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Title: Spontaneity Again Author: Freedom Press Date: September, 1887 Language: en Topics: Freedom Press, Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism Source: Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism, Vol. 1, No. 12, online source http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=3140, retrieved on May 8, 2020. Notes: Freedom Press (ed.)
We spoke last month of the overwhelming importance of spontaneity as an
element in human existence, and of the necessity for meeting it with
full recognition. Perhaps it seemed to some of our readers that such
inquiries were of interest but to students and dreamers; too curious for
the needs of common life.
Well, the Belgian Workman's Party left all such merely philosophical
considerations out of their reckoning when their Executive Council
decided that a general strike must be started "to order," at a time when
the leaders should have made up their mind that all Was ready. And so,
when the spontaneous impulse came to the miners and metalworkers to free
themselves this summer from their intolerable slavery, the leaders and
wire-pullers of the Workman's Party, the politicians and cooperators,
found nothing better to do than to preach peace and submission, and to
throw cold water over the strike in the name of universal suffrage and
cooperation, until for the time being they had effectually managed to
swamp the revolutionary movement.
Here is what a special communication from some members of the party to
the Sozial Demokrat has to say about it: "First we saw partial strikes.
. . . They spread rapidly and seemed to gain cohesion. In the center the
Anarchists took possession of the active part of the movement for
several days, until certain of their orators, were arrested. Still the
movement continued. It spread over the Liege basin. . . . Numerous
indications of strikes were to be seen elsewhere, especially at
Brussels. The Council of the Workman's Party continue with all their
might against the movement. They seemed resolved to nip it in the bud,
especially at Brussels and Ghent. . . . The chiefs of the party left the
different trades to themselves, they gave them no word of
encouragement."
In fact the organizers stifled the rising enthusiasm of what might have
become an important revolutionary outbreak on the plea--our machinery is
not ready; and so the healthy impulse of revolt was wasted and lost, and
the forces of reaction in Belgium have gained the confidence which is
strength.
A little more than fifteen years ago the citizens of Paris were passing
through a sharper crisis than our Belgian comrades. It was the first
week after the Commune had been proclaimed by the spontaneous action of
the people. The bourgeois world had lost its head. It was paralyzed by
that helpless confusion among the authorities which always follows a
sudden outbreak of energetic revolutionary action. The impulse of the
people was to march at once upon the disorganized army and terrified
government at Versailles. "But wait," insisted certain well-meaning
leaders, "we must first elect a popular government in due democratic
form."
And "Paris sent her devoted sons to the Hotel de Ville. There disbanded
from active service, up to the eyes in musty parchments forced to govern
when their instincts impelled them to be and act with the people; forced
to discuss when it was time to do, and losing the inspiration that comes
from continual contact with the masses, they saw themselves reduced to
impotence. Paralyzed by their distance from the well-spring of
revolution, the people, they themselves paralyzed the popular
initiative" ('Les Paroles d'un Revolte). And so the general enthusiasm
died down, and the Commune was lost.
But it is not in grave social crises only that the spontaneous outleap
of energy is the all-important factor of effectual action. It is the
same in everyday conduct and everyday relations. Ask a man who has
labored to keep together a political club worthy the name in a district
where people have learned from bitter experience that parliamentary talk
is no benefit to the workers, and where as yet they are not ardently
inspired by the idea of Socialism. Such a man will tell you that, for
all his pains, he has been whipping a dead donkey along the road. And
yet whilst the hope was fresh in men's hearts that the ballot-box could
brim, them deliverance from their misery, there was no lack of cohesion
and energy in the political clubs with which England was honeycombed.
Any shed or garret was attractive enough then for a meeting-place
wherein to exchange eager thoughts and plan common action; whereas now,
in localities where the old idea is dead, men can only be drawn into
sham fellowship by an endless round of amusements.
We might multiply instances in social and individual life by the
thousand to illustrate a fact which, once recognized seems self-evident,
yet a fact more persistently ignored than any other of equal importance.
But perhaps enough has been said to show why we--and especially those of
us who are awakening to the inevitable necessity of great social
changes--must, on reflection, come to consciously realize the enormous
influence of spontaneity in human life, whether it be for good or ill.
Next month we will return to the subject.