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The Bonnot Gang

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The Bonnot Gang by Richard Parry Contents Preface 5 One From illegality to illegalism i Making virtue of necessity 9 ii 6aiiu Max 15 Tvx} A new beginnir^ i Libertad2/ ii Cityul ihicves25 tii Slate of emergency 30 Three The rebels i Brussels Ji ii Pahs 42 lit Blood on the streets 44 br Strike! 45 Pour Anarchy in stAurbia i The move -#7 ii The Romainviile commune 51 tit Collapse of the Romainviile commune 57 vr Paris again 60 Five Sonnot i The *Little Corporal' 64 n In search of work 65 m Theillcgatist 66 iv Accidental death of an anarchist 70 Six The gan^forms i A meeting of egoists 73 ii Science on the side of the Proletariat 75 iii Looking for a target 76 Seven The birth of tragedy i The first ever hold-up by car 80 ii Crime doesn*t pay 84 m Jeux sans frontieres 88 iv Victor's dilemma 89 Copyrighled i .il Eight Kings ofthe road 1 Drivin' South W 11 The left hand of darkness 97 Stalemate 99 Nine Calm before the storm ft 1 •Simcnioff 103 u Of human bondage 104 Ul Dicudonnc in the hot seat 108 * Gamier's challenge 109 Ten Kings of the road (pan two) Atuck 113 U State of siege 117 Eleven The Sureie fights back 1 To catch an anarchist 120 u Hide and seek /2J 01 Exit Jouin 126 Twelve Txvilight ofthe idols 1 The wrath of Guichard 129 ii Shoot-out at 'The Red Nest' 133 4*4 Obituaries 137 iv To the Nuyem elation 139 V The last battle 142 Thirteen In the belly of the beast 1 Umbo 147 u Judgement 1S2 lU Execution 159 Fourteen TTte end of anarchism? 166 Epilogue 175 Map of Paris c, 1911 178 Appendix A / 79 Bibliography 182 Index 186 F - CopyrK ' Preface ON THE EVE of World War One a number of young anarchists came tc^cthcr in Paris determined to settle scores with bourgeois society. Their exploits were to becunie legendary. The French press dubbed them 'The Bonnot Gang' after the oldest 'member\ Jules BoDnot, a thirty-one year-old mechanic and professional crook who had recently arrived frum Lyon, The other main characters, Octave Gamier, Raymond Callemin, Ren< Valet^ Elie Monio: and Andre Soudy were ^11 in their very early tw entics. A host of other comrades played rolc^ that were relevant to the main siory, and I apologize in advance for the plethora of names with which the narrative abounds. The so-called 'gang', however, had neither a name nor leaders, ahhough it seems that Bonnoi and Gamier played the principal molivaiiii^ roles. They were not a close-knit k;riniinal band in the classical style, but rather a union of egoists associated for a common purpose. Anion^t comrades they were knmvn as 'illegalists', which sigiUiicd more than the smiple fact that they carried out illegal acts. Illegal activity has always been part of the anarchist tradition, especially in France, and so the story begins with a brief sketch of the theory and practice of illegality within the movement before the turn of the century. The illegalisis in this study, however, difTered from the actirats of previous years in that ihcy had a quite different conception of the purpose of illegal activity. As anarchist individualists, they came from a milieu whose most important theoretical inspiration was unduubtedly Max Stimer — whose work The Ego and Its Own remains the most powerful negation of the State, and affirniation of the individual, to date. Young anarchists took up Stirner's ideas with relish, and the hybrid 'anarchist-individuaUsm' was bom as a new and vigorous current within the anarchist movement. In Paris, this milieu was centred on the weekly paper, Vanarchie and 6 The Boimot Gang the Causenes Popuiaires (regular discussion groups meeting in several different locatiimb in and ^iround the capital each week], both of which were founded by .-Ubert Libcriad and his associates. Il was here that ^iUegalism' found fertile soil and took root, such that the subsequent history of the illcgalists is closely bound up with the history of Vanarchie, One of tlie editors of this weekly was Victor Kibalchich, later to be better known as Victor Serge, the pro-Bolshevik writer and opponent of Stalinism. At the time of this story, however^ he was not just a close associate of several Mlle^alisls', but was also one of the most outspoken ^^i Ehf jnjrLhi^i-individualists> and editor of Tanarchte to boot. As such, his early career as a revolutionary is a central thread in the story of the Bonnot Gang, although this period of ht$ life was glossed over by Serge himself and has been subsequently ignored by contemporary political writers who wish to keep him as 'their own\ It therefore seems more fitting fv>r the purposes of this narrative to use his nam de plume, Le Retif, or his real name, Kibalchich, rather than 'Serge', a pseudonym he did not adopt until five years after he found himself lighting for his hfe as a defendant in the mass trial of 1913, Despite their sanguinary exploits, the *Bonnot Gang' remain as much a chapter in the history of anarchism as the activities of Ravachol in France or the Durruii Column in Spain, To push thi;ir story to one side, or to treat it as a 'dark side' of anarchism lo be glossed over or ignored, is to be unfaithful to the history of anarchism as a whole. On the other hand, however, those who would glamorize or make heroes of the illeg^lisis are failing to see that they were not at all extraordinary people or anarchist supermen. %"hal u remarkable about them is that although as young sons of toil their lives could easily have led to the slavery of the factory or the trenches, they chose not to resign themselves to such a fate. This book is not a novel; the novelist's approach certainly adds dramatic tension and vigour, but I would not like to be guilty of spurious characterizations. In any case, I certainly could not have done better than Malcotm Menzies* book En Exit Chez Les Hommes (unforlunaiciy only available in French) and so have written what I hope will pass as a 'history*. Here, the question of ^historical truth* rears its ugly head: some of the story R-nuin^ very obscure for several reasons. To begin with, none of the surviving panicipants admitted their guilt, at least until after the end of the subsequent mass trial. It was part of the anarchist code never to ^dmiT. 10 anything or give infonnation to the authorities. Equally> it was almost a duty to help other comrades in need, and if this meant ixirjury to save them from bourgeois justice, then so be it. Hence the difficulty in knowing who was telling 'the truth*. Those who afterwards wrote short ^memoirs' often glamorized or ridiculed persons or events. '\^ P k Uh^ .:.il Prtjace 7 partly to satisfy their own egos and partly at the behest of gutter-press sub-editors. In the trial itself there were over 200 witnesses, mainly anarchists for the defence, and presimiably lnu-abicling citizens for the prosecution. Much evidence from the latter was contradictory, Vv'liile most were probably telling the truth as far as they could remember, others had XxAA an inaccurate version so many times that either they believed it themselves, or, under police pressure, they found it too late and too embarrassing to withdraw it. A few were certainly motivated either by private, or a sense of social, revenge. Then of course there was the evidence of the police who, ii was revealed during the course of the trial, had pressurized witnesses and fabricated evidence in order to make the case appear neat and tidy and secure easy convictions. Some policemen in their reports either lied to conceal their blunders, or exaggerated the importance of their role in order to promote their careers. Lastly, there was the PreJis, that guardian of bourgeois morality, though not averse to sniping at the police, depending on which administration was in power. Some newspapers gave space to the iBAio-bandits almost daily for six months, yet they were usually forced to rely on police reports which often withheld news or supplied deliberate m^information. This, coupled with that normal journalistic practice of creating stories out of nothing, meant that many articles which appeared were confused, exaggerated or fictitious. In other words, I have had to select my material and make a judicious melange from conflicting sources. In the good old tradition of liberal historiography the story that follows is very much my own. Richard Parry London, 1986 Copyrighled material t JULES BONNOTt aged 33, uiken by the poliu m Lyon. Vuhin three yean he was w become (he most infamous FreTich anarchist ever. -'.] Chapter one From illegality to illegalism 'Tropcrty is iheii. Propeny i% libeny.'* Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1S09-65) t Making a virtue of necessity ALMOST ALL the Ulegalists who were associated with the Bonnoi Gang were born in the late IS8O5 or early '90s, into a society completely torn by class division* Above all, it was the suppression of the Paris Commune in 1871 that had consolidated the climate of mutual hatred between the workers and the bourgeoisie. The Commune, a minimal attempt at social-Jtmocracy by workers and impoverished petit- bourgeois^ was drowned in the blood of thirty thousand peopie by an army acting on the instructions of a ruling class infuriated at this challenge to their monopoly of power.
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