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The Life and Times of Malatesta
Talk Given by Andrew Blackmore on 23
November, 1994 to Workers Solidarity
Movement meeting, Dublin, Ireland.
Malatesta was one of the famous anarchists of
the 19th century. He lived 79 years. Not as
much is known of him as for example Bakunin
or Kropotkin for a few reasons. He never kept
a diary, he was Italian, and he was very
active and continually hopping from one
country to another, which meant he never kept
a store of his own writings. For these
reasons he has not been an attractive person
to study and write about, because the work
would be too hard.
For nearly sixty years, Malatesta was active
in the anarchist movement as an agitator and
as a propagandist. He was one of the
movements 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). Nearly half
his life was spent in exile and his impact is
evidenced by the fact that he spent more than
ten years in prison, mainly awaiting trial.
The last six years of his life were spent
under house arrest.
His health
Malatesta was a sick man. He had a weak
respiratory system throughout his life and
was subject to regular bronchial attacks. In
the last few weeks of his life he developed
bronchial pneumonia which finally finished
him off, despite being given 1500 litres of
oxygen in his last five hours. He died on
Friday, 22nd July 1932.
Sixty years earlier, when Malatesta first met
Bakunin, he had been so sick that he was
spitting blood. He arrived at Bakunin's house
with a feverish cough and Bakunin had put him
to bed and told him to sleep. When Bakunin
thought Malatesta was asleep, he said to his
friends who were in the room "What a shame
that he should be so sick: we shall lose him
very soon; he won't last more than six
months." (In, fact, Malatesta was to outlive
Bakunin by over fifty years.)
His sickness was to remain with him
throughout his life and finally kill him.
His birth
But to get back to the beginning. Errico
Malatesta was born in Santa Maria Capua
Vetere in the province of Caserta, Italy, on
December 14, 1853. There are a number of
sources which claim that he was of
aristocratic descent, but my source, which is
Freedom Press does not think this is true. He
was, anyway, the son of a modest to rich
landowner.
By the time of Malatesta's first meeting with
Bakunin, which as I already said was in 1872,
when Malatesta was 19, Malatesta's mother,
father and a brother and sister had all died
from chest complaints. So it was a sick
family.
His first political act was at the tender age
of 14, when he sent a "threatening and
insolent" letter to the King, Victor Emmanuel
II complaining about a local injustice. He
was arrested, but his father got him out and
sent him to a special school to cure him of
his strange ideas.
At that time he was a republican and applied
to join the Universal Republican Alliance.
This was the Republican movement which was
lead by Mazzini who was to create the new
Italian Republic. Malatestas membership was
turned down on the grounds that he was too
socialistic and that he would probably not
last long, but would leave and join the
International.
Malatesta, who had not then heard of the
International, (by the way this is the First
International), went on to find out more
about it.
Two years later when he was 16, he was again
arrested at a demo and sentenced in Naples.
He was kicked out of his college, the
University of Naples for a year.
The year after was 1871, the year of the
Paris Commune. Malatesta joined the
International a few months later. He not only
joined himself, but persuaded many of his
friends to join, as well as a group of
workers. He had a great capacity for work,
but he also had a great capacity to inspire
people around him, a gift he was to keep
throughout his life.
His early years
In those early years, Malatesta and his mates
threw everything into making a revolution
which they believed to be just around the
corner.They gave everything they had, time
and money, even so far as selling their
household possessions. To quote the great man
himself;
"Often one went to prison, but came out with
more energy than before; persecutions only
awakened our enthusiasm. It is true that the
persecutions at that time were jokes compared
with what took place later. At that time the
regime had emerged from a series of
revolutions; and the authorities, from the
beginning stern so far as the workers,
especially in the country, were concerned,
showed a certain respect for freedom in the
political struggle, a kind of embarrassment
at being similar to the Bourbon and Austrian
rulers, which however disappeared as the
regime became consolidated and the struggle
for national independence receded into the
background"
Malatesta learnt some valuable lessons. One
of the first was that you could not lead the
workers soley by example. His anarchist group
could get themselves arrested and persecuted
over and over again and it was not going to
make the working class as a whole rise up.
Something more was needed.
He also learnt that the working class was not
going so rise up spontaneously and create a
revolution. Even though, at the time there
was mass discontent and regular uprisings.
Malatesta wrote that when an uprising does
take place:
" the signori [ie, the aristos] if they have
any sense can more easily control by
distributing bread and throwing a few coppers
to the clamouring mob from their balconies,
than by ordering the carabineers to fire on
them. And if our wishes had not blinded our
powers of observation, we could easily have
noted the depressing, and therefore counter-
revolutionary effect of hunger, and the fact
that our propaganda was most effective in the
least depressed regions and among those
workers, mostly artisans, who were in less
difficult financial straits."
Bakunin
Malatesta also became a Bakuninist, that is a
follower of Bakunin's ideas within the First
International. He was very clear on avoiding
the cult of personality and would never agree
with someone for what they were, but what
they stood for. In fact, later on he
criticised Bakunin for being too much of a
Marxist.
Once he got over his initial learning, he
continued throughout his life with three
guiding points. He believed in the importance
of propaganda in order to spread ideas and as
he puts it, to push people to think and act
for themselves. He was therefore an
indefatigable propagandist of the written and
spoken word. But he saw the limits of
propaganda and viewed direct action as a
vital component for preparing the environment
for revolution. And the final ingredient was
that he was an Internationalist.
Life in Exile
As I mentioned at the beginning, Malatesta
spent nearly half his life in exile, 35 years
to be exact. The first period in exile began
in 1878, when he was 25 years old. He
returned to Italy five years later, when he
was 30, but left the year after for South
America and did not come back until 1897 when
he was 43.
This time he stayed for 2 years while he
edited the paper L'Agitazione (Agitation).
So in 1899 he went off again where he lived
most of the time in London and did not return
to Italy until 1913-14 for barely a year, at
the tender age of 60.
His last return to Italy was in 1919, and he
lived out his last remaining 13 years there.
Time spent in London
During his years of exile he was not
necessarily active. For example the 19 years
that he spent in London between 1900 and 1919
he did little apart from go to an Anarchist
International Congress in Amsterdam in 1907
and an exciting period in Italy when he was
60 during the years of 1913-14, which
culminated in Red Week, June 1914.
Perhaps his most famous influence, in
England, was a criminal libel case in 1912
where he was sentenced to deportation and 3
months in prison. (not in that order). A
strong campaign for his release in the
radical press and a mass demonstration in
Trafalgar Square resulted in the sentence
being quashed.
Malatesta at 60
It is a sign of Malatesta's influence and
inspiration, that he was able, at the age of
sixty to start things going in Italy, from
where he lived, in London WC1. At the time,
the anarchist movement in Italy was more or
less torn apart by internal and personal
problems. Many ex-anarchists had joined
bourgeois parties. Malatesta, though, decided
that the time was ripe for a growth in
anarchist activity. The Italians had just
fought an unpopular war, the Tripolitanian
war and there was growing unrest.
He contacted some anarchist buddies in Italy
and set about editing an anarchist paper
called Volonta from London which was to be
distributed in Ancona, Italy.This was
successful, but Malatesta could not keep
himself from getting involved, and he came
over to Italy.
What the police chief said
A good account of his activities is given by
the police chief at the time. It is worth
telling how we managed to get the account of
the police chief. In the WWII, the Americans
bombed an Ancona police station, which was
destroyed. Two anarchists, while searching
among the rubble found the police dossier on
Malatesta which they then went and published.
Here is a bit:
"Malatesta's return from London was the
signal for a reawakening of the anarchist
movement in Ancona....Malatesta immediately
set about reorganising it. he made
revolutionary propaganda at meetings and
gatherings; by leaflets and through articles
in the weekly journal Volonta of which he is
the editor and which is the organ of the
party.
.....In a short time in Ancona, anarchists
and sympathisers number some 600 individuals
consisting predominantly of dock porters,
workers and criminal elements of the
town.....
...he very frequently travels keeping in
contact with the more prominent leaders and
in constant touch with the other anarchist
groups.. his qualities as an intelligent,
combative speaker who seeks to persuade with
calm, and never with violent, language, are
used to the full to revive the already spent
forces of the party and to win converts and
sympathisers, never losing sight of his
principle goal which is to draw together the
forces of the party and undermine the bases
of the State, by hindering its workings,
paralyse its services and doing anti-
militarist propaganda, until the favourable
occasion arises to overturn and destroy the
existing State"
What he was after was pretty clear, so clear
that even the police chief understood it. At
least 37 anarchist demos took place, that
year, in the province, at which Malatesta
took part.
Red Week
Agitatation had been going on elsewhere, and,
after a proposal by the Trades Council of
Ancona if was agreed to have a national demo,
against disciplinary battalions, on the day
commemorating the re-establishment of Italian
unity and the Monarchy. The reason to have
the demo on that day was because normally all
the soldiers and police went on marches to
celebrate that day. If they were all diverted
because of the day of action it would have
had a big impact and everyone would notice.
The relevant Minister, naturally, banned the
demonstrations and, just as naturally, the
demos went ahead. In Ancona the police over
reacted and fired on a crowd going into the
main square. 3 workers were killed and 20
injured.
After the massacre, the gendarmes shat
themselves, and rushed back to the barracks
for shelter. The people were left masters of
the town. There was an immediate general
strike which spread all over Italy. This was
the beginning of the 'red week'.
The two main unions and the Railwaymens Union
called a general strike. I will not go into
this in much detail, but it could be a good
subject for a talk sometime. The week
involved strikes, and demos, which in turn
led to conflicts with police and more
killings. This pushed things further and in
many places, autonomous communes were
proclaimed.
As the situation developed, and people
started reorganising society on socialist
lines, the reformist union called the strike
off. This split the movement and the
government were able to move in and begin to
restore order. Still it was pretty
impressive.
World War I
When World War I broke out, Malatesta was
back in London again. The anarchist movement
split over whether or not to take sides. A
small minority, but one which contained many
influential voices, including Kropotkin,
wanted to support the Allied side (France,
Russia and Britain) against the Germans.
Kropotkin, who had been an anti-militarist
before the war, wrote:
' an anti-militarist propagandist ought never
to join the anti-militarist agitation without
taking in his inner self a solemn vow that in
case a war breaks out, notwithstanding all
efforts to prevent it, he will give the full
support of his action to the country that
will be invaded by a neighbour, whosoever the
neighbour may be. Because, if the anti-
militarists remain mere onlookers on the war,
they support by their inaction the invaders;
they help them to become still stronger, and
thus to be a still stronger obstacle to the
Social Revolution in the future"
Malatesta totally disagreed with this, and
wrote that what anti-militarism means is that
you never take up arms for your masters and
that you only fight for the social
revolution. He pointed out that it is
impossible to work out who the aggressor is
in a war such as World War I. If you ask
people to fight against the aggressor in a
war you are as good as asking them to just
obey the orders of your respective
governments, who will tell you that it is the
other side who is the aggressor.
It is worth repeating that anarchists who
wanted to take sides in World War I were a
minority, albeit a vocal one. After the war,
Kropotkin returned to Russia and found
himself alienated from the revolutionary
left. In contrast, Malatesta returned to
Italy in 1919, in triumph.
The remaining years that Malatesta spent in
Italy after 1919 are regarded as his most
productive, even though this period also
marked the defeat of the working class of
Italy by the steadily growing fascists under
Mussolini.
Umanita Nova
As before, Malatesta edited a paper. This
time it was an anarchist daily, called
Umanita Nova . He travelled the country
addressing meetings and trying to bring
together all the revolutionary elements in
the Socialist and republican parties, and in
the Trade Union movement, to fight against
fascism.
He tried to bring together a huge movement
which had in its ranks anarchists of all
sorts, including those types who are anti
organisation. The object of the movement was
to fight against fascism. They failed in this
aim, of course, but so did the Socialists,
communists and trades unions.
During this time anarchists were subject to
regular attacks by young fascist thugs.
Despite this, the paper sold 50,000 copies
daily. The revolutionary syndicalist union
had a membership of more than 500,000. They
were also harassed by the new Communist
Party, which tried to destroy all the the
left wing that was not allied to it.
Rise of fascism
But the anarchists could not get it together
and they slowly lost ground along with the
rest of the working class. In July 1921 a
general strike, which turned out to be a last
gasp effort, was called by the anti fascist
'Workers alliance' - which the anarchist
helped to set up. It was only partly
effective.
It became harder and harder to sell the
paper. Eventually the paper could only be
sold in Rome, all other papers were seized or
burnt by vigilantes. It became a weekly paper
in August 1922 and Mussolini's march on Rome
took place 2 months later in October 1922.
It was around this time that the authorities
closed down the paper for good.
Malatesta was now 70, he could not carry on
in politics in that climate so he went back
to his day job as an electrician mechanic.
A few years later he again tried publishing,
this time the Pensiero e Volonta a which
again lasted a few years. It was theoretical
and fortnightly. But the censor banned
theoretical magazines in 1926 and Malatesta
was finally silenced in Italy for good.
Gruesome death
He now had six years to live and he spent
them in Rome under house arrest. The police
set up a permanent post in the porch of his
house. Anybody who tried to visit him was
arrested, and when Malatesta went out,
anybody who tried to approach him was
arrested. The bronchial problems which had
dogged him all his life finally caught up on
him in 1932 when he died slowly and
painfully.
His Ideas
Malatesta was an anarchist communist. He was
a supporter of Bakunin in the first
International. He objected to Kropotkin on
the First World War issue but also on
Kropotkin's theory of a spontaneous
revolution, ie that a revolution would happen
spontaneously.
He believed in action as well as words and
had a significant part in the conception and
organisation of the general strike that led
to "Red Week" in Italy in 1914, even though
he had already left the country when it
happened.
However, when the "Platform of the
Libertarian communists" came out in 1926,
Malatesta criticised it for being;
"one step away from Bolshevism"
and an attempt to;
"Bolshevise anarchism"
He also, as I mentioned before, criticised
Bakunin for being too much of a Marxist.
On reading his pamphlet, "Anarchy" I find
what is published to be very theoretical,
wordy, but at the same time he makes
interesting points. It may be that the only
stuff that is translated into English is the
theoretical writings, on the grounds that the
rest would not be so relevant as time passes
on.
The Freedom Book on Malatesta "Malatesta Life
and Ideas" published in 1984 also contains
soley theoretical articles, some of which are
repeated in the pamphlet that I just
mentioned as well. Typical subjects are
"Anarchism and Science" and "Anarchism and
Freedom" and "Anarchism and Violence" which
you can predict by the titles what they are
going to say. Still, articles like these make
a good introduction to anarchism for the new
reader.
In "An anarchist programme" , which is
another article in the book, Malatesta sets
out what anarchists should do. He first gives
a list of what we are against; capitalism;
what we are for; anarchism; and how to get
there. It is in how to get a revolution, and
how to act in day to day politics that I
would have most problems with him.
Malatesta wanted to work with all anarchists,
anarchists that believe in organisation as
well as those that did not. This obviously
covers just about anybody who calls
themselves an anarchist. For these reasons
they would be very limited in the actions
they could take. They would also be doomed to
splits and disintegration in a short time as
their real differences came to a head.
This happened in Italy where it seems that in
the period 1913-14 and 1919-22 the main thing
that stuck the anarchists together was
Malatesta himself. The anarchist movement had
been destroyed by splits and defections to
bourgeois parties. He certainly re-started
the movements at those times and seemed to be
the driving force and main guru.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, Malatesta led an inspiring
life, he was dedicated to the cause and he
gave his life to it. He lived through
exciting times; the Paris Commune, the First
International, World War I and the rise of
fascism.
He was the editor of numerous anarchist
papers and was a prolific writer and
agitator. And despite his antagonisms towards
platformism he was a great organiser and was
able to inspire and lead whole movements
around him. I hope this talk has let people
know more about him which in some way will
contribute to keeping his memory alive.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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