Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900 PDF
Preview Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900
The Palgrave Macmillan Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900 Davide Turcato Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900 This page intentionally left blank Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889–1900 Davide Turcato ©DavideTurcato2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 ISBN 978-0-230-30179-5 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2012by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-33736-1 ISBN 978-1-137-27140-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137271402 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby CPIAntonyRowe,ChippenhamandEastbourne Contents ListofIllustrations vii Preface viii Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction:Anarchism,aSimpleandOddBusiness? 1 Historiographyandtheirrationalityofanarchism 1 Apolicyofrationalaccommodation 6 Epilogue:acharitableapproachtoanarchism 12 2 TheFirstInternational:ALastingHeritage 14 ErricoMalatesta,oneofthe‘BeneventoBand’ 14 Twobrandsofsocialismatcrosspurposes 16 Distinctiveanarchistthemes 20 Epilogue:theanarchistproject 35 3 An‘AnarchistRarity’Reappears,1889 36 Opaqueplanningacrossborders 36 London:directactiononamassscale 41 Anofficial‘reappearance’ 44 Atransnationalnetwork 46 Epilogue:threeparadigmaticmonths 49 4 AShort-Lived,MomentousPeriodical,1889–90 50 Anarchistpluralism 51 Anarchismasamethod 55 Solidarityasavalue 56 Consciousminoritiesandmasses 60 Tacticalprinciples 63 Methodologicalindividualism 66 Epilogue:pragmatismandcoherence 69 5 OpaqueInsurrectionaryTrials,1890–92 71 Theindeterminacyofsocialaction 71 Propagandabythedeedredefined 73 France:theFirstofMay 76 Ananarchistparty 79 Italy:‘AnUnknownYoungMan...’ 81 v vi Contents Spain:aspeakingtour? 90 Epilogue:thecontinuityofanarchism 99 6 Open-EndedPopularMovements,1892–94 101 Theanarchisttacticalchasm 101 Belgium:workersonstrikeforuniversalsuffrage 104 Sicily:peasantsinrevoltagainsttaxes 108 Anuneventfulyearofdeepchange 122 Epilogue:thetideofhistory 126 7 PatientWorkintheLightofDay,1894–98 128 Thecrossroadsofcosmopolitananarchism 130 Apluralistviewonthelabormovement 136 Twomethodologicalapproachesatcrosspurposes 142 Sustainablestrugglesandsteadygrowth 147 Anarchism,parliamentarianism,anddecisionmaking 154 Ananarchistmobilizationdrive 161 Epilogue:the‘fataldichotomies’ofanarchism 173 8 FromtheOtherSideoftheAtlanticOcean,1899–1900 176 Animpromptuescape? 177 Anarchisttacticsandthelessonofexperience 180 NewJersey:takingcareofItalianbusiness 188 Organizationandoligarchy:ananarchistdebate 190 Anationalmovementspanningcontinents 199 Thecross-nationaldimensionofanarchism 206 Epilogue:theproperscopeofanarchisthistory 211 9 Malatesta’sAnarchism:ACharitableInterpretation 213 Anarchistgradualism 213 Asocialistopensociety 217 Therejectionof‘goodbyforce’ 221 Amorality-drivenspontaneousprocess 223 Theoriesofcollectiveaction:acomparison 229 Epilogue:lessismore 238 10 Conclusion:AComplex,RationalBusiness 239 References 252 Index 267 Illustrations Figures 4.1 L’Associazione,frontpageofthefirstissue 52 5.1 Malatestaatthetimeofhis1891undergroundstayinItaly 84 5.2 Malatestaduringhis1891detentioninSwitzerland 90 5.3 AhandbillannouncingameetingwithMalatestaandEsteve 94 6.1 Malatesta’sphotograph,presumablyfromthemid-1890s 109 6.2 HandbillSolidarietàconlaSicilia 118 7.1 FrontpagefromanissueofL’Agitazione 155 7.2 Malatesta’s1898policephotographs 171 8.1 FirstpageofControlaMonarchia 181 8.2 LaQuestioneSocialeofPaterson,frontpageofthenewseries’ firstissue,underMalatesta’seditorship 191 8.3 Malatesta’sphotographtakenaroundtheyear1900 207 Table 7.1 Numberandsizeofpoliticalgroupsinthecityanddistrictof Ancona,June1894 164 vii Preface It has been argued that the historian resembles a detective (Winks). The historiographyofanarchismcertainlylendsitselftosuchacomparison. In ‘The Purloined Letter’, one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories featur- ing the Parisian detective Auguste Dupin, we make the acquaintance of Monsieur G, a type of police officer ‘who had a fashion of calling every thing “odd” that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolutelegionof“oddities”’.OnedayhecallsonDupin,whoissittingat homeinameditativemood,toexplaintohimanewcase:‘Thebusinessis verysimpleindeed,andImakenodoubtthatwecanmanageitsufficiently wellourselves;butthenIthoughtDupinwouldliketohearthedetailsofit, becauseitissoexcessivelyodd.’‘Simpleandodd’,echoesDupindoubtfully (257–8). Suchisthesituationwiththehistoriographyofanarchism. Many historians do not expect to make sense of anarchism, and there- fore, like Monsieur G, they happily live amid a legion of oddities: for them,anarchists‘aremovingintheirsincerity,ifnaïvetothepointofself- destruction’ (Carr); ‘when one argues with anarchism, one argues with an absurdpointofview’(Horowitz,589);and‘thedisinterestednessandhero- ismofthebestanarchistactivistsarouseouradmiration,whileatthesame timetheirstupidityirritatesandbafflesus’(Zagorin).Naïvety,absurdity,stu- pidityareregardedasanarchism’sobviousattributesthatneednotbeargued. Obviouslyabsurd,simple,andodd... Needless to say, it was Dupin who eventually solved the case of the purloinedletter,whichturnedouttobeneithersimplenorodd.Hismethod, which is the antithesis of G’s, is well illustrated by another Poe story, ‘The MurdersintheRueMorgue’,inwhichthepoliceareatalosswithaferocious murder committed without apparent motive by one or more individuals with puzzling physical features. Confronted with a maze of conflicting details, Dupin uses coherence as a heuristic principle and sets out to prove that ‘apparent “impossibilities” are, in reality, not such’. For example, after establishingthatthemurderersmusthaveescapedbythewindowsofacer- tainroom,hethusreasons:‘Thisbeingso,theycouldnothavere-fastened the sashes from the inside...Yet the sashes were fastened. They must, then havethepoweroffasteningthemselves ...Aconcealedspringmust,Inow knew, exist...’ Upon examination, Dupin finds indeed a concealed spring andeventuallythesolutiontothemystery:themurdererwasanorang-utan escaped from its owner. The police, he explains, had considered the mys- tery insoluble because they had fallen ‘into the gross but common error of confoundingtheunusualwiththeabstruse’(148–9). viii Preface ix In this book I propose to take Dupin’s approach to investigate whether anarchism can be made sense of and interpreted as a sensible and rational strategyofaction.Anarchismisindeedunusual.Ofallpoliticalmovements thathaveeverexisted,itistheonlyonetoseektheabolishmentofpolitical power rather than its seizure. Is it abstruse, though? This may indeed be a commonbutgrosserrorthatstemsfromlackofunderstanding.LikeDupin inthe‘RueMorgue’,Iintendtoembarkonanexplorationofanarchistideas andactiondrivenbycoherenceasaheuristicprinciple,inthehopeofbeing ledtoaninterpretationinwhichapparent‘oddities’and‘impossibilities’are dissolvedandreplacedbycomprehension. Justlikedetectivestoriesdonotexplaintheirprotagonist’smethodinthe abstract, but show it at work, so I apply my approach to a historical case, thatoftheItaliananarchistErricoMalatesta(1853–1932). Malatesta’sfigureisbothprominentandunderrated.Heisacknowledged to be a foremost representative of international anarchism, yet his name does not always resonate, especially outside of Italy. His pamphlets – Fra Contadini(BetweenPeasants),L’Anarchia(Anarchy),Al Caffè(AttheCafé)– areamongthegreatestanarchist‘best-sellers’ofalltimes.Yetheisregarded more as a man of action than of thought, perhaps, ironically, because his rareabilitytoexpresscomplexideasinsimpletermshasbeenmistakenfor lackofintellectualdepth.And,ofcourse,hehashadhisshareofhistorical judgmentsofthesimple-and-oddtype.Anearlybiographerwrotethatinhis oldagehisviewsremained‘simpleenoughandasfarremovedfromreality astheanarchistcreedofhisearlydays.Agenerouscreedandahumanitarian philosophy,butaseffectivearevolutionaryweaponagainsttheexistingsys- temasthetomahawkofanIndianbraveagainstthetank’(Nomad,47).The judgmenthasstuck.AmemorialarticleofFebruary2011inamajorItalian newspapercallsMalatesta‘achampionoffailures’andwonderswhygovern- mentswereafraidofhim(Stancanelli).Theemphasisofsuchanalysesison theabysmalgapbetweenaimsandmeans,idealandreality.However,could thegapbebetweenrealityandtheobserver’sunderstanding,instead? My starting move in trying to answer this question is to grant Malatesta the benefit of common sense. This methodological presumption becomes mydrivingprincipleinattemptingacompleteandcoherentinterpretation ofhisintentions,beliefs,andactions. As part of this reinterpretation process I systematically try to relate anar- chists’ seemingly odd beliefs to more ‘reasonable’ and credited ideas from political theory and social sciences. Anarchist concepts often seem to run counter to standard categorizations in those fields. This may be the fault notofanarchistinconsistencybutofthosecategorizations.Pairsofopposite concepts, such as individualism–holism, egoism–solidarity, free initiative– planning, and capitalism–socialism, have traditionally been clustered into two mutually exclusive blocs separated by a sort of conceptual Berlin Wall. Anarchism has fallen through the cracks of such categorizations. Between
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