Life of Malatesta

socialist tendencies and would soon defect to the ranks of the International. Until that moment Malatesta had never heard mention of the International, and he wanted to know what it was. He sought and found it. He then met, among others, Giuseppe Life of Malatesta Fanelli, Saverio Friscia, Carmelo Paladino, and Gambuzzi, and under their influence (especially that of Fanelli and Paladino) 4 he decidedly embraced — in 1870 — internationalist ideas. It Luigi Fabbri is known that in Italy at that time, socialism and the Interna- tional owed their markedly revolutionary and anarchist character to Bakunin’s influence, exerted since 1864. The events of the Paris Commune of 1871 and the ferment for those strewn everywhere reinforced Malatesta’s newly embraced faith, his enthusiasm growing to a crescendo. On August 4, 1872 a congress of internationalists from various parts of the peninsula met in Rimini, known later as the “Conference of Rimini,” where the Italian Federation of the International Workers’ Association was put together. Before this event isolated sections of the International had already been diffused about Italy — the most important of them being in Naples — workers’ fascios, resistance societies, and so on. In Rimini a common organization was solidified. The president of the conference was Carlo Cafiero andthe secretary Andrea Costa. Malatesta didn’t participate in this conference, but soon became one of the most active members of the Federation. Since January he had been the Secretary General of the Neapolitan Labor Federation, whose program he had formulated. He had collaborated the previous year 5 (1871) with Cafiero on L’Ordine of Naples, and he was a regular contributor to La Campana, also of Naples (1871–2), the most important internationalist paper of its time, thanks to the vivacity, seriousness and the density of its thought. The Italian Federation founded in Rimini had a socialist- anarchist revolutionary program, was anti-Marxist in its 1936 methods, and had a public character due to its propaganda, but 56 Since that time, the young boy showed the tendencies and spirit of rebellion. He was fourteen in 1868 when he wrote an insolent and menacing letter to the king Vittorio Emanuele II, signing it. As a result, on March 25 he suffered his first arrest. It cost him dearly since his father, a man of moderately liberal ideas, had tried to free him by making the whole thing look like a prank, setting into motion every connection he had with the official world in Naples. Errico was detained all ofthat day in the police station. At night, after a rough sermon from the questore who had wanted to shut him up in a correctional house, the young boy was returned to his father. During dinner at home, his father tried to reproach him and to tell him to act more prudently at least, but the boy responded with such uncompromising stubbornness and determination that his poor old man ended by exclaiming with tears in his eyes, “My poor son, I hate to say it to you, but you’ll end up on the gallows!” The adolescent rebel digested what had already beena year or two of Republican ideas. The Republicans were the historical party of the Italian Revolution and irresistibly attracted the fiery student, who was full of classical memories of ancient Rome and the heroic acts of the still-unfinished Rissorgimento. Even from his exile Giuseppe Mazzini, one of its champions, fascinated the young boy. Fifteen years later Malatesta explained his republicanism of the time, which he thought promised the realization of his hopes for complete liberty and social justice, but he later found a better reflection 3 of his hopes in anarchist socialism. Although frequently among the Republican crowd, he didn’t belong to the party. He asked, together with his friend Leone Leoncavallo (the older brother of the musician), for entrance to the “Universal Republican Alliance.” The request was transmitted to the Central Committee, that is to say to Mazzini, who rejected them because he judged that the two aspirants had excessively 55 reasons would not only bring the tale to life better, but would also bring satisfaction of historical curiosity. I must also omit some of these stories for one of the same motives that stopped Malatesta from writing his own Memoires: that the hour still hasn’t arrived in which to say certain truths about third per- Contents sons who are still living and which it is a moral obligation to set aside. Other things, furthermore, though interesting and perfectly safe to relate, would enlarge this work too much. Introduction: How I met Errico Malatesta 5 The readers will excuse me, therefore, if the following bi- ography of Malatesta has become, against all my desires, too The Man 12 cold and schematic. They will also understand the dispropor- His Goodness / Kindness . 13 tion of means that comes of the fact that the tale until 1897 Legend and reality ................... 19 is a reference taken from what I have read or heard from oth- The orator and the writer . 23 ers and from Malatesta himself, while the last thirty-five years Lenin of Italy? ..................... 29 are more from my direct knowledge. On the other hand, while The man of action ................... 34 the parts of the tale which refer to what has been published The intellectual ..................... 39 several times will be more concise, there will be more detail Laborer ......................... 45 on the points about which little or nothing is known, or about The complete anarchist . 48 which the popular knowledge is erroneous or unclear. The Life 53 The student. — From republican to internationalist. The student. — From republican to — First arrests. — Meeting Bakunin. 54 internationalist. — First arrests. — The insurrectionary movements of 1874. — The In- ternationalist Congresses of Florence and Bern Meeting Bakunin. (1876). ....................... 59 The Benevento Uprising (1877) . 70 The son of the couple Federico Malatesta and Lazzarina Rostoia, In Egypt, France and England. — The International Errico was born in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near Naples in Congress in London (1881). 75 the province of Caserta, on December 14, 1853. His family was In Egypt again. — Return to Italy. — The trial of wealthy and owned several houses in Santa Maria. But when Rome and “The Social Question” of Florence. the boy was a student in the Lyceum, while he was with them — With those sick from cholera in Naples (1884). 81 in Naples he lived in the Pignatelli mansion, on a street by the A refugee in South America. — “La Questione So- same name. In Naples, Errico studied classics as a boarding ciale” of Buenos Aires (1885). — In search of student of the Escolapios’ ? schools (a religious order dedicated gold. — Return to Europe (1889). 86 to teaching), where he made friends with the home student Saverio Merlino, though their friendship was still not political. 54 3 L’Associazione in Nice and London (1889–90). — Congress in Capolago. — In Switzerland, France, Belgium and Spain. — The Italian movements of 1891 and 1894. — International Socialist Workers’ Congress in London. — The Life L’Anarchia (1896). 89 Hidden in Italy. — “L’Agitazione” of Ancona (1897– 98). — Italian movements in 1898. — Arrest, Malatesta’s life is the best book he has written. It isn’t possi- trial and verdict. — Jail and “domicilio coatto.” ble, therefore, to comprehend the historical figure of his in the — Escape. — “La Questione Sociale” of Pater- perennial value of feeling and of thought that remains through son (1899–1900). 97 his writings, without having present the complete painting of A worker’s life in London (1900–13). — Papers and his long existence through the social and revolutionary move- pamphlets. — Anarchist congress in Amster- ment of more than half a century. From here the necessity, dam (1907). — In prison in London. — Return before passing a sufficiently complete exposition of his ideas, to Italy (1913). 106 knowing at least summarily the history of his life. “Volontà” of Ancona (1913–14). — The “Red Week” Max Nettlau, known as a scrupulously documented histo- mutinies. — Flight to London (1914). 115 rian of anarchism, had published ten or eleven years from The World War. — Arguments against the war and Malatesta’s death a very interesting volume about the life and interventionism. — Return to Italy (1919). 122 work of the Italian anarchist agitator. Editions have appeared Umanità Nova of Milan (1920). — Committees, con- in German, Italian and Spanish, the latter being the most 1 ferences and congresses. — Occupation of the recently published (1923), the most complete and detailed. factories. — Arrest (1920). 127 It was desirable that Nettlau complete this work with the In prison (1920–21). — Hunger strike. — Trial and story of the years leading to his death. Nettlau’s book is a fun- acquittal. — The fight against fascism. —The damental historical work for one who wishes to know the life “March on Rome” (1922). 136 of Malatesta in relation to his time and to the modern social A year of manual labor (1923). – “Pensiero e volontà” movement. I should note that the pages which follow draw of Rome (1924–26). – Persecutions. 143 heavily from this book, since my personal memories of him 2 An unseen prison. — Life under tyrrany. — Con- are quite incomplete before 1897. tributing to the foreign anarchist press. — Sick- The limits imposed by the proportions of the work don’tal- ness and death (1938). 148 low me to stretch out all that I want and would suggest to me the affect about the man. To say it all and say it well— Appendix A: biographical notes 158 which I feel incapable of — I would have to give to the readers The Funerals . 158 a work that would interest them like the most moving of nov- Fascist Lies .

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