When you go your own way, alone, you take any opportunity to delight in saying what the average person wouldn’t dare. Concern for edifying neighbors or gossips is over. No more morality! No more games! Enough of partisan-traps...To the argument of the masses, to the catechisms of the crowds, to all of the community’s national interests: to these are opposed the Individual’s personal interests.
Which interests?
To each their own. The isolated one is careful not to preach a common rule. The defiant makes no place for a doctrine. Think for yourself! What is your situation? Your age? Your desire? Your strength? Do you need the crutches religion offers you? If so, go back to your church, from now on by your own ch... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Machete
The machete is a long knife with a single edge, particularly intended for opening a way when you find yourself surrounded by a hostile environment that prevents you from going down your path, paralyzing all movement. The Machete isn’t elegant; it doesn’t have the discretion of the dagger or the precision of the scalpel. When it strikes, it doesn’t distinguish between the innocent flower and the noxious weed, and it destroys both without distinctions. Heavy and uncomfortable to carry, the Machete can prove indispensable in difficult situations, when there is no time to lose in scientific calculations, exploratory reconnaissance, diplomatic consultations. If need be, it can even be used as an offensive too... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) It almost happened that the Commissariat of Clichy — this police office that has served as the backdrop for legendary cases of the third degree — met its end in an apotheosis of dynamite.
Two cute little bombs of red copper had been placed in a corridor leading to the Superintendent’s office; the fuzes had been lit ... everything was going along beautifully, from the special point of view of the depositor arguing for the purification of the place, when a dog, the dog of the dog of a Superintendent, noticed the al giorno lighting and began vociferating. It was thus that the alarm was sounded. He barked; he barked and someone came in enough time to extinguish the threatening illumination.
It should be noted tha... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Listen to the edifying story of a pretty little white ass, candidate in the capital. It isn’t a Mother Goose rhyme, or a story from Le Petit Journal. It’s a true story for the old kiddies who still vote:
A burro, son of the country of LaFontaine and Rabelais, an ass so white that M. Vervoort gluttonously ate it, aspired — in the electoral game — to a place as legislator. The day of the elections having arrived this burro, the very type of a candidate, answering to the name of Worthless, pulled off a last minute maneuver.
On this hot Sunday morning in May, when the people rushed to the polling places, the white ass, the candidate Worthless, perched on a triumphal wagon and, pulled along by voters, traver... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) It’s the amazing fattening of the mass of the exploited that creates the increasing and logical ambition of the exploiters.
The kings of the mines, of the coalfields, and of gold would be wrong to worry. Their serfs’ resignation consecrates their authority. They no longer needs to claim that their power is be based on divine right, that decorative joke: their sovereignty is legitimated by popular consent. A workers’ plebiscite, consisting of patriotic adherence, declamatory platitudes or silent acquiescence assures the boss’s hold and the bourgeoisie’s reign
In this work we can recognize the artisan.
Be it in the mine or the factory, the Honest Worker, that sheep, has given the herd the man... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The police roundup of April, 92 [1] will remain historic.
It is the earliest among the cynical attacks on freedom of thought in modern times.
We now know the behind the scenes story of the affair.
The government wanted to take advantage of the emotions stirred up by the explosions at the Labau barracks and on the Rue de Clichy in order to include all revolutionary militants in one gigantic political trial. The ministry and its docile procurators claimed that certain opinions constituted complicity: The writer explaining that the fact that there are those who are disinherited fatally leads to theft became a criminal himself; a thinker explaining the reasons behind propaganda of the deed became the secret associates of th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Little girls were judged this afternoon in Milan.
And it wasn’t the sad trial — in absentia, of course — of a child caught on a bench with a stiff magistrate.
I watched the questioning as it unfolded.
It concerned an anarchist demonstration where, among resolute men and hardy women, two young girls of fourteen and fifteen were arrested.
The dark Maria had a strange charm, with her decisive air of a rascally young man, with her short curly hair, and her dark, fiery eyes. She had a way of looking at these messieurs of the court that was a form of silent, indefinable insolence — it worked better than throwing a shoe.
And when she spoke it wasn’t at all in a way that would make on... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Foreigners everywhere!
There aren’t many fewer of them in Paris than in this London where I have vegetated in the vacation of an outlaw for the past three months.
Here, for example, you don’t become acclimated, not even superficially. You can’t overcome the natives’ absolute reserve; you don’t in any way penetrate the surrounding environment. You feel you are materially pushed to the side. Isolation weighs on you in the compact sadness of the fog.
You frequent the international clubs in vain: they’re disappointing.
The solidarity of certain revolutionary groups has the ostentation of charity: it is nothing but a distressing spectacle. And what is more, bad tempered suspicions f... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Bourse, the Palace of Justice, and the Chamber of Deputies are buildings of which there has been much talk these past few days. These three buildings had been especially threatened by three young men who were fortunately stopped just in time.
Nothing can be hidden from messieurs journalists; they revealed the triple conspiracy, and their colleagues in the prefecture immediately apprehended the conspirators.
One again the men of the press and the police have earned the gratitude of that part of the population that doesn’t yet appreciate the picturesque charm of palaces in ruin, and the strange beauty of collapsed buildings.
The public won’t be sparing in its thanks. The services rendered will be recognize... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Voters:
In presenting myself for your votes, I owe you a few words. Here they are:
I come from an old French family — I dare to say — and am a pedigreed ass, an ass in the good sense of the word: four hooves and hair all over.
My name is Worthless, as are my rival candidates.
I am blank, like many of the ballots that they persist in not counting, but which now belong to me.
My election is assured.
You understand that I am speaking frankly.
Citizens:
You are being fooled. It is said that the last Chamber [1] , made up of imbeciles and swindlers, didn’t represent the majority of voters. This is false.
On the contrary, a Chamber made up of idiotic representatives and ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) They talk of anarchy.
The dailies are roused. Comrades are interviewed and “L’Éclair” among other things, says that there is a split among the anarchists.
It’s on the matter of theft that opinions are divided.
Some, it is said, want to build it into a principle; others irrevocably condemn it.
Well! It would be impossible for us to take a position on such a question. This theft could seem to us good and should be approved; that one we could find violently repugnant.
There is no Absolute.
If the facts lead us today to specify such and such a way to see and be, every day, in the lively articles of our expressive collaborators, our determination has been clearly affirmed:
... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “Wait a minute then,” people say, “what is their goal?”
And the benevolent questioner suppresses a shrug upon noting that there are young men refractory to the usages, laws and demands of current society, and who nevertheless don’t affirm a program.
“What do they hope for?”
If at least these nay-sayers without a credo had the excuse of being fanatics. And no, faith no longer wants to be blind. They discuss, they stumble, they search. Pitiful tactic! These skirmishers of the social battle, these flagless ones are so aberrant as to not proclaim that they have the formula for the universal panacea, the only one! Mangin had more wit...
“And I ask you: what they seeking ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) VOTERS:
In presenting myself for your votes, I owe you a few words. Here they are:
I come from an old French family — I dare to say — and am a pedigreed ass, an ass in the good sense of the word: four paws and hair all over.
My name is Worthless, which is what my competitors in this race are.
I am white, as are many of the votes that have been cast and not counted, but which will now belong to me.
My election is assured.
You will understand that I speak frankly.
CITIZENS:
You are being fooled. It is said that the last Chamber, made up of imbeciles and thieves, didn’t represent the majority of voters. This is false.
On the contrary, a Chamber made up of deputies... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)