 1892 (Tip. dell’ Etruria, Grosseto).

[20] Jean Grave (1854–1939) French militant. Editor of historical papers: “Le Revolte” — “Temps Nouveaux”.
Varlaan Tcherkesoff — Russian from Georgia, was one of the Tchaikovsky Circle in St Petersburg, a lifelong friend of Kropotkin.
Sebastien Faure (1858–1939). For over sixty years a passionate anarchist militant in France. Writer, essayist, publisher and, above all effective orator. Besides books and pamphlets he left a monumental “Encyclopédie Anarchiste” in four volumes 2894 pages Ed Li [rest unreadable, OCR-note]

[21] Statute of the Italian Socialist Party.

[22] From F S Merlino’s essay: “Perche Siamo Anarchici?”

[23] Two Roman Emperors: Publius Aelius Hadrianus, from 117 to 138 AD; Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, from 161 to 180 AD.

[24] Jacques Bonhomme was the name ironically given by the landowner aristocracy to the peasants, in the XIV Century. Jacquerie was called the insurrection against feudalism, exploded in France, headed by Guillaume Caillet or Jacques Bonhomme. From the XIV to the XVI Century, “Jacqueries” appeared in Italy, England and Germany, besides France. Anabaptism was a Protestant sect arisen in Zurich in 1523. They were, among other things, a consequence of the people’s dissatisfaction and of the more radical elements concern about the problem of property. They were called Anabaptists because they claimed that baptism should be administered at the age of reason. Concerning Thomas Muentzer’s anabaptists see the excellent Soviet essay by Soviet historian M M Smirin: “The popular Thomas Muenzer Reform and the great peasant war” (Moscow-Leningrad, 1947).

[25] François Noel Babeuf (1760–1797) and Philippe Michel Buonarroti (1761–1837) forerunners of the economic revolution, were arrested by the Directoire — then ruling in France. Babeuf was executed as a traitor of the French Republic.

[26] “Levelers” were the extremist of the revolutionary movement in the British Civil War of the Seventeenth Century. In a letter dated November 1^st, 1647, they were described as follows: “They have given themselves a new name, viz: Levelers, for they intend to sett all things straight, and raise a parity and community in the Kingdom” (Gardner: “Great Civil War”).

[27] William Godwin (1756–1836), Robert Owen (1771–1858), Claude Saint-Simon (1760–1825), Charles Fourier (1772–1837), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Mikail Bakunin (1814–1876): all of them contributed in the attempt to carry theoretical socialism from vague and Utopian aspirations to more concrete and precise conceptions.

[28] This is a reference to P-J Proudhon’s essay: “Qu’est-ce que la Propriété?” (What is Property?).

[29] Alexandre-Auguste Rollin (1807–1874) a spokesman in Parliament for the French Democratic-Republican opposition, who had as a press organ “La Presse”.
Guisenne Mazzini (1805–1872) Italian standard-bearer of Republican Demo- [rest unreadable, OCR-note]

[30] Andrea Costa (1851–1910).

[31] Albert Shaflle (1831–1903) His “Quintessence of Socialism” was published in the Spring of 1874.

[32] Blaize Pascal (1623–1662). Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Guglielmo Marconi (1875–1937).

[33] Oddino Morgari (1865–1929) Socialist Party Deputy. He was a Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party, and, for a short time, editor of its organ, “Avanti!”

[34] Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Mathematician, Astronomer and Physicist, was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for his theories conflicting with the biblical legends.
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) convinced that Copernicus was right in refusing to believe that Earth is at the center of the Universe, was convicted of heresy by the Holy Office of the Roman Catholic Church and burnt at the stake on a Public Square in Rome, on February 17, 1600.

[35] Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–1896) Inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prize.
Friedrich Krupp (1787–1826) founder of the Krupp steel corporation and arms producer for the German Imperial armies.

[36] Paolo Gorini (1813–1896) Italian Naturalist and Philosopher, author of a book on the Origins of Vulcans.
Giovanni Bovio (1841–1903) Philosopher and politician, author of “Sistema di Filosofia Universale”, “Fiosofia del Diritto in Italia” and many other literary and philosophical works.
Elisée Reclus, see p. 129.

[37] The collectivists of the past display, nowadays, the communist label. But where they have dared, for the first time, to realize their “communism” they have confirmed our obvious and melancholy premonitions. The Soviet State outdoes the Dominicans of the Holy Inquisition in their despotism and intolerance. The obscene dictatorship of the handful of scoundrels ruling over the Muscovite proletariat, the consequent persecution of those who proudly dare to refuse to bow to the clumsy arrogance of a Zinovieff, or a Trotsky; the contempt for farmworkers and the systematic fawning over the worst and most corrupt foreign capitalism, make further illustration superfluous.
When people like Zinovieff, Trotsky, Tchicherin, Krassin call themselves “communists”, it, of course, takes a very deep conviction and a lot of courage for us to continue to call ourselves by that name. We need a new word that makes a differentiation. Words have their fortune, as the Romans would say. They also have their misfortune. And we believe it indispensable to write this footnote precisely in order to reject any possible relationship with Soviet “communism” (C.Z.)

[38] Matamoro — Spanish for bully, blusterer

[39] François Rabelais (1494–1553) French monk, writer, physician... author of “Gargantua” and “Pantagruel”.

[40] To those who are intoxicated by Nietsche but would also like to have Stirner on their side, we dedicate the following lines from “The Ego and His Own” (Ed Stock Paris, 1900, p.234), which is not only a vivid appeal to rebellion, but a categorical and resolute denial that anyone may treat his neigbors as he pleases:
“What is the remedy for all this?”
“Only one: to not admit any duty, which meant I am not duty bound to restrict myself, nor to consider myself restricted. If I have no duties, I don’t have any law”
“Will they handcuff me?”
“No one can bind my will. I shall always be free to not will.”
“But everything would be topsy-turvy if everyone did anything he pleased.”
“But who says that everyone would be free to do everything he wants? Do you yourself count for nothing, then? Are you bound to let anyone do anything he wants to you? Defend yourself and no one will touch you. If millions of people are behind you, supporting you, then you are a formidable force and you will win without difficulty.”
Max Stirner(1806–1856), pen name of German writer Kaspar Schmidt, author of a book published in 1845 under the title: “Der Einzige und sein Eigentum” — “The Ego and his own” or, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica: “The Unique Man and his Own”!

[41] Luigi Galvani (1737–1798); Alessandro Volta (1745–1827); Augusto Righi (1850–1920); Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857–1894); James Clark Maxwell (1831–1879); William Crookes (1832–1919): all physicists whose previous work and research on electricity, made Guglielmo Marconi’s discoveries and inventions possible. As a matter of fact, A Righi was Marconi’s teacher at the University of Bologna.

[42] This is a reference to a strike of the granite workers in Barre, Vermont, where the Italian workers — radicals in their majority — had so notably prevailed that their enthusiasm scared the flabby leaders of the American Federation of Labor even more than the bosses of the Industry. So much so that at the AFL Convention for the Constitutional Revision, an amendment was proposed and approved, making it mandatory to use the English language exclusively in Union assemblies, denying aliens the right to express themselves in their own language. Of course, the amendment was totally ignored wherever the Union members were strong enough to prevent the leaders from talking in English.

[43] Nowadays, it is impossible for the workers of any trade to remain independent from their union. In the United States, at least, those who remain separate are considered “scab”, even if they are respected for their ability and are already paid above the union scale. But above all, the employers claim that all their employes belong to the union, so they discharge those that cannot show a union card.
Employers have learned from experience that it is easier to bargain with the union committee, which is composed of intelligent workers, generally well placed and jealous of their privileged positions but, after all, still pliant and corruptible than it is to quarrel with a rough, variable and restless crowd of individuals who have no legal standing to establish a long term, comfortable agreement, and are more easily blinded by their delegates’ stories than bought by shining coin. It would take too much money to deal with them, and the quarrel would have to be repeated every day.

[44] Vittorio Pini, anarchist partisan of immediate expropriation by direct action. Founder with Parmeggiani and others, (in Paris on or about 1887) of the anarchist Group “Intransigents”. In 1890 he was condemned to deportation to the “Safety Islands” of French Guyana, where he died in December 1903. On this occasion Galleani published (in Cronaca Sovversiva January 16, 1904) a “medallion” saying: “His activities may be disputed, one may dissent from his methods, but no one who has known Vittorio Pini will ever dare say of him that he was a vulgar thief or malefactor”. On Pini consult: “La Gazette des Tribunaux” (Paris, 5–6 Novembre 1889); “Le Revolte’” (Novembre 1889); “Le Crapouillot” (January 1938, page 32–33); J. Maitron: “Historie du Mouvement Anarchiste en France” (1830–1914 — Paris 1955 pl77-179); L Galleani: “Aneliti e Singulti” (Newark, NJ 94–96). (G.R.)

[45] Domingo de Guzman (1170–1221) founder of the Dominican Order and instigator to the slaughter of the religious dissenters of Southern France. He was
sanctified by Pope Gregory IV. Jacques Clement (1567–1589) a Dominican friar who killed Henry III King of France.
François Ravaillac (1578–1610) another monk, killed Henry IV, another king of France.
Dragonnades: violent repressions ordered by King Louis 14 against the Protestants of Southern France.
Saint-Barthelemy: Name given by popular tradition to the slaughter of religious dissenters — Huguenots — perpetrated on the night of August 24, 1572. Started in Paris on the orders of king Charles IX and his mother, it spread all over France.

[46] Sofia Perowskaia (1853–1881) Russian militant member of the revolutionary Club founded in 1869 by Nicolas Tchaikovsky. She was executed in St Petersburg on April 1^st 1881 during the repression that followed the death of Czar Alexander II.
Albert R. Parsons, Editor of the Chicago anarchist paper “The Alarm” and one of the Chicago Martyrs, executed on November 11, 1887 with August Spies, Adolf Fischer and George Engel. Luis Lingg, sentenced with them, committed suicide rather than let the hangman murder him.

[47] ... to the lowly land
... to unaccustomed ears
to lazy hearts, to disheartened spirits
Italy! Italy!
This poem is actually by Carducci, in it he invokes Alfieri.

[48] Harbingers of the National Italian Revolution: Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) poet; Gaetano Filangeri (1752–1788) Jurist; Melchiorre Gioia (1795–1865) Historian and Philosopher.

[49] Patriots of the XVIII Century who have their blood and lives in the struggle against the old regimes: Luigi Zamboni (1772–1795); Giovanni De Rolandis (1774–1796); Ettore Carafa (1763–1799); Mario Pagano (1740–1799); Domenico Cirillo (1730–1799); Luisa Monti Sanfelice (executed in 1800 after having given birth — in Naples).

[50] Michele Angiolillo, born in Foggia in 1871, anarchist. To save himself from the severity of the special laws against “press-crimes” he went abroad in 1895. Two years later, from London he went to Spain where he killed the dictator Canovas del Castillo on August 8, 1897. He was arrested and executed nine days later, August 17, 1897.

[51] Sante Caserio, from Motta Visconti (Milano) where he was born in 1873, baker by trade and anarchist by conviction, had been sentenced to prison for “anarchist propaganda”. To spare himself a term in prison, he passed the Swiss border and then went in France. On June 24, 1894, in Lyon he killed Sadi Carnot, President of the Republic. Sentenced to die, he was executed on August 16, 1894.

[52] Eugène Cavaignac (1802–1857) a French General, violently repressed the June 1848 insurrection.
Gaston Alexandre Auguste Gallifet (1830–1909) French General responsible for the massacre of the Paris Commune 1871.

[53] E. Sernicoli, a Judge of hostile views, author of a book “L’Anarchia e gli Anarchici” (Anarchy and Anarchists) Ed. Treves. Milano, 1894, 2 volumes.

[54] Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris (1831–1924) General of the Royal Italian Army sent to Milan to crush the popular demonstrations in May 1898. He executed his orders without restraint causing many casualties (90 dead officially admitted) and was publicly commended and rewarded by the king himself.

[55] Auguste Vaillant (1861–1894) French anarchist who threw a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies on December 9, 1893, and was condemned to death although no one had been killed by it. The sentence was executed on February 5, 1894.

[56] Clement Duval — see page viii.
François Claudius Koenigstein (1859–1892) better known as Ravachol, was a French anarchist arrested for acts of dynamite explosions and expropriation. Sentenced to die, he was executed on July 11, 1892.
Luigi Luccheni, a “bastard”, killed the Empress of Austria Elisabeth, in Geneva (Switzerland) on September 10, 1898. He died in the Vescovado Prison in 1910. (See: J. Fehmi in “Cronaca Sovversiva” Sept. 14, 1912).

[57] Saint Clement is reported to have expressed the opinion that: “In good Justice everything should belong to everybody. Iniquity has made private property” (Almanacco Libertario for the year 1938 — Ginevra).

[58] Sévérine — Madame Sévérine as she was called in Paris for many years — was the pen-name of Caroline Remy (1855–1929). She was a writer and a speaker who, since the beginning of her career, had assigned to herself the role of public defender, from the press, from the public rostrum, and face to face with the dispensers of official justice, of all the victims of social injustice.

[59] Lino Ferriani (1852–1921). Lawyer, Sociologist, student of delinquency among minors.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher author of “Science of Knowledge”, “Talks to the German Nation” and many other books.

[60] Origen (185–254?) A Christian theologian who castrated himself in order not to be distracted by sexual problems.

[61] Spot in Rome where Giordano Bruno was executed in 1600.

[62] Hermann Stellmacher and Anton Kammerer, tried in Austria for the killing of several police agents, were given the death penalty and executed respectively on August 8 and September 29, 1884.

[63] Carlo Cafiero (1846–1892). One of the first Italian Internationalists, close friend of Bakunin, a member of the “Matese Band” (1877). Also the first Italian translator of Karl Marx’ “Das Kapital”.
Stepniak, pseudonym used by the Russian Anarchist Serge Kravcinski, who participated in the preparation of the “Matese Band” but was arrested before he joined the group of the rebels among which were Malatesta and Cafiero.

[64] Mazas was a Parisian prison, long ago demolished.

[65] Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917). Writer of novels, dramas, essays, fascinated, at that time, by the Anarchists’ logic, devotion, and courage.

[66] Saint Thomas Aquine, a Dominican friar who lived from about 1227 to 1274, that is, almost thirteen centuries after the birth of the supposed founder of Christianism, and more than one thousand years after the writing of the “New Testament”.

[67] James Guillaume (1844–1916) author of “L’Internationale: documents et souvenirs”. Anselmo Lorenzo (1841–1914), Tarrida del Marmol (1861–1915), Francisco Ferrer (1859–1909). Edward Carpenter (1844–1929). William Tcherkesoff (1846–1925). Max Nettlau (1865–1944): all Internationalists and Anarchists of importance for their writings, their feelings and activities.

[68] Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) See p. 126, Johann Most (1846–1906), Sebastian Faure (1858–1939) See p. 131.

[69] FS Merlino: “L’Internazionale Economica” (Economic Internationale) Grosseto. Tip. Etruria, 1902.

[70] FS Merlino: “Perche’ siamo anarchici” (Why we are anarchists) Buenos Aires, Tip. Sociologica, 1900.

[71] L. Metchnikoff: “La Civilization et les Grands Fleuves Historiques” Librairie Hachette, Paris 1889. Pag. 34–35.

[72] The poet was Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863–1938) in his poem “La Nave” (The Ship) — Odi Navali — 1892–93, pag.735–738.

[73] Paul Eltzbacher: Anarchism (L’Anarchisme — Ed. Giard, Paris, 1923). Ettore Zoccoli: “L’Anarchia — Gli agitatori, Le idee, I fatti” — Fratelli Bocca, Milano, 1907.

Chronology :

November 30, 1924 : The End of Anarchism? -- Publication.

July 12, 2019 : The End of Anarchism? -- Added.

January 03, 2022 : The End of Anarchism? -- Updated.

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