M ALATESTA Life & id eas ERRICO MALATESTA His Life Ideas Compiled and Edited by VERNON RICHARDS m m i i ® 2 9 3 4 Ri/E ST-URSAiH, MONTREAL 131 T*L 15145 844-4076 LONDON FREEDOM PRESS 1965 First Published 1965 by FREEDOM PRESS 17a Maxwell Road, London, S.W.6 Printed by Express Printers London, E.l Printed in Gi. Britain To the memory of Camillo and Giovanna Berneri and their daughter Marie-Louise Berneri CONTENTS Editor’s Foreword PaSe 9 P a r t O n e Introduction: Anarchism and Anarchy 19 I 1 Anarchist Schools of Thought 29 2 Anarchist-Communism 34 3 Anarchism and Science 38 4 Anarchism and Freedom 47 5 Anarchism and Violence 53 6 Attentats 61 it 7 Ends and Means 68 8 Majorities and Minorities 72 9 Mutual Aid 93 10 Reformism 98 11 Organisation 83 in 12 Production and Distribution 91 13 The Land 97 14 Money and Banks 100 15 Property 102 16 Crime and Punishment 105 IV 17 Anarchists and the Working Class Movements 113 18 The Occupation of the Factories 134 19 Workers and Intellectuals 137 20 Anarchism, Socialism and Communism 141 21 Anarchists and the Limits of Political Co-Existence 148 v 22 The Anarchist Revolution 153 23 The Insurrection 163 24 Expropriation 167 25 Defence of the Revolution 170 VI 26 Anarchist Propaganda 177 27 An Anarchist Programme 182 P a r t Two Notes for a Biography (V.R.) 201 Source Notes 241 A PPEN D IC ES I Anarchists have forgotten their Principles (E.M. 1914) 243 II Pro-Government Anarchists (E.M. 1916) 248 III Fact and Fiction on the Shooting Incident in West Hoboken in 1899 (V.R.) 252 IV Peter Kropotkin—Recollections and Criticisms of an Old Friend (E.M. 1931) 257 P a r t T h r e e Malatesta’s Relevance for Anarchists Today. An Assessment (V.R.) ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Malatesta’s “ Business Card ” when he lived in 12 Arthur Street, Bloomsbury, London, (1914?). frontispiece 2 Malatesta surrounded by a group of journalists (Italy 1919?) frontispiece 3 Two Manuscript pages for an article “L’Attentato di Roma” published in 1912 15 4 Victims of the Spring Famine in China (July 1930) 96 5 Starving people waiting for bread during the Russian Famine (September 1921) 96 6 Police charging the strikers picket line at the Gera Mills in Passaic, New Jersey (U.S.A. 1926) 112 7 Miners’ strike, (or lock out?) somewhere m Britain (post 1920) 8 Buenaventura Durruti, the Spanish anarchist militant (probably August 1936) 144 9 Crowd scene at Durruti’s funeral in Barcelona (November 1936) I44 10 Malatesta addressing an outdoor meeting in London (early 1900’s?) 177 11 Malatesta outside Bow Street Police Court (1912) 224 12 Letter from Malatesta to Thos Keell (Sep­ tember 15, 1920) 240 13 Letter from Malatesta to Thos Keell (July 21, 1922) 241 Acknowledgement is made to the Radio Times Hulton Press Library for illustrations 4, 5, 6, 7. The Institute of Social History, Amsterdam kindly supplied the prints for illustrations 10 and 11 and Lilian Wolfe provided the letters (12 and 13) the Manuscript article (3) and the business card (1). The cover design is by Rufus Segar. EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Since the end of World War II the number of major works on anarchism and anarchists published in English is impressive. I will not attempt to list them all, but we have George Wood­ cock’s biographies of Godwin, Proudhon and Kropotkin and Richard Drinnon’s biography of Emma Goldman; then there is MaximofFs huge volume of 'Bakunin’s selected writings, Eltzbacher’s Anarchism, Stimer’s Ego and His Own and Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist (edited), and Irving Horowitz’s 600-page anthology on and by The Anarchists; and finally there are the histories: G. D. H. Cole s second volume in his “ History of Socialist Thought,” which deals with Marxism and Anarchism (1850-1890), W oodcocks Anarchism (A history of libertarian ideas and movements) and James Joll’s The Anarchists. To this list one must add the literature on the Spanish Civil War, at least that part of it which recog­ nises the anarchist contribution to the struggle, and at the top of this list I would put Burnett Bolloten’s Grand Camouflage Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia and Brenan’s Spanish Labyrinth (the latter two being post war reprints). One has only to look up at one’s bookshelves to realise that I should have men­ tioned Herbert Read’s Anarchy and Order, Marie-Louise Berneri’s Journey through Utopia, Rudolf Rocker s London Years, etc., etc! And the longer the list becomes the greater is my surprise that no one should have long ago thought that Errico Malatesta deserved a place in that distinguished company, for he is acclaimed by the historians I have mentioned as one of the “ giants” in the giant-studded 19th century revolutionary movement. The fact that he is seen by the historians more as 9 1 0 ERR I CO MALATESTA a revolutionary agitator than as a thinker, explains in part their superficial treatment of his role in what they call the “ historic anarchist movement Then there is the question of language. It is noteworthy that English social historians are not linguists, and Italian is not an international language (and neither are Italians good linguists) and so, in spite of the fact that the Italian anarchist movement has produced probably more valuable and thought-provoking writers than any other movement, their names, let alone their ideas, are virtually un­ known outside their country (the exception being the Spanish speaking movement). However, the principle disadvantage with which Malatesta has had to “ contend ” is that he did not conform to the pattern set by 19th century revolutionary thinkers and revolutionary leaders which would have ensured him his place among the historians’ “ great men ”, He was, first of all, too good a revolutionary, to even think of keeping a diary; and he was too active to be allowed to live the kind of settled life that would have allowed him carefully to file away his corres­ pondence for posterity and the convenience of historians. Furthermore, though he was in his 79th year when he died he had never found the time (nor, I suspect, felt the inclination) to write his memoirs, which his closest friends, as well as pub­ lishers with an eye on a best-seller, had, for their different reasons, been urging him to do for many years. And last, but not least, he earned his living as a skilled worker and not as a wri er. f it is thought that I exaggerate the disadvantages, J - I drefer the reader to Cole’s valuable History (Vol IP, to whi i, Characters ” a list of more than 60 names with “ t e s ts aCeC* text> an(t invite him to apply the various tests I have suggested. hieh dnil I?!/112 f nu!Tlerate some of the reasons why I think it his Dronpr i °n ? historians should accord to Malatesta them to ag?eeCewkhthmemhVrT e? (°bvioUs|y 1 cannot obIi*e volume of bio Pe tbe publication of this for them to i<mn' 1 Wil1 n°W mal:e jt virtually impossible t0 lgn°re him a* a thinker) but more important, that e d i t o r ’s introduction 11 anarchists in the English speaking world should have some­ thing more than a pamphlet by which to study his ideas. For nearly sixty years Malatesta was active in the anarch­ ist movement as an agitator and as a propagandist. He was, as a glance through the flies of the anarchist press will show, one of the movement’s most respected members as well as remaining to the end one of its most controversial. He was active in many parts of the world, as well as the editor of a number of Italian anarchist journals including the daily Umanita Nova (1920-22). Half his life was spent in exile and the respect he was accorded by governments is surely evidenced by the fact that he spent more than ten years in prison, mainly awaiting trial. Juries, by contrast, showed a different respect, in almost always acquitting him, recognising that the only galantuomo, that the only honest man, was the one facing them in the prisoners’ cage! I have, in this volume, purposely soft-pedalled the man in order to emphasise his ideas, because everybody recognises Malatesta as the man of action but few realise how valuable, and original, and realistic were his ideas. Y et if there is merit in his ideas, the principle source is his experience in the day to day struggle and his identification with the working people as one of them. In my opinion Bakunin and Kropotkin, in spite of their prison experiences, remained aristocrats to the end. What George Woodcock refers to as Kropotkin’s “ weakness for oversimplification in almost all the issues he discussed, are the attributes not of the saint but of the aristocrat. And indeed even he suggests that one should not “ be content with the impression of Kropotkin as a saint. Obstinacy and intoler­ ance had their place in his character. .” Malatesta had no illusions about the “ historic role of the masses ” because he shared and understood their lives and reactions. But because he also understood how their oppres­ sors “ reasoned”, and how the “ in-betweeners ” preached what they were too privileged, socially and materially, to prac­ tise, he expected more from the organised workers, but never­ theless he directed his propaganda to all men of good-will.