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Title: Errico Malatesta Author: Ray Cunningham Date: 1996 Language: en Topics: Errico Malatesta, Workers Solidarity Source: Retrieved on 28th October 2021 from http://struggle.ws/africa/safrica/freedom/malatesta.html Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 48 â Summer 1996. Also published in Freedom, a South African anarchist magzine that was one of the groups that formed the Workers Soldarity Federation.
Though anarchism is based on the idea of individual freedom, the
anarchist movement, unlike most other political movements, does not
revolve around particular individuals. Our history cannot be reduced to
the âhistory of great menâ, rather it is the story of the development of
a particular set of ideas, and the struggle to put those ideas into
practice.
That said, there are famous anarchists. Some are known because their
writings helped stimulate new thinking in the anarchist movement, or
define a new current in anarchist thought. Others, like Errico
Malatesta, are famous because their very lives epitomised the
development of anarchist politics, and reflected the setbacks and
advances of the movement.
Born in 1853, into a growing mood of republicanism, Malatesta soon saw
the need for a more profound change in society, and in 1871 joined the
Italian section of the International. At the time, the main
anarchist/socialist strategy was to start insurrections, driving
government officials out of small towns and burning the tax ledgers and
bank books in the hope of sparking more widespread rebellions, a tactic
which Malatesta supported enthusiastically. He was forced to flee Italy
in 1878 after the assassination of King Umberto, by a republican cook,
led to a general crackdown on radicals.
Errico MalatestaHe returned to Italy after five years spent travelling
around Europe, continually agitating for anarchism, but was arrested in
1884, and had to leave again, this time for Argentina, where he lived
for twelve years and was very involved in the organisation of the labour
movement. He again returned to Italy, where he became the editor of
LâAgitazione. After only a year, however, he was arrested once more, but
he managed to escape, and after a few years in America he travelled to
London.
There he lived and worked for the next thirteen years, with a mass
campaign stopping him from being deported in 1909. In 1913 he went back
to Italy of his own volition. Following the collapse of the general
strike of 1914, Malatesta, now in his sixties, had to leave for London
once more. He spent the war years there, writing and speaking often on
the need for anarchists not to choose sides between two capitalist,
imperialist powers. Finally, in 1919, he was able to return to Italy,
this time for good.
Although he had spent barely half his life in his native country, his
experience and dedication had won him much respect in anarchist circles
there. At the time, the anarchist movement in Italy was strong, the
popularity reflected in the fact that UmanitĂ Nova, the daily anarchist
paper which Malatesta founded, had, at its peak, a circulation of over
50,000. Unfortunately, this golden period was to be short-lived. When
Mussolini came to power the left-wing papers were closed down, the
anarchist movement decimated and driven underground, and Malatesta
himself spent the last five years of his life under house arrest.
Malatesta was, above all, an activist. While he wrote many articles and
pamphlets he was no academic, he was a working electrician who wrote
when there was something to be said, not for the sake of writing. He
described an anarchist society simply, as a âsociety organised without
authority, meaning by authority the power to impose oneâs own willâ, âa
society which reconciles the liberty of everyone with co-operation and
liberty among menâ. What more needs to be said?
We also see in Malatestaâs writings the changes that were taking place
in the general anarchist movement. Though he always reserved the right
to use arms in the defense of social gains, maintaining that âif you
want the corn, you need the cannonâ, over the years the tactics he
emphasised changed, from the insurrectionism of his youth to the
syndicalism of his older years. He had always said that the anarchist
movement needed to be as visible as possible, and this change reflects
his coming to believe, as did the wider anarchist movement, that this is
incompatible with the strategy of âpropaganda by the deedâ.
There is no one action, no single pamphlet or article for which
Malatesta is famous. There have almost certainly been better anarchist
writers, more skilled anarchist organisers, anarchists who have
sacrificed more for their beliefs. Perhaps though, Malatesta is
celebrated because he combined all of these so well, exemplifying
thought expressed in deed, ideas backed up by action, and all driven by
a fierce commitment to freedom.