CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

()I, II ;tN ... .-\NI' f\,I!·.\NINc i I II, W\tVI
Edmund WilsoIl ohserved thaI "hy 1')1 " I I '
wav ' b'
e even 'gger than that of I9()') .: Il . , "
1914, a movement initiat d
women factory operatives of St P t. 'b
again to the barricades,"" A A
first seven months of 191:
" 01 S ',"I'
. , dill )1,1 thl'll' W'IS r "
- ' . y Ihe spflng and early SUIJIIIIl'I of
, e especIally hy the I:h k 'I '
' II 01 wor'el'.s ;",,1
e e, urg, had hrought "the proletariat
rno
ayer succmctly put it, "durin rhl'
. . , In ustnal unrest reach 'd
i I
ntensIty , much of it politically and socia II m '
,, unpara Ieit'd
of August roared the timing all b t
, U unaVOIdable
The war to save oppressed and threate d S '
d
fl
Y olIvated. Thus the gUll,
momentary enthusiasm was soo n agging. Menel Buchanan's biooraphy
of her father the 8 't . ' h
, n IS am assador t R
and frail was that spirit of devotion '
and despair, impatience lassitud
.
b
. ne lavdom, launched with a
ussla, . emoaned "how brief
. b
a ; elf-sacnflce, how Soon douht
recounted was the lame ; t o i' s e a s
, , C( m
tate
b
tent crept in."" Widely E
ven her army which '
its victories . . . trns ou;
Certainly by th
'd
n
t
a
. mlnlstcrs y mid 1915' "P R
;i
e WI espread mass stnkes of l'
the civil truce had been definitivcly broken.
,
.
- .
b
Oor USslar
filled the world with the thunder of
?nly of Cowards and desertersr"'"
anuary and Fehruary 1916,
The anarchIst tide rose swiftl Y d umg ' the war for a time, despite the
general draining effect of th
diSillusionment caused by th
accommodation to state po ::ro- ar
principle, was in fact share'
Ideologues, especially in Moscow ,'yTh
greater Success of syndicalism '
e gIgantic . bloodshed and thc specific
' e
/ a
n ot course as a betrayal of
.
r
l
pOSItIOn of Kropotkin. This latter
. JO Ity of RUSSIan anarchist
e capitulation at the top led to the
" practical," less " utopian " ideo t mon l many an tr- a u thont arians, a more
radical perspectives.
Kropotkin-like Rocker-located the .
for markets and the quest for colonies
overarching domestic dynamic t
ogy. nother moment of the dimming of
.
reason for war rn the competition
. , Ignorrng, With the Marxists, the
his untiring cfforts to urge 0 an external, mechanistic etiology. And
killing of the Central Powers' o
could always be Counted On to d: ;
support in a given war.
The collapse of the Romanov autocra in M
that the spiritual exhaustion of the
allow the greatly overdue dynasty a r
had been surprised by eve revol
in mid-1917 that the disi Z e rati
Soon to be a reality H"
g ,
\ troops of the Entente to the greater
rar
evokes
arx and Engels, who
fy
t e more progresSive" state to
I CY'
arch 1917 demonstrated
u t
na was not s
advanced as to
f y t er arrowed tIme. Lenin, who
onaryoutbreak in Russia," could see
of the provISional government was
.
, IS VictOry In that m" d d'
consequent Bolshevik CQunterrevol f
.
alme rmensron and the
u IOn IS an all too familiar tale in its
.
.
dt' [;1 i Is.
I I I , 1\,11 'N 1'0 (11' 1,1'1-" ":\ 1
trOlly, lurhuknt thr()uh the l lNOs and the first decade of thc century,
;ti l ivl'ti at the prewar years in a volatile state. Propaganda in favor of
,', '''qucst and expansion had failed to distract the submerged classes from
r he essential; at the elections of 1913 only three Nationalists were elected
10 the chamber.29
The months preceding thc war were marked by rioting and strikes on
;t wide scale, culminating in the famous Red Week of early summcr.
I )uring demonstrations by anarchists and republicans, violencc broke out
,In the Adriatic coast; this week oflune 1914 was to see its quick spread,
into a general strike and countrywide riots. F. L. Carsten providcs
particulars: "In the Romagna and the Marches of Central Italy there
were violent revolutionary outhreaks, Local republics were set up in
many smaller towns, and the red flag was hoisted on the town hall of
Bologna. Officcrs were disarmed; the military barracks were heseiged in
many places,"30
The populace displayed, in outlook. and methods, an anarchic,
autonomous tempcr that found its reflection in the anti-war position of
the whole lef!. In this moment the syndicalist discovery of the myth of
the nation seemed far away; that a national syndicalism was hut a year
off could hardly have becn forecast with practical results. An overwhelm­
ing sentiment for neutrality canceled Italy's alliance with Austria­
Hungary and Germany, and rendered war far too dangerous a card to be
played in hopes of defusing class war-for the time being.
By thc spring of 1915, every major European nation had been at war
for over half a year, with Italy being drawn steadily toward the abyss
dcspitc popular resistance. A friend of von Bulow states in May, "how
the [Halian] Minister of the Interior had said to him that if there were
a plebiscite there would be no war."" Zeman, likewise speaking of May
1915, obscrved that "Romc carne to the verge of civil war."" Foreign
elemcnts engineered, with paid demonstrators, pro-interventionist riots
against the neutralists-who received no police protection and suffered
a vici o us pro-war press. Rennell Rodd and others who thought they saw
spontaneous enthusiasm for war there were largely deceived ,
In mid-May the Turin workers declared a general strike, while the
Socialist Party debated its position regarding Italy's apparently imminent
participation in the war. "All the factories werc closed, all public services
completely paralyzed. The strike was total among all categories of
workers," according to Mario Montagna's memoirs, quoted by John
Cammet!. Cammett continues the narrative: "The entire working force
of the city gathered before the Chamber of Labor, and then slowly