The Complete Works of Malatesta Vol. III. Errico Malatesta
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own interests and schools the ones in slavishness and the others in intrigues and lies.
Far be it from us to ignore the importance of political freedoms. But freedoms are only secured once the people have shown themselves determined to have them; and, once obtained, they endure and have value only until such time as governments feel that the people would suffer their being abolished.
Accustoming the people to delegating to others the winning and defense of their rights is the surest means of giving a free hand to the whims of those who govern.
True, parliamentarism is better than despotism: but only if it represents a concession granted by the despot out of fear of worse.
Given a choice between a parliamentarism, embraced and boasted, and a despotism forcibly thrust upon minds that cry out for redemption, despotism is a thousand times better.
I am well aware that Merlino places small store by elections, and seeks, as we do, to ensure that the real battle is fought in the country and with the country. But, for all that, the two methods of struggle do not go together and whoever embraces them both inevitably winds up sacrificing any other consideration to the electoral prospect. Experience proves as much and the natural love of the quiet life explains it.
And Merlino demonstrates that he appreciates that danger when he says that the anarchist-socialists need not stand candidates of their own, since they do not aspire to power and have no notion what to do with it.
But is that a tenable position? If good can be done through Parliament, why others and not ourselves, when we reckon we know better than the others?
If we do not aspire to power, why would we help those who do? If we have no idea what to do with power, what would others do with it, other than wield it to the people’s detriment?
Let Merlino be assured on this point: if we tell people today to go out and vote, tomorrow we will be telling them to vote for us. In which we would be logically consistent. Be that as it may, if it were up to me to give someone advice about voting, I would promptly advise them to vote for me, since I believe (and I am probably wrong here, but to err is human) that I am as good as anyone else and am perfectly certain as to my honesty and steadfastness.
To be sure, with the considerations above, I have not said everything that needed saying, but I would be loath to presume unduly upon your space. I shall explain myself more fully in a related article: and I hope, also, that some collective act will be forthcoming from the party to reaffirm the anarchist-socialists’ anti-parliamentary principles and abstentionist tactics.
In the hope that you will find this letter useful in informing the public about the stance that will be adopted by the various parties in the coming elections and that you will therefore be willing to publish it, my thanks to you in anticipation.
Errico Malatesta
112, High Street, Islington N.,
London.
106 There is a clipping of this article on which Malatesta made two minor changes in his own handwriting. Since it is unclear whether or not these are typographical error amendments, we have not taken them into account here. The clipping is in the Max Nettlau Papers 2773, International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam.
107 From the end of the 1870s until his arrest in 1894 and subsequent detention, Francesco Saverio Merlino was one of the most outstanding figures in Italian anarchism and Malatesta’s closest companion in all his major ventures. In his letter to Il Messaggero, Merlino invited anarchists to espouse the tactics of voting. This was the start of a lengthy argument with Malatesta that dragged on into 1898. Besides Malatesta’s contributions, Merlino’s, as carried in L’Agitazione and followed by Malatesta’s responses, are also reproduced here. The entire debate was collated in the book Anarchismo e democrazia, edited by Alfredo M. Bonanno (Ragusa: La Fiaccola, 1974).
108 Unlike successive Malatesta articles in L’Agitazione, which were fictitiously presented as letters from London, the date on this letter is authentic. At the time, Malatesta was still in London, as is plain from his February 1897 correspondence from that city with Max Nettlau. For further confirmation, see note 26.
Our Program
Translated from “Il nostro programma,” L’Agitazione (Ancona) 1,
no. 1 (March 14, 1897).
We are anarchist socialists.109
The social system in which we are presently living is founded upon the principle that each person should look out for himself, without bothering about the rights and interests of others unless others’ resistance might place his interests in jeopardy. Every individual is out to ensure that he gets every possible means of enjoyment, even if others suffer, even by subordinating those others and making instruments of them. This is a war, of each against all and all against each. And, due to a sentiment that ought to have fostered goodwill and brotherliness between all men but instead, because of a wrong-headed organization of society, has become a powerful obstacle to human fellowship—that is, the sentiment of love for one’s progeny—each person hands on to his children the advantages he has struggled to win, and so the privileges won by individuals are consolidated and added to and become class privileges. The brutish violence of the stronger leads gradually to the political establishment of the State, whereby the privileged have no further need, let alone ability, to commit themselves to the violent contest, but harness the very strength of the oppressed to the practice and upkeep of oppression. And the plain and simple theft of the fruits of other men’s labors flourishes as private ownership of the land and of all the means of production and in the lawful right to set others to work for one’s own benefit.
Out of this state of affairs grow selfishness and hatred between men; out of it come poverty, physical depletion, and moral degradation for the masses; out of it come criminality and prostitution, warfare, as well as the malaise, uncertainty, and fear that afflict the wealthy, almost as pay-back—a meager and dismal pay-back—for the unspeakable suffering that they inflict upon the poor.
This state of affairs we seek to abolish—in order to replace it with a society rooted in cooperation and solidarity, wherein everyone enjoys equal entitlement to the blessings of society, and where everybody contributes to society through his effort.
We want to see again the land and all natural resources the shared inheritance of all human beings; we want Capital, that is, the instruments of labor, machines, housing, and all manner of provisions, which are the accumulated product of the toil of present and past generations of workers, returned to the workers; we want everyone to have the wherewithal to work and the opportunity to come to some accommodation with other workers in the organization of work and enjoyment of its fruits.
We want the people to genuinely recover their sovereignty and, putting an end to a system in which the few, in the name of some purported divine right or on behalf of some supposed will of the people, prescribe and rule to suit themselves, start a new society in which all are truly free and, through free association and federation, look to cooperation and solidarity as the means of exercising their own freedom without trespass against the freedom of others.
We want science to be a light to every intellect; and love and joy to smile upon every man.
But how do we mean to achieve these ideals of ours?
Certainly not by waiting for the privileged voluntarily to give up their privileges and return as brothers to the ranks of the people from which they stepped forwards as rulers. The privileged classes have always been deaf to the lamentations of the wretched, always been blind to the pressing demands of the times; even today they demonstrate no more kindness or intelligence than they have in the past.
The people must see to their own emancipation.
Once it has woken up to its rights and is resolved to bring its sufferings to an end, once it discovers the root causes of its woes