Errico Malatesta

Errico Malatesta (born the December 14th 1853 with Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in the Province of Caserte, in Campania, Italy - died the July 12th 1932) is a propagandist and an anarchistic revolutionist very active throughout its life.

He more particularly claimed of the tendency of the communist anarchism. He poses within the anarchistic movement an enormous place by his critical and practical capacity.

Biography

Malatesta is born the December 14th 1853 with Santa Maria Capua Vetere in a family from landowners. The Federico father and his wife Lazzarina Rastoin (originating in Marseilles) have also factory of the most flourishing leather tanning of the area. It makes its studies in a college held by the fathers scolopi. Very young person, it lines up with the republican ideas of Giuseppe Mazzini. At the 14 years age, he writes a letter with the king Victor-Emmanuel II, complaining about the local injustice, he is worried by the police force, but at a rate of its age, he is left free. In March 1870, it is stopped first once for a meeting organized in a circle of republican students. It is then registered with the Université of Naples, where it makes studies of medicine during three years without obtaining diploma. Indeed, it is expelled of the university because in 1871, it adheres to the First International. He becomes the secretary of the Italian section. Meanwhile, after the common of Paris, it gives up the republican ideas to adopt the anarchistic ideas. The same year, he learns mechanics and electricity.

In 1872, during the Congress of Saint-Imier, for the creation of international anti-authoritative, it meets the libertarian revolutionist Michel Bakounine. Over this period " bakouniniste" , he will write later:

We wanted, by a conscious action, to print with the labor movement the direction which seems to us the best, against those which believe in the miracle of the automatism and the virtues of the hard-working mass… We who in the International one, were designated under the name of bakouninists, and were members of Alliance, we shouted very extremely against Marx and the Marxists because they tried to make triumph in International the their particular program; but separately the honesty of the average employees and on which it is now useless to insist, we made like them, i.e. we seek to serve to us as International to achieve our goals of party . |Volontà, 1914

During the four following years, it takes part in propaganda internationalist in Italy, it is imprisoned twice for its activities. After the congress, it begins an intense period of subversion: in 1873, it is stopped with Bologna, in 1874, it takes part with small groups with an unfruitful attempt at insurrection to Castel del Monte; it is stopped shortly after with Pesaro. The lawsuit ends in the payment of all the accused, result of a great popularity for the insurrectionists and in particular for Malatesta.

The October 19th 1875, Malatesta enters the Franc-maçonnerie in order to try to diffuse the socialist ideal and the March 18th 1876, made indignant of the decision of its cabin leaves definitively there to recently organize a reception of honor for Giovanni Nicotera, elected Minister of Interior Department.

Anarchistic Communism is proclaimed for the first time at the Italian Federation of the HAS anti-authoritative to the Congrès of Florence of 1876 by Costa, Malatesta, Cafiero and Covelli. This standpoint causes the opposition to the Collectivisme which is the official position of HAS anti-authoritative (the influence of Michel Bakounine) of this time.

In April 1877, Malatesta, Carlo Cafiero, the Russian Sergius Stepniak and about thirty others begin an insurrection in the Bénévent, taking the villages of Letino and Gallo without a combat. The revolutionists burn the communal registers on the properties and declare the end of the reign of the king. They are accommodated by the population with enthusiasm, even a priest shows his support. After having left Gallo, they are stopped by the troops governmental and put in prison for 16 month before being discharged.

After a certain number of terrorist attacks against the Italian royal family and their friends, the police force starts to keep under a constant monitoring the radicals and revolutionists. Although the anarchists protest not to have any bond with these attacks, Malatesta, as a militant for the social revolution, fact part of the elements under monitoring. After its return of Naples, it will be obliged to leave the Italy, and begins one long period of exile.

The departure of the Italy

In 1878, Malatesta begins one long period of peregrinations: it makes short a passage in Egypt where it visits some Italian friends before being expelled by the Italian consul, because of its implication in the revolts anticoloniales which have occurred in Egypt. After having worked on a French boat, and to be themselves considering refused its entry in Syria, Turkey and Italy, it unloads with Marseilles, from where it leaves for the Suisse, with Geneva (at this time a high place of anarchism) and where it becomes acquainted with Elisee Reclus and Pierre Kropotkine, of which he becomes a large friend and with which he publishes the Revolt . It is expelled of Switzerland and share for London in 1880, while passing by the Romania, Paris and the Belgium where it organizes with Kropotkine the revolutionary socialist international Congrès.

In 1882, it takes note of the revolt of Arabi Pasha and it turns over to Egypt to try to transform the nationalist movement into social revolt. It is stopped by the English soldiers and returns to Italy clandestinely while unloading to Livorno. Little time afterwards, it is stopped for conspiracy with his/her friend Francesco Merlino and other revolutionists. Benefitting from its bail, it goes to Florence where it begins the publication of Questions It social .

In spite of a judgment at three years of reclusion, in 1884, it goes to Naples, to help the affected population by an epidemic of Choléra, which it precipitately leaves for the South America in order to avoid the imprisonment.

The exile in Argentinian

It settles with Buenos Aires, where it comes into contact with the communist Cercle Anárquico and takes again the publication - in Italian language - of Questions It social . In 1886, it tries the experiment which appeared disastrous, of gold digger in Patagonie and in 1887, it takes part in the birth of the first Argentinian Syndicat, the Sindacat of the bakers , of which it writes the statutes.

In 1888, it is shown to have falsified currency, that will appear false. It makes the decision to leave and after a short stay with Montevideo, it returns in Europe in 1889.

Return in Europe

It to be established initially with Nice, where he publishes the clandestine daily newspaper the avvenire . The French police force is put quickly on its traces, obliging it to take refuge again with London.

Between 1891 and 1892 it holds a series of meeting in Spain with his/her friend Pedro Esteve, and it takes part in a popular revolt with Jerez of Frontera. Sought by the police force, it goes back to London where in 1896, it assists with the international Socialist congress. In Paris, one speaks about contacts between Marie Sophie de Bourbon, called romantiquement the Reine of the Anarchists and Malatesta, reports/ratios probably only of knowledge taking into account the little of political sympathy which watch aristocracy with regard to the " subversifs".

In 1897, it travels clandestinely until Ancône, where it takes part in the creation of the agitazione . The following year, at the time of the Movement for the bread , it is stopped and condemned to seven months of reclusion. Hardly it finished its sorrow which he is condemned to five years of forced residence with Ustica, then with Lampedusa from where he escapes in 1899 to go in Tunisia. In 1900, after two short stays with New York and Cuba, it settles in London where there remain twelve years except for a voyage to Amsterdam in 1907 during which he takes part in the International Anarchistic Congrès .

In London

During the stay in the English capital, Malatesta earns its living as electrician and mechanic. For this period, one notes a certain deceleration of his subversive activity. Very quickly, it gains the regard of the English workers who will hold of big demonstrations of protest when Malatesta encounters legal problems. The episode of the May 20th 1912 is emblematic, when the court of Bow Street condemns it to three months of reclusion following the complaint for slandering on behalf of the Italian spy Ennio Belelli, the judgment is accompanied by a decree of expulsion which is cancelled following the popular demonstration of the June 12th.

It leaves England in 1913 to return to Italy where it begins the publication of a weekly magazine Volontà . In 1914, he is the principal craftsman of the Red Semaine ( settimana rossa ); sought again by the police force, it is obliged to return for the énième time in the English capital.

The day before the First World War it separates painfully from his/her friend Kropotkine, after a rough debate on the attitude which the anarchists must hold on the subject of the Interventionnisme, Malatesta supports the ideas of the Antimilitarisme and the Internationalisme. This position is even more obvious in 1916, through its answer to the Manifeste of the Sixteen published in April by Freedom .

The return in Italy

In 1919, after several vain attempts, Malatesta obtains a Passeport Italian Consul in London, it embarks for Taranto the December 24th. In Italy, it immediately uses its popularity to undertake an intense activity of propaganda and subversion which does of it one of the main actors of the period Biennio rosso . It contacts the Arditi del Popolo.

Between 1919 and December 1921, it takes part with Gabriele D' Annunzio in the takeover by force on the town of Fiume. Its influence is felt in the charter of Carnaro written by the revolutionary trade unionist Alceste de Ambris, and finalized by annunzio in the form of a regency autonomous and literary pirate.

In 1920 it directs to Milan the anarchistic daily newspaper Umanità Nova ; the same year it is stopped and locked up in the prison of San Vittore. It begins with other prisoners an hunger strike which almost leads it to death. The strike is stopped following an attack perpetrated by some anarchists of the individual current , the March 23rd 1921 in a hotel located near the Theater Diana .

The Fascism and end of the subversive activity

The same Malatesta year is released; it continues to direct Umanità Nova until in 1922, year during which the fascistic seize the power and prohibit the newspaper which will réouvrira in 1945 in the shape of a weekly magazine. Malatesta, fleeing fascistic controls, goes clandestinely in Suisse to attend the fiftieth congress of Saint-Imier , then settles definitively with Rome with his/her partner Elena Melli and his/her daughter Gemma.

During the first years of the fascistic government, it continues its activity of propaganda, 1924 with 1926, in spite of the rigid control of the censure, it publishes the clandestine newspaper Pensiero E Volontà .

The following years, the fascistic mode imposes on Malatesta the continuous assessment near a group of guards, thus condemning it to an insulation in particular anarchistic movements.

It spends the last years of its life recluse in his house with his family, undergoing a progressive deterioration of its health condition. In March 1932 it survives a serious lung infection, and dies the July 22nd of a respiratory serious attack.

Political principles

Errico Malatesta tries a synthesis of the anarchistic concession, without however imprisoning it in a system. To achieve this goal, it distinguishes the Anarchie from the Anarchisme. The first is the finality, it has a value semi-history and universal: it represents to want it to be and as such is not deductible from any historical situation. Anarchism is the translation of this end in the concretization of a historical situation. Division corresponds to that between value judgments and judgments in fact.

Fundamental values of anarchy - freedom, equality, solidarity are rational expressions of a universal aspiration and as such are not related to any doctrines. Malatesta refuses the natural Right as much as the Positivisme. The first, because he considers the idea of a natural company as the result of the idleness of those which dream that the human aspirations are carried out spontaneously, without fight; the second, because the exaltation of science brings to a new dogma, as that arrives at Pierre Kropotkine.

Malatesta develops in its various writings of the anarchistic revolutionary principles, the such Volontarisme, the revolutionary Gradualisme and many other principles.

It tries out various revolutionary principles of which insurrectionalism in the Bénévent, but also in other countries, where it had to be exiled.

a thing is to include/understand, another to forgive certain facts, to assert them, in being interdependent. We cannot accept, encourage and imitate such acts. We must be solved and energetic, but we must also endeavor never not to exceed the necessary limits . | Errico Malatesta, a Little theory (1892), in Political Articles (10/18).

It warns against the tendencies at the bureaucratization in the anarchistic organizations:

Obviously if, in an organization, one leaves with some all work and all the responsibilities, if one undergoes what some without putting the shoulder to the wheel do and seeking to better do, these " some " will end, even if they do not want it, up substituting their own will for that of the community. So in an organization all the members are not worried to exert on all and all their critical faculties and leave with some the responsibility think for all, these " some " will be the chiefs, the thinking and leading heads. | Errico Malatesta, Agitation with Ancône (1897) in Political Articles (10/18).

It is very critical with respect to the revolutionary trade unionism which Pierre Monatte defended, it expresses his point of view on this question with the anarchistic international Congrès of Amsterdam in 1907.

He also criticizes the platform of Piotr Archinov (Makhno took part in its development), this platform being a proposal of organization with new principles, and which was launched by the Russian group Dielo Trouda (pursued by the Bolsheviks) in exile. Malatesta notices in “the platform”, of the not very libertarian principles in the content, on the collective responsibility for example, and as for operation on not very clear decision makings, leaving the empty field to possible catches to be able.

The revolution, an act of will

The will is the decisive element for the social transformation. The libertarian company depends only on the will of the men. The history escapes from any philosophy and any attempt from forecasts. For that, it is not possible to know when the period is ostentation for the revolution and it is necessary to benefit from all the occasions. The revolution is not an economic and social fact but an act of will. The revolution must gather the masses, but the masses will not become anarchistic before the revolution started; the anarchists must then join the masses and them to accept as they are, without inevitably authoritative teaching projects and by adapting the ideology rather to be felt to them. The revolutionary action has two objectives: the destruction forces obstacles with freedom, and the gradual diffusion of the practice of freedom, private of all coercions.

Violence, sad but necessary

Violence is enemy freedom. It is a sad need for anarchism, not only in the negative phase of the destruction of the oppressive forms. Malatesta is opposed to any revolutionary terror which necessarily leads to the dictatorship, thus it pushes back the communist idea of dictatorship of the proletariat and judge very severely the results of the revolution Bolshevik which stopped the experimentation of the Soviets and founded an authoritative state.

He criticizes violence like end in itself: We understand that can arrive, in the fever of the battle, at generous natures but lack preparation moral - extremely difficult to currently acquire which can lose sight of the fact the goal to reach and take violence like an end in itself and let ourselves involve with wild acts .

Interest, always preserving

the largest danger which threatens the labor movement is the tendency of the leader to regard propaganda and the organization as a trade |city in the espresso, August 3rd, 2006, p. 118

For Malatesta, it is not possible to carry out the revolution by continuing economic interests, since the interest is always preserving: only the ideal is revolutionist. From there, the supremacy of the policy - which continues the universal ideal on the economic one, which always continues fine reformists and conservatives. For that, even the trade unions are considered reformists, never really revolutionary (also for their characters inevitably corporative).

The preferable social organization is that communist, but that must be a Communism not imposed, freely selected and wanted. The Communism of Malatesta is not an economic concession as well, as a principle of social justice, an semi-economic tension. The economic problems must be treated in empirical mode, by choosing the economic organization appropriate to the anarchistic political ideals.

The democracy like unacceptable evil

As anarchy is founded on ethics (and an ethical of the conviction, in weberiens terms), it cannot accept the democracy like a minor evil. From there, the undervaluation of Fascism on behalf of Malatesta. The democratic system calls upon the authority of the majority, that anarchistic with the voluntary agreement (although in certain cases, one is obliged to resort to the vote). The will of the majority cannot claim with the possession of the absolute truth since such a truth does not exist. The prohibited principle of liberty to recognize only one truth: each one has its own truth and also its own anarchy. In company, freedom cannot be absolute but must be limited by the principle of solidarity and the love towards the others.

Writings

Anarchy To read in line
the organization To read in line
the Anarchistic Program To read in line
revolutionary terror To read in line
Majorities and minorities To read in line
With the Coffee To read in line
Between peasants (1897) To read in line
Answer to Proclamation of the 16 To read in line
Anarchy and organization To read in line
On Kropotkine To read in line

1897

Majority and minority , in Agitazione , March 14th
For libertté the , in Agitazione , July 2nd

1899

Towards anarchy , in questions It social , December 9th

1913

For freedom , in Volontà , September 27th
Science and social reform , in Volontà , December 27th

1920

Our proposals, in Umanità Nova , February 27th
Still on the republic , in Umanità Nova , May 21st
So much worse, so much better , in Umanità Nova , June 26th
two lives. Reforms or revolution? Freedom or dictatorship? , in Umanità Nova , August 12th
Reform and revolution , in Umanità Nova , September 10th
Majority and minority , in Umanità Nova , September 11th
the revolution in practice , in Umanità Nova , October 7th

1921

Michail Bakunin , in Pensiero E Volontà , July 1st

1922

functions of the trade unions in the revolution , Umanità Nova , April 13rd
Still on the liberét of work , in Umanità Nova , social April 16th
Républicanisme and anarchism , in Umanità Nova , April 27th
the bases morals of anarchism , in Umanità Nova , September 16th
Still on the revolution in practice , in Umanità Nova , Moral October 14th
and violence , in Umanità Nova , October 21st
Speaking about revolution , in Umanità Nova , November 25th

1924

Anarchism and reform , in Pensiero E Volontà , March 1st
Democracy and anarchy , in Pensiero E Volontà , March 15th
Republic and revolution , in Pensiero E Volontà , June 1st
Anarchy and violence , in Pensiero E Volontà , September 1st
faith and science , in Pensiero E Volontà , September 15th
revolutionary terror , in Pensiero E volontà , October 1st
In the fog of philosophy , Pensiero E Volontà , November 1st

1925

Science and anarchy , in Pensiero E Volontà , June 1st
the moral base of anarchism , in Pensiero E Volontà , July 1st
Still on science and anarchy , in Pensiero E Volontà , September 1st
Gradualisme , in Pensiero E Volontà , October 1st

1929

In connection with the “Platform” , in It Risveglio Anarchico , December 14th

See too

Anarchism
Andrea Costa
Carlo Cafiero
Mikhaïl Aleksandrovitch Bakounine
Propaganda by the revolutionary fact
Gradualisme

External bonds

Biography on the site '' Increvables anarchistes.org ''
Site of the university of Montpellier

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