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Anarchism and Individual Terrorism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

D. Novak
D. Novak*
Affiliation:
McMaster University
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Extract

A significant aspect of anarchism, which brings it close to Russian nihilism and in the minds of some people is responsible for the erroneous identification of the two, is individual terrorism. Individual acts of violence, known especially in the last century as “propaganda by deed,” have been regarded by some anarchists as part and parcel of the over-all revolutionary activity which is to culminate in the overthrow of the existing social system by acts of mass violence. There were and are anarchists of different schools opposed to violence as a means towards the establishment of an anarchist society, and they include not only religious anarchists like Leo Tolstoy and individualists like Benjamin Tucker, but also many of those who at one time or another could be classed as anarchist communists, for instance, Francisco Ferrer, Louisa S. Bevington, and Gustav Landauer. The so-called philosophical anarchists are also opposed to violence, if by them are meant people who believe in the possibility or at least the desirability of realizing the ideals of anarchism but do not accept the usual anarchist analysis of the existing system or the methods generally advocated by anarchist groups for the achievement of anarchism. Thus Godwin, Tolstoy, and Tucker, could be included in this group, and among our contemporaries Bertrand Russell.

In the present century anarchists have almost ceased in theory and practice to view individual terrorism as important. Violent acts have been usually perpetrated by people who had practically no significance as thinkers and writers. Alexander Berkman is probably the only notable exception here, while men like Kropotkin, fortunately for anarchism, propagated anarchist ideas by the written and spoken word rather than by “deed.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 1954 , pp. 176 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1954

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References

1 See especially his Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism (London, 1918).Google Scholar Cf. Gray, A., The Socialist Tradition: Moses to Lenin (London, New York, Toronto, 1946), 371 Google Scholar; and Eastman, M., Marxism: Is it Science? (London, 1941), 270–1.Google Scholar

2 Anarchist Morality (London, 1892), 21.Google Scholar

3 Les Temps nouveaux (Paris, 1894), 60–3Google Scholar; L'Anarchie: sa phihsophie, son idéal (Paris, 1896), 56–8.Google Scholar

4 “Kropotkin on the Geneva Tragedy,” a letter by Kropotldn to G. Brandes written because Kropotkin had been attacked in a Danish paper and published with Brandes's preface in the Politiken after the Empress Elizabeth of Austria had been assassinated. The English version was published in the anarchist monthly, Freedom, Oct., 1898, in London.

5 Vizetelly, E. A. in The Anarchists: Their Faith and Their Record (London, 1911)Google Scholar, gives a long account or some terroristic acts committed by anarchists in various countries, and of the reasons which led them to perform these acts. This book, however, is somewhat superficial and one-sided, as the narrative appears to be based chiefly on newspaper accounts. The first two chapters, dealing with the anarchist theory and with M. Bakunin, were compiled to a large extent from secondary sources and contain some historical errors.

Emma Goldman in her essay, “The Psychology of Violence,” in Anarchism and Other Essays (New York, 1911), quotes extensively from the speeches in court of anarchist terrorists Vaillant, Santa Casaerio, Angiolillo, and Gaetano Bresci.

6 Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (London, 1926), 5–10.Google Scholar Cf. also pp. 55, 57–8, 59, 67, 68, 71–4. On page 55 Berkman writes: “Not that lying is to be condemned, provided it is in the interest of the Cause. All the means are justifiable in the war of humanity against its enemies. Indeed, the more repugnant the means, the stronger the test of one's nobility and devotion.” Yet on the next page he expresses his indignation at the lying of the capitalist journalists. Perhaps they also did not mind the means, provided they served their cause?

7 The words “Cause” and “People” invariably appear with capital letters.

8 On page 68 Berkman exclaims: “I wanted to die for the Cause.” Luigi Luccheni, who assassinated the Empress Elizabeth of Austria in Geneva in September, 1898, is reported to have cried on leaving the court: “Long live Anarchy! Down with the aristocrats! If there were only two hundred brave men like myself all the thrones would soon be vacant!” See Vizetelly, , The Anarchists, 237.Google Scholar

9 Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, 57, 68.

10 See Vizetelly, , The Anarchists, 149, 156.Google Scholar

11 Anarchism and Other Essays, 85.

12 Ibid., 97.

13 Ibid., 98.

14 Living My Life (London, 1932), I, 190.Google Scholar

15 See his Reflections on Violence (London, 1925 Google Scholar, authorized translation by T. E. Hulme). On page 261 Sorel actually says: “The new school is rapidly differentiating itself from official Socialism in recognizing the necessity of the improvement of morals. It is customary for the dignitaries of Parliamentary Socialism to accuse it of anarchical tendencies; for my part, I should not object to acknowledge myself an anarchist in this respect, since Parliamentary Socialism professes contempt for morality equalled only by that which the vilest representatives of the stockbroking middle class have for it.”

16 Ibid., 22.

17 Ibid., 32.

18 Ibid., 90–1.

19 Ibid., 215.

20 Ibid., 215. This part of the sentence is italicized by Sorel.

21 See ibid., e.g., 279–86.

22 See ibid., e.g., 240–51.

23 See ibid., e.g., 66, 118–29, 185, 195.

24 On the last point see ibid., especially 135–6.

25 Cf. Tolstoy, L., The Russian Revolution (London, 1907?).Google Scholar

26 See, e.g., Berkman, , Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, 11.Google Scholar

27 See, e.g., Goldman, , Anarchism and Other Essays, 92–3.Google Scholar

28 For instance, L. S. Bevington. See below.

29 Trotsky, L., “The Collapse of Terror and of Its Party,” published in Przeglad Socyal-demokratczny, 05, 1909 Google Scholar, and “Terrorism,” published in Der Kampf, 1911; Collected Works, IV, 347–8, 366.Google Scholar Quoted in Not Guilty: Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials (London, 1938), II, 251–2.Google Scholar

30 Goldman, , Living My Life, I, 308.Google Scholar My italics.

31 Ibid., 323. For the whole letter, see Berkman, , Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, 412–17.Google Scholar

32 Goldman, , Anarchism and Other Essays, 93.Google Scholar

33 Bevington, L. S., Anarchism and Violence (London, 1896), 9–10.Google Scholar Quoted in Russell, Roads to Freedom, 67n.